Written by Salvatore Savo
Directed by Anton Cropper
A convict, Maxwell Barton (Tim deZarn), withdraws his parole request when DNA evidence seems to absolve him. Barton is released from prison the next day.
This causes Monk, who testified against granting parole, to plunge into serious self doubt, wondering if he's been wrong on every other case. As Monk tries to make it up to Barton, he reviews the case and eventually realizes he wasn't that far off the mark.
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- Artistic License – Law:
- Double jeopardy merely prohibits retrying a defendant for a crime for which he or she was previously acquitted.
- It's not likely Max would be completely released upon learning the DNA evidence doesn't match him. If anything, he'd likely be retried, just with the DNA evidence not involved.
- Asshole Victim: Considering he was perfectly in on the robbery with Max, it's hard to cry for Paulie Flores' death.
- Broken Record: Randy, true to form, keeps hammering in a nail in so much that he ends up in a hole. Repeatedly mentioning that the initial case Monk apparently got wrong was "before his time" as a police officer. The longer it goes on the less it seems like a fact and more like Randy is trying to cover his ass out of responsibility for a wrong call made by the police force back then. It gets so bad he flippantly tell Stottlemeyer "It's not his case" when asked to check some records regarding a new important details related to the old murder. The scene before the credits has Stottlemeyer chewing Randy's ass out for this obnoxious behavior when he has not been keeping up with his work on a completely different, and current, case.
- Continuity Nod: A news ticker Paulie Flores watches contains throwbacks to other episodes of Season 6:
- "Local Boys Find Buried Treasure in Cement Processing Plant" ("Mr. Monk and the Buried Treasure")
- "Frisco Fly Acrobatic Stunts Leave San Francisco Officials Perplexed." ("Mr. Monk and the Daredevil")
- "Novato Housing Market Hits a Record High." ("Mr. Monk and the Bad Girlfriend")
- One story starts as "Extra Large and Murderuss", but isn't fully shown. Still, it references "Mr. Monk and the Rapper".
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Max is a murderer who’s killed at least three people, one of which is his partner in a previous crime they committed together. Despite his criminal record, he does seem to love his ex-wife and almost remarried Sherry when Monk initially convinced her to take Max back.
- Fictional Counterpart: The Innocence League, which discovered the evidence exonerating Barton, is the said-counterpart of the Innocence Project.
- Heroic BSoD: Monk briefly questions his skills as a detective when he thinks he’s been wrong on other cases and wonders if other innocent people were wrongly convicted because of him.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: After the titular man's innocence is "proven", Monk mistakenly believes Max is a good man who's been hardened by a wrongful imprisonment. But no, Max really is a heartless murderer, and if his killing his accomplice in cold blood is any indication, he hasn't changed his ways.
- Karma Houdini Warranty:
- Max is released from prison after the DNA evidence exonerates him, but he's put right back inside after he murders Paulie Flores.
- Paulie himself goes through one of these, as he was never even a suspect in the original crimes, and effectively got away with it until Max came for him.
- Miscarriage of Justice: Subverted. The beginning of the episode says that Max is innocent of the murder he was convinced of, but it turns out he was guilty all along.
- Never Suicide: Max makes it look like Paulie Flores hung himself with a belt. Monk, of course, is not convinced.
- Photographic Memory: Sarah McNally, the witness who saw Max at the crime scene has such a great memory, that she can remember a policeman's badge number after 14 years.
- Shout-Out: Max banging on the church doors and crying for his ex-wife is a reference to The Graduate.
- Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace: Twice, first to stop Sherry (Nancy Mette) from marrying some guy because she still has feelings for Max, and later to stop Sherry from marrying Max because it turns out that Max is indeed a murderer after all.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Natalie gets Max a job at her family's toothpaste factory, and the prick repays her by slacking off.
