History Recap / MonkS6E11MrMonkJoinsACult

* NuclearOption: Surely Tom Donovan could have thought of an explanation for why he had a strange woman in his car in the middle of the night that required a bit less homicide.

* JerkassHasAPoint: “Father” is right that Monk uses his hand wipes and other CharacterTics as crutches to avoid confronting his problems, and is even able to successfully help him overcome much of his paranoia and neuroticism. Unfortunately he packages those with standard self-destructive cult brainwashing and cons Monk out of his savings.

* RevealingCoverUp: Tom Donnavan killed Amanda to cover up that he was having an affair with her. He ran a red light while driving her around in a Company Car, so the ticket would have been sent to the office where his wife would have seen the picture of him in the car with a strange woman. So he stabbed Amanda, drove her to the hospital (thus creating a cover story for why the picture exists), and then tried to pin her murder on Father.

* JerkassHasAPoint: “Father” is right that Monk uses his hand wipes and other CharacterTicks as crutches to avoid confronting his problems, and is even able to successfully help him overcome much of his paranoia and neuroticism. Unfortunately he packages those with standard self-destructive cult brainwashing and cons Monk out of his savings.

* ContinuityNod: Stottlemeyer refuses to have Monk go undercover in the cult; most likely, he remembers what happened [[Recap/MonkS3E1MrMonkTakesManhattan the last time Monk briefly joined a religious sect]].

* MoralityChainBeyondTheGrave: Dr. Kroger brings out a picture of Trudy and wonders to Monk what she would think if she saw Adrian under the cult's influence. When Monk brushes it off, Dr. Kroger responds that they have no need of the picture, and crumples it to call his bluff. Monk begins to come to his senses, picks up the picture, and begins crying.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: During the intervention, Natalie offers to get Monk a wipe to clean food that he's refused off of his face. He shocks her by wiping it on his sleeve.

* {{Irony}}: Father was in his cabin getting a cortisone shot for his bad back when Amanda was killed. He doesn't want this to be made public because his image as the so-called "Eternal One" relies on his followers believing his claim that he has never been sick a day in his life. In other words, Father has the perfect alibi, but can't tell anyone about it because it would expose him as a liar and a fraud.

* {{Irony}}: Father was in his cabin getting a cortisone shot for his bad back when Amanda was killed. He doesn't want this to be made public because as the so-called "Eternal One", he never gets sick. In other words, he has the perfect alibi, but can't tell anyone about it because it would expose him as a liar and a fraud.

* AlliterativeName: The cult leader's name is Ralph Roberts.

* AdultFear: Mr. and Mrs. Clark have to deal with the murder of their daughter.

* CultDefector: The VictimOfTheWeek in ''[[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/MonkS6E11MrMonkJoinsACult Mr. Monk Joins a Cult]]'' ran away from a ChurchOfHappyology and became a prostitute due to how messed up the experience left her. She spent the rest of her life living in fear that they'd kill her for leaving the cult, but the cult is a RedHerring.

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: When told Amanda worked "the world's oldest profession", Monk figures he knows what that means: black-smithing.

* ContinuityNod: Stottlemeyer refuses to have Monk go undercover in the cult; most likely, he remembers what happened [[Recap/MonkS3E1MrMonkTakesManhattan the last time Monk briefly joined a church sect]].

* MoralityChainBeyondTheGrave: Dr. Kroger brings out a picture of Trudy and wonders to Monk what she would think if she saw Adrian under the cult's influence. When Monk brushes it off, Dr. Kroger responds that they have no need of the picture, and crumples it to call his bluff. Monk begins to come to his senses, picks up the picture and begins crying.

* Chekhov'sGun: The beeper.

* MoralityChainBeyondTheGrave: Dr. Kroger talks about Trudy and wonders what she would think about what's happened to Monk under the cult's influence. When Monk still tries to brush it off, Dr. Kroger brings out a picture of her, says that it seems they can just discard it, and crumples it. Monk picks up the picture and begins crying.

* SuperGullible: Stottlemeyer protests Monk's idea to go undercover with the Siblings of the Sun because of how gullible he is and how expert "Father" is at brainwashing people.