Line #5 Recap/MonkS3E11MrMonkVsTheCobra


1	Monk gets a murder case with the M.O. of one particular person written all over it, with the victim being someone with a particular grudge against that person. The problem? The obvious culprit, martial artist Sonny Chow, has been dead and buried for years.
2	!!This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
3	* AdmiringTheAbomination: Randy is thrilled that Sonny Chow might be alive, and Natalie reminds him that if that is true, he'd have to be arrested, and might even try to kill Randy. Randy gushes, ''"wow, that would be so cool!"''
4	* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: The killer dressed as a ninja who kills John Ricca in the ColdOpen with a lot of flashy nunchaku work, is later revealed to be Chris Downey, a gravedigger with a heart condition.
5	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Monk gets a small taste of this while Natalie storms off:
6	-->'''Adrian:''' I- I solved the case! Aren't you interested?\
7	'''Chris Downey:''' ''I'm'' interested.\
8	[''Knocks Adrian out with a shovel'']
9	* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Because Natalie comes back to save him, Monk gives up Trudy's office so that he can afford to reimburse Natalie's expenses. He is reassured by his near-death vision of Trudy that it's the right thing to do.
10	* BlackComedy:
11	** When Sonny Chow's coffin is opened, Stottlemeyer asks LoonyFan Randy if he recognizes the corpse:
12	--->'''Randy''': It's hard to say. I mean, Sonny had a lot more hair... and skin.
13	** Stottlemeyer, briefing the police search team to find where Chris Downey buried Monk alive:
14	--->'''Stottlemeyer''': We figure he's got about forty minutes of air if he's not panicking... ''[checks watch]'' Figure on fifteen minutes.
15	* BludgeonedToDeath: John Ricca is killed by being beaten to death with a set of nunchaku.
16	* BorrowedCatchphrase: Master Zi unknowingly appropriates Monk, in reference to his wisdom: ''"It is a gift... and a curse."''
17	* BuriedAlive: Chris Downey puts Monk in a coffin and buries it.
18	* ChekhovsGun: The pillow that Natalie hits Monk with is revealed to contain the diamonds from a six year old heist.
19	* CoffinContraband: Chris Downey, having stolen some jewels and needing a place to stash them before he was caught, put them in Sonny Chow's casket and "framed" him six years later to get the coffin dug up.
20	* CrazyPrepared: Fourteen years before his death, Sonny Chow had some of his own blood drawn and frozen, to be used in case he needed surgery. This blood was never used, but gives the police ''"bulletproof DNA"'' to compare with the hairs found at the crime scene.
21	* DeceasedFallGuyGambit: ZigZagged. Downey frames the deceased Sonny Chow for the murder of John Ricca not to divert suspicion away from himself but because he needs the police to exhume Sonny Chow's coffin.
22	* DueToTheDead: The morgue technician, opening Sonny Chow's coffin: ''"Hello... we're so sorry to disturb you."''
23	* ElectiveMute: One of Zi’s students has carried out a vow of silence for nine years. He breaks it when Monk refuses to take off his shoes inside the dojo.
24	* EvilGloating: Downey, stopped by the police as he is driving out of the cemetery, says he'll tell them where he buried Monk as soon as he's driven to the airport.
25	-->'''Downey''': ''[waggling a sachet with the missing diamonds]'' I'm already packed.
26	* FakingTheDead: There were rumors Sonny Chow did this even before this murder. When the body is dug up, it is definitively proven to be Chow's.
27	* GPSEvidence: Monk recognizes a stamp on the back of Chris Downey's hand, connecting it to a Sonny Chow museum, where Chris stole a hairbrush with some of Sonny's hair on it he could plant to frame Sonny.
28	* HastilyHiddenMacGuffin: The jewels hidden in Sonny Chow's coffin. Chris Downey hid them in the coffin while running from the police, only being arrested for the assault of an officer due to the now lack of evidence of theft. However, when Chris got out of prison years later and went back to dig the jewels up, he found a three ton monument serving as a tombstone, paid for by a Filipino fan club of Chow's. As Chris obviously had no way of moving the heavy stone by himself, he figured to frame Sonny so the coffin could be exhumed.
29	* ImagineSpot: While he's buried alive, Monk has one where he gives TheSummation to Trudy in the San Francisco Botanical Gardens.
30	* MeaninglessVillainVictory: Downey got the diamonds, buried Monk, and was in the process of making his demands to the police... and promptly died of a heart attack.
31	* NeedleInAStackOfNeedles: Downey buries Monk in the cemetery, but then he has a heart attack before he could negotiate Monk's location with the police. Worse, Randy points out that the cemetery has an extension, which only broadens the search radius.
32	* NightmareFetishist:
33	** Monk, who's afraid of germs, needles, and milk, actually enjoys himself admiring the organs preserved in jars in the morgue;
34	--->'''Monk''': What a beautiful pancreas... look at this, I'm just wild about spleens.
35	** Randy is badly disappointed to learn that the corpse in the coffin really is Sonny Chow's, but that doesn't stop him from taking a cheerful selfie with it.
36	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Sonny Chow himself is an obvious parody of Creator/BruceLee.
37	* PowerOutagePlot: An accidental version is how Stottlemeyer determines the general area where Monk is buried. Seeing that a traffic light has gone out, he figures that Downey accidentally cut its power line with a shovel and has his men start digging along its length.
38	* RaceAgainstTheClock: After Downey buries Monk alive, the police and Natalie have limited time to find him before he suffocates. Stottlemeyer notes the problem is worsened because Monk (being claustrophobic) will probably panic when he realizes where he is and use his air up faster.
39	* RippedFromTheHeadlines: Stottlemeyer tells Monk about a trip to a convention in Atlanta: he got in a cab and recognized the driver as the former Special-Agent-in-Charge of the FBI's Atlanta field office until he accused the wrong guy (Richard Jewell) of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_Olympic_Park_bombing 1996 Olympic Games bombing]], and worse, did so on live television, which ruined his career. Stottlemeyer brings it up because the preliminary DNA evidence points to a suspect who has been officially deceased for six years, and Stottlemeyer is genuinely afraid of the consequences that might occur if he goes public and is immediately proven wrong.
40	* ShovelStrike: Gravedigger Chris Downey knocks Monk out with a shovel before putting him in a coffin and burying him.
41	* SlaveToPR: Stottlemeyer is a nervous wreck for much of the episode, because all the evidence points to the outlandish theory that Sonny Chow [[FakingTheDead faked his death]] six years ago and is now guilty of murdering Ricca, and Stottlemeyer is terrified of going public with that theory and being proved wrong. His concerns are legitimate because: 1) as the public face of the SFPD, he is the [[TheChainsOfCommanding first to catch heat when something goes wrong]], and 2) he had a face-to-face encounter with a former FBI hotshot who ruined his own career by accusing the wrong man on TV, and now is [[ReassignedToAntarctica driving a cab]].

Context Recap / MonkS3E11MrMonkVsTheCobra