Recap / Monk S7E7 "Mr. Monk's Hundredth Case"

The TV newsmagazine In Focus, hosted by James Novak (Eric McCormack) focuses on Mr. Monk's 100th homicide investigation. With Monk's help, the San Francisco Police Department apprehended a serial killer who targeted young women. However, at the watch party at James Novak's house, Monk realizes he missed something, and another killer might get away with his crime...

Tropes

• Alliterative Name: Kate Kindel, the fourth victim.
• Asshole Victim: Yeah, it's really hard to cry over Douglas Thurman's suicide, isn't it?
• Bottle Episode: Aside from the segments that are part of the documentary, the whole episode takes place over just one evening at James Novak's house.
• Brick Joke: Jillian's ability to play dying or murdered women. In the climax, when Novak's gun fires, she seemingly gets hit and doubles over in pain, but it was actually just a force of habit. When Randy realizes that she isn't hurt, he compliments her performance.
• Buffy Speak: As Natalie holds the DVR remote, Monk instructs her on when to hit the "picture freezer" (pause button), "picture go back" (rewind), and "picture go fast" (fast forward).
• Bullying a Dragon: In desperation, Novak tries to pull a gun on everyone, in a party that includes two professional cops and one ex-cop. Stottlemeyer easily disarms him when Randy distracts Novak.
• Calling Card: Killing his victims by strangulation, and stealing their lipstick, are Thurman's modus operandi.
• Chekhov's Gun: The In Focus episode itself, as Monk realizes that there's a couple of things amiss after watching it back:
  • When the police first raid Douglas Thurman's photo lab, the camera sweeps past a table of developed rolls of film, all of them lying on their side. When it pans back to the table a moment later, one of them is standing upright; said roll, with Kate Kindel's photos, had just been planted there.
  • Later, at the crime scene at Kate's apartment, Monk asks for someone to turn on a light and James Novak, standing by the wall switches, flips on the table lamp next to him. Novak had five light switches to choose from, but turned on the exact right switch (number four) on the first try, indicating that he was already familiar with the place because he'd been there before.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Melissa Novak. She provides the crucial evidence that condemns her husband as a murderer.
• Collective Groan: The entire police force when one cop fulfills Monk's request of fixing one of the bulbs on a chandelier, only for Monk to point out that the new bulb has lower power.
• Comedic Work, Serious Scene: The overall tone of the episode is farcical, but the scenes when Monk and his friends are interviewed about his reaction to Trudy's death are deadly serious.
  Stottlemeyer: I saw him coming apart, like those rockets that hit the atmosphere at the wrong angle... and there was nothing I could do.
  Novak: (to Monk) You didn't leave your house for nearly three years. Your psychiatrist said you'd never work again. Yet here you are, a hundred cases later. What keeps you going?
  Monk: ...I can't die until I know.
• Continuity Nod: All over the place with the Show Within a Show, hitting its peak when Novak interviews Ralph Roberts from Mr. Monk Joins a Cult, and the perps from Mr. Monk And The Naked Man, Mr. Monk Visits A Farm, Mr. Monk Makes A Friend, and Mr. Monk And The Daredevil, where they all shoot the breeze about how they were caught, including the latter three congratulating each other on their Evil Plans.
• Continuity Snarl:
  • "Mr. Monk and the Big Game" stated he has already solved well over 100 cases. This may have been counting cases when he was on the police department, while this special may be focusing on him solving cases as a consultant.
  • They state that Jack Monk was a linen salesman, but "Mr. Monk Meets His Dad" stated he was a school book writer.
  • Marcy is shown to still be Monk's Loony Fangirl, but in "Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan" she completely lost interest in him at the end.
  • Joey Krenshaw from "Mr. Monk and the Daredevil" calls Monk's summation of his crime "the longest four minutes of my life". However, he was knocked out when Monk gave the summation to Harold and Natalie.
  • Jimmy Belmont from "Mr. Monk Visits a Farm" talks as though Monk solved the case when Randy seemed to solve it (and did find the definitive evidence all on his own). He did suspect Monk was the one that gave Randy's info for the summation and during his stay at prison likely confirmed it was Monk's doing.
  • In-Universe, Randy is credited as a sergeant rather than a lieutenant.
• A Deadly Affair: Novak strangled Kate Kindel because she threatened to tell his wife about their affair. It turns out that Novak's wife already knew because he came home late and had lipstick in his pocket.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Monk again refers to Kate Kindel as James Novak's "sex mistress".
• Driven to Suicide: Thurman opts to shoot himself once he realizes the cops have him cornered.
• Entertainingly Wrong: When Melissa found lipstick in her husband's pocket after he came home at night, she assumed it was part of the affair. She goes I Knew There Was Something About You when Monk reveals that James stole the lipstick to frame the serial killer and fetches it.
• Everyone Has Standards: Mr. Gleckson breaks character as a vampire when he learns that two of his former employees were murdered by a serial killer. It turns out he was a Red Herring and had nothing to do with the deaths.
• Expy: In Focus, a show like NBC's Dateline, profiles Adrian Monk as he solves his 100th case.
• Framing the Guilty Party: James Novak's attempts to cover up his murder of Kate Kindel by framing the serial killer for it. This is made easier thanks to Novak, as host of the show, having full access to Thurman's MO and other information the SFPD kept out of the public eye.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • In Focus is produced by David Hoberman, who in real life is an executive producer on Monk, including this episode. There are other names on the In Focus end credits, but Stottlemeyer changes the channel to a basketball game.
  • In-universe, Monk uses the "picture freezer" on clips from the In Focus episode to prove that Novak had planted evidence at Thurman's photo lab to frame him for Kate Kindel's murder.
• Friendly Enemy: The criminals Monk apprehended don't really have a bad opinion of him when they were being interviewed.
• Funny Background Event: During the chandelier scene in the video, everyone is paying attention to the cop fixing the bulb...except for Stottlemeyer, who was reading a book without a care in the world.
• Generic Cop Badges: We briefly see a badge with the number 8396 on it. While it does look like an authentic SFPD badge, there's nothing to indicate that it was ever Monk's actual badge, nor is it necessarily the badge that a cop like Monk would have had in real life back then.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: Discussed with Stottlemeyer and Randy, who say they did not release the information about the stolen lipstick to the public, usually to make sure if someone confesses to the crime, they make sure it is the actual culprit and not some crackpot looking for attention.
• I Remember Because...: Novak's wife remembers the night of Kate Kindel's murder (her husband came home late and took a shower) because it was her brother's birthday, and he missed the party.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Novak complains about his wife to the women he flirts with, and he murdered Kate Kindel so that she wouldn't tell his wife about the infidelity. Melissa has the evidence that ends up bringing him down.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Perusing the newspaper for new cases to solve, Monk and Natalie read a headline about a "TV writer found dead after contract dispute."
• Long List:
  • Asked what her duties as Monk's assistant are, Natalie deadpans, "how long is your show?"
  • Asked about Monk's many fears, Natalie, Disher, and Stottlemeyer rattle off several examples from the list.
• Loophole Abuse: At the end Monk considers retiring from detective work because he solved his hundredth case. Natalie, who finds this ridiculous, gets him to change his mind by stating that because he actually solved a second case that night, his actual record total is 101.
• Mean Character, Nice Actor: Mr. Gleckson who runs the horror-themed restaurant. He starts joking about drinking his former employees' blood when Natalie and Monk ask. Then they reveal that the girls were actually murdered, and he breaks character to express his horror. It's the first hint that he wasn't the killer.
• Milestone Celebration: Both In-Universe, and in meta sense (as this is the 100th episode of the series).
• Non-Indicative Name: The episode's title, because:
  • During this episode Monk has already solved his 100th case and is celebrating said milestone by having a party where they watch the In Focus coverage of it. But, as Natalie points out by the end of the episode, he actually solved 101 cases - the 101st being the Kate Kindel one, which was actually solved during the episode, and which was separate from (albeit related to) the Serial Killer one featured in In Focus.
  • Also, even taking in account the latter, Monk has solved way more than 100 cases. Justified in that they're counting from when he was discharged from the police.
• Noodle Incident: How did Ralph Roberts, the former cult leader from "Mr. Monk Joins a Cult," end up in prison? Though we're probably supposed to assume that he ended up there on fraud charges related to his cult, it's never explained; the last we saw of him, he was exposed in front of several of his followers, but no details are given on his having faced criminal charges for that or anything else.
• Overly Long Gag: The documentary alternating between Natalie, Randy and Stottlemeyer as they list down "some" of Monk's phobias. Obviously, they only scratched the surface...
• Properly Paranoid: Melissa found the lipstick in James's pocket, and kept it. It pays off big-time when she can prove her husband murdered Kate Kindel.
• Red Herring: Mr. Gleckson, the owner of the horror-themed restaurant where the first two victims worked. When Monk and Natalie question him, he's dressed as Dracula and sticks his foot in it by joking about drinking both girls' blood. He's ruled out as a suspect when it turns out victim #3 never worked there.
• Right in Front of Me: James Novak flirts with Randy's new girlfriend Jillian right in front of him while in the same room as his own wife, Melissa. To rub it in, James also disses Randy right in front of Jillian. Even worse: Jillian is visibly taken with James and even accepts a kiss on the mouth when he compliments her ability to play dying women. Also, she was the only one visibly shocked when James Novak is revealed to be Kate Kindel's murderer.
• Running Gag:
  • Throughout the documentary, Disher attempts to coin a nickname for the serial killer. Ideas include "Lipstick Killer", "Lipstick Assassin", "Cosmetic Assassin" and "Mr. Lipstick".
  • Stottlemeyer switching channels to a basketball game at commercial breaks, and Natalie reprimanding him.
• Serial Killer: Douglas Thurman, a modeling photographer who strangles models he worked with and steals their lipstick.
• Series Continuity Error:
  • Loony Fan Marci Maven (Sarah Silverman) had forsaken Monk in favor of F. Murray Abraham at the end of "Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan," but she couldn't pass up the opportunity to appear on In Focus. It's likely that no one had stepped up to take over the presidency of the Adrian Monk Fan Club in the interim. It could even be the case that Marci was the sole member of the fan club.
  • Previously Monk had not spoken to his brother Ambrose for years because the latter hadn't called him after Trudy's murder (and that was because the latter felt guilty). Now, Monk went to his childhood home (which was where Ambrose lived where they got back together) and sat in a chair right after the murder. It could be more because he didn't call after that night.
  • Before, Trudy's age when she died was 34; in this episode, it was 35.
• Show Within a Show: In Focus, hosted by James Novak.
• Significant Background Event: When Monk is at Kate Kindel's apartment and asks for a light, Novak immediately flips the fourth switch on a panel with five switches. The switch turns on a lamp right next to Monk. As Monk points out later, this effectively proves Novak had been in that room before.
• Skewed Priorities: As Monk starts to lay out the logical reasons for Novak to be the killer, Randy accuses Novak of not listening to his band's CDs.
• Spotting the Thread: Monk realizes Kate Kindel was murdered by someone else when he realizes not only was she strangled from behind while the other three women were facing their killer when strangled, but her house where she was killed was 50 miles north of Mexico, the complete opposite direction Thurman was heading in.
• Sweet and Sour Grapes: Played for Laughs; when Arlene Boras (the killer from "Mr. Monk and the Naked Man") is interviewed on TV, she says Adrian Monk sent her to jail for murdering her roommate, but he also cleaned her apartment and allowed her to get back her security deposit, "so that was nice."
• Technology Marches On: Monk says it's unfortunate the show In Focus is not on VHS. Both James and Natalie try to explain to Monk that DVR is better.
• Woman Scorned: Melissa Novak, whose husband cheated on her blatantly multiple times, hands over the evidence that proves he murdered his mistress, Kate Kindel.