Recap / Monk S6E13 "Mr. Monk and the Three Julies"

The Captain has just invested in a new car, and Natalie's daughter Julie prepares to take her Driving Test. Natalie isn't happy, but she says that you can't say no to a teenager. Then someone phones in a homicide for a Julie Teeger. Natalie is frantic until she finds out it isn't her Julie. When another Julie Teeger is murdered, the police and Natalie fret that a serial killer is on the loose. Julie is determined to take her driver's test, one way or another, and Monk is determined to find the killer.

Tropes for this episode include:

• Actor Allusion: When Monk, Stottlemeyer, and Disher arrive at the Teeger home to locate Matthew Teeger's mother, Stottlemeyer tells Randy to check out back and Monk to check upstairs while Stottlemeyer checks the basement. It's not the first time Ted Levine has stalked a woman through the basement of a creepy house.
• Arc Words: Monk's usual Catchphrase gets a workout in this episode:
  Julie: Oh, my God! He is so the guy!
  ...
  Monk: He's not the guy.
  Natalie: He's not the guy?
  ...
  Randy: So if he's not the guy, who's the guy?
• Artistic License – Gun Safety: Monk stops the police sharpshooter from shooting Matthew Teeger by knocking his rifle to the left, because the Rule of Funny requires the bullet to put a hole in Stottlemeyer's engine block. In real life, someone trying to divert a gunshot would knock the gun upwards, into the sky, to minimize the chance of anyone (not just the intended target) being hit.
• Artistic License – Law Enforcement: In Real Life, a detective would never promise a victim's husband that he would catch the victim's killer, because there is always a possibility (often verging on probability) that the killer will not be found.
• Backseat Driver: When Julie offers Stottlemeyer a ride in her new car, he tells her to use her turn signal and to speed up on the street.
• Broken Record: The second time Natalie steals Stottlemeyer's car and damages it, he keeps repeating "there's no bridge across the creek" in a shellshocked voice.
• Comically Missing the Point: When Natalie comes out of a police car and tells Julie they need to go, now, Julie tries to explain she just forgot her blinker while making a three-point turn and it's no big deal. It takes a bit for Natalie to clarify that a serial killer may be on the loose.
• Contrived Coincidence: Before the first murder of the episode, there were exactly 3 people in the western part of the United States named Julie Teeger, and they all lived in San Francisco. (Just for comparison, the state of California alone has 48 times the population of San Francisco, and the state's largest city - Los Angeles - has 4.8 times the population of San Francisco.)
• Correlation/Causation Gag: Fearing that a Serial Killer is hunting down "Julie Teegers", Natalie has her picked up by a patrol car. Julie happens to be in the middle of her driver's test, and thinks she's being arrested for a traffic violation:
  Julie: Oh, my God! It was just a blinker!
• A Deadly Affair: George Teeger killed his wife and the other Julie for this reason. His mistress outed him by mailing a package of proof that he was committing adultery. The other Julie found the package mailed to her, and hand-delivered it to the housewife Julie. A violent domestic altercation ensued, and George then murdered graduate student Julie so that she couldn't destroy his alibi.
• Department of Redundancy Department
  Monk: You were having an extramarital sex affair.
• Dragged into Drag: Randy dresses up as Matthew Teeger's mother and sits in the chair where her mummy is kept as part of a sting to catch him admitting to the murders.
• Drives Like Crazy: Natalie steals Stottlemeyer's new Dodge Charger unit twice. The first time, she manages to break off the shotgun door mirror. The second time, she manages to crumple in the hood, ostensibly from taking a shortcut across the creek. Except Stottlemeyer's insistence that there are no bridges going across implies she drove clear through the creek, maybe even jumping the damn thing like Bo and Luke.
• Driving Test: Natalie's daughter is interrupted while taking hers because of her mother's concern for her safety after the two other murders of individuals with her name. Luckily, after these murders are solved, she gets an other chance.
• Everyone Has Standards: Even Monk comments on how unhinged Matthew is, as while he lost a loved one too, he didn't resort to taxidermying his dead wife, something Dr. Kroger is quite relieved about.
• GPS Evidence: The police initially dismiss the death of Julie #2 as an accident, but Monk notices several clues, including a flower petal lodged in the spokes of her bike that shows she cut across the park, off the road, in an attempt to escape a driver that was deliberately pursuing her.
• He Knows Too Much: The reason the college student was killed. In addition to her hearing the fight with his wife, George Teeger realized that his alibi of making the murder look like a burglary attempt while he was out wouldn't hold with her as a witness.
• Helicopter Parents: Julie starts complaining about this:
  Julie: Mom, I think you're overreacting...
  Natalie: Yeah well, that's my job, so just let me do my job, all right?
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Julie's Exact Words when pleading with Monk that she should be allowed to leave the station to take her driver's test, because all of her friends already have their licenses. Given who she's talking to, this may not be the most effective argument.
• Improvised Weapon: Housewife Julie was stabbed to death using a steak knife from her own kitchen. It's part of what tips Monk off that Matthew isn't the killer, since he has his own knife he carries with him.
• Insane Equals Violent: Subverted. Although he assaulted his stepfather to protect his mother and is prone to kicking and throwing things when frustrated, Matthew Teeger is largely non-violent and didn't kill the Julies. In fact, he gives Natalie's Julie his lucky rabbit's foot to protect her from the crazy killer running loose.
• Insanity Defense: After interviewing Matthew Teeger, a visibly-shaken Stottlemeyer meets Natalie in his office and says he's not usually a fan of the insanity defense - because in his experience, nine times out of ten it's used by a perfectly-sane criminal to avoid guilt - but if he's met anyone who's legitimately crazy, and genuinely unable to understand the wrongness of his actions, Matthew would fit the description.
• Invisible Subtle Difference: Stottlemeyer loves everything about his new car, including the color:
  Monk: ...It's black, isn't it?
  Stottlemeyer: No, it's Midnight Onyx.
• Loon with a Heart of Gold: Matthew is detached from reality and has impulse control problems, but he's not a bad person. He chases after Julie to give her his precious rabbit's foot charm, believing she needs its protection more than he does.
• I Want My Mommy!: Matthew begins repeating that he wants his mother in the interrogation room.
• Mama Bear: Natalie Teeger's behavior throughout this episode is motivated by her concern for her own Julie.
• Meaningful Echo: George Teeger makes Captain Stottlemeyer promise to catch his wife's killer. After Monk figures out that George is "the guy", Stottlemeyer repeats the promise as he prepares to handcuff him.
• Mistaken Identity: Monk suggests this may have been why the Julies were killed. Stottlemeyer shoots that theory down due to how the victims were murdered differently...but it turns out that the murder was instigated by mistaken identity. The post office sent the revenge package to the college student Julie Teeger, due to the package label getting ripped. Student Julie brought the package over and was killed for potentially knowing too much.
• Mummies at the Dinner Table: In what Dr. Kroger calls "radical cognitive bonding", Matthew Teeger stuffed his mother's corpse and carried her from room to room as if she was still alive, simply unable to accept that she was dead. He doesn't notice a thing wrong when the police put Randy in her place, Disguised in Drag.
• Noodle Incident: The murders were kicked off because George Teeger got into a fight with his mistress, Maria Hamilton. In revenge, she sent his wife a package of his stuff to her as proof of the affair. What this fight was about is never elaborated on.
• No Sympathy: Subverted. Stottlemeyer, while annoyed at Natalie for wrecking his car multiple times, understands why she's doing it. He's a parent and he understands her concern.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The police initially dismiss the death of Julie #2 as an accident, but Monk sees her helmet and gloves, and all the safety features on her bicycle - two mirrors and a blinker - and asks why she would be on the wrong side of the road when she was hit.
• Oblivious to His Own Description:
  Stottlemeyer: Randy, what the hell are you doing? You're getting salt all over the hood!
  Natalie: (to Monk) Remind you of anybody?
  Monk: No. (to Stottlemeyer) You missed a spot there.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Natalie when she hears a Julie Teeger has been murdered.
  • Julie also has this when she sees Matthew during her driver's test.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted. Two women named Julie Teeger are murdered, and Natalie can't call her Julie before reaching the crime scene. The Julies died because one of them received a package meant for the other and gave it to be neighborly. Then one got into a violent fight with her husband, while the other was run down trying to get away from him.
• Overly Long Gag: During The Summation people keep clarifying which Julie Teeger is being discussed.
• Pushover Parents: Natalie complains that she has trouble saying no to her daughter, and Monk tempts fate by asking, "how hard can it be?" He finds out when Natalie fobs off on him the responsibility for deciding whether it is safe for Julie to leave the station after Matthew Teeger's arrest.
• Red Herring:
  • Matthew Teeger is suspected to be the one who murdered the two Julies. Monk realizes that he's innocent because he would have used his own knife to commit murder. He still gets medical treatment for his schizophrenia, though.
  • The notion of Natalie's daughter being the target of a serial killer, as well. George Teeger wasn't on a mission to kill all Julie Teegers, or even make it look like he was, and probably had no idea she existed.
• Running Gag: Stottlemeyer's new car getting wrecked. The first two times it was Natalie's fault, the third time was when Monk had to stop a police sniper from shooting Matt Teeger; he knocked the rifle and the hit the car instead.
• Shadow Archetype:
  • The entire episode is about Natalie exercising the willingness to let Julie be independent and earn her driver's license. Matthew is more-or-less a sobering reflection of what Julie is trying to escape, being so dependent on her mother that she can't function without her.
  • Matthew also doubles as a Shadow Archetype for Monk as well, reflecting just how much more neurotic Adrian could be, keeping a taxidermy corpse of his mother in the house so he can pretend she's still alive. Even Monk disgustedly expresses that you wouldn't see him parading Trudy around his home, and Dr. Kroger (mildly sarcastically) expresses gratitude that Monk hasn't gone off the deep end.
• Shout-Out:
  • Randy had two theories on the case: the one with Matt Teeger is actually plausible enough for the police to pursue (although he's eventually revealed to be a Red Herring), and the other? The plot of The Terminator.
  • The whole subplot with Matthew is an obvious shout-out to Psycho.
• Significant Name Overlap: The episode is about a case of 2 individuals named Julie Teeger, and a major component of it is about the concerns of the mother of an other individual with this name.
• Skewed Priorities: Natalie complains that a Serial Killer may be after her daughter, but all Julie cares about is not being allowed out to take her driver's test. However, Julie starts to take the threat more seriously when Stottlemeyer tells Natalie that her daughter is the only "Julie Teeger" within a thousand miles.
  Julie: You mean the only one left.
• Spot the Thread: Monk notes that Matthew Teeger carries a knife in his boot, but the first Julie was killed with her own steak knife, which casts doubt on Matthew being "the guy."
• Sure, Let's Go with That: Monk asks if Mrs. Kroger has Tourette's syndrome given the language she used during one of Monk's calls to her husband. Dr. Kroger says yes, she has Tourette's.
• Tempting Fate: Stottlemeyer gives the keys of his new car to Monk because he trusts that Monk's OCD will keep it from getting scratched. Then Natalie thinks her daughter has been killed and steals the car keys to drive to the crime scene.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Maybe if Maria Hamilton hadn't sent George's wife proof of their affair, this whole mess might not have happened.
• Verbal Backspace: Randy dismisses Monk's suspicions that Matthew Teeger is not "the guy":
  Randy: I mean, he thought I was his mother! The guy's crazier than you... (off Monk's look) ...Grant. Hugh Grant. You know, the crazy actor? Four Weddings and a Funeral?
• Warning Mistaken for Threat: Matthew sees Julie when he's brought in and tells her that she'd better watch out. Julie considers it practically a confession, and Matthew doesn't help his case by escaping police custody and going after her during her driver's test. However, he was legitimately concerned and broke out of custody to give her his rabbit's foot so she would have protection from the crazy killer running around.
• Watch the Paint Job: By the end of the episode, Stottlemeyer's car is in the shop.
• Wham Line:
  Police Dispatcher: All units, be advised, possible 187, name Julie Teeger, repeat, possible 187.
  Natalie: (over radio) The-the victim's name! Repeat the victim's name!
  Police Dispatcher: Julie Teeger.
  Natalie: Oh, my God... what's a 187? Mr. Monk, what's a 187?!
  Monk: ... Homicide.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: George Teeger bursts into his house in a state and calling out Housewife!Julie's name, when he is in fact the one who killed her.
• You Remind Me of X: When Stottlemeyer starts trying to rub a smudge off the car, Natalie asks Monk if he reminds him of anyone. Monk doesn't see any resemblances and joins the captain in cleaning the hood.