Overall I thought the fall finale was a very solid episode of Monk. While the case was weak (I solved it around the half way point) this was more of a character developmental episode. While Monk might regret it, I thought it was nice to see him finally happy for one of the first times in the shows history. Monk reverting back to his childhood also lead to all the humor in the episode. Add to that the return of Harold Krenshaw (who is always good for a couple laughs) and you can tell why I liked the episode even though the case was very weak. Let’s get to the recap for those of you who missed the episode.
A famous actress named Sally stops by a jewelry store and frantically wants to pawn off her jewelry. She mentions to the owners that she is afraid of her ex husband and thinks he is coming after her. When she leaves the store there is a struggle and Sally goes missing. Monk and the police investigate the kidnapping the next morning. While checking out the crime scene they meet Harold Krenshaw. Monk quickly realizes that things are different with Harold since he is actually happy. It turns out that Harold went to a hypnotist and he is now healed. Monk actually thinks about seeing the hypnotist but Natalie tells him not to.
The police and Monk head to Alan’s (the ex husband) house and Monk catches him in a lie about where he was the night that Sally disappeared. While searching the house Disher gives Stottlemeyer some of his home made gum and Stottlemeyer spits it onto the floor since it tastes terrible. Monk ends up calling the therapist and the therapist takes Monk back to the last time he was truly happy which happens to be when Monk was a child. Monk permanently gets stuck in the state and spends most of the rest of the episode in this state.
While checking Alan’s property Monk frolics through the woods and actually catches a frog that he ends up calling Hoppy. The police then head to Alan’s office and Monk determines that Alan was lying about his whereabouts since he was with his secretary (in a romantic sense) and she is still married. At this point Natalie finds out that Monk saw the therapist. She calls up Dr. Bell who tells all of them to treat Monk like an adult and he will eventually snap out of it.
That night Sally is found by the side of the road. She was actually held captive for three days in a cabin by Alan. Sally eventually escaped though and killed Alan. Monk checks out where Sally was being held but he can’t take his job seriously in his current condition. When the police talk with Sally Monk keeps acting like a kid and gets thrown out of the police station even though he knows what truly happened. Monk ends up throwing a temper tantrum and storms out of the police station. He runs around town for a while and then realizes that he is actually an adult.
Monk returns Hoppy to Alan’s property. He runs into Sally and tells her that he knows she murdered Alan. Sally was upset that she signed a prenup and wanted to kill Alan so she would get all her money back. In order to stick to her story of being held captive for three days she actually chained herself up for three days in order to get all the necessary bruises. She then went to Alan’s house and killed him. She dragged him to the house where she was supposedly held. This story doesn’t hold much ground until Monk explains that Sally got the gum that Stottlemeyer spit out at Alan’s house on her shoe. Monk removes the gum from his mouth (he ate it on a dare) and they end up fighting for it. The police shows up just in time and arrests Sally. Monk then hands over the gum and we can tell that Monk is finally back to his normal state.
