Julie and two of her friends come to Monk with a personal case: they're convinced the recent death of their basketball coach, Lynn Hayden, was no accident. Pushed into accepting, Monk becomes involved with the school environment, including the upcoming championship game.
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- Artistic License: In reality, Lynn Hayden wouldn't really be allowed to use the same showers as her students, even if all of said students had left. She'd more than likely be using a shower attached to her office.
- 20% More Awesome: The episode uses the standard "give 110%" cliché, although Monk (volunteering as a basketball coach) tries to settle with 100% as he claims that 110% is mathematically impossible. He eventually decides that it is acceptable for one player to give 110%, as long as a teammate drops to 90% to compensate.
- Bittersweet Ending: The Cougars lose the championship and Coach Hayden is still dead, but Monk does prove she was murdered and Stottlemeyer and Disher arrest the killer, with evidence tying him to an older murder case as well. Natalie and Julie also make up a bunch of trophies to represent all the cases Monk has solved (104, but they round it down to a nice neat 100).
- Brick Joke: Monk pesters Aaron to buy a new frame for Lynn’s picture since it’s falling apart, but he just uses tape to fix it, which Natalie notices is the exact same tape used on the hairdryer’s cord for the murder. Randy even lampshades this in his message from Monk when arresting Aaron that he really should’ve bought a new frame.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Monk admires a golfing trophy on Aaron Hayden's mantel while he and Natalie are asking him questions. It ends up tying him to an unsolved murder on a golf course.
- Stottlemeyer mentions that siblings' DNA samples will match almost exactly and DNA can't help solve all murders because the DNA at the crime scene might not be in the system, specifically bringing up the unsolved murder of Paula McGoohan as an example of the latter. Both of these end up explaining why Lynn was murdered.
- Monk notices a tear in the tape wrapped around the hair dryer's line. When Natalie sees the tape Aaron used to fix the frame used for his sister's photo torn in the same way, it tells her Aaron killed Lynn.
- Electrified Bathtub: Lynn is killed in this way. The "bathtub" is a flooded locker room floor whose drain has been stopped up, and the electricity comes from a sabotaged hair dryer that's plugged into an outlet with a deactivated circuit breaker.
- Foregone Conclusion: It appears the Cougars won by a single point, only for the referee to add two seconds to the clock due to the interruption caused by the killer fleeing across the court. Monk then proceeds to believe they have already lost. Just as he predicted, the opposing team sinks one more basket and the Cougars lose.
- Harsher in Hindsight: In-Universe. Lynn Hayden, Julie's basketball coach, makes a cryptic statement about the practice potentially being her last. It turns out that it's because she is referring to the fact that she plans to turn herself in to the police for accidentally starting a destructive forest fire, but it really comes back to sting you when less than two minutes later, she is electrocuted and killed in the shower by her own brother.
- It's All My Fault: Natalie doesn't initially believe the girls about Coach Hayden being murdered, thinking that they came up with the belief to avoid thinking that their carelessness accidentally led to her death.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: The killer makes a puddle by loosening a coupling on the sink and dropping a towel on the drain and leaves a plugged-in hairdryer on the floor in an attempt to convince the police Lynn's death was accidental. It worked, until Julie and two of her friends came to Monk with their suspicions.
- Not Now, Kiddo: Julie and the two Emilys tell Monk that they've told the police that they put everything away and Lynn's death couldn't have happened by accident, but no one listens because they're kids.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Natalie is ejected from the championship game. The referee doesn't notice her sneaking back on the court as the mascot, even with the head removed.
- Riddle for the Ages: Why did Aaron Hayden kill Paula McGoohan, anyway?
- Shown Their Work:
- Julie interviews Stottlemeyer and Disher for a project on DNA evidence. All of the information given is practically straight on. One example: Stottlemeyer mentions that no two siblings will have the same DNA — it's close to, but not exactly identical, with the exception of identical twins. Another example: one of Julie's questions is why DNA cannot be used to close every case, and Stottlemeyer replies that this is because 1) DNA is not found at every crime scene, and 2) even if there is DNA, there needs to be a match in the computer records to compare it to. This last answer, plus the unsolved murder that Stottlemeyer uses for an example, is a Chekhov's Gun for Monk later.
- Many of the girls on the basketball teams were actual players, and the final goal was a shot that was accomplished in a single take.
- Sibling Murder: Lynn's killer is her own brother.
- That One Case: Stottlemeyer is revealed to have a second one in this episode, after that hit-and-run that was the backdrop of a previous episode. This time, it was a two-year-old murder at a golf course.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Monk solves the murder during a 30-second timeout when Julie's team is in the lead. Lynn's brother runs for it as play resumes, only for Stottlemeyer and Disher to catch him. Then Monk goes This Is Gonna Suck after the ref puts two seconds back on the clock due to the interruption, noticing which rival player is holding the ball and realizing she's going to make a half-court three-pointer. It nets the rival team the win.
