History Recap / MonkS5E10MrMonkAndTheLeper

* ADayInTheLimelight: It was Disher who was involved in catching the perp.

* DetectivePatsy: Mandy Bronson and her partner hire Monk specifically because they know he is smart enough to prove Derek is "alive", and that his germophobia will keep him from looking too closely at the "leper" to figure out he isn't actually Derek. This episode even provides the page quote.

* PassedOverInheritance: The real Derek left his fortune to his sister and nephews. This is why Mandy starts the whole scheme: she wants to maintain control of the inheritance so she can still live off it.

* ThrowTheDogABone: You just have to feel sorry for Dr. Polanski. He's a genuinely nice person, but when he reveals that he used to be a leper himself, all the characters spurn him like Monk would. In the end, Natalie decides to go on another date with Dr. Polanski, and Julie even shakes his hand because she's not afraid of his past.

* BodyHorror: "Derek" was able to disguise himself as a leper by having his leprosy scars displayed so well and flailing his right hand like crazy. He also was supposedly so awfully maimed by leprosy that he only presented himself in dark areas (and refused to be looked at by women, as he supposedly was a former [[TheCasanova ladies' man]]). In addition he didn't take the antibiotic that cured leprosy because he was supposedly allergic to it (which, according to Dr. Polanski, actually happens in some cases). In reality this was all to fool Monk, and the dark areas were for Monk to identify him as being Derek.

* DisposingOfABody:
** Mandy wanted to do this to the dead impersonator's body by sending him up in a hot air balloon then crashing into the sea (by weighing it down with barbells), but Monk and Natalie catch her in the act. Monk suspects she successfully did the same thing with her dead husband's body.

* StatusQuoIsGod: By the end of the episode Monk seemingly goes back to his disgust towards the lepers.

* ChildrenAreInnocent: Every adult that finds out Dr. Polanski had leprosy reacts from then on as if he were still highly contagious whenever he touches them. Julie at the end is the only one that never shows any reluctance or fear and approaches him to shake his hand. Every adult in the room, including Polanski is nonplussed.

* DecoyProtagonist: "Derek Bronson", who kickstarted Monk's MysteryOfTheWeek by hiring him, was actually an impersonator. As Monk states:
-->There is no heart so black as the black, black heart of the phony leper.

** Mandy wanted to do this to the dead impersonator's body by sending him up in a hot air balloon then crashing into the sea (by weighing it down with barbells), but Monk and Natalie catch her in the act.
** Monk suspects she successfully did the same thing with her dead husband's body.

** As pointed out by Monk, Derek was dead/disappeared for seven years, yet the impersonator knew the code of an alarm installed by a company only just founded in 2003 (three years before the episode's copyright notice date).

* OutOfFocus: Aside from one scene at the police station Creator/TedLevine is absent from this episode.

* StatusQuoIsGod: By the end of the episode Monk goes back to his disgust towards the lepers, now also against Dr. Polanski.

---> '''Adrian:''' Where's the woman who's been lecturing me all week about compassion and tolerance?!

---> '''Natalie:''' Okay, you know what? It’s not funny! You didn’t have your tongue down his throat!

* RunOrDie: Monk at first flees like wild from Derek when he said he was a leper, thinking his leprosy was like this, and then washes his right hand (with which he had shaken hands with Derek) and even tries to burn his hand in order not to get the disease. But, as Dr. Polanski explains, leprosy is rare and noncontagious. [[spoiler:And, as it turns out, "Derek" was neither a leper nor the actual Derek, but an impersonator.]] After learning Dr. Polanski was himself a leper in his youth, Monk treats him this way when he comes by Monk's house to pick up Natalie, although by then he was healed.