Monk's neighbor, Kevin Dorfman, is murdered while filling in for another magician. Monk suspects the person he was subbing for, Karl Torini. However, Karl made a phone call from Nevada around the time Kevin was killed.
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- Artistic License – Law: Torini makes Monk “disappear” on stage and pretends he doesn’t know where Monk went. He then acts like Randy and Stottlemeyer have no right to hold him. But if Torini is a suspect of Monk's disappearance, the police have the authority to at least hold him for questioning, even if they can't nail him in the long run.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Monk has found Kevin annoying. Nevertheless, he's upset when the man dies and is determined to bring his killer to justice.
- Back for the Dead: Kevin had been missing for a while since his last appearance. He returns in this episode, only to be killed in the first act.
- Bittersweet Ending: Torini has been caught and arrested, thus avenging Kevin Dorfman. But Kevin is still dead. Nonetheless, Monk respectfully insists on watching the entirety of Kevin's videotaped last will, having found a new appreciation for his neighbor's memory.
- Chekhov's Gun: Kevin makes mention of how the piano wires he uses to "levitate" a cane are painted black so that the casual observer can't see them. After Kevin is killed, and Randy mentions that he was apparently strangled with piano wire, Monk notices black paint traces, recalls Kevin's earlier comment about the wires, and realizes the killer is a magician.
- A Death in the Limelight: Kevin is the spotlight character, and it also happens to be the episode where he dies.
- Freudian Excuse: Played with. During Kevin's funeral, Natalie discovers that most of the people who knew Kevin were themselves talkative chatterboxes, some even more-so than Kevin. This implies that Kevin was a Motor Mouth in life either because of the company he kept or because he normally couldn't get a word in edge-wise and other people gave him an opportunity to say his peace.
- He Knows Too Much: Kevin, who was working for Torini at the time, mentions something that makes Torini fear that Kevin could figure out or let information slip that would tell someone else that he's smuggling something (drugs), so he kills him to keep him quiet.
- Heel–Face Turn: In the end, Tanya changes her mind about helping Karl and chooses to free Monk instead. The method she used to try to help him, however, fails because it involves passing him a key through a Forceful Kiss.
- Inelegant Blubbering: Monk is sobbing as he and Natalie are going through Kevin's apartment, blaming himself for not being nicer to the man.
- Janitor Impersonation Infiltration: Torini poses as a repairman to sneak into the Magic Castle theater and kill Kevin.
- The Man Behind the Man: Torini is a drug smuggler under the employ of a Thai crime lord.
- Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: Monk's upstairs neighbor Kevin is killed by Karl Torini the night he debuts as an amateur magician = discrepancies in Torini's airline receipts that were evidence of Torini's involvement in a drug trafficking ring.
- Motor Mouth: Kevin, as usual. His funeral shows that this is a common trait of his family. Natalie had to use Photoshop to get a picture of Kevin not talking for his wake. Monk even reveals that Kevin talked so much, he once had a sore throat and still talked to Adrian about how much it hurt him to talk... for over two hours.
- Never Speak Ill of the Dead: Natalie is livid when Torini speaks ill of Kevin's memory, saying that despite his chatterbox tendencies, he was still a decent and interesting person.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
- Torini murdering Kevin leads to a grieving, righteously furious Monk determined to find his killer. What's more, his trying to murder Monk, in turn, gets the cops on the case.
- Monk figures out how Torini crafted his alibi because he used an extension phone...found in the very same place where they held Monk prisoner.
- Revealing Cover Up: Kevin notices that the airlines are claiming that Torini's equipment weighs more on the trip back to the US, which leads to Torini murdering him, which leads to Monk investigating and figuring out that Torini is smuggling drugs in it. Nobody put this together before the murder - Kevin assumed that the airline was just deliberately overcharging Torini, and Monk took that explanation at face value. Monk only found out about Torini's smuggling due to investigating Kevin's death. Ironically, Torini had murdered Kevin only because he feared that someone would discover the smuggling.
- Shared Family Quirks: It's shown that all of Kevin Dorfman's relatives are big talkers, just as Kevin himself was. Natalie is visibly disturbed to learn this.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Torini mocks how talkative Kevin was in life, Natalie defends his memory, stating that as talkative as he was, Kevin was a remarkable and sensitive person who didn't deserve to die.
- Sleight of Tongue: When Karl and his stage assistant Tanya are preparing to stuff Monk in the furnace, Tanya takes pity on him and tries to pass him the key to his handcuffs, which is in her mouth. Monk being Monk, though, the very thought of swapping something orally freaks him out enough to alert his captor.
- Smug Snake: When Monk and Natalie go to Karl’s house to press him for more information, he flashily shows off his tricks in front of them while acting very arrogant. The last bit he does is sarcastically confess to Kevin’s murder on a piece of flash paper, which ignites in Monk’s hand.
- Video Will: Kevin made a video to be viewed in the case of his death (or by the person developing the film at the photo shop, etc.), which Natalie and Monk view at the end of the episode.
- We Need a Distraction: When Monk and Natalie go to Torini's loft apartment to question him, Torini makes his entrance using a classical magician's trick of misdirection: First, Monk notices one of Torini's gadgets, a Zig-Zag Cabinet. As he's noticing it, Torini's voice comes booming over hidden loudspeakers and instructs him to step away from the cabinet. At that point, fog machines emit colored fog in the room in front of them. Monk and Natalie's attention is drawn to the fog, thinking that Torini will make a dramatic entrance from the fog, but it turns out the machines are meant to keep them from noticing Torini walk up behind them until he clears his throat.
