Recap / Monk S2E7 "Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect"

Monk accuses an impossible suspect in a mail-bombing — Brian Babbage, who wound up in a coma after leading Stottlemeyer and Disher on a car chase four months previously. Monk is certain that Babbage is guilty, but he can't figure out how.

This episode includes examples of the following tropes:

• Amoral Attorney: A Freeze-Frame Bonus on the article of lawyers Brian was looking through shows that the crappy lawyer he was planning to hire, Scott Butterworth, had been caught trying to bribe juries multiple times and took bribes from gang members.
• Anti-Climax: Randy is thrilled that he gets to go on a police chase...only for their quarry to get into an accident before Randy could start the car.
• Alliterative Name: Brian Babbage.
• Artistic License – Law:
  • The killer's plan would not work in practice because it's illegal (and, due to modifications to mailboxes, physically impossible) to mail parcels from regular mailboxes; today, parcels with ordinary stamps must be handed directly to a postal worker. The bomb squad would be called in if a large parcel was found co-mingled with normal mail in a mailbox.
  • The lawyer Brian planned to hire would surely have been disbarred for the offenses described in the Freeze-Frame Bonus.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Babbages. All three siblings were fighting each other - and making a small army of lawyers very rich - over their father's estate, and the father (according to Ricky) changed his will every three weeks, just to spite his children. According to Nurse Stempel, nobody has visited Brian in the five months since he fell into his coma, except Ricky - who served him with a subpoena.
• Chekhov's Gun: Brian Babbage's distinctive habit of tying knots - it allows Monk to immediately identify the package bombs, to link them with Brian's shoelaces, to discount Ricky as a suspect, and ultimately to entrap Brian when he regains consciousness.
• Convenience Store Gift Shopping: After fussing over the right present for Benjy's birthday, Monk gives the boy a rock polishing kit. Benjy's reaction indicates that the gift does not actually suit him, and Monk feels terrible about it.
• Convenient Coma: In-Universe. Brian Babbage did not intend to put himself in a coma, but it gave him, in Monk's words, "literally, by accident... the best alibi in the history of crime."
  • Subverted, however, in that it identifies Brian as "the guy" to Monk, because the mail bomb that killed Amanda was sent to her old address, and Brian is the only person with a motive to kill her who couldn't have known she had moved.
• Converse with the Unconscious: Monk takes up the habit of talking to Brian Babbage while Dr. Kroger's on vacation. His coma means he can't talk back, but as Monk notes, he's good at listening.
• Crocodile Tears: After regaining consciousness, Brian is told the sad news that both his brother and sister have been killed. He sniffles for the benefit of his maid, while in his head he's turning cartwheels, knowing that their father's huge estate is now all his.
• Disappeared Dad: Benjy's father and Sharona's ex-husband Trevor comes back into their lives, eventually convincing them to move out to New Jersey with him. Unfortunately, he's only doing so so his rich uncle (who cut him off after he and Sharona divorced) would put him back in his will. Thankfully, Sharona finds this out and gives Trevor the boot.
• Disability Alibi: Brian gets one by accident thanks to being in a coma when the mail bombs are delivered.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • When Dr. Kroger sees Monk and Sharona waiting on his doorstep, he tells his cab driver to keep driving.
  • Ricky and Amanda didn't get along, but Ricky's still understandably upset by his sister's murder.
• Fair-Weather Ex: Trevor returns in order to get back with Sharona and their son Benjy. Turns out his only reason for doing this is that his uncle has removed him from his will because of his separation from Sharona; Trevor was hoping to be out back in the will if he reunited with her.
• Fake Alibi: Brian planned on being in prison when the mail bombs were delivered. He ended up having an even better alibi - he was in a coma.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: When the mailman leaves a package at the base of Amanda Babbage's mailbox, the camera shows an X-ray view of its explosive contents, presumably to keep the audience from suffering fatal heart attacks when it blows up in her hands as she's opening it.
  • On the phone with her attorney, Amanda jibes that she'll probably be dead before the court case with her brothers is settled. She's right.
• Flipping the Bird: After crashing his car into Stottlemeyer's and telling him to "kiss my ass!", Brian Babbage raises his fist and... the shot cuts to Stottlemeyer, Disher, and Dwayne's reactions (incredulous, confused, and amused), but the audience is left in no doubt as to what gesture Brian made.
• Get into Jail Free: Brian's alibi plan was to get himself arrested and thrown in jail by ramming into Stottlemeyer's car so he could be in prison when the bombs were sent. He even picked out one of the worst attorneys in the city of San Francisco to ensure he wouldn't go free. That plan derails when he gets hit by a truck and knocked into a coma, but funnily enough, that means he ends up with an even better alibi.
• GPS Evidence: In the debris of the first explosion, Monk finds a forwarding address label that shows the bomb was sent to Amanda Babbage's old address, meaning whoever sent it didn't know she had moved two months earlier. This allows Monk to eliminate Ricky Babbage as a suspect and zero in on Brian, who's been in a coma for five months.
• Hoist With His Own Petard: Very nearly literally. Brian sent a package bomb to his own home to divert suspicion, counting on being in jail when it was delivered. When he wakes up from his coma, his maid helpfully brings by his mail, including a package with a distinctive knot. Brian yells in panic and dives to the floor, instantly proving his guilt to the watching cops.
• I Always Wanted to Say That: A variation; Randy is thrilled when Brian Babbage tries to lead them on a car chase at the beginning of the episode as he's been wanting to go on one all his life.
• I Can't Hear You: Monk develops "residual auditory trauma" after nearly getting killed by a package bomb.
  Disher: Different post office, same type of explosive...
  Monk: WELL, DON'T USE THAT BATHROOM, IT'S A MESS!
  Sharona: You don't have to shout!
  Monk: WHY ARE YOU WHISPERING?
• I Just Want to Be Normal: In "conversation" with Brian Babbage, Monk confides what a disaster his birthday gift to Benjy was, and how tired he is of being "different" from everyone else.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: Monk gets Brian Babbage to incriminate himself in the end. Brian panics when Maria opens a package like the mail bomb ones, yet he had been in a coma during the bomb spree. Now how did Brian know the package with the special string and knotting had a bomb inside unless he sent the package himself?
• Inheritance Murder: Brian Babbage's motive for wanting to kill his brother and sister.
• It's Cuban: Ricky gets a box of (illegal) cigars every month from a buddy in Key West.
• Jurisdiction Friction: Stottlemeyer brings Monk and Sharona in on the Amanda Babbage mailbombing case specifically because the people at the ATF "are in charge and are not shy about saying so", and he just wants to look good for Agent Grooms.^note The reason for the ATF's involvement is because their full name is the "Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives."
• Karma Houdini: Ricky Babbage, a Lazy Bum Manchild who brags about never having worked a day in his life, is dumb enough to start opening a package after his sister was killed by a mail bomb, then cowardly enough to throw it into Sharona's arms, nearly killing her and Monk before Monk defuses it. But with Amanda's death and Brian's arrest for her murder, Ricky is left the sole heir to their father's fortune.
• Laser-Guided Karma: In mailing a bomb to his own house to throw suspicion off himself, Brian was perfectly willing to let his maid Maria die when she opened his mail. The police use her in their sting to bluff Brian into revealing he made the bombs.
• Lazy Bum: Babbage's brother Ricky is an indolent Surfer Dude who boasts about never having to work.
• Miles to Go Before I Sleep: In "conversation" with Brian Babbage, Monk confides how exhausted he is, and tells Brian how lucky he is to be sleeping through everything, and advises him to savor every moment of his coma.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: While visiting Babbage, Monk knocks a plant on the floor, then vacuums up the resulting mess. Problem is that when Monk plugs in the vacuum cleaner, he unplugs the resuscitator that's keeping Babbage alive! Ultimately subverted because when Monk restores power to the resuscitator, it brings Babbage out of his coma. ^note This scene was likely inspired by a notorious urban legend about a South African hospital janitor.
• Not Helping Your Case: After the second explosion, Agent Grooms asks Stottlemeyer, again, to back up his theory that Ricky Babbage is responsible for the bombs. When Stottlemeyer demurs:
  Grooms: Oh, you can't be serious. You still think Rip van Winkle's behind this?
  Stottlemeyer: We believe Brian Babbage is involved, yes, we just don't know how.
  Grooms: And by "we" you mean you and your "consultant"?
  [They both look at Monk.]
  Monk: YEAH, I'M PRETTY SURE HOWDY DOODY WAS A PUPPET!
• Not What It Looks Like: On two occasions, Monk gets caught in a compromising position in Brian's hospital room:
  • On the first, he drops his pen under Brian's sheets and reaches for it:
    Monk: I feel it... oh, no, it's just the tip... oh, my God, it's leaking!
    Nurse Stempel: What are you doing?! Get your hands out of there!
  • On the second, Nurse Stempel comes in and sees Monk "mounted" on top of Brian, desperately applying CPR:
    Monk: Almost... almost... almost... that's got it! That's got it! Yeah... (turns and sees her) He... he's good - I mean, he's great - I mean... he-he's fine now.
• Oh, Crap!: Monk, when Brian flatlines and his alarms go off after Monk unwittingly unplugs his respirator.
• Oh No You Didn't: In the Cold Open:
  Stottlemeyer: Dwayne, do I look like an idiot to you?
  Dwayne: Yeah, you sorta do.
  [Stottlemeyer just raises an eyebrow...]
  Randy: Oh, that was a mistake...
• Parting-Words Regret: Ricky recounts that the last time he saw his murdered sister was 2 weeks ago at a barbecue, where they had a fight, which he obviously isn't happy about.
• Plot Parallel: The whole bombing incident revolves around an inheritance dispute. Meanwhile, Sharona learns the only reason why Trevor tried to reconcile with her is that their divorce led to Trevor getting cut from his rich uncle's will.
• Self-Poisoning Gambit: A variation. Brian sends a package bomb to himself as well as to his brother and sister, to divert suspicion.
• Shout-Out: For The Music Man. Agent Grooms calls Monk "Marian the Librarian".
• Status Quo Is God: Throughout the episode, it looks as though Sharona will go back to New Jersey with her ex-husband now that he's gotten his act together. But towards the end, she learns he had an ulterior motive (his rich uncle is said he'd only be included in the will if he came with Sharona and Benjy). So Sharona is staying with Monk after all.
• Sidetracked by the Analogy: Stottlemeyer begs Monk to give him another theory besides that the comatose Brian Babbage was behind it, even that Howdy Doody was responsible. Monk (between being Literal-Minded and partially deaf from an explosion) says Howdy Doody couldn't have been responsible; he's a puppet.
• Time-Delayed Death: In a variation, Babbage commits a time-delayed murder (and also several attempted murders using the same method). He glues each letter-bomb package to the very top of a mailbox's mail compartment, where it won't be noticed; several months later, the glue wears out, the deadly package falls into the compartment and is delivered, and Babbage has the perfect alibi, because he plans to be in jail for the car chase he initiated when all this happens. His plan goes awry when an accident during the chase leaves him comatose—which, ironically, is an even better alibi.
• Too Dumb to Live: Averted. Agent Grooms ridicules Monk's theory that Brian Babbage deliberately put himself into a coma (very nearly killing himself) for the sake of an alibi, saying no one could possibly be that stupid or reckless. Monk admits he was stumped too, until he realized that Brian's plan was to get himself thrown in jail, but the car crash which put him in his coma was pure accident.
  • Played Straight with Ricky: when he starts going through his mail after being released from jail, Sharona warns him not to open any packages. He retorts, "yeah, thanks, I'm not an idiot." Barely ten seconds later, he starts opening a package of what he believes are Cuban cigars from his buddy in Key West, which must be safe since nobody knows he gets them - well, except for his brother Brian. Monk yells in alarm, and Ricky throws it away in a panic, right into Sharona's arms.
• Unluckily Lucky: Brian comes up with a plan to give himself an alibi for when his mail bombs are delivered: to get himself put in jail (even getting a crappy lawyer to ensure it). While he tries to lead Disher and Stottlemeyer on a high speed chase, he gets t-boned by a truck and knocked into a coma. Being in a coma sucks, but...well, Monk puts it best:
  Monk: Brian Babbage stumbled, literally, by accident, into the best alibi in the history of crime.
• Wire Dilemma: Monk has to disarm one of the mail bombs while Sharona is holding it. There's some panic about which wire to cut, especially with Monk being Monk. He ultimately cuts both, which stops the bomb. Ironically the bomb squad guy on the phone said that it didn't matter which wire he cut.
• You, Get Me Coffee: After a few moments of interrogating Ricky Babbage, Agent Grooms suggests that Stottlemeyer step out and get some coffee, so Grooms can crack Ricky on his own. Stottlemeyer is quietly furious:
  Stottlemeyer: I just got kicked out of my own interrogation room.
• You Got Murder: The mail bombs used to kill Amanda and Ricky Babbage, although Amanda is the only one to die.
• You Just Told Me: The identity of Brian Babbage as the mail bomber is confirmed when he panics at the sight of his maid opening one of his custom-made packages. He shouldn't have known about the bombings because he had been in a coma when the bombings happened ^note  and it's not like the hospital staff would have said they were killed by bombs.
  Monk: I can't help but wonder what made you think that was a bomb, Mr. Babbage...

---