Tear Jerker / Monk

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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Series

• Any scene when Monk is talking to his dead wife.
• Although "Mr. Monk Shelters in Place" is mostly amusing, hearing Monk singing "99 Bottles of Beer" while washing his hands, sounding ready to cry, tugs at the heartstrings.

Season One

• "Mr. Monk Goes to the Carnival": Monk is so hopeful about being reinstated to the police department that he shows up at the hearing wearing his old uniform - and is devastated when Stottlemeyer admits that he couldn't bring himself to recommend him.
  Sharona: Are you sure you're not getting your hopes up?
  Monk: Of course I am. That's what hopes are for.

Season Two

• "Mr. Monk and the Very, Very Old Man": Captain Stottlemeyer gets kicked out by his wife and ends up staying with Monk. Monk drives him crazy, particularly the fact that while everything else in the apartment is perfectly straight, the coffee table is crooked. After Stottlemeyer has left, Monk sits and looks at the coffee table. Then he flashes back to when Trudy was alive. When he would come home from work tired, she would pull one end of the coffee table closer and put her feet on it, then put his head in her lap.
  • Stottlemeyer revisits a case where a bright young teen who'd just been accepted to college was killed in a hit-and-run, even visiting his grave. While there, the undertaker actually recalls the day he dug it, saying it was difficult because it was really cold out and the ground was iced over. "It was like the Earth didn't want him." Luckily Stottlemeyer gets closure when he catches the perp by the end of the episode.
• "Mr. Monk Meets the Playboy": wandering around the "Sapphire Mansion" during a pool party, Monk is drawn into a conversation with an older, "retired" model, who notices his wedding ring and asks about his wife. One scene later, a whole roomful of partygoers and models are gathered around Adrian as he reads Trudy's last poem to him, which he keeps in his wallet. Several of them are in tears, when a young man pokes his head in from the patio:
  Partygoer: (jauntily) Anybody want a swim?
  Model: (tearfully) I just want to go home.
  2nd Model: (tearfully) Me, too.
• "Mr. Monk and the Three Pies": Adrian's brother Ambrose confesses that the reason he never went to see him after Trudy died was that he felt guilty because he asked her to get him cough medicine when her car blew up. Ambrose breaks down crying, "It was me, Adrian! It was my fault!" and Adrian hugs him, assuring him it wasn't.

Season Three

• "Mr. Monk Takes Manhattan": Monk confronts the man who built the bomb that killed Trudy. It's revealed that he's in the hospital, dying a slow, painful death from cancer. Monk steps in to talk to him about Trudy. As a demonstration of how much she meant to him, Monk turns off the morphine drip, relishing the pain the killer feels, describing that as the thing he himself wants to do. After a long pause, Monk then turns on the morphine drip — stating that that was what Trudy wanted. A very powerful and visceral scene showing just how much Monk was devastated by Trudy's death.
  Adrian Monk: This is me, turning off your morphine... [tearful] And this is Trudy, turning it back on.
• In "Mr. Monk and the Game Show", Monk helps out his in-laws with a game show cheating scandal. While staying with them, he has several flashbacks about his and Trudy's earlier days. In one case, Dwight (Trudy's father) offers Monk a job as a consultant on a new police show, hoping that he can convince them to move closer. When Trudy explains why they can't accept, Dwight takes it gracefully. Then, just to punch the audience in the gut, he tells Monk to take care of their daughter; she's all they've got. Monk promises that he will...and then the scene fades back to the present and his complete inability to keep that promise.
• "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine": Monk's multiple breakdowns and setbacks.
  • His part of the episode begins with him on the verge of tears in Dr. Kroger's office, saying that he wishes he was normal and can't stand what is constantly going on in his head. When Kroger offers him medication, he resists, and later cries to his memory of Trudy that he's afraid of change but afraid of not changing.
  • Monk's phobias cause him to let the main suspect behind Stottlemeyer being shot escape, resulting in a quick rebuke from Disher, who's still in pursuit. Sharona tries to tell him he wasn't to blame, but Monk won't listen to her, saying it's always his fault. He lies awake at night before finally taking the pills.
  • The pills don't solve matters; they end up completely changing his personality until he finds himself alone in a pool playing Marco Polo by himself after a bunch of college students ditched him, which results in him crying into Trudy's pillow on the floor alone, unable even to evoke his wife's memory.
• "Mr. Monk and the Red Herring"
  • Mr. Henry is a Tragic Keepsake from Julie's father. That's why she cares a lot about him. Then Natalie is forced to reveal to Julie's teacher that she's been replacing Mr. Henry every time he's died, because she doesn't want Julie to lose that last connection to her father. The teacher is sympathetic since Mr. Henry was the subject of Julie's science fair project, and he disqualified it on the grounds that a goldfish can't live that long. He changes his mind and allows her to present the project since it turns out Julie has no idea.
  • Monk and Julie go to a pet store to find out if Marblefishes are special. The answer is no, but Monk notices that a parrot in the shop is sad. He commiserates on deducing that it is a widower, like him.
  • During the investigation, Monk offers Natalie the job of being his assistant. When she demurs, he reassures her You Are Better Than You Think You Are. Later, Natalie takes the job because Monk saved Mr. Henry, knowing how much he meant to Julie, and Julie says that "Daddy" would have done the same thing.
• "Mr. Monk and the Kid": Monk ends up bonding with a two-year-old foster child named Tommy while trying to solve a kidnapping case and even genuinely gives thought to adopting him, despite Dr. Kroger and Natalie pointing out that Monk can barely take care of himself as it is (and Tommy is starting to pick up on Monk's various neuroses). In the end, though, Monk realizes that they are right and has to say good-bye to Tommy. The episode ends with Monk and Natalie waving to Tommy as he rides off with his new family, and the credits theme is a more somber version of the usual theme to top it off.
  • In later seasons, it's heavily implied that the very core of Monk's problems really started with his mother, who had her own mental illness and raised her sons to behave in the same ways that she did. Monk accidentally taught Tommy some of his own compulsions (including "nature dirty" and crying when his pants legs are uneven), even after only having him for a few days. Monk not being able to take care of himself and raise a child is one thing; there was also a very good chance of history repeating itself and Tommy acquiring Monk's issues.

Season Four

• "Mr. Monk Goes Home Again":
  • Monk is told by his agoraphobic brother Ambrose, who has only stepped outside once in many years, that their father, who abandoned them when they were young, is going to return to their old house (where Ambrose still lives) on Halloween night. Monk doesn't believe it, but Ambrose insists that it will happen. Monk, while waiting with his brother, realizes that there's a poisoner on the loose, just as Ambrose eats some of the poisoned candy, something for which no antidote exists. They call an ambulance for Ambrose, and Monk and Ambrose say their goodbyes, before they realize that Ambrose hadn't been poisoned at all. Upon returning to Monk's old house, it is discovered that their father left a note telling them that he came and went while they were out, and the end of the note reads 'P.S. Ambrose, I'm proud of you for getting out of the house.' Sniff...
  • The episode makes the two Monk brothers even more woobie-ish than before. Ambrose immediately assumes that Natalie turned him down out of personal dislike, rather than for the practical reason that dating her boss' brother would get "messy." Both of them blame themselves for their father leaving, claiming that they drove him crazy, when everything that we know suggests that it was his fault rather than either of theirs. The two get into a vicious argument when Monk says that he isn't coming and that they're better off without him, which is when Ambrose loses his normal persnicketiness and eats the Halloween candy to cope...and then Stottlemeyer calls to tell Monk that Gilstrap poisoned a bunch of Neptune bars. As they're driving to the hospital in a last-ditch effort to save him, Ambrose apologizes to Monk for driving their father away, and Monk insists it was his fault. (Luckily, Ambrose turns out simply to have eaten expired candy.) When they return to find the note, Ambrose sounds heartbreakingly childlike as he asks Monk to confirm that their dad said he was proud of him. The two Monk brothers just need a hug throughout the entire episode.
• "Mr. Monk and Mrs. Monk": An old informant of Trudy's hires a woman to impersonate her to get a key that belonged to her old partner, leading Monk and his friends to briefly think she's still alive. As if Monk breaking down so badly his doctor has to physically help him just to take a drink of water isn't heartbreaking enough, he then comes to his senses enough to go her gravesite and cry, "It's not you... It's not you." He tells Natalie at the end he knew because "I went to the grave, and it still hurt." But nothing got as many tears as the scene when the imposter is dying from a gunshot and tells Monk, "I'm so sorry. You loved her... I'll tell her." What do you mean this is a comedy?
• "Mr. Monk and the Secret Santa": most of the scenes with Frank Prager (a murder suspect). It turns out that he didn't murder anyone, but was guilty of assaulting Stottlemeyer. The crowning moment comes when Stottlemeyer releases Prager from custody so he can spend Christmas with his family because he feels terrible for what he did.
• "Mr. Monk and the Captain's Marriage". Monk's caught the killer, but Leland's found his marriage with Karen crumbling, to the point that he thinks she's having an affair with someone else and has Monk and Natalie follow her. But then Leland learns she's been seeing a divorce lawyer and has decided to end their marriage after 20 years.
  • Even worse, Leland's marriage problems had been hinted at ever since the pilot.
  • Leland and his oldest son become estranged as a result of the divorce.

Season Five

• "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion". Monk’s college class is meeting up with his graduating class and it’s clear from his interactions with his old classmates that he was not popular. Natalie overhears one of his classmates talking about him being nicknamed “Captain Cool” because he always defrosted a dorm refrigerator. He also feels like his classmates only remember him because of his association with Trudy...which appears all too accurate.
• "Mr. Monk Meets His Dad": Midway through the trip, Monk calls Natalie in the middle of the Christmas party and begs first her and then Julie to come get him, as things with his dad have been going miserably. Neither of them can come for him, as all the adults have been drinking and Julie doesn't have a license. Towards the end of Julie's part, he even starts crying before he hangs up.
• "Mr. Monk makes a Friend" really plays up Monk's No Social Skills and he was so happy to make a friend that turns out to be a murderer. Even when he's confronted by the truth, he still doesn't want to believe it. Especially tear jerking is Monk's wish to have a best friend when he was a little kid in his usual therapy session.
• The ending to "Mr. Monk Is on the Air" definitely counts. After catching a radio shock jock who arranged the murder of his own wife Monk is watching the wedding tape of him and Trudy with tears in his eyes.
  • The ending of the episode gets worse when one considers the video shows one of the few moments where Monk genuinely laughed. As noticed by Captain Stottlemeyer in "Mr. Monk's 100th Case", ever since Trudy’s death, Monk has been a lot less cheerful, for good reason.
  • The shock jock, Max Hudson, crudely jokes about Trudy's death on-air without hesitation — even his cohosts express discomfort and try to get him to dial it back — prompting an enraged Monk to jump over the table to assault him mid-broadcast. He made it personal. Disher later comments that he was listening to the broadcast while driving, and was so angry at the low blow he had to pull over. After revealing how Max killed his wife, Monk confronts him one last time.
    Monk: You’re not laughing now, are you?
    Max: No. I’m not laughing.
    Monk: Join the club.

Season Six

• The reason behind Vicki's murder in "Mr. Monk and the Naked Man": she was trying to save Magneri after her roommate Arlene confessed in private that Magneri was very ill and going to die soon; Arlene was an X-Ray technician working at the place where Magneri got his medical exam, switched hi X-ray with that of a healthy patient and quit her job before investing in the stock market. Arlene's plan was apparently involving splitting the money she would earn by betting against Magneri's company with Vicki, who couldn't abide letting a man die for profit. Vicki ran to warn him with the proof, shouting that it was a matter of life and death. Arlene caught up to her with a knife, stabbed her, and ran off with the actual X-ray. As Stottlemeyer puts it, Arlene is going to have to explain her motives to Vicki's parents.
• Mr. Monk and the Bad Girlfriend": Stottlemeyer is in a relationship with a woman he really cares about... too bad Monk and Natalie realize that she is a murderer, using Leland as an alibi. Adrian tries to break the news to him gently only for Stottlemeyer to become so enraged he physically attacks Monk and threatens him. Monk can only silently take it because he knows he's right.
  • Stottlemeyer continues to insult and belittle Monk about the case, mocking that he's a lonely, depressed, miserable man. When he has no choice but to accept that he's been used he is not just heartbroken that he was betrayed but also he alienated his friends and sided with a woman he's only known for a few weeks over people he's known for years.
    • Leland several times, after blowing up at Monk, clearly seems rather rattled at what he has done, growing quiet as he realizes just how far he's gone. When he physically attacks Monk he takes a moment to gather himself, briefly flashing a look of shock and horror at how he just assaulted a man he considers a friend. And after he makes a scene in the interrogation room all he can do is quietly head into his office.
    • He also seems horrified that he's accused Monk of falsely accusing Linda, all because Monk is jealous and can't stand to see Stottlemeyer happy—something he knows isn't true but spits at his friend anyway.
    • The ending has one final gut-punch: Stottlemeyer ends up having to take a planned trip to Hawaii he was going to take with Linda with Randy instead, and while out on the beach Leland tosses a ring around in his hands (heavily suggesting that he had intended to propose to her while on this vacation) before angrily pitching it into the ocean.
      Randy: What was that?
      Stottlemeyer: Oh, it wasn't anything. Just a worthless rock.
• "Mr. Monk and the Daredevil" focuses on Monk becoming depressed because he think his rival Harold Krenshaw somehow overcame his fears and became the Frisco Fly. Natalie and Julie try to help him overcome his fears, but Monk is unsuccessful. During his next session with Dr. Kroger, Monk announces he’s giving up, which immediately gets Dr. Kroger worried. Later on, Stottlemeyer gets a call and he and Disher find out that Monk is on suicide watch. Stottlemeyer spends the next day with Monk trying to pull him out of his slump and refusing to leave him alone out of fear that Monk may kill himself.
• Throughout "Mr. Monk Is Up All Night", Monk is haunted by a woman he bumped into, losing sleep for days because he can't figure who she is to him. At the end of the episode, he finally meets Maria Cordova, the taxi driver he encountered and realizes why: after Trudy's death, her eyes were donated to Maria, who was suffering from Retinitis Pigmentosa and caused her vision loss. In effect, Monk was seeing Trudy's eyes and that is what kept him from sleeping. Even after her death, Trudy was still saving people. The ending scene has an incredibly touching moment of Monk embracing Maria after the truth is revealed.
• "Mr. Monk and the Man Who Shot Santa Claus": Monk's grinchy rant about how he hates Christmas and joy is potentially funny...if you don't think about it. He claims joy is a lie that just lets you down. Given his dysfunctional family, his happy marriage to Trudy, and then her brutal death, it doesn't take Einstein to figure out where he got that idea.

Season Seven

• "Mr. Monk Buys a House", as the first episode to be filmed and aired after Stanley Kamel died of a heart attack in April 2008, necessitating Dr. Kroger to die. In fact, in the first scene, where Monk and Natalie are talking about it, one can see that some of Tony Shalhoub's and Traylor Howard's genuine emotions slip into their performances during the scene, Tony especially.
• "Mr. Monk's 100th Case":
  • The segment of the show "In Focus" that discusses Trudy's death and Monk's reaction. It begins with Natalie saying that a case is always worse for Monk when a woman dies (which she somberly confirms is because of Trudy) and just gets more depressing from there:
  Ambrose Monk: "...and I sat there and watched as his soul left his body. The bomb exploded across the city... but it killed my brother too."
  Leland Stottlemeyer: "I watched him coming apart, like those rockets that hit the atmosphere at the wrong angle... and there was nothing I could do."
  • Monk's own somber reaction to the interviewer's question, showing that no matter how much time has passed, the loss of his wife is still a wound that has never healed:
  James Novak: You didn't leave your house for nearly three years. Psychiatrists said you'd never work again. Yet here you are, a hundred cases later. What keeps you going?
  Adrian Monk: [on the verge of tears] ...I can't die until I know.
• In "Mr. Monk Gets Hypnotized", Dr. Bell clarifies that the hypnotized Monk isn't reliving his childhood; he's living the childhood he always wanted. Of course, it has to break by the end of the episode.
• "Mr. Monk and the Lady Next Door": Monk meets a kind widow who becomes like the mother he never had. For a while, he's completely happy. Then, as he sits in Dr. Bell's office, he pauses in the middle of his gushing about her, and asks what the catch is. Monk's troubled past has made him too cynical to accept that anyone could legitimately care for him without an ulterior motive, and it nearly costs him his relationship with Marge.
• "Mr. Monk Fights City Hall". Monk tries for most of the episode to save the parking garage in which Trudy was killed from being demolished to make way for a children's park. He's ultimately unsuccessful, but the City Council elects to call it the "Trudy Monk Memorial Playground" in her honor.

Season Eight

• The ads for the final season of the show set to Keane's "Time to Go".
• "Mr. Monk's Favorite Show" certainly counts. Monk explains that the reason he loved it so much as a kid was that it showed his view of the 'perfect family.' A family that he never had.
• From "Mr. Monk Takes The Stand": Monk is suffering a Heroic BSoD after Harrison Powell causes him to break down on the witness stand, letting a killer go free. Even when he finds evidence of another crime, he just mimics Powell's style of interrogation, clearly thinking he'll fail again.
  Natalie: OBJECTION! BADGERING!...yourself.
  Monk [defeated]: Denied.
• "Mr. Monk and the Voodoo Curse": Natalie has been stressed out over the case, because she actually believes in voodoo. Then Monk goes to talk to her and finds out that she received one of the dolls. Natalie is a complete nervous wreck, jumping at everything and tearfully asking what's going to happen to her daughter.
• In "Happy Birthday Mr. Monk", we find out why he hates having a birthday party. When he was 10 a lot of kids came to his birthday party to see a famous entertainer Cowboy Hank. The minute he was done and left, so did everyone else.
• "Mr. Monk and the Dog". It turns out Shelby's puppies were proof of an affair and manslaughter, so Steven DeWitt comes in to destroy the evidence but Monk talks him out of it. At the end, Monk's selling the puppies but is too afraid to separate them. Someone with a farm comes by and buys all of them, since they have space for all of the dogs and are able to take care of the whole litter.
• In "Mr. Monk is the Best Man," Stottlemeyer tells Monk and Randy that T.K. is having serious reservations about their wedding and the dangers of his job. He tries to laugh it off:

  Stottlemeyer: Turns out I might not need that ring after all... (chuckles) T.K.'s having second thoughts about our wedding. Buyer's remorse.

  • He knows that her rejection isn't personal and that she truly loves him, but to hear him describe the situation as buyer's remorse is painful.
• The final episode, "Mr. Monk and the End" is possibly one of these, depending on how emotional you can get. Keep your tissues handy:
  • From Part 1:
    • The opening scene at the apartment, seeing as it's the last conversation Adrian ever has with Trudy.
    • When Stottlemeyer gets the phone call about Trudy's death, as he and Adrian are talking to Dr. Malcolm Nash. You see his face immediately turns pale as he listens and his voice just BREAKS when he stammers out "When?". When Adrian asks Stottlemeyer what has happened, Stottlemeyer has a very pained look on his face as if it physically hurts him to tell Adrian that Trudy's been killed.
  • From Part II:
    • Natalie takes Monk to visit Trudy's grave for what everyone believes will be the last time. Monk, barely able to stand from the effects of the poison, just presses his forehead to the headstone for a few seconds and staggers away.
      Monk: I'll tell her later.
    • It wouldn't have made Monk feel any better if Trudy's death was at the center of some grand evil conspiracy; but he's furious when he finds out she, along with two other people, were killed simply so Rickover could protect his job. Even Rickover, once it's spelled out for him, seems ashamed of how petty it is, once it's put in perspective.