A robbery at Monk's bank leads to him going undercover as a security guard. While on the case, he uncovers a criminal conspiracy.
This episode involves examples of the following tropes:
- Ambiguous Situation:
- It's clear all the banktellers are in on the robbery and leaving Monk and the others for dead in the vault, but the episode doesn't say which one of them killed Crawley.note
- Monk rules out Madge as the inside player because of her bad back, but it is ambiguous whether her condition is real (see Disability Alibi, below).
- Bank Toaster: A bank manager gives Monk one as a reward for solving the case, which is greatly welcomed by Monk after the show had begun with Adrian at breakfast contending with burnt toast and a subplot develops necessitating he and Natalie getting a new one.
- Be as Unhelpful as Possible: The Living Statue performer demonstrates that apparently, by dressing up in tin and freezing in poses, you are automatically given permission to disregard police officers requesting important information from you.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Monk has been going to the same bank for ten years and is on semi-friendly terms with Crawley and most of the staff. They turn out to have conspired to rob their customers and try to kill Monk, Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Disher to avoid being found out. After sealing them into the vault, the staff close the bank and huddle, calmly debating how long it will take the four people in the vault to suffocate to death.
- Bittersweet Ending: Our heroes manage to call for help so they can escape the bank and catch the culprits. Unfortunately, Trudy's bracelet (which Monk has been trying to get back the entire episode) was damaged in the process. Nonetheless, the episode ends with Randy trying to outdo a human statue.
- Boom, Headshot!: Stottlemeyer says this is how Peter Crawley was killed.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Monk and the detectives are investigating a bank robbery when Randy questions a living statue who was working outside the bank. Randy then is inspired to become a living statue himself and practices the trade throughout the episode, thus implying that the statue's role in the story is over. Later, the heroes are locked in the vault by the perpetrators. They later open a box which turns out to contain the controls for the electronic message board on the front of the bank. They use it to request help. Guess who relays the message to the police.
- Closest Thing We Got: When Stottlemeyer finally manages to open the locked cabinet inside the bank vault, there are no telephone lines, but Stottlemeyer recognizes what's in the safe as the next best thing: the control board for the electronic ad banner on the outside of the bank.
- Continuity Nod: Monk is in Stottlemeyer's office, playing with the yo-yo the latter received during his anger management therapy in "Mr. Monk and the Captain's Marriage".
- Cool Car: Peter Crawley considers Jaguars to be these, as he buys one with some of the robbery money, in a totally good idea that couldn't possibly have given away his and the other employees' scheme.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: Monk is stricken to find that Trudy's bracelet was taken in the bank robbery. Peter Crawley, following him into the vault, asks Monk if it's insured. Natalie explains that Monk couldn't care less about the jewelry's monetary value, it's a Tragic Keepsake.
- Drawing Straws: How the staff chose Jasmine to be the one to receive a (non-fatal) gunshot wound.
- Disability Alibi: Monk initially figures Madge couldn't be the inside man, as she has a bad back and thus couldn't have moved a large tree in a way that would have blocked a security camera. Given that she was in on the robbery alongside the rest of the staff, it's debatable whether or not this bad back of hers actually exists. On the one hand, if her disability was faked, it would be difficult for her to fool Monk, especially when he was scrutinizing all the employees to identify the inside man; on the other, when she realizes Monk is on to her and the others, she runs to the heavy vault door and pushes it closed to trap him, Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Disher inside, something that would be difficult or impossible for someone with back issues (unless she was desperate).
- Also, Monk rules out at least two of the employees - Gloria and Leon - as the inside man, because they're not tall enough to reach the switch for the alarm that was disabled during the robbery.
- Entertainingly Wrong: In the Cold Open, a cop is writing a parking ticket for a car out in front of the bank at night, but his pen runs out of ink and he decides to just forget it. He and his partner drive away, remarking that the driver of that car has no idea that it's their lucky night - not knowing that the driver is Natalie, and she, Monk, Stottlemeyer and Disher are currently sealed inside the bank's vault, shouting for help.
- Everybody Did It: The key to the solution.
- Foreshadowing: The bank manager plays with a toy model of a luxury car while being interviewed by the police about the robbery.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: The episode departs from the formula greatly, in that the events preceding the opening credits actually happen near the end of the episode. Two police officers start to write up a parking ticket for an illegally parked Ford Escape SUV, but they give it a pass and drive off to get a bite to eat when the officer writing the ticket finds his pen is out of ink. As their cruiser drives away, the camera then tracks through the bank to the vault, then through the door, to reveal Monk, Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Disher trapped inside the vault, with Monk wearing a security guard uniform, and the others shouting for help, until Monk tells them "It's no use! Nobody's coming." They give up. When the opening credits conclude, it's two days earlier and we see what will get the characters locked in the vault.
- Gallows Humor: After being locked inside the vault, the detectives, just for the hell of it, crack the suspect safe box and find the money and valuables, including Trudy's bracelet. Randy hefts a stack of bills and quips, "at least we'll die rich." Stottlemeyer, dizzy from lack of sleep or food, actually laughs.
- Good-Looking Privates: Natalie becomes almost flirty with Monk when he is in his bank uniform, even asking if he would be allowed to keep it after the job. She admits she loves seeing a man in a uniform and would have Mitch wear his often.
- How We Got Here: The episode opens with Monk, Natalie, Stottlemeyer, and Disher all trapped in the vault. It then rewinds two days to show the crime(s) and investigation leading to that point.
- Inside Job: Monk's bank is robbed and he goes undercover as a guard to crack the case. He soon discovers that the bank manager was in on the robbery and murdered as a result. But later, he discovers the entire bank staff committed the robbery.
- It's Personal: Monk is motivated to solve the robbery and track down Trudy's bracelet that was kept in his safe deposit box.
- Lazy Alias: Monk deduces that the money and valuables never left the bank, the robber just moved them to a single large safe box in the vault, the only one that wasn't cracked during the robbery. Madge looks up the card for the box and finds it registered to a "J.A. Guar" - after Crawley, the inside man, has been found shot dead inside the trunk of his brand-new Jaguar convertible. Randy deadpans, "very cute".
- Locked in a Freezer: The bank vault variety, where Monk, Natalie, Stottlemeyer, and Disher are in danger of suffocating to death after the crooked employees shut them inside and turn off the air circulation system.
- Never the Obvious Suspect: Invoked by Natalie, who speculates that the heavily-pregnant Gloria could be the inside player.
- No Honor Among Thieves: Crawley is killed by his co-conspirators for spending some of their illicit money before they could divide it and doing so long before the heat had died down.
- Nothing Is Scarier: Considering we never see what Peter's body looks like in the trunk of his car and Natalie's reaction, it is probably... not a pretty sight.
- Only a Flesh Wound: Jasmine gets a through-and-through gunshot wound in her arm, and is back at work two days later.
- Pooping Where You Shouldn't:: While trapped in the vault, Disher comes onscreen adjusting his belt and pants. He tells the others, "whatever you do, don't open Box 444... or the one underneath it."
- Punk in the Trunk: Peter's dead body is stuffed into the trunk of his stupid new Jaguar.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Natalie guesses, in sequence, that five of the bank's six employees could be the inside man, only for Monk to explain why he or she could have performed one of the inside tasks, but not all of them. It turns out that Everybody Did It, and they worked together to stage various aspects of the "robbery."
- Shoot Out the Lock: As a last resort, Stottlemeyer wraps his jacket around his hand, places the muzzle of his pistol against the padlock of the door containing what they think are phone lines, and fires a shot. In a Surprisingly Realistic Outcome, it does nothing.
- Shout-Out: To Agatha Christie's short story "The Lost Mine". Disher tells the others not to look in Box 444; Hercule Poirot, in that story, confides that he scrupulously maintains his bank balance at four hundred forty-four pounds, four shillings and fourpence.
- Slave to PR: In The Tag, the bank's new manager confides to Monk and Natalie that it's been "a public relations nightmare" for the bank that the entire branch staff conspired together to rob their customers, murdered one of their own number, and almost murdered four other people.
- Stupid Crooks: Peter Crawley buys a Jaguar by pawning a chunk of the jewelry the "robber" stole very soon after the robbery, which easily could have blown the lid off the entire robbery. It's a miracle the murderous accomplice was able to blow out Peter's brain; doesn't seem like it would have been a big target.
- Suspicious Spending: Peter Crawley, the bank branch manager, quickly buys an expensive car with his share of the stolen money. Fearing this would tip off the police that the robbery was an inside job, his co-conspirators kill him.
- Tempting Fate: Stottlemeyer and Disher take the call for the bank because the Robbery Squad is short-handed. The former remarks to Monk and Natalie that it's nice not to be investigating a dead body for a change. This will last less than twenty-four hours.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Apparently standing statue-still in the precinct's foyer with two pencils sticking out of his nostrils is not the weirdest thing any of the cops have seen Randy do, by a long shot.Cop: (casually passing by) Lieutenant.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: The bank staff decided that one of them would need to be shot to sell their innocence, so they drew straws and Jasmine lost.
