History Recap / MonkS4E16MrMonkGetsJuryDuty

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The conclusion of the trial Monk was deliberating on isn't shown, and the final verdict isn't mentioned.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Colombian drug smuggler Miguel Escobar is a pretty obvious ripoff of famous drug kingpin Pablo Escobar — since both Escobars were involved in drug smuggling operations to the United States that also involved large numbers of murders. They even have the same surname.

* WoundedGazelleGambit: Carl Palmer[[note]]Or it could be Karl Pillemer, the subtitles are inconsistent between the DVDs and Peacock[[/note]], the person who was stabbed in the case the jury is ruling on, stabbed himself in the leg and blamed it on a drifter to steal the payroll he was to deposit.

Monk struggles with being the lone juror who senses something suspicious about plaintiff Karl Pillemer's story about the defendant stealing money and attacking him while Stottlemeyer tries his best to keep Escobar secure. But a secret is lurking within the courthouse, and the two may just find their cases are more closely tied together than they think.

** Monk has a legitimate excuse to opt-out of jury duty; he's a detective, so he would be disqualified immediately. The judge hates Monk, though, and puts him on the case out of spite.
** The Stottlemeyer and Disher subplot is about them capturing fugitive Miguel Escobar, then keeping him in their custody until he's to be handed off to the feds at the courthouse for an extradition hearing that will transfer him to federal custody. The local (state) and federal courts do not share courthouses in San Francisco, so there would have been no reason to make the transfer in the lobby of the local (state) courthouse. In fact, the transfer would probably be conducted at the jail where Escobar was being held.
* BluffTheImpostor: Once Monk and the other jurors [[SpottingTheThread discover]] that one of their own (Escobar's fiancée) is deliberately prolonging the trial by intentionally going against the majority opinion of the jurors' votes (including discreetly checking to see what Monk himself was writing to make sure), Monk and the other jurors plan to catch her in the act: After everyone but her gives a "Not Guilty" verdict, resulting in her giving a "Guilty" verdict, she briefly leaves the room. When she comes back, Monk and the others tell her that they decided the accused was guilty after all. Sure enough, she tries to go against the grain again, giving herself away. Unfortunately for Monk and the others, however, it turns out that she's packing a gun...

** Monk's fixation on the session room's window blinders, and, on a related note, Natalie happens to walk to the courthouse in view of those same windows.

* LaserGuidedKarma: Escobar's fiancée ties up the jurors, and refuses to listen to Monk when he begs for her to straighten the blinds. This mistake ends up catching her because Natalie notices it and knows that Monk would always make sure they were even. She rescues and unties the hostages successfully, which allows Monk to see that Escobar and his fiancée went up instead of down, and would use the garbage chute for an escape.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Natalie realizes something must be wrong when she walks by the deliberation room and sees that the blind is uneven, knowing her boss would never willingly leave it that way.

* WouldRatherSuffer: Monk tells Natalie he would rather be sucked out of an airplane than have jury duty.

* {{Jerkass}}: One of the jurors has no qualms about sleeping with a cigar in his mouth. Even when Monk tells him it's a fire hazard, he just tells Monk to put out any fires he see.

* ImmigrantPatriotism: One of the jurors is an immigrant who takes unusual pleasure in the job, saying it makes him feel like a real American. His opinion on Monk flips back and forth, but his argument usually involves some reference to the country (like saying Monk's bravery in standing against them all is what America is all about).

* PoliceAreUseless: Justified with the one security guard. He gets ambushed by Escobar's fiancee because he opens the door, sees eleven people tied up, and freezes in understandable surprise because you don't expect to see that in a courthouse. The guard is much more competent later when he calls for paramedics for the FBI agents who were injured and lends Monk his phone so he can notify Stottlemeyer where the police are.

* BluffTheImposter: Once Monk and the other jurors [[SpottingTheThread discover]] that one of the jurors (Escobar's fiancee) is deliberately prolonging the trial by intentionally going against the majority opinion of the jurors' votes (including discreetly checking to see what Monk himself was writing to make sure), Monk and the other jurors plan to catch her in the act: After everyone but her gives a "Not Guilty" verdict, resulting in her giving a "Guilty" verdict, she briefly leaves the room. When she comes back, Monk and the others tell her that they decided the accused was guilty after all. Sure enough, she tries to go against the grain again, giving herself away. Unfortunately for Monk and the others, however, it turns out that she's packing a gun...
* BondOneLiner: Downplayed; when he and the other officers catch Escobar and "Juror 12" in the middle of their escape attempt, Randy quips some people will do anything to avoid jury duty.
* BoundAndGagged: Escobar's fiancee holds the jurors at gunpoint, including Monk, zip-ties them to their chairs and gags them with tape. She takes pleasure in taping up Monk's mouth as he begs her to straighten the blinds.

* JuryDuty: For Monk, against his will (for both him and 9 of the other jurors), even though he had a valid excuse not to be in it. Of the remaining two, one is a naturalized foreigner who is at first enthusiastic about jury duty but then starts sowering on it because of Monk, while the other is Escobar's fiancee trying to get Escobar out of custody by dragging the proceedings.
* JustOneLittleMistake: Escobar would have gotten away successfully if his fiancee hadn't left the blinds crooked to spite Monk. Natalie notices and goes to the rescue.
* KansasCityShuffle: Escobar's fiancee breaks him out of federal custody. When Stottlemeyer hears this, he concentrates his efforts on keeping the fugitives from getting out via the ground floors. Luckily, Monk calls to tell him Escobar and the fiancee are headed upwards, allowing the police to nab them when they come out of the dumpster they used as a landing pad.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Escobar's fiancee ties up the jurors, and refuses to listen to Monk when he begs for her to straighten the blinds. This mistake ends up catching her because Natalie notices it and knows that Monk would always make sure they were even. She rescues and unties the hostages successfully, which allows Monk to see that Escobar and his fiancee went up instead of down, and would use the garbage chute for an escape.

* SkewedPriorities: After the jurors get captured and tied to their chairs, Monk has the idea to grab the evidence knife... [[BaitAndSwitch And use it to straighten the blinds]].

Stottlemeyer and Monk both have their own headaches to deal with in the same week -- Monk is finally selected for jury duty at the same time that Stottlemeyer has to keep notoriously slippery drug lord Miguel Escobar in custody until he can hand him off to federal authorities. Monk struggles with being the lone juror who senses something suspicious about plaintiff Karl Pillemer's story about the defendant stealing money and attacking him while Stottlemeyer tries his best to keep Escobar secure. But a secret is lurking within the courthouse, and the two may just find their cases are more closely tied together than they think.

* ArtisticLicenseLaw: The Stottlemeyer and Disher subplot is about them capturing fugitive Miguel Escobar, then keeping him in their custody until he's to be handed off to the feds at the courthouse for an extradition hearing that will transfer him to federal custody. The local (state) and federal courts do not share courthouses in San Francisco, so there would have been no reason to make the transfer in the lobby of the local (state) courthouse. In fact, the transfer would probably be conducted at the jail where Escobar was being held.

* WholePlotReference: Monk is summoned by court for [[RogueJuror Jury Duty]]. HilarityEnsues, as Monk finds himself trapped in a small room with 11 other people, persisting throughout the episode that he prefers to work alone. Anyway, the jury consists of a bunch of apathetic ignorants who immediately vote guilty just to get out of there quicker. One of whom is a Jerkass, another one has a cold, and the foreman is a StraightMan-turned-grunt. [[Film/TwelveAngryMen Which has happened before.]]

* ShoutOut: Monk is summoned by court for [[RogueJuror Jury Duty]]. HilarityEnsues, as Monk finds himself trapped in a small room with 11 other people, persisting throughout the episode that he prefers to work alone. Anyway, the jury consists of a bunch of apathetic ignorants who immediately vote guilty just to get out of there quicker. One of whom is a Jerkass, another one has a cold, and the foreman is a StraightMan-turned-grunt. [[Film/TwelveAngryMen Which has happened before.]]

* RogueJuror: Monk becomes the lone juror who doesn't think Perry is guilty. It's also done deliberately by another juror — she was only there to prolong the trial until she could help Escobar escape, so she looked over the shoulder of the juror next to her and voted the opposite way. As it happened, the person next to her was Monk, the only "not guilty" vote, so she ended up voting the same way as the other ten jurors.