Mr. Monk Is Up All Night

"Mr. Monk Is Up All Night"

"Mr. Monk Is Up All Night" is the ninth episode of the sixth season of Monk. It first aired on September 14, 2007.

Plot synopsis

Upon leaving a barber shop, Monk sees a Hispanic woman walking down the street, and Monk, sensing something about the woman is strangely familiar to him, chases her for two blocks before losing sight of her; yet Monk tells Natalie that he has never met the woman. Monk, obsessed with the mysterious woman, is unable to sleep, and calls Natalie for help. Natalie cannot help because Julie is sick, so she recommends Monk take a walk. On the walk, Monk, asked by a taxi driver if he wants a ride, declines, but then realizes as she pulls away that it was the mysterious woman with whom he has developed an obsession. Monk follows the taxi as best he can. This leads him to an alley where he hears voices. Spying through a window, he witnesses an apparent drug deal in a kitchen involving an Asian man (who identifies himself as an undercover cop), a drug dealer, and a distressed appearing bald man, who was attempting to purchase the drugs. The cop is shot and the dealer departs with the bald man. Monk then calls Stottlemeyer - who has night allergies - and they search the kitchen, but there is no sign of a gun fight, and no sign of a corpse; no cop had also been reported missing that evening, and the waitress informs Stottlemeyer she had been cleaning the kitchen all evening to prepare for a health inspection. Stottlemeyer suggests that Monk is seeing things because of his insomnia, and asks Monk to go to the nearby bar and get a drink to make himself feel sleepy.

At the bar, Monk chats with a con-man named Gulliver (Gully), and later into their conversation, Monk mentions his mystery woman to Gully. Gully tells Monk where to find the local taxi dispatcher named Essie; as Monk leaves, Gully pickpockets his wallet. Monk waits at the train station after being told by Essie at the taxi station that his mysterious Latino woman - named Maria Cordova - would be there at 4:30. While waiting in the station, Monk sees the Asian who was murdered at the restaurant, alive and well. Monk once again calls Captain Stottlemeyer and Randy, but the Asian man denies that any of Monk's story happened. Monk then looks through the trash to see what the Asian man, identified as William Lee, was throwing away at the train station. It is revealed he was throwing away coin cases, labeled, "Jacob Posner", matching the initials on a money clip Monk found at the restaurant (J.P.). This leads the team to a coin shop run by Jacob Posner, the same bald man from the apparent drug deal Monk witnessed earlier. Monk notices a whole case of coins is missing. Posner easily convinces Stottlemeyer he was in bed all night and had never set foot at the restaurant in his life. Posner also reveals that his gun - a 22 caliber - had not recently been fired. Monk, hoping to finally catch up to his mystery woman, rushes back to the train station. Disher and Stottlemeyer then go to the bar where Monk was earlier, and Gully - still at the bar - buys them drinks with money from Monk's wallet.

Back at the train station, Monk discovers that the Asian man has now been shot dead, with a 22 caliber gun. Monk deduces the Asian man and the gangster were con artists who faked the shooting in order to blackmail the bald man; the waitress at the restaurant was in on the con as well. The bald man had realized he was conned after the team informed him that Monk saw Lee alive at the train station, and he tracked down the Asian man and shot him. Monk rushes back to the restaurant - riding on a newspaper truck, after realizing that his wallet had been stolen - to stop Posner from killing the waitress and her partner, the fake drug dealer. Meanwhile, at the bar, Stottlemeyer notices that the napkin he picked up at Posner's coin shop matches the same custom-made napkin he picked up at the restaurant, proving Posner lied about never having been to the restaurant. Stottlemeyer reclaims Monk's wallet from Gully and rushes out the door. At the restaurant, Posner has forced the waitress and false drug dealer outside at gunpoint, and just as he is about to kill them, Monk, arriving in the newspaper truck, throws a newspaper bundle at Posner and knocks him out. At the other end of the alley, Stottlemeyer and Disher, in a taxi driven by none other than Monk's mystery woman Maria Cardova, block the remaining two from escaping, and all three people are arrested.

Monk finally meets the mysterious woman, and discovers she received the donation of Monk's wife Trudy's cornea in a corneal transplant, the day Trudy died. Monk recognized her eyes without realizing why, causing his obsession with the woman. The next day, Natalie comes to his house and sees Monk finally sleeping with a portrait of Trudy.

Trivia

This episode featured characters ordering alcoholic drinks in a San Francisco bar at various times through out the night, even though it is illegal to sell liquor in the state of California between the hours of 2 am and 6 am.

During his insomnia, Monk attempts to read a book called "Almost Perfect Murder" by Hy Conrad. Almost Perfect Murders is, in actuality, a book of short mystery stories written by Monk writer and producer Hy Conrad.

This episode portrays Caltrain as having service to several other West-coast cities (including Los Angeles and Portland), when in reality it is limited to the San Francisco bay area. The station also bears no resemblance to either of the San Francisco Caltrain stations.