Stottlemeyer summons Monk to the scene of Joanne Raphelson's suicide, which seems to have a few suspicious elements. Following a bit of investigation, Monk figures out a culprit — astronaut Steve Wagner, with whom she had an affair some time back. The problem? Wagner was in space at the time Joanne died.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
- Absence of Evidence: Stottlemeyer concludes that someone else has been to Joanne's place of residence from the fact that a computer is missing.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Played with. Monk is almost never wrong when he accuses a culprit, but even he admits that Wagner's alibi seems secure. Stottlemeyer says he would believe Monk if he had any idea how to get around that alibi. Natalie is at first skeptical until a small taunt Wagner gives to Monk about flinching.
- Bound and Gagged: Although the police don't find it, a flashback shows that Wagner tied Joanne up, taped her mouth shut, and set up the noose while she was drugged with barbiturates. After he returned from his mission, he undid the bindings and moved her body to a different room.
- Compromising Memoirs: This turns out to be the motive for the murder. Joanne was writing an autobiography and in it she revealed that Wagner had beaten her horribly. (She wasn't going to give names, but he didn't want to take the chance.) Wagner planned to run for office and couldn't risk the bad press.
- Did Not Die That Way: The viewers are given the impression that Wagner murdered Joanne with a poisoned drink. However, the immediately apparent death by hanging turns out to be accurate; the drink merely put her to sleep for a couple days.
- Don't Touch It, You Idiot!: Monk says this to himself while straightening a warhead on a military missile.
- Face Your Fears: During his Career Day presentation, Monk can't handle the children using laser pointers on him and has a breakdown. However, while Wagner's plane taxis down the runway, Monk outruns it and stands in front of it, ignoring all the laser sights on him to keep the perp from escaping with crucial evidence.
- Fake Alibi: Steve Wagner probably tops Brian Babbage's alibi with being in outer space at the time of Joanne's death. However, he killed her by tying her noose to a garage door opener and having the remote mailed to her house a couple days later.
- Fell Off the Back of a Truck: The next door neighbors (especially the dad) are fond of this type of excuse with Joanne's mail. Two infamous moments were a box of nectarines she received (one was eaten by Disher, who did not know of the fact), which he claimed would perish if not for his intervention and that perishables are not legally anyone's property, and the doll/remote control which was an important evidence for the case.
- Hide the Evidence: The remote control with which Wagner activated the machine is Hidden in Plain Sight. He stole a doll from his ex, hid a garage door opener's remote control inside, and mailed it to her for second-day delivery. After her thieving neighbor stole it off her front porch, he made a plan to retrieve and dispose of it during a test flight.
- Just Plane Wrong: Almost everything to do with the final test flight scene. Such as Natalie mistaking a Sidewinder missile for a nuclear weapon, or the warheads just being left out like that. Or...anything else in the entire sequence. Also, if you look closely, one of the soldiers has an AK-pattern rifle, painted black. This might be due to production problems, like the relative availability of AK-pattern prop guns.
- Kids Are Cruel: Wagner gives the kids laser pointers, which they happily use on Monk, frazzling him and causing a breakdown in the middle of his presentation.
- Murder by Suicide: How Wagner kills Joanne: first by drugging her into unconsciousness, then by putting a noose around her neck and tying it to a garage door opener so that it would hang her once the remote was in range. Unfortunately, when he moved her body, he hung it up too high to pass as a suicide, given that he was several inches taller than she was.
- Nerves of Steel: In the end, Monk defiantly stood on a runway to stop Wagner's flight. Wagner had to hit the brakes when his plane's nose was just inches from Monk. Monk didn't even flinch.
- The Perfect Crime: What Wagner thought he had committed, since it's hard to be more "elsewhere" than being in space at the time the victim was killed.
- Also discussed by Monk during the career day: the police can make numerous mistakes and still catch the crook, who only needs to make one in order to be caught. Since nobody's perfect, there's virtually no such thing as a crime without at least one mistake.
- Replacement Pedestal: Julie and her class are starstruck by Wagner, who is a famous astronaut and has pulled off some pretty impressive things. It doesn't help that he's far more socially skilled than Monk. After Monk manages to save the evidence and arrest him, Julie approaches the detective and tells him they've realized how wrong they were to hero-worship Wagner. She gives Monk an honorary medal of valor.
- Returning to the Scene: Wagner did it under the guise of paying his respects to Joanne, but it was actually to retrieve the doll (with the remote control) from the next door neighbor's girl. Unfortunately for him, both Monk and Natalie were there at the same time too.
- Reverse Whodunnit: We know from the beginning Wagner is guilty, as we see him drugging Joanne before going to space. The mystery is how Wagner made it look like she died while he was in space.
- Slipping a Mickey: Wagner spikes Joanne's "Spacewalk"note with barbiturates so she becomes unconscious. Monk first suspects Wagner did it when he, Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Randy go to his house for questioning and notices the drinks Wagner and his wife were serving at the party were equal to the ones Wagner had drunk with Joanne.
- Smuggling with Dolls: The titular astronaut uses a garage door opener remote hidden in a doll as part of his plan to murder his ex. At the end, he steals the doll from the little girl who had gotten it with the idea of dropping it out of the airplane he was testing while it was in flight, getting rid of the evidence.
- Snub by Omission: Steve Wagner quite pointedly leaves Monk out when saying anyone could be a hero.
- Spanner in the Works: Raphelson's neighbor stealing a doll from her front porch to give to his daughter winds up becoming the wrench to Wagner's perfect alibi.
- Squee: Natalie gets excited when she gets both Wagner and Monk to come to Julie's class for Career Day, gushing that this is going to earn her major "cool mom" points.
- Too Dumb to Live: Joanne was publishing an autobiography and told her ex that she was going to put in entries about his Domestic Abuse. Also, she didn't have backup copies sent to friends and family.
- Villain Ball: Wagner grabs it by taunting Monk about being "a flincher" who will never stop him, which convinces Natalie that he had something to do with the murder. Monk eventually proves it, spurred by the taunting.
- Villain Respect: Steve Wagner gives an approving nod to Monk after he stood his ground to prevent him from leaving.
