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Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert is the eighth episode of the fifth season of Monk.

Synopsis[]

Monk goes to a rock concert to look for Captain Stottlemeyer's son and finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation.

Plot[]

Late at night, preparations are underway for the San Francisco Band Jam. Trafalgar roadie Greg "Stork" Murray makes his way across the grounds to the motorcoach belonging to Kris Kedder, his band's headlining singer. Stork pounds incessantly on the door, and then turns when he sees Kedder approaching. The reason he's come looking for Kedder is because recently, he wrote a song about his daughter called "Peggy's Gone to Memphis". Kedder agreed to perform the song on his behalf and split the credit for in exchange for helping Stork secure more songwriting gigs. But Stork just received an advanced copy of Trafalgar's latest album from a DJ friend of his, and has found out that Kedder double-crossed him, deciding to take full credit for the song and cut Stork out entirely.

Kedder tries to pay Stork $5,000 to let the matter go, but Stork isn't up for taking a bribe especially such a pitiful amount. As Kedder leads him to a secluded area out of sight from the public, Stork warns him that he won't be getting away with this, as he's written copies of the sheet music for his song and sent them to himself by registered mail as insurance. Kedder thinks Stork is bluffing, but realizes he isn't when Stork pulls out a cell phone and starts to dial a copyright lawyer. Knowing the exposure would greatly damage, if not outright destroy his career, Kedder promptly smashes the beer bottle he is holding over Stork's head, knocking him down. As Stork loses consciousness, Kedder takes a shot from his asthma inhaler, and nervously looks around to make sure nobody has noticed him.

Adrian Monk and Natalie Teeger arrive at the police station the next morning, looking for Captain Stottlemeyer. Natalie wants him to reimburse them for a $34 dry-cleaning bill for the shirt and jacket Monk ruined during his previous case. Stottlemeyer gives Natalie the brush-off, informing them that while he sympathizes with them, he is not the person with the authority to handle reimbursements, as Lieutenant Disher is the disbursement coordinator. Unfortunately, Randy is out sick with the flu. Stottlemeyer refers Natalie to the assistant disbursement coordinator, but when she asks who that person would be, he merely points out that they don't have anyone in that position.

Just then, Stottlemeyer gets a call from his ex-wife. His son Jared has skipped school and might be at the Band Jam. He prepares to head up to the grounds to go look for Jared. Natalie offers to help out, and Stottlemeyer accepts. Monk also offers to help, thinking the phrase "rock show" means "geology exhibit", and only realizing his error when they arrive at the concert. As they walk towards the entrance, Stottlemeyer complains about having to miss a whole day's work trying to locate Jared. Monk immediately wants to head back to civilization, but with them having come in the captain's car, he is forced to wait in the parking lot.

Natalie and Stottlemeyer enter the grounds and provide a very old photo of Jared to the bouncer at the main entrance. The official provides them backstage passes to allow them to search the entire grounds. They make their way through the crowd. Stottlemeyer imagines that he is having a conversation with Natalie, even asking her if she thinks he's avoiding Jared on purpose because he feels guilty about the divorce and the fact that he's dating Linda Fusco, but Natalie doesn't give a reply, and they split up.

In the parking lot, Monk attempts to control a couple of rowdy tailgate parties that have sprung up around him with no success, and he realizes that his attempts are hopeless. When a couple starts making out on the hood of Stottlemeyer's car, Monk is disgusted and decides to head home. The head of security directs him towards the pay phones so he can call a cab. As Monk makes his way through the crowd, constantly unsure if he's going the right way, he gets hit in the face by a blue beach-ball. He swats it to over to another girl, and continues through the crowd, only to get hit by the boomerang ball for a second time. Monk gets frustrated with the thrower, so much so that he unwittingly walks into a portable toilet a few feet to the left of the pay phones and shuts the door behind him.

A minute later, Monk steps out of the port-a-potty. Natalie spots him and rushes over, exasperated. She is amused that Monk thinks he was in a phone booth, and starts to lead him away as Monk suddenly realizes (much to his horror) that he was talking into the toilet bowl. Monk and Natalie are walking by the last port-a-potty when a repairman breaks open the door...and Stork's dead body falls out right at their feet.

Monk is somewhat shaken by his trip into the port-a-potty, which he likens to a torture device. Natalie sympathizes with him, mentioning that she once read about how the Spanish Inquisition locked people in outhouses as a form of torture (also known as an iron maiden). Monk is eager to leave, but Natalie stops him, reminding him that they haven't yet found Jared.

It is then that Monk and Natalie get a new distraction in the form of an attractive young roadie named Kendra Frank, Stork's girlfriend and sponsor at Narcotics Anonymous. Although Stork's death has been ruled an accidental drug overdose, Kendra doesn't believe it: she knows that Stork had been off drugs for 17 months and she doesn't believe he could have relapsed. Natalie reminds Kendra that Stork had a needle and a syringe sticking out of his right arm when they found his body, but Kendra doesn't believe that, as Stork was pathologically afraid of needles, was the only roadie she has ever met who didn't have a single tattoo on him, and she remembers how he missed one of the band's South America tour a year ago simply because he refused to get a vaccine injection. In an attempt to provide a reasonable explanation, Natalie suggests to her that Stork may have overcome his fear of needles, but Kendra angrily refuses to believe that her boyfriend could overcome such a strong fear overnight. On the verge of pleading, she hands them Stork’s tour jacket. Monk thumbs through the jacket pockets and finds some random knick-knacks, including a backstage pass and a map of the grounds. Kendra is further angered when Monk finds a time written on the map and notes that Stork apparently visited an acupuncturist that morning at 7:30 AM.

In the meanwhile, Stottlemeyer's search for Jared hasn't been lucky. However, he does find Randy. He makes a call from a few feet away on his cell phone to surprise a very healthy Randy, who pretends to cough to pass himself off as sick. Stottlemeyer pretends to be ashamed to have woken Randy up, and shows himself to be unconvinced by Randy's attempt to pass off the performance on-stage as a broken stereo, then sneaks up to him and surprises him. After a feeble attempt to explain himself, Randy gives up and assists Stottlemeyer.

Monk, Natalie and Kendra go to the acupuncture tent, where they interview Annie, the woman who handled Stork's appointment that morning, as she is tending to another patient. During the interview, Monk tries to straighten the needles on Annie's current patient, only to cause the patient to have a pained reaction (and earning a stern glare from Natalie). They learn that "Stork" was Annie's first customer that day, positively identifying him from a photograph Kendra supplies of him. During the appointment, Annie notes that he dropped a custom-made earring that he forgot to pick up, and shows it. Kendra immediately recognizes it as a gift she made for him. Annie claims that "Stork" didn’t say much apart from a story about how he met Eric Clapton. He also talked about how he he wanted to get high and had gotten over his fear of needles, and lastly asked where he could find some heroin to shoot up. He paid her and left, but not before helping a girl who was having trouble blowing up her blue beachball. Monk figures that the beach ball in question is the one that has been hitting him ever since he entered the grounds. It now seems like the overdose story is true, and Monk, Natalie and Kendra trudge off, disappointed. As they leave, Monk compulsively touches a 400 watt heat lamp and burns the tips of both of his pointer fingers, even as Natalie tries to restrain him.

Elsewhere, Stottlemeyer and Disher locate Jared in the crowd.

Monk and Natalie go to the first-aid tent, where a medic prescribes Natalie an ointment for Monk's fingertips. Despite the conversation with the acupuncturist, Monk is still suspicious about the circumstances of Stork's death and he begins to suspect that Kendra is on to something. He and Natalie reexamine the body, and notice a few holes in the overdose story: for one thing, the port-a-potty the body was found in was erected on a very muddy patch of ground, yet there's no dried mud on Stork's boots, like someone else carried his body in. Monk notices a lack of other track marks, and takes interest in the rubber strap that was found on Stork's arm. Monk decides to try something out, so he puts the strap around Natalie's right arm. With some difficulty, she is able use her left thumb to thread a knot. The medic then confirms that to tighten the knot in the strap, users generally pull on one of the loose ends with their teeth. Natalie refuses to do this to herself, but this gives Monk another crucial clue: how did Stork tie off his own arm without leaving any teeth marks?

As Stottlemeyer and Disher escort Jared towards the parking lot, Stottlemeyer expresses his disappointment in Jared for running off and decides he'll be grounded for the next two weeks. Monk, Natalie, and Kendra catch up to them, and Monk informs Stottlemeyer of his suspicions that Stork was murdered.

Stottlemeyer looks inside the port-a-potty while interviewing an onsite repairman. Monk is surveying the crime scene from the nearby hillside and communicating with Stottlemeyer by two-way radio. Down by the metal barriers erected around the port-a-potty, Natalie reassures Kendra that Monk doesn't always view crime scenes this way. The repairman confirms to Stottlemeyer that the port-a-potty was locked from the inside (since they had to jimmy open the lock), meaning it was not a repairman who posted the handwritten "Out of Order" notice attached to the door. Monk theorizes that the lock must have been rigged. Stottlemeyer finds some fresh scratch marks on the locking mechanism that confirm this. He also finds a piece of a guitar string on the floor, which Jared identifies as a high D string from a 12 string guitar. Jared and Randy recognize the guitar as a very rare type, used by a number of singers, like Kris Kedder. Monk theorizes that Stork was killed elsewhere, then the killer put the body inside, tied the string around the deadbolt on the lock, and ran the string through an air vent on the right hand side of the unit to lock the door from the outside.

At the first aid tent, Stottlemeyer and Disher speak with the medical examiner, who tells them that a preliminary analysis shows that Stork suffered internal hemorrhaging, though whether he was bludgeoned or he fell will be unclear until the autopsy is completed. Stottlemeyer, meanwhile, thanks Jared for identifying the guitar string. Jared, however, is not entirely reconciled with his father, especially after finding a "Runaway Child" poster with the old photo of him on it.

Backstage, Kris Kedder is strumming "Peggy's Gone to Memphis" on his guitar for a small group of women when Monk, Natalie, and Kendra show up, having traced the guitar string back to him. Kendra is disgusted with Kedder's dismissive attitude towards Stork's death. Kedder feigns innocence, but Monk quickly determines that he has to be "the guy" - the guitar string used to rig the deadbolt on the lock came from a 12 string guitar, and not only are they very rare, but it turns out that Kedder is the only person on the grounds to own such a guitar (even though Kedder claims he doesn't lock his guitar case). Furthermore, Monk points out to Kedder that he's got mud on his boots, like he's been around the port-a-potty the body was found in. Kedder counter replies that he sees some on Monk's shoes. Monk quickly reminds Kendra that she was going to take him and Natalie to the camper trailer Stork lived out of. Kedder tells them that the door is locked, but Kendra points out that she has a spare key. Kedder asks to tag along, claiming that he's curious. What Monk, Natalie, and Kendra do not know is that Kedder's real intention is to search for the envelope with the incriminating sheet music copies that Stork told him about right before he was killed.

Kendra takes Monk and Natalie to Stork's trailer. As they enter, Kedder takes another shot from his asthma inhaler. Natalie comments that it smells mint-flavored, and Kedder mentions that his inhaler is a Danish import. Monk is astonished that Stork would live in such a trailer, but Kendra smiles and admits that Stork actually loved camping out in the trailer in between performances, and she sometimes went with him on these trips. Monk finds an A to Z rhyming dictionary on a table, and Kendra confirms that Stork always aspired to be a songwriter, but he was also pretty shy and wouldn't play her any of the stuff he wrote.

Kedder notices the incriminating envelope he is looking for over one of the windows, but since Monk is looking over this section of the trailer, he can't snatch it without being noticed. Luck is on his side here, for at that point, Natalie spots a photo of a little girl, which draws Monk's and Kendra's attention away from that part of the trailer. Kendra identifies the girl in the photo as Margaret, Stork's daughter, who currently lives in Memphis, Tennessee with her mother, who divorced him. As Monk, Natalie and Kendra are looking at the photo, Kedder quietly grabs the envelope with the incriminating sheet music copies, and tucks the envelope under his shirt. He then slaps himself over the head when he realizes he's late and needs to go get ready to perform, and promises to "catch" them later. Monk stops him and questions his use of the phrase, but Kedder then runs off.

But as soon as Kedder is gone, Monk senses that something has been taken. He asks Natalie and Kendra if either of them touched anything. Both women shake their heads, but Monk points to the spot where the envelope Kedder just took had been. Though it's gone, Natalie finds a blue-colored registered mail receipt, and she notes that Stork apparently sent something to himself. This jolts Kendra's memory: she remembers accompanying Stork to the post office six months ago, when he was mailing sheet music to himself, as part of an "insurance policy". She doesn't know what song he was protecting, but Monk has a good idea which one it was: "Peggy's Gone to Memphis," the song that Kedder was singing when they started to question him. Kedder hadn't written the song, but Stork had written it about his daughter: Peggy is a short and common nickname for "Margaret" and Stork's daughter lives in Memphis, Tennessee. Kedder has snatched the envelope containing the sheet music, and that evidence alone establishes a motive for murder.

Monk, Natalie, and Kendra race out of the trailer and make their way through the crowd, trying to get to the stage and retrieve the envelope as Kedder performs the stolen song. However, they are too late - in front of their own eyes, Kedder puts the envelope on a flamethrower and torches it, which burns the paper beyond usability. Monk and Natalie look at each other in disbelief.

As Monk, Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Disher rendezvous, Monk explains what happened (a process made harder by the fact that Novillero is up and playing their song "The Laissez-Faire System" at full volume, causing Stottlemeyer to repeatedly mishear him.).

Here's What Happened[]

Stork wrote "Peggy's Gone to Memphis," which Kris Kedder stole from him. Stork confronted Kedder that night, and in a panic, Kedder bludgeoned him. Then he put Stork into the port-a-potty, and attempted to make it look like Stork had overdosed, tying off Stork's right arm and injecting a "hotshot" of drugs with a needle and syringe, and placing a handwritten "Out of Order" sign on the door to delay the discovery of the body. However, midway through staging the crime scene, he discovered Stork's straight and sober pin, and realized that he had made a colossal blunder.  As Monk remembers learning from Kendra, Stork had been off drugs for a year and a half, and he was afraid of needles.

And since nobody would easily believe that Stork overdosed, especially by injection, Kedder needed to make it look like Stork had reverted back to drug usage and had gotten over his fear of needles. The next morning, Kedder disguised himself as Stork by donning Stork's bandanna and wearing a pair of sunglasses so that no one would be able to pay attention to his face, and he went to the acupuncturist's tent. To support his cover story, Kedder asked Annie about where he could find heroin.

After the appointment, Kedder returned to the port-a-potty and planted the map in Stork's jacket pocket to lead whoever did find it to the acupuncture tent. Then he locked the door by tying a string from his guitar around the dead bolt, running through the air vent, and then closed the door, pulling on the wire from outside the vent. The string snapped, locking the door from the outside.

Stottlemeyer mentions to Monk that they don't have enough evidence to secure a conviction: the guitar string could easily have been taken by someone else, and Kedder has burned the incriminating sheet music. But then Monk sees the blue beachball being tossed through the air over the crowd - the very one that had been hitting him earlier - and he suddenly remembers what Annie had told him when he, Natalie, and Kendra questioned her: Kedder blew up that beachball while he was still disguised as Stork. Randy points out that there will be millions of fingerprints on the beach ball, but Monk counters that the proof is inside the beachball: Kedder has asthma, so he has to use a very distinct inhaler. Natalie points out that the inhaler is mint-flavored and is very unique (she remembers that when they were searching the trailer, Kedder said that it was imported from Denmark). Monk points out that when the guitar string, the fact that Annie can confirm to seeing Kedder blowing up the ball while he was impersonating the victim, and the fact that the air inside the ball could be traced to Kedder's inhaler, are all added up, they decide they have enough evidence to make an arrest.

Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Disher immediately take off, chasing the ball through the crowd, but every time one of them gets close to the ball, the person holding the ball immediately throws it to someone else, extending the chase. While they do that, Monk attempts to make an announcement from the stage, only to get booed off by the crowd. While on the stage, he fails to notice Kedder grab a screwdriver from a utility worker's toolbelt, now aware that Monk is on to him. After a harrowing chase, the ball lands at the top of the scaffolding for one of the loudspeakers, and Jared climbs up a ladder to grab it. Just then, Kedder climbs onto a ladder a few feet away from Jared. He intends to use the screwdriver to deflate the ball and destroy the last piece of evidence that could tie him to Stork's murder. Leland arrives at practically the same time, and he tries reasoning with Jared to throw the ball to him, even as Kedder tries to dissuade Jared at the same time. Jared is visibly torn. Kedder smugly asks Jared if he doesn't trust cops, but Jared, after a tense moment, says that he does trust his father, and throws the ball to Leland. Kedder scoffs "Punk!" at Jared as Randy handcuffs him and takes him away.

As Kedder is led away in handcuffs to a police car, Stottlemeyer instructs a uniformed cop to make sure the beach ball doesn't accidentally get deflated before it gets to the crime lab. Randy has gotten his hands on a Kris Kedder T-shirt, which Natalie comments will be worth a fortune after Kedder is convicted. As Monk and Natalie walk back to the car, Stottlemeyer stops with Jared at a photo booth to get a few photos of him for the next time he takes off. The episode ends with them taking three photos: one of Jared and Stottlemeyer with straight-faces, one of them with Randy in the middle with a goofy expression, and one of just Jared and Stottlemeyer sitting together, happy smiles on their faces.

Background[]

  • Novillero stars as themselves. They are the third band seen on the stage, and whose performance is interrupted when Monk attempts to make the announcement about the beachball from the stage.
  • The song that plays as Monk, Natalie and Stottlemeyer arrive and are making their way through the parking area a song that previously was used in "Mr. Monk Gets Stuck in Traffic".
  • Terry Fradet had previously appeared on Monk as an inmate in the prison library in "Mr. Monk Goes to Jail". James Logan, who plays a roadie, previously appeared in "Mr. Monk Goes to the Office."
  • This is one of several episodes that show how murders happen wherever Monk goes with unusual frequency. In sharp contrast to "Mr. Monk Gets Cabin Fever", Natalie's body language and the tone of her voice suggests that she is already willing to help Monk investigate.
  • Side-by-side, Natalie and Kendra almost appear to be close in age, with Natalie being a few years older. The age difference is much larger in real-life: Traylor Howard (Natalie) was 39 years old at the time of filming and Tamara Feldman (Kendra) was 25 years old.
  • If you look closely at the logo on Stork's jacket, it reads "Trafalgar - 2001-2002 World Tour".
  • This is one of the few cases where an episode takes place over the course of an entire day, instead of being stretched out to cover several days.
  • It's implied that this isn't the first time that Randy has attempted to fake illness to get out of work. In Mr. Monk Goes to the Dentist, Stottlemeyer suspects that Randy is reluctant to take sick leave to go to the dentist for a very much legitimate toothache is because he is saving up sick days so he can use them on days that he isn't actually sick on.

"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
0:02 What are you doing? Kris Stork Stork calling a lawyer.
0:09 What are you doing? Monk Concert couple Concert couple making out on the hood of Stottlemeyer's car.
0:11 What are you doing? Natalie Monk Monk coming out of a port-a-potty.
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