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Recap / Monk S1E1 "Mr. Monk and the Candidate"

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Adrian Monk, a former policeman discharged for psychiatric reasons, hopes to get back into law enforcement. His efforts to prove himself get caught up in public politics when a bodyguard is killed during a mayoral campaign speech.

This episode includes examples of the following tropes:

  • 10-Minute Retirement:
    • Sharona quits after Monk ruins her first date by pointing out that the guy is lying about a number of things. Deputy Mayor Sheldon Burger successfully begs her into going back shortly thereafter.
    • Monk is kicked off the investigation after letting Sykes escape; after he solves the case, Sharona calls in her favor with Burger to get him reinstated.
  • Action Politician: Downplayed; Warren St. Claire is a very personable politician who is patient with Monk's quirks and gives Gavin Lloyd another chance despite his past embezzlement allegations. Though he never takes physical action, he never lets the apparent threat to his life dissuade him, even before Monk figures out that he wasn't the actual target.
  • Absence of Evidence:
    • Monk realizes that Nicole's killer used her computer because the keyboard doesn't have any fingerprints on it, not even Nicole's, indicating someone wiped them off.
    • Monk realizes that Sykes is lying about being paralyzed after seeing his and Stottlemeyer's shoes. They're both scuffed; if Sykes were paralyzed, his shoes wouldn't be used and would look like new.
  • Act of True Love: Sharona manages to force Deputy Mayor Sheldon Burger into promising her that he will give her anything she asks — and she does mean anything — when she turns up on his doorstep to ask for it. She uses it by the end of the episode, not on anything for herself, but rather to ensure that Monk gets a chance to prove himself after having messed up in letting Sykes past him.
  • Analogy Backfire: Inverted when an analogy becomes even more apropos. During the episode, Gavin Lloyd tells his candidate, Warren St. Claire, that "I am your Moses, and I am gonna take you to the Promised Land." Monk reveals that Lloyd was embezzling from the campaign and hired hitman Ian Sykes to kill bookkeeper Nicole Vasques (for discovering the embezzling) and bodyguard Jason Ronstadt (for turning down Lloyd's offer to kill Vasques). St. Claire confronts his traitorous campaign manager:
    Warren St. Claire: And you called yourself my Moses.
    Adrian Monk: And like the real Moses, he won't be joining you in the Promised Land.
  • Brick Joke: When explaining why she likes her (very stressful) job, Sharona tells her date that she feels like Lois Lane. Later, after she puts herself in danger by trailing Sykes, Stottlemeyer asks who Sharona thinks she is. Monk answers with the same name.
  • Character Catch Phrase: The pilot introduces Monk's traditional "Unless I'm wrong, which, you know... I'm not..."
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • During the "assassination attempt", Gavin Lloyd tried to point out the shooter by pointing up at the buildings adjacent the plaza. As Monk later realizes, Lloyd had to have been in on the plot because, given the balloon props obstructing his view and echoing effect from between the buildings obfuscating the shots' origins, he wouldn't have known where the shooter was positioned otherwise.
    • When Sheldon Burger approaches Sharona to beg her to go back to Monk so he can solve the case, Sharona wrangles a promise out of him that someday, she will appear to ask a favor and he'll say yes. Guess what Sharona uses to make sure Monk gets a chance to prove his case.
    • Gavin Lloyd is said to have been suspected of embezzling money in a previous campaign, though he wasn't charged. Sure enough, the two murders in the episode are intended to cover up his more recent embezzling.
  • Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: Sharona, being held hostage by Ian Sykes, yells for Adrian to shoot him. Monk does, and she immediately starts berating him for endangering her.
  • Conspicuously Public Assassination: Ian Sykes, disguised as a painter, opens fire on a campaign rally with a Weatherby Fibermark rifle, supposedly trying to kill mayoral candidate Warren St. Claire. St. Claire survives, but his bodyguard Jason Ronstadt is fatally shot. Then it turns out Ronstadt was Sykes's target, not St. Claire at all, and Sykes's employer Gavin Lloyd (the candidate's campaign manager, who had originally hired Sykes to kill a volunteer who had found evidence that Lloyd was embezzling money and had originally solicited Ronstadt to commit that murder) wanted Ronstadt killed in public because he knew too much. Additionally, it would look like an attempt on St. Claire's life, giving the guy extra publicity and an upswing in votes.
  • Crazy-Prepared: Ian Sykes, a professional mercenary and hitman, keeps a wheelchair in his apartment so he can pretend to be disabled when the police track him down.
  • Desecrating the Dead: Played for Laughs. When Warren St. Claire salutes Jason Ronstadt in his coffin, Jason's hand appears to flop up in response - Monk was trying to "fish" his dropped keys out of the coffin from the balcony and accidentally hooked Jason's sleeve. Monk gets an earful about it afterwards from Sharona, Stottlemeyer, and Miranda St. Claire. Warren actually takes the accidental disrespect fairly patiently, joking that he thought he had a new campaign slogan about his ability to resurrect the dead.
  • Didn't Think This Through: Monk, of all people, after shooting Ian Sykes to rescue Sharona:
    Sharona: What if you missed? You could have missed!
    Monk: Oh, right! How could I have missed? The guy's King Kong!
    Sharona: What if it ricocheted?!
    Monk: ...Oh, that-that's true. I didn't think of that.
  • Disability Alibi: When the police finally track down the owner of the rifle that shot Jason Ronstadt, he's confined to a wheelchair and can't have shot anybody. It turns out to be a ruse.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness:
    • This episode strongly implies that Monk's OCD is purely the result of the nervous breakdown he suffered after Trudy's death. Subsequent episodes would more realistically show that Monk had OCD even in his childhood years and managed to get it mostly under control during his marriage to Trudy, only for it to become worse than ever following her death.
    • Disher's last name is given as "Deacon" in this episode.
    • Dr. Kroger says his son wants Monk's autograph after his heroism is published in the papers. Kroger's son, Troy, is introduced in later seasons as a rebellious punk whose relationship with his father is extremely troubled (in his first appearance, he insists that Kroger can't be his real father, despite Kroger having taken three paternity tests).
  • Enemies Equals Greatness: Asked who might want Warren St. Claire dead, his wife sarcastically says they'll need several hours to review his entire list of enemies, and Warren breezily says that a man who hasn't made enemies hasn't done squat with his life.
  • Exactly What I Aimed At: A plot point; when Jason Ronstadt is shot, everyone assumes he was the victim of an assassination attempt on St. Claire. Actually, he was the intended target all along; he knew too much.
  • Face Your Fears: To save Sharona and catch Sykes, Monk goes into the sewers, even trying to keep silent when a rat jumps onto his shoulder and fishing in the water when he drops the gun.
  • Foreshadowing: Stottlemeyer's troubled relationship with his wife is explored in later seasons, beginning with "Mr. Monk and the Very, Very Old Man".
  • From Camouflage to Criminal: Ian Sykes went from being a Green Beret to hiring out his services as an assassin and mercenary.
  • Godzilla Threshold: Stottlemeyer is initially skeptical of bringing in Monk, but the mayor insists, and later Stottlemeyer defends him from Mrs. St. Claire's skepticism:
    Miranda St. Claire: Is-is this a joke? Someone tries to kill my husband, and you send in Rain Man?
    Stottlemeyer: Mrs. St. Claire, I can assure you, Monk's presence is proof of just how seriously we take this investigation.
  • He Knows Too Much: Two linked examples. Volunteer Nicole Vasques finds missing money in the books. Lloyd tries to hire Jason Ronstadt to get rid of her, but Jason refuses, so Lloyd hires Sykes to kill both of them.
  • He's Back!: Stottlemeyer beams openly at seeing Monk command the stage during The Summation, the first time he displays his old confidence as a detective since Trudy's death four years ago.
  • I Need a Freaking Drink: Miranda St. Claire is pouring Scotch at 10:00 a.m. in the morning. When Jesse asks her if it's necessary, she replies that someone just tried to shoot her husband, so yes, it is.
  • I Never Said It Was Poison: Gavin Lloyd knew which window Sykes was shooting from. Monk eventually realizes that the only way he could have known this was if he was involved with the shooting.
  • I Always Wanted to Say That:
    Stottlemeyer: Let it go! (leaves)
    Sharona: Are we gonna let it go?
    Monk: Hell, no.
    Sharona: So what do we do now?
    Monk: We're gonna Follow the Money. [shudders] Mmm, aah! I've always wanted to say that!
  • Jerkass Has a Point: Stottlemeyer vehemently chews Monk out for letting a suspect escape due to his fear of heights. While seen as overly harsh by Sharona, Stottlemeyer makes a good point about how Monk can't be expected to protect the city, let alone rejoin the force, if he freezes up over his phobias.
  • Karmic Death: Lloyd is shot by Sykes just like Ronstadt, who he ordered murdered. Subverted in that we see Lloyd looking at his wound but it is not clear whether he dies or not.
  • Man Bites Man: When Sharona is taken hostage by Sykes, she manages to bite his arm and gets away briefly.
  • Oh, Crap!: Lloyd has this reaction when Monk recreates the assassination and proves two things: 1) he couldn't have seen the gunman because the balloons would have served as a visual barrier and, when he claims that he heard the shots instead of seeing them, that 2) the gunshots would be echoing around the skyscrapers, meaning he couldn't tell where the shooter was from hearing. All this proves that he hired the shooter, which was the only way he could have known where he was.
  • Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Miranda St. Claire accidentally touches on a sensitive topic while disparaging Monk's abilities:
    Sharona: [I]t's a form of anxiety disorder. Cases like this are usually caused by a single traumatic event.
    Miranda St. Claire: Someone hit him over the head with a shovel?
    Sharona: His wife was murdered four years ago. By a car bomb.
    [Miranda prudently shuts up.]
  • Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: When Nicole Vasquez discovered Gavin's embezzlement, he tried to bribe her to keep quiet, but she refused. Then he tried to hire Jason Ronstadt to kill her, but he refused, leaving Gavin with two mouths to silence instead of one.
    Monk: So you were in Hell, surrounded by honest people.
  • Sherlock Scan: Monk does it a few times; Sharona calls it his "Zen Sherlock Holmes thing."
    • He deduces the killer at the beginning is tall due to the computer chair being on its lowest position and used her computer to look for something because her keyboard was wiped clean.
    • Monk deduces the chief is having troubles with his wife since she normally notices if he cut himself shaving and she ties his necktie a different way than its current style.
    • He further deduces that Sykes is lying about being wheelchair-bound because his shoes are scuffed like Stottlemeyer's, an indication that he's been walking around in them.
  • Shout-Out: Sharona and Monk use the codenames Heckle and Jeckle over the walkie-talkies when putting their plan to expose Lloyd into action.
  • Single Parents Are Undesirable: Lampshaded after Monk ruins one of Sharona's dates by calling the man on some lies, causing him to storm out. Sharona asks him if he thinks she told her date everything potentially off-putting about her, such as the fact that she has a son.
  • Smokescreen Crime: The episode has two: the robbery-turned-homicide of a woman named Nicole Vasquez and the killing of Jason Ronstadt, the bodyguard of mayoral candidate Warren St. Claire. Not only do these two deaths have more to them than meets the eye, but it turns out that they are connected and were orchestrated by the same person. Nicole had discovered that Gavin Lloyd, Warren's campaign manager was embezzling money from the campaign; to silence her, Lloyd hired an assassin to kill Nicole and make it look like a burglary that turned violent. However, Lloyd had initially gone to Jason Ronstadt to bribe him into killing Nicole, which Jason had refused. Fearing that Jason would expose him, Lloyd had Jason killed by the same assassin. The shooting being public made it look like it was an attempt on Warren's life and the bodyguard was just collateral damage.
  • Tragic Keepsake: Monk accidentally drops his keys into Jason Ronstadt's coffin and insists on fishing them out with a paper clip on a line of string, because the keychain was a gift from Trudy.
  • Working the Same Case: Monk turns out to be right when he insists that the murder of Nicole Vasquez in Santa Clarita is connected to the attempted assassination on St. Claire in San Francisco, despite Stottlemeyer's skepticism. She worked on his campaign and figured out something the campaign manager didn't like.
  • You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Stottlemeyer has a minor Heroic BSoD when Monk is proved right yet again, and Randy steps up to encourage him:
    Stottlemeyer: How does he do it? I have two eyes, I see everything that he sees, but... I don't see what he sees.
    Randy: Sir, if I may... what Monk does, it's a parlor trick. I mean, can he do all this? Can you organize a city-wide investigation? Inspire the troops? Motivate people? Adrian Monk isn't half the cop, or a third of the man, that you are, sir.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: In a scene not shown on most broadcasts (and seemingly not on the DVDs either), Gavin asks Ian out to the dock to speak to him. He then pulls a gun on Sykes and shoots him to cover up loose ends. It doesn't work out for him, as Sykes survives and shoots him.

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