The Murder:
The lotto girl (the woman who calls off the winning lottery numbers) finishes up a show of the Gold Rush Lottery. We then see he run out of the building and try to escape a hidden person who is chasing her. The person eventually catches up to her and stabs her several times before she dies.
The Investigation:
The next morning Monk is called in to check out the murder. The police think it was a mugging at first but Monk shows the police that the killer intended to go after her and it wasn’t a random killing. He also determines that the lotto girl was killed by a pair of scissors because she was stabbed three times but had six puncture wounds. Monk also finds some metalic paint on the lotto girl’s fingers. When Monk is finished checking out the crime scene one of the cops ask him for his autograph since his son is a huge fan of Monk. Monk revels in the attention. The station manager meets with the police to give them a list of everyone who works for the studio. He notices Natalie and asks her if she wants to be the lotto girl for a night since they won’t be able to find a replacement in time. Monk doesn’t want her to do it but she ends up doing it anyway.
Natalie the Lotto Girl
Monk, Stottlemeyer, and Disher watch Natalie do the show. Natalie is really nervous and she thinks she made a fool of herself but the station manager loves her and asks her if she wants to be the fulltime lotto girl. Monk is angry about the possibility but Natalie agrees to the job. Natalie quickly becomes a local celebrity which really annoys Monk since it distracts her from their current case.
Melvin the Lotto Genius
The police decide to talk with a man named Melvin. He is actually obcessed with the lottery and sent the lotto girl a bunch of fan mail. Melvin is obviously not the killer despite being really creepy (he has pictures of all the people responsible for the lottery all over his walls. Melvin tells Stottlemyer and Disher that he is getting close to figuring out how to accurately predict which numbers will be picked. Stottlemeyer (who is playing the lottery a lot himself) doesn’t believe him.
Fame Gets to Natalie’s Head
Natalie is starting to revel in all the fame and she is starting to become a diva who thinks she should get whatever she wants. She ends up getting in a fight with one of the sound guys named Billy since she almost trips over a cord. Billy ends up getting fired by the station manager. Natalie actually feels sorry for Billy. Monk is sick of how Natalie is acting so he meets with Dr. Bell to talk about it. Dr. Bell thinks that Monk is jealous of Natalie that she is getting a lot of fame while he isn’t.
The Murderer Strikes Again
Billy (the sound guy) shows up at Melvin’s house. They talk for a while about the show and Billy sees a photo of him with another man. Billy then knocks out Melvin and takes the photo. The police show up a little later and Melvin is actually lying on the ground. The police think it was a suicide (there was a suicide note) but Monk quickly shows that is wrong since Melvin wouldn’t have just put in one contact if he was going to kill himself. Meanwhile Natalie isn’t helping with the case since she is too busy with autographs. Monk is sick of it and starts mocking Natalie’s new job which results in a fight. Monk tells her that she has to pick one of her jobs and she ends up picking the lotto job leaving Monk without an assistant.
Lotto Scandal
Stottlemeyer is in the gym trying to calm Monk down (he is panicking about Natalie leaving) when he leaves his locker. Billy sneaks into Stottlemeyer’s locker and takes one of his tickets and replaces it with another ticket. That night Stottlemeyer is shocked when he finds out that one of his lottery tickets have all the winning numbers. Stottlemeyer ends up winning the lottery along with another guy who currently has no job. The next morning Natalie rushes into Monk’s apartment and begs for his help. She tells Monk that the gaming commission thinks that she rigged the numbers so Stottlemeyer would win the lottery. Natalie, Monk and Stottlemeyer rush to the studio to meet with the studio head and the head of the gaming commission. The head of the gaming commission tells them that they received an anonymous tip that they were cheating. It turns out that the machine keeps picking the same balls no matter how many times they run the machine. This happens because the winning lottery balls ended up being painted with metalic paint. There was a microphone that was planted above the lotto picker that turned out to be a magnet so the balls with metalic paint were always picked. Natalie and Stottlemeyer are in deep trouble until Monk notices a hat on one of the pieces of sound equipment.
The Murderer Revealed
The gang heads to Billy’s house (he has recently become very rich). Monk reveals that Billy is the killer. Monk tells everyone that he released that Billy and the other man that won the lottery were working together since they both had the same logo on their clothing. Billy had actually set up everything but when he was fired a wrench was thrown in his plan. Billy had already planted the magnet so he had to do something or everyone would have known he rigged the machine. He then decided to frame Stottlemeyer and Natalie since he would have been caught otherwise. Billy ended up killing the lotto girl since she saw him rigging the machine and Melvin because he had a picture of him and the future lottery winner meeting before the man even won the lottery. Natalie ends up being replaced as the lotto girl. She also realizes that she is fine with just being Monk’s assistant.
