Directed by Arlene Sanford
Written by Josh Siegal and Dylan Morgan
Leyla Zlatavich (Joanna Pacula), a Zemenian immigrant who helps refugees, comes under suspicion for the murder of international fugitive Karsten Emerik, the Butcher of Zemenia. But Adrian Monk falls in love with Leyla, and refuses to believe she could have killed anyone. Leyla seems to feel the same way about Adrian.
Leyla hires Monk to investigate, though she admits she doesn't have much money to pay him. To Natalie's consternation, Monk says money's not important to him or to Natalie.
Later on, Leyla sees Monk get splashed with muddy water. She takes him to her place, where she washes and dries his pants. Stottlemeyer and Disher arrive to arrest Leyla, and they jump to conclusions to explain why Monk is not wearing pants. It doesn't help that Monk has also taken off his wedding ring.
Leyla confesses to the murder, but something doesn't quite add up. The clues lead Monk to the "Little Zemenia" part of town. There, they find Leyla's mother (Rita Zohar), who confesses in the Zemenian language. Monk claims to have understood perfectly.
Monk thinks that Leyla's mother will only be in jail for two years with good behavior. But Leyla can't forgive Adrian, and dumps him, telling him to go back to his life and his wife, Trudy.
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- The Alibi: Leyla's alibi is terrible, leading Monk to say that if she was really guilty, she would have come up with a good alibi, one that would hold up better under scrutiny.
- Asshole Victim: Back in his home country, the victim Karsten Emerik was a war criminal in life known as "The Butcher of Zemenia", responsible for countless deaths of his countrymen.
- Bittersweet Ending: Slightly more bitter than sweet. While the culprit has been discovered to be Leyla's mother, Monk assures her the courts went easy on her and she'll be out of prison in a couple years, with good behavior. Still, for Leyla, this is cold comfort for the fact it's still her mother in prison. So she tells Monk to go back to his wife, as though subtly breaking off their quasi-relationship.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Seeing as he had gallons of blood from countless victims on his hands, Karsten didn't recognize Mrs. Zlatavich, or the fact that he slaughtered most of her family save her daughter. Mrs. Zlatavich, however, remembered him very well indeed...
- Continuity Nod: Stottlemeyer brings up the time they arrested a guy based on the air he blew into a beachball.
- Double Take: Stottlemeyer does this after he notices Monk is in Leyla's apartment.
- Failed a Spot Check: It takes Randy and his date a minute of making out to realize their cab driver is dead.
- False Confession: Leyla confesses to the murder when shown the family crest, which tells her that her mother had committed the murder.
- Improvised Weapon: Mrs. Zlatavich uses her hat pin as a murder weapon once she realizes just who her cab driver is.
- Mama Bear: The killer is Leyla's mother. She was motivated to kill the war criminal victim out of fear he would kill her daughter. She also turns herself in to keep her daughter from going to jail for her crimes.
- My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels: Monk tries to say, "We are looking for this woman" in Zemenian, but instead says "We are looking for the sad stick."
- Keep the Reward: Monk, who has a crush on Leyla, says he'll take her case for free.
- Never Mess with Granny: Mrs. Zlatavich surprised and stabbed a trained killer.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Monk doesn't wipe off Leyla's kiss. This proves to Natalie that Monk really does have a crush on the client.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Monk was the first to state Leyla was innocent, but everyone can tell the only reason he claimed she was is because he has an obvious crush on her.
- Running Gag: Everybody making a point of how oblivious Randy was to make out with a girl without noticing their cab driver was dead.
- Ruritania: Zemenia, where Leyla comes from, a Fictional Country vaguely similar to Yugoslavia. Zemenia is said to have been at war for 600 years.
- Shout-Out: Leyla tells Monk she loves dancing to Tchaikovsky's music.
- "Ugly American" Stereotype: When no one understands what Monk is trying to say in Zemenian, he complains that the Zemenians don't know their own language.
- You Do Not Want To Know: Leyla gets into a shouting match over a restaurant worker drenching a homeless man who was sitting in front of his restaurant, and the guy threatens to call the police. Monk tells him he's a former police officer, and that the guy doesn't want to know why he's no longer on the force.
