Overall I thought this was a suiting 100th episode for Monk. It is always a great milestone when a show reaches it’s 100th episode. While I thought the case itself was way to predictable I liked the references to past cases. I thought it was a good idea for the show to look back at the past for the 100th episode. What was especially great was too see some of the criminals he put behind bars explain what happened and how amazing Monk truly is. While the episode could have been better, I still thought Monk’s 100th episode was still pretty good. For those of you who missed the episode let’s head to the recap.
The whole gang is hanging out at Jim Novak’s house. In celebration of Monk’s 100th solved case, Jim’s television program (In Focus) created a biography on Monk (similar to true crime shows). While the party is for him, Monk hides in the corner by himself. Throughout the episode there are pieces about Monk’s childhood, his bond with Trudy, and finally the criminals he put behind bars.
The episode then focusses on his 100th solved case. This case begins with a woman that was strangled. Monk notices lipstick on the woman’s coffee cup but he can’t find any lipstick in the woman’s purse. Monk also determines that the woman knew the man since she let him into her building. The man then proceeded to kill the woman and take her lipstick. The case is quiet for a while until another body shows up. Everything is the same as the first crime scene. Monk and Natalie head to a horror themed restaurant since that is the only connection between the two women (they both worked at the restaurant). It turns out to be a dead end since neither of them worked at the restaurant at the same time.
A couple more days pass and another victim shows up. Monk finally finds a connection between all the women. He determines taht they all hired a man named Douglas as their photographer. They bring Douglas in to interrogate him but they need to let him go since they have no evidence to hold him on. Douglas then proceeds to disappear. This is enough for the police to get an arrest warrant and search his studio and they find a shrine to all the victims (Douglas is the killer). There is no time to waste since another body shows up. When the police finally find Douglas it turns out that he shot himself.
While that would wrap up the case for most people Monk notices that something is off. He thinks that Douglas killed the first three women but someone else killed the fourth woman. Monk rewatches the special again and determines that Jim Novak is the second killer. He had an affair and he found the perfect opportunity to kill her and put the blame on someone else. With Jim’s wife’s help they use the lipstick Jim stole from the crime scene (to follow the MO of the killer) to prove that he killed the fourth victim.
Monk is so happy that he finally solved his 100th case. He is so happy that it is an even number that he wants to retire. Natalie tells Monk that he actually solved 101 cases since he caught both Douglas and Jim. Monk then decides that he needs to try and solve as many cases as he can so he can get to another even number of 200.
