Courtesy USA Network
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, USA Network.com
It’s been a while since we last saw Monk and the gang. With only a season and a half left, Monk’s time is limited since he doesn’t have a lot of time left to find Trudy’s murderer. So with the introduction of Monk’s half brother (Jack Monk), was last night’s episode of Monk a memorable one or just another episode? To avoid angering those who haven’t seen the episode, we’ll leave the discussion until after the break.
So as I have already mentioned, in this week’s episode Monk half brother, Jack, shows up at Monk’s house after breaking out of prison. What makes things even worse is that a woman was killed outside the prison so the police think Jack did it. Monk obviously doesn’t want to help him until he realizes that Jack’s life has been a lot like his since his father abandoned him as well. It also doesn’t hurt when Jack calls his “mother” (not actually his mother) and gets her to plead that Monk take the case.
While I had a hard time believing that Jack was actually Monk’s half brother (he was just so different), I actually liked him in the episode. Steve Zahn did a great job in the role and he also lead to most (if not all) of the jokes in the episode. It’s also good to see that Monk is finally getting back to actually not having every guest star being the murderer in every single episode (that was getting old pretty quickly).
So Monk ends up taking his half brother’s case and quickly determines that there is something strange with the case. He begins the investigation with Jack tagging along as Monk’s “penpal from Canada”. I don’t know if it is just me but I think it is a huge insult to the police department that Jack was right under their noses for several days and they were thrown off his scent by Monk’s lame excuse that he was a penpal and that he had shaved his beard off. Come on, his picture was plastered all over the television and yet no one noticed him with Monk. I guess in the world in television you aren’t supposed to think of these things.
Monk ends up eventually solving the case. It turns out that one of the security guards was having an affair with the woman and set up the whole escape in order to set up one of the prisoners for the murder. Monk solves the case by recognizing the same initials on a watch Jack stole from the woman’s house matched those of the knife that killed the woman. When the prison guard discovers that Monk, Natalie, and Jack know he is guilty; he starts firing his gun at them. Jack ends up taking Natalie’s car and appears to just abandon Monk and Natalie so he is able to escape. He ends up using the car to knock the prison guard out. Jack ends up being arrested again and going back to prison.
While I wouldn’t say this week’s episode will go down as a really memorable episode, I still thought it was a good episode. I was skeptical of the addition of Monk’s half brother but it turned out pretty well and made for a pretty entertaining episode. Now lets hope that during the rest of this season and into next season, Monk will finally solve Trudy’s murder in order to create a great series finale for Monk.
Quotes:
Jack (to Monk holding his gun still in it’s case): “Put the gun down!”
Jack (to Monk): “Should we hug?”
Monk: “That you’re an unstable person and you need to go back to prison?”
Jack: “What is it with you and the phone?”
Jack: “Dad said you were peculiar.”
Jack: “Dad was right. You’re like a wizard.”
Stottlemeyer (talking about a prisoner that was killed): “The guy should have picked a different nickname.”
Monk: “God doesn’t want to see you hand.”
Monk: “On three you come up with a great idea.”
Monkisms:
- Since everything has to be perfectly square, in this episode Monk had to cut his pancakes into perfect squares before eating them.
More Pictures:
For more pictures from the episode, check out our preview of Mr. Monk’s Other Brother.
Your Thoughts:
What are your thoughts on the winter premiere of Monk? Are you excited about the next year and a half of Monk as we approach the series finale or do you wish the show would never end?
