The police department has enough on their plates when Karen Stottlemeyer moves in to do a documentary, but then the irascible Commissioner Brooks dumps a new case on them — the murder of a young woman whose body was dismembered with a chainsaw. The commissioner has it in for Monk, and when an accident results in him erasing years' worth of files, Brooks fires him and yanks his detective license. At loose ends and cut from the investigation, can Monk find a way to bring balance back to the case and his personal life?
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- Blackmail: Stottlemeyer forces the commissioner to renew Monk's license and let him return as a consultant by threatening to let Karen show footage proving he wears a wig.
- Bludgeoned to Death: Thankfully, Larysa was knocked in the head with a tire iron before she got sliced up with that chainsaw.
- Break the Haughty: The commissioner, who's been throwing his weight around all episode, gets humiliated when Monk reveals he wears a toupee and Sharona yanks it off in front of everyone, including the documentary crew. He looks notably sheepish as he asks if it's possible to remove the footage.
- Dismembering the Body: Paul cut up his victim's body, put those pieces in a trash bag, and chucked it into the bay. Unfortunately for him, her torso managed to wash up.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The new Jerkass commissioner Robert Brooks not only fires Monk but also suspends his detective's license after Monk accidentally erases several years worth of forensic files while cleaning crumbs from a keyboard, files that were mostly backed up elsewhere. Stottlemeyer explicitly calls Brooks on using this as an excuse to get back at Monk for testifying against a crooked friend of his.
- Divorce Assets Conflict: The murder was basically incited this way. Paul Harley got his girlfriend Larysa Zeryeva to keep quiet about certain assets Paul had so that when he divorced his wife, she wouldn't get any of them. Paul however, decided that any love for him wasn't enough certainty for him, and made personally sure she would never talk about them...
- Dog-Kicking Excuse: It's pretty clear the commissioner has wanted to punish Monk since he sent a crooked friend of his to jail and the records being erased just served as a convenient excuse.
- Gory Discretion Shot: When Harley is cutting up Larysa's body with a chainsaw, the camera only shows a spatter of blood smacking against the window rather than the actual cutting.
- Happy Dance: Monk does a "jig" when he solves the case. It barely looks like dancing, let alone a jig.
- Hate Sink: The commissioner comes across as unpleasant as possible, constantly haranguing the police department to solve the case so he can look good for the press and barring Monk from detective work on a petty excuse as revenge. At the end, Monk points out that his refusal to surrender his toupee could result in Harley getting away with murder and he still doesn't back down.
- Is This Thing Still On?: Stottlemeyer admits to his wife that he realizes that having her do the documentary on him and the rest of the police force was a very big mistake, as the current case he's investigating, Monk getting fired, and the Commissioner hounding him is getting on his nerves...and then he realizes the camera's still on.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Subverted. While Brooks had a good reason to be angry at Monk for deleting years worth of forensic files, it's made apparent how he's using it as an excuse to get payback on Monk for testifying against a Dirty Cop who was a friend of Brooks, especially when Stottlemeyer points outs that most of the files were backed up and will be easily recovered.
- Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: The burning of a wig shop and the attempted swiping of the commissioner's hat turn out to be related to the fairly gruesome murder of the week.
- The Tell: The Commissioner continues to act smug around Monk until Stottlemeyer and Disher reveals that the missing evidence was made into a Toupee, and upon hearing it he goes to grab two donuts and starts eating both at once.
