Music producer Ian Blackburn is found dead of four gunshot wounds in his panic room, the culprit seemingly his pet chimpanzee Darwin. However, Sharona insists on Darwin's innocence, and before being arrested for taking him from confinement, she leaves the chimpanzee in Monk's apartment. Can the detective solve the case before his new roommate drives him crazy?
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- Adults Are Useless: When Sharona is scolding Benjy for getting into a fight at school, she says what he should have done is report the bullying to the teachers. He says he has, but the teachers don't do anything.
- Bluffing the Murderer: Monk, Stottlemeyer and Disher are able to incriminate Kurt Wolff in the murder of Ian Blackburn by baiting him into thinking that he needed to come back to recover a tape recorder that had incriminating evidence. When Wolff falls for the trap, Monk reveals that the tape was empty, and they just wanted to prove that he knew about the secret tunnel into the panic room.
- Blatant Lies: Stottlemeyer and Disher are searching Sharona's house looking for Ian Blackburn's chimp Darwin, whom she stole from an animal shelter the night before. Stottlemeyer finds what looks like vomit and crooked photos on one wall:Captain Leland Stottlemeyer: Hey! What happened here?
Sharona Fleming: Benjy threw up.
Captain Leland Stottlemeyer: [incredulously] On the wall?
Sharona Fleming: It was pretty awful.- A moment later, when Benjy walks into the room and sees his mother in handcuffs, Stottlemeyer tries to cover and says she made a friendly bet with Randy.
- Bully Hunter: The reason Benjy got into a fight with some kids at school at the start of the episode was because said kids were bullying a smaller, weaker kid. But Sharona still expresses disappointment in him for fighting.
- Claustrophobia: Monk thinks he's locked in said panic room. His claustrophobia leads him to repeatedly scream, "Trapped in here!" even though there's a hole in the door and all he has to do to open it is to push a button.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- It's mentioned that Kurt Wolff used to work on Chloe's security detail, and Kurt comments that Chloe is better than most musicians, who tend to be crazy. Monk also notices that the supposedly grieving Chloe had someone over and is wearing a man's shirt. This foreshadows that she and Kurt are having an affair.
- Darwin panics on seeing multiple different men. Monk ultimately figures out the reason: he's developed a phobia of bald men after the bald Kurt Wolff shot his master in front of him.
- Cymbal-Banging Monkey: Stottlemeyer dresses as one with the stereotypical fez while trying to provoke Darwin into firing the gun. It doesn't get the desired reaction.
- Delayed "Oh, Crap!": Randy reaches into his desk and pulls out an empty gun, realizing that he inadvertently handed Stottlemeyer a loaded one for Darwin to handle. Monk and Sharona sit silently for a moment, as if contemplating this disturbing new information... before all three of them leap to their feet and rush to the interrogation room.
- Disappointed in You: The episode starts with Sharona expressing disappointment in Benjy for fighting in school, even if it was for a noble cause.
- Dissonant Serenity: For a man who nearly suffered the most Undignified Death imaginable - being shot by a chimpanzee with a handgun - Stottlemeyer is remarkably calm when he emerges from the interrogation room, holding the gun and informing the cowering Monk, Sharona, and Randy, "the case is closed."
- The Fettered: Stottlemeyer and Disher are in full sympathy with Sharona and her motives in freeing Darwin from the animal shelter, but have no choice but to arrest her.
- Heroic BSoD: When Monk finds Darwin in his house, he becomes catatonic as the chimp destroys everything around him. It eventually comes to the point that Monk decides to move and puts a 'For Sale' sign on his lawn, even though he is renting. Dr. Kroger calls it dissociative, though he still thinks Monk is coping pretty well.
- Hypocritical Humor: Monk can't rest until the Band-Aid on Benjy's head is perfectly straight, which is why he keeps ripping it off:Monk: Sharona, he was just standing up for a friend!
Sharona: Adrian, you stay out of this! You're not his father.
Monk: That's true, but I care about him as much as any father...
[rips it off again]
Benjy: OW! Stop it! - I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: A man is found shot dead in his panic room. Also in the panic room is the man's pet chimp, Darwin, with a pistol in its hand. Captain Stottlemeyer wonders if the chimp could even use a gun, let alone shoot his owner four times, so he tries an experiment. He asks Disher for an empty pistol, and Disher hands over one that he claims to have unloaded. Stottlemeyer locks himself in an interview room with Darwin and the gun and tries to goad the animal into "shooting" him. Neither he nor Disher verified that the gun was empty. Only after Stottlemeyer has started his experiment does Disher realize that he accidentally handed over the wrong gun. He, Monk, and Sharona try and fail to warn Stottlemeyer; when Darwin fires the gun and shatters the room's one-way mirror, barely missing everyone, Stottlemeyer declares the case closed.
- I Reject Your Reality: Monk comes home and a chimpanzee scampers past him in the hallway. He continues to check his mail, pour juice from his kitchen, read in an armchair, and place a call to Dr. Kroger's office asking him to make an emergency house call.
- Ironic Echo: A heartwarming one. Earlier in the episode, Sharona tells Benjy how disappointed she is in him for beating up the kids who bullied a weaker kid, even though the teachers were doing nothing to stop the bullying. Later, when she's being arrested for stealing Darwin, Sharona tells her son she's proud of him, now that she has a better understanding of what it means to stand up for someone who can't defend themselves.
- Kid Has a Point: As she's being arrested, Sharona tells Benjy that she was wrong earlier, he did the right thing standing up for his friend in school, and now she's standing up for Darwin, who can't protect himself.
- Locked Room Mystery: Record producer Ian Blackburn is shot and killed in his locked panic room. The police arrive, cut through the panic room door, and find him dead with his own chimp Darwin holding the gun.
- Make It Look Like A Suicide: Kurt Wolff was planning on making it look like Ian shot himself in his locked panic room. But in a panic, he ends up shooting Ian four times (twice in the back), which throws any suicide angle out the window.
- Not in Front of the Kid: When Benjy walks into the room and asks why his mother is handcuffed, Stottlemeyer tries to cover and claim she made a friendly bet with Randy and tells Randy to uncuff her immediately. Sharona brushes this off and tells Benjy she is doing what he did earlier, taking a stand for someone who can't protect himself.
- Oh, Crap!: Randy, Monk, and Sharona all have this reaction when they realise Randy accidentally gave Stottlemeyer the gun that's loaded instead of the unloaded gun.
- Platonic Declaration of Love: Two in one scene. As Sharona is scolding Benjy for fighting, Monk (who is patching up Benjy's injury) tries to defend him, given the circumstances (Benjy was protecting a smaller boy). Sharona snaps at Monk that he's not Benjy's father and should stay out of this. But Monk answers that while he isn't, he loves Benjy like a father. A few minutes later, after Sharona has calmed down somewhat, she asks if Benjy knows she still loves him, which he confirms.
- Rewatch Bonus: Examining the panic room for the first time, Monk picks various items off the floor and replaces them on shelves, but can't find any place to put the ketchup bottle until he opens the refrigerator, which was not ajar. In the finale, when Wolff enters the panic room through the secret passage, he enters through the refrigerator, knocking the contents of a shelf onto the floor, including the same ketchup bottle.
- Short-Distance Phone Call: Randy is searching Sharona's house for Darwin, speaking to Stottlemeyer on a walkie-talkie while in the same room. Stottlemeyer tells him, "Randy, you don't have to use the walkie-talkie. I'm ten feet away!"
- Spanner in the Works: Zigzagged. Blackburn's wife and her lover (the man who built the panic room) planned to use the panic room to kill him and make it look like suicide. It would've worked, except that Darwin pounced on the man. Ultimately, he couldn't stop Blackburn from getting killed. But since he was shot in the back, it couldn't pass for a suicide anymore. He was able to revise the plan by making it look like Darwin killed Blackburn, and the police bought it. Interestingly enough, Sharona acts as the primary "spanner" in the revised plan, as she protected and hid Darwin long enough for Monk to learn the truth.
- This Bear Was Framed: Ian Blackburn is apparently shot dead in his panic room by his own pet chimpanzee Darwin. Then Monk finds evidence that the man who designed it built in a secret tunnel that he used to sneak in and commit the murder.
- Wedgie: What Benjy was trying to save his friend from. Monk doesn't know what a wedgie is, until Benjy explains it to him.Monk: When I was younger, they called it something else.
Benjy: What?
Monk: An "Adrian." - Wrongful Accusation Insurance: A variant; Stottlemeyer and Disher reluctantly arrest Sharona after she takes Darwin from the shelter and refuses to give up his location. After Monk figures out what really happened, she's released because her breaking and entering and obstruction is now seen as in good cause.
