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Mr. Monk Can't See a Thing is the fourth episode of the fifth season of Monk.

Synopsis[]

Monk is blinded after he witnesses a murder in a fire station but realizes he can still solve cases.

Plot[]

Monk arrives at Fire Company #53 of the San Francisco Fire Department, carrying his 30 smoke detectors. The station's alarm goes off. While the rest of the crew answers the call, Rusty, a veteran firefighter, tests Monk's smoke detectors for him. A man enters the garage, grabs a shovel from the tool rack, and kills Rusty. After a short struggle with Monk, he grabs a cleaning fluid and throws it in Monk's face. Monk staggers back, screaming in pain. A short time later, Natalie arrives looking for Monk.

Monk is rushed to the hospital to be examined. The doctor tells Stottlemeyer and Disher that the cleaning fluid was composed of detergent and muriatic acid, causing severe optic nerve damage. Whether or not Monk's eyesight will come back is unclear.

At his apartment, Monk is upset that he might never see his pictures of Trudy again. Stottlemeyer asks Monk to accompany him to the firehouse. Monk is unwilling to come, saying he would be useless. Stottlemeyer tells him he owes it to Rusty to catch his killer. At the firehouse, Monk brushes his shoulder against a rack of firefighting protective coats, and realizes that one of the coats is missing.

Days later, Monk, assisted by a walking cane, confirms that a drifter named Jake Colbert who was found wearing the missing firefighting coat is not the killer. Colbert says he found the coat in a Tenderloin dumpster at 5:00 pm. Monk, Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Disher travel to the alley where Colbert found the jacket. Monk is delighted to find that he cannot see the alley's inhabitants, including rats, cockroaches, and a dead cat. Stottlemeyer says that they are in the same neighborhood as the house fire that the fire crew was responding to when Monk was attacked. Monk realizes the fire must be connected to the firehouse attack.

At the burned out house, Stottlemeyer notes that the fire started when the victim fell asleep and a cigarette ignited a pile of newspapers. The victim was 27-year-old Stefanie Preston. She was working as a temp for Peter Breen Construction. Although the file says Preston lived alone, Monk finds evidence of a boyfriend: men's cologne in the bathroom, two toothbrushes, and two different toothpastes. In the living room, Monk picks up a scorched bottle. It smells of rum, and he remembers that his attacker reeked of rum. He also finds the impression of a horse etched into the glass on the coffee table, next to a melted TV remote, and questions why the remote was at the opposite end from where Preston's upper body would have been. He concludes that Preston was murdered. The killer must have forgot something in the house, something that could survive the fire and be traced to him. To return to the burning house, he needed to look like a firefighter, so he went to the firehouse. After killing Rusty and blinding Monk, he grabbed a coat and helmet, and returned to retrieve the incriminating object.

Monk is elated that, even without his sight, he is still a great detective. In a session with Dr. Kroger, Monk tells him that losing his sight has halved the number of his fears. Kroger thinks he is still in denial over his loss.

Monk, Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Disher visit a construction site to interview Peter Breen, Preston's boss. Breen says he knew Preston intermittently. When asked to supply an alibi, Breen claims he was on-site talking with some of his employees. A worker, Eddie Murdoch, reassures Breen that he still has his keys. Monk recognizes Murdoch as Rusty's killer by the squeaking of his shoes.

Monk takes off after Murdoch, but Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Disher do not see him leave. Monk catches up to Murdoch, feels his face, and identifies him as the killer. Murdoch prepares to kill Monk using a saw, but Monk overpowers Murdoch with his cane, seizes his nametag, and escapes. Murdoch recovers and chases after Monk. By hiding behind a wall, Monk throws Murdoch off course. Monk stumbles into an out-of-order construction elevator, and starts it up. It shudders without rising, causing him to mistakenly believe that he has ridden it up to the top of the construction site, and is balancing on a girder high in the air (which is in fact sitting on the ground). Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Disher rush in and find him. Monk hands Randy the nametag he snatched from Murdoch. There is a scream as Murdoch falls to his death. Randy suggests that Murdoch slipped while trying to escape.

Monk is examined again, and the doctor says that Monk's eyesight is returning. Monk, however, has lost all his cheer after the humiliation of screaming for help while standing on a steel beam ten inches off the ground. Moreover, he has second thoughts about the case: what was Murdoch's motive? Monk remembers how Murdoch told Breen about his keys. He realizes Murdoch may have been talking about the keys to Breen's Ferrari. The horse impression on the coffee table came from Breen's keys.

Monk and Stottlemeyer rush down to the morgue in search of the keys. Monk explains that Breen having an affair; he had keys to Preston's house, which he loaned to Murdoch so that Murdoch could kill her. Murdoch stole the firefighting gear to recover the keys. Stottlemeyer finds the keys in a bag containing Murdoch's personal effects. Breen, having entered the morgue to recover his keys, knocks Stottlemeyer out and handcuffs him to a gurney. He grabs a knife to kill Monk. Monk takes Stottlemeyer's pistol, and with his eyesight returned, shoots Breen in the chest.

A few nights later, Monk, having made a full recovery, is reading in his armchair, glancing up to admire his pictures of Trudy on the wall.

Background[]

  • This is one of only a handful of episodes with no "Here's What Happened" summation.
  • This episode was based on the Lee Goldberg novel Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse (confirmed by Lee Goldberg in his blog[1]), although the story is completely different. The only significant commonality between the two is the plot point of the killer impersonating a firefighter. The only characters it has in common with the novel are series regulars, and not even all of them (Monk, Stottlemeyer, Disher, and Teeger all appear in both "Can't See" and Firehouse, but Kroger does not appear in Firehouse and Julie does not appear in "Can't See").
  • On the Monk Cast Favorites Marathon, this episode was shown as one of Ted Levine's favorites.
  • When the alarm at Fire Station #53 sounds, the tones are those of LA County Station 51 in the legendary 1970s Firefighter/Paramedic series Emergency!.

"What are you doing?"[]

In every episode of Monk and the Monk Movie, at least once, some variation of the question, "What are you doing?" is asked.

Time Quote From To RE
0:34 What are you doing? Natalie Monk Monk balancing on a beam he believes is high in the air.
0:35 What were you doing? Natalie Monk Monk balancing on a beam he believes is high in the air.

Quotes[]

Natalie: See? She sounded so hopeful.
Monk: Hope... I hate Hope's guts!

Dr. Kroger: I, I just refuse to believe that you are happy, genuinely happy, having lost your eyesight.

Dr. Kroger: Oh. Okay, fine. Then, why don't we get some earplugs, and some nose plugs, and then you can just cut yourself off completely from the world? Or, maybe, we could arrange to have you put into a coma?

Monk: Well, let's just try the earplug thing first.

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