Monk is having a miserable time when Sharona drags him along on a long-awaited vacation, but things heat up when Benjy witnesses a murder through a telescope — a murder for which the body and all the evidence disappears near instantly. Can Monk solve the case before checkout time forces him to abandon the investigation?
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- Ambiguous Situation: The episode doesn't outright state if the maids killed Lupe because she was getting greedy and demanding a larger cut or if she tried to back out and they figured she had too much information on the plan to let her walk. The latter is implied based on Lupe's expressions during the flashback of The Summation, but other episodes emphasize those flashbacks show what Monk thinks happened (although he's almost always right) and not what he knows for sure.
- Bloody Handprint: The murder victim leaves a smear of blood down the glass as she falls over.
- Bodily Fluid Blacklight Reveal: The hotel detective brings in a machine that can detect traces of many different bodily fluids. When she uses it on Monk's room, it reveals spots all over the place. Completely disgusted, Monk summons housecleaning and orders them to sterilize everything.
- Body in a Breadbox: One of the places Benjy finds the corpse is in the back of an arcade console.
- Brain Bleach: During the investigation, Bronwyn brings in a machine that can detect traces of a large number of bodily fluids and uses it on the room in which Monk is staying, revealing spots everywhere. Monk immediately summons housekeeping to sterilize the room.
- Brick Joke:
- When Monk and Bronwyn are about to enter Mr. Fenimore's room, Bronwyn taps the side of her nose, a gesture she learned from The Sting. When Monk finally figures out where the body is, he taps the side of his nose the same way.
- Monk tells Sharona that the man who's been flirting with her is married to a woman called Julie or Julia. Later, after completely trouncing him at tennis, Sharona suggests he get "Julie" or "Julia" to put ice on his injury.
- Busman's Holiday: Sharona takes Monk on a vacation against his will, where he is incredibly uncomfortable and simply sits on the beach fully clothed. When a murder mystery pops up, he couldn't be happier, and drags Sharona into helping him solve it. Upon their return Sharona asks that they never go on vacation again, much to her disbelief.
- Cassandra Truth: No one except Monk (and possibly Bronwyn) believes Benjy about the murder.
- A Day in the Limelight: Benjy spots a murder being committed while looking through binoculars at a hotel room, and he keeps finding the body everywhere during Monk's investigation.
- Department of Redundancy Department: Lampshaded.Tony: Check it out as discreetly and quickly and discreetly as possible.
Adrian: You said "discreetly" twice.
Tony: Exactly. In fact I'll say it again: discreetly. - "Eureka!" Moment: When Benjy brings up a chemical smell in Monk's room, Monk explains he got the maids to clean all the stains out of his room visible from the blacklight Rita rented. When he further clarifies to Benjy that there was a group of maids working his room, he realizes the maids are the only people in the hotel who could have cleaned up the murder scene as fast as it was.
- Hand Sliding Down the Glass: Sharona gives her son Benjy a quarter to put in the telescope thing that some tourist spots have so he'll give her some peace to sunbathe. After a bit of looking at random things, Benjy focuses it on a window at the hotel where they're staying and sees a struggle, ending with a body sliding down the glass, leaving a bloody hand streak.
- The Help Helping Themselves: The killers turn out to be a group of hotel maids who steal financial data—mostly stock tips and inside information about big companies—from the wealthy brokers and investors who stay at the resort; as Monk puts it, "no one thinks to hide their briefcases or their laptops." One member of the group either wanted more of the cut or developed a conscience and was going to turn the others in, so they killed her and hid her body.
- Improvised Weapon: Lupe was stabbed with a pair of scissors taken from the room they were in when the other maids turned on her.
- Irony: In the epilogue, Sharona finds herself so fed up with Adrian treating the murder case like a holiday that she threatens him that she wants no more vacations. When this sinks in, she is dumbfounded by what she just said.
- It's All About Me: Sharona exhibits this attitude in regards to Monk spoiling her vacation despite the fact that a murder took place on the scene.
- Mama Didn't Raise No Criminal: Downplayed; almost no one believes that Benjy has actually been telling the truth about witnessing a murder. When Monk believes him, Tony tells him that naturally Benjy's father would insist he couldn't have lied about it. Monk clears up the misconception and continues with the case.
- Milkman Conspiracy: A secret ring of chambermaids are using confidential information left lying around in hotel rooms to engage in insider trading. When one of their number wants out (or wants more money), they kill her and use their position and near-invisibility to disappear the body and cover up the crime to the point where Monk looks like (more of) a lunatic for even trying to investigate.
- Playing the Victim Card: When Monk tells the (Latina) maids of his suspicions, one of them accuses him of thinking he can accuse "anyone of anything" because he's white. Monk says he's not accusing "anyone of anything"; he's accusing them of murder.
- Race Against the Clock: There are two "clocks" in-universe; first, the irritated manager gives Monk and Bronwyn an hour before he opens the doors and lets people come and go freely, and later he issues an absolute deadline of the time Monk's hotel reservation elapses. Monk misses both deadlines but figures out where the body was hidden as he, Sharona, and Benjy are driving away from the hotel.
- A Rare Sentence: At the end of the episode, an infuriated Sharona says she'll quit if Monk ever makes her take a vacation again. She's shocked when she realizes what she just said.
- Running Gag: Miss Bronwyn continually referring to crime dramas she's seen. At one point, Monk asks her if she's actually had any real police experience.
- So Proud of You: Monk continues investigating a seemingly non-existent murder case just because Benjy (his assistant Sharona's son) claimed he saw it happen. At one point, somebody mistakes him for Benjy's father, because assuming that Monk doesn't want to believe his son lied is the only way he can understand Monk's determination. Later, Benjy thanks Monk for taking him seriously, though he says he thinks it was just Monk being nice to him because his dad isn't in the picture. Monk (presumably referring to the earlier incident) answers that he doesn't need to be related to Benjy to believe his testimony or to be proud of him.
- Spanner in the Works: If Benjy hadn't been looking through a telescope at the moment Lupe was murdered, no-one would be any the wiser to Lupe's murder.
- Spotting the Thread: How Monk finally finds the body: He had taken a picture with Benjy and Sharona earlier in front of a display with three suitcases, but there are four suitcases now. Sure enough, the body is inside the fourth trunk.
- Wannabe Secret Agent: Bronwyn, or at least a Wannabe Cop. She even carries James Bond's gun, a Walther PPK.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: A bizarre example; Sharona suggests Benjy made up or imagined a homicide in order to impress Monk, who's the only regular male figure in his life.
- Woman Scorned: After finding out from Monk that the man she's been seeing all through the vacation is already married, Sharona proceeds to ace him at tennis and cause him injury (in the crotch no less).
- You Watch Too Much X: Monk lampshades that Bronwyn seems to have learned everything she "knows" about law enforcement from movies and television, asking if she's ever actually been a police officer.
