Line #22 Recap/MonkS1E11MrMonkAndTheRedHeadedStranger


1	Monk meets one of his heroes: Music/WillieNelson, Trudy's favorite singer... and has to clear his name in a murder investigation when his crooked manager turns up dead in an alley and a blind witness accuses him of involvement.
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3	!!This episode includes examples if the following tropes:
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5	* ActorAllusion:
6	** Monk asks if Willie smells anything in the tour bus, to which Nelson replies "no, I don't, and you don't either." This is a reference to Willie Nelson's famous affinity for marijuana.
7	** In describing Mrs. Mass's screaming, Willie compliments her "pipes." She's portrayed by Jackie Richardson, a gospel and blues singer.
8	* AndThisIsFor: Mrs. Mass tells Sonny that her first bullet is for her family, [[YouKilledMyFather who he killed]].
9	* AsHimself: Willie Nelson and more than one of his bandmates appear as themselves.
10	* AssholeVictim: Sonny Cross gets killed because he got away with a slap on the wrist after killing the murderer's family in a car accident and leaving her blind.
11	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Monk and Willie Nelson serenade Trudy at the end of the episode.
12	* ChekhovsGun: The checkout clerk mentions Mrs. Mass concussing herself in the store a short while ago. It turns out that the same accident somehow fixed her sight in one eye.
13	* ChekhovsGunman: The streaker. Initially, he's just an annoyance to Stottlemeyer and the police force, but then Monk uses his penchant for naked running in a ploy to show Mrs. Mass can actually see. To Sharona's embarrassment, he also turns out to be the guy she's been dating all episode.
14	* DueToTheDead: As thanks for clearing his name, Willie Nelson and Monk play music at Trudy's grave.
15	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Monk hires a streaker to solve the case, which seems inconsistent with the Season 6 episode "Mr. Monk and the Naked Man," which revolves around Monk's pathological hatred of nudists.
16	* EverybodyHasStandards: Mrs. Mass may despise her victim, but even she thought it was wrong for Willie Nelson to be framed for her murder, to the point she felt guilty for it and was relieved when Monk solved the case.
17	* GracefulLoser: Mrs. Mass is the only killer on the show who ''thanked'' Mr. Monk for solving the case. She said that she was feeling guilty about framing Willie Nelson, who was innocent. When everyone offers her a consolation for turning herself in peacefully, Mrs. Mass's only has one humble request: that her jail cell will have a window, so she can always appreciate her newly-restored sight. Stottlemeyer promises to talk to the District Attorney about extenuating circumstances for a lighter sentence.
18	* IAmSpartacus: Everyone in Willie Nelson's band claims to be him when the police come to arrest him. The police don't buy it and arrest the real Willie Nelson.
19	* IRegretNothing: After being caught, Wendy Mass says she doesn't regret killing Sonny Cross, who served only eighteen months in prison for killing her parents and blinding her, but she was guilt-ridden over Willie Nelson taking the blame for her crime, which is why she is relieved when Monk deduces the truth.
20	* NakedPeopleAreFunny: Except to Stottlemeyer, when the streaker keeps interrupting his press conferences, and to Sharona, when she recognizes him as her promising new boyfriend, Justin.
21	* ObfuscatingDisability: Monk realizes Mrs. Mass isn't blind because she was able to offer the correct hand to shake the Captain's uninjured left hand on instinct. It turns out she regained part of her vision and kept it secret so she could kill Sonny Cross for the drunk driving incident and escape punishment.
22	* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: People do use his real name, but most people call the victim, Jason Cross, by his nickname "Sonny".
23	* StealingFromTheTill: At the beginning of the episode, Willie confronts Sonny about $400,000 that has gone missing from the profits. We later learn that Sonny 's pulled this with other bands. It's just another thing to really make Sonny [[AssholeVictim deserve what he has coming.]]
24	* SuspectIsHatless: Inverted. Randy, pursuing the streaker, describes him over the radio as wearing grey sneakers and ''"not Jewish"'', a detail that would be useless in identifying a man wearing clothes.
25	* TakeAThirdOption: Monk ''tries'' to invoke this due to the first option being seemingly impossible and the second being personally unpalatable to him, but fails (although it eventually turns out that they were mistaken about the first option):
26	-->'''Stottlemeyer:''' It's either (a) the blind woman who has zero motive or it's (b) your friend the red-headed stranger.\
27	'''Randy:''' Who had motive, means, and opportunity, and was identified by the only witness at the scene.\
28	'''Stottlemeyer:''' A or B, Monk.\
29	'''Monk:''' I think it's C.\
30	'''Stottlemeyer:''' What the hell is C?\
31	'''Monk:''' I don't know yet.
32	* YouJustToldMe: Monk is able to prove Mrs. Mass isn't blind by having the streaker run past and showing Captain Stottlemeyer that she reacts, just as one would expect for a sighted person.

Context Recap / MonkS1E11MrMonkAndTheRedHeadedStranger