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Mr. Monk Meets Dale the Whale is the third episode of Monk.

Synopsis[]

An 800-pound recluse, aka Dale the Whale, is the number one suspect in a murder case. But how can a man who can't even fit through his bedroom door be a murderer?[1]

Plot[]

The opening scene shows a large silhouette against a window with a baseball bat held over his head. A 911 dispatcher picks up a call from the house, where a judge named Catherine Lavinio screams that a man named Dale Biederbeck is in her house and trying to kill her. The dispatcher hears the sounds of utter bedlam: furniture being smashed, animal-like growls ... and finally the judge's scream of terror as the attacker breaks into her room....and then dead silence.

Monk is called in. At first, he can't understand why, since the case seems straightforward: a intruder broke into the house at 10:37 p.m. while the judge was in her kitchen, chased her upstairs and beat her to death in her bedroom with a baseball bat, then came downstairs to disconnect the smoke alarm when whatever she was cooking started to burn. The baseball bat was left behind, and bears the initials "D.B."; a passing neighborhood girl saw the intruder through the window when he disconnected the alarm; and the judge even identified her attacker by name: Dale J. Biederbeck III, a very rich and very vengeful financier.

There's a bit of a problem, though: Biederbeck, also known as "Dale the Whale," weighs upwards of 800 pounds, and is so monstrously obese that he cannot rise from his bed, or even fit through the doorway of his bedroom, which he has not left in 11 years. This is confirmed when the police and Monk go to interview Biederbeck and his personal physician, Dr. Christiaan Vezza. Dr. Vezza explains that when Biederbeck first bought the apartment he lives in, he weighed 400 pounds and could still see his toes on a good day. When his mother died, Dale began binge-eating, topping out at 920 pounds 11 years ago.

Biederbeck cheerfully admits to hating Judge Lavinio, who issued an antitrust ruling against him that cost hundreds of millions of dollars. He also taunts Monk, whom he has met before, over Trudy's cryptic last words. Monk is convinced that Biederbeck is the killer, despite all the evidence. Dr. Vezza also takes an interest in Sharona.

Monk suspects that Biederbeck may be faking his immobility. Since a criminal judge -- a friend of the victim ---refuses to issue a search warrant (He notes he had dinner with her that night and even swears he would deliver it personally once proof were found), Stottlemeyer has the idea of sending Sharona undercover as Biederbeck's nurse, although Monk strictly forbids her to do so. However, Biederbeck sees through her and delights in goading her with some details from her life in Miami, and also the full details of his feud with Monk: a few years ago, Trudy wrote an unflattering article about him, so he sued her and Adrian in a costly libel suit. Ultimately he lost, but succeeded in bankrupting the Monks with legal costs, forcing them to sell their first home. Then to add insult to injury, Biderbeck purchased the house and now uses it to store his extensive pornography collection. For his finale, Dale gleefully lifts the front of his pajamas, showing Sharona that his obesity is not faked (and sending her hurtling from the room in paroxyms of nausea). The next day, while hurling, she angrily states that she quit her job, and Monk, deducing the reason why she was hurling most of the morning, reminds her that he told her not to go to Biederbeck's apartment. She then explains that yes, he is indeed as obese as he appears. However, she recovers enough to remember one thing she saw in Biederbeck's apartment: videotapes of the judge, mostly news footage.

Over an emergency session with Dr. Kroger, Monk confides that he hates Biederbeck, who tormented Trudy over a whole year, what would turn out to be one of the last years of her life. He is worried that it is corrupting his judgment.

But then, noticing Dr. Kroger eating leftovers from a doggy bag, Monk realizes that several aspects of the crime scene were staged: the judge ate out on the night she was killed, and brought her leftovers home, so she wouldn't have been cooking, which meant that the killer must have cooked the meal with the intention of setting off the smoke alarm. Monk and Sharona then ask the only witness to the crime, a neighborhood girl named Sue Ellen. Sue Ellen eventually explains that she saw a "very, VERY fat man" standing on a chair to disconnect the smoke alarm while walking her dog (although not before getting Monk to drink three glasses of lemonade just to get her to answer each question). When Monk and Sharona visit Dr. Vezza's clinic, and he mentions that he's just celebrated his 37th birthday, Monk solves the case.

Here's What Happened[]

Monk, Stottlemeyer, Sharona, and Disher confront Biederbeck and Vezza in the penthouse. The Captain shows them the arrest warrant and notes a demolition crane is on its way to break a hole in the wall to carry Dale out.

The reality is, while Dale couldn't commit the murder himself, he did order someone else to do it: Vezza. Vezza broke into the house, using a hide-a-key he learned about from the housekeeper. He murdered the judge first, and then he staged the scene, the idea being to leave behind clues pointing to Biederbeck, the one person who couldn't possibly have done it. First, he ransacked the house. Then, he put on one of his empathy suits from his clinic and set off the smoke alarm, waiting until he was seen by a witness in the window disabling it. And lastly, he faked the 911 call, using the video footage of the judge to perfectly imitate her voice.

Vezza made two mistakes: first, the chair he stood on to disconnect the alarm would have broken under the weight of a man as heavy as he appeared; second, he claims to have been named after Christiaan Barnard, a famous heart surgeon who wasn't famous until 1967, two years after Vezza was born.

As it turns out, Monk and co. have done a little digging. "Vezza" is in fact a defrocked surgeon named Glenn Q. Sindell, who was facing 15 years in prison for manslaughter and reckless endangerment after he killed a child by operating on her while intoxicated a few years back. He jumped bail and eventually came to work for Biederbeck, who knew his secret and blackmailed him into doing his dirty work with the threat of exposing him if he ever tried to turn on him.

Biederbeck laughs off the idea that he can be connected to the crime, but Vezza/Sindell gladly agrees to testify against his former boss. In rage, Biederbeck tries to sit up and strangle Monk, but can't lift himself high enough even with Monk, as if to add insult to injury, inching closer and closer.

During a walk, Monk confides to Sharona the meaning of Trudy's last words to him.

Background[]

"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
0:42 What's he doing? Sharona Monk Dale the Whale. "I think he's trying to kill me."

Quotes[]

Can I bring him to school? Like, for show and tell?

Benjy Fleming on Adrian Monk

I don't know how he did it. But he did it.

Adrian Monk debuting his iconic line

In case you're wondering, yes, he really is that fat, okay? He's ORCA! He's horrific!

Sharona Fleming on Dale J. Biederbeck III

Biederbeck: Listen, by the time my lawyers get through with you, you're not gonna know which end is up! There's not a prison in the country that can hold me!
Monk: There are very few shopping malls that can hold you. But, nonetheless, we're gonna give it a try.

Dale J. Biederbeck III and Adrian Monk

Biederbeck: YOU! (tries to strangle Monk)
Fleming: What's he doing?
Monk: I think he's trying to kill me.
Biederbeck: (collapses)
Monk: It wasn't much of a fight, was it?

Adrian Monk, Dale J. Biederbeck III, and Sharona Fleming

References[]

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