Monk Season 7
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Mr. Monk's Other Brother" is the tenth episode of the seventh season of Monk.

PlotEdit

Monk is at home making breakfast and watching a news broadcast about an escaped prisoner, Joe Endicott, who murdered a woman during his getaway from the Bayside Correctional Facility. Monk hears a noise in the next room and goes for his gun but is unable to get the lockbox open. He clubs the intruder over the head with the box and discovers it's Joe Endicott. However, "Joe" says that he's actually Monk's half-brother, Jack Monk Jr. After convincing Monk that he is who he says he is, Jack, Jr. begs for Monk's help. He admits that he was in prison for selling stolen cars (hence the alias, "Joe Endicott"), and admits that he escaped from prison, but swears, "hand to God," that he didn't kill the woman, a social worker named Lindsey Bishop.

After a shower and a meal, Jack asks Monk to help him clear him of the murder charge. He explains that Lindsey helped the inmates with their appeals and everyone loved her, and if he goes back to prison then he will be a dead man, unless he can clear his name. He promises he'll go back to prison once Monk finds the real murderer.

Monk agrees to hear him out and Jack explains that he was put in a cell by himself and dug an escape tunnel into the sewers. When he emerged outside the prison fence, Lindsey's car was parked nearby. Jack was about to get in, but found Lindsey's corpse in it. He tried to call 9-1-1 on Lindsey's cell phone, but then the guard tower started firing, and he ran.

Monk doesn't believe it and prepares to call the police, but Jack asks him to talk to his mother, Darlene, first. Jack calls her and Darlene begs Monk for help. She starts crying and Monk can't bring himself to turn her down.

Monk and Jack go to the prison, meeting Natalie, Stottlemeyer, and Disher. Before looking around, Monk introduces Jack as his "pen pal" from Canada.

Monk questions the warden, Tom Bennett, and Daniel Reese, the guard who saw Jack's escape. Lindsey was stabbed to death with a shiv made from a piece of sterling silverware - the handle still has the maker's mark on it. When questioned, Reese says he didn't see the escapee kill Lindsey.

The search team arrives with their dogs, which pick up Jack's scent. Monk quickly gets Jack away and they go to a diner. Jack recognizes the waitress as a Paraguayan and flirts with her.

Monk begins to agree that Jack is innocent, and is being framed. The question then, is who knew Jack was escaping. Jack says his cellmate, Norman "Shiv" Logan, knew. Monk points out that, earlier, Jack said he didn't have a cellmate. Monk realizes his half-brother is a chronic liar. Jack quickly recants, saying the truth is that, the tunnel had already been dug, and Jack just knocked out Shiv and "borrowed" his escape route. Monk says they need to talk to Shiv but Jack protests, saying if they do then Shiv will realize Jack is involved. Monk agrees, and instead asks Stottlemeyer to find and question Shiv.

The next step is going to Lindsey's home, where Jack breaks out into fake tears, claiming to be Lindsey's relative, to convince the superintendent to let them in. Monk searches for clues, but notices Jack pocketing some of Lindsey's loose case, and tells him to stop. Jack notices that the photos of Lindsey on the wall are all out of focus, making it clear that Lindsey would never have hung them herself. Monk realizes that someone else must have cleaned out the photos that were there, and put these distorted ones up in their place to hide an affair.

That night, Jack is watching The Incredible Shrinking Man while Monk tries to sleep. Monk finally goes out and the two brothers bond over the movie, one of their dad's favorites. Monk notices that Jack is reading a book about Paraguay. After vacuuming the popcorn crumbs, Monk and Jack share a bowl of cinnamon-flavored popcorn and debate whether Jack, Sr. was a terrible father. Jack, Jr. puts in that, to be fair, their father was never the same after Jack, Jr.'s mother died. Monk realizes that he's caught Jack in another lie - the woman on the phone obviously couldn't have been Jack's mother - and calls Stottlemeyer to his apartment.

Before Stottlemeyer arrives, Jack begs for another chance, calling Monk his big brother. When Stottlemeyer arrives, Monk can't bring himself to turn in Jack and pretends that Jack woke him up and Monk panicked and called the Captain. As Stottlemeyer leaves, he tells them that Shiv has turned up dead inside the prison, stabbed in the neck with a shiv, and suggests that Shiv should have picked a better name.

The next day, Monk talks to Dr. Bell and admits that he's harboring Jack in his apartment. Monk also admits that his feelings toward Jack are ambivalent: on the one hand, Jack, Jr. has admitted to being a con man and a thief, but in their less tense moments, Monk finds himself enjoying his company. Dr. Bell assures him that it is common for people to debate about what they owe their relatives. However, when Monk mentions Jack's interested in Paraguay, Dr. Bell reluctantly notes that he has done prison workshops and has learned that Paraguay is considered to be the promised land to fugitives because the country refuses to extradite any U.S. fugitives, except of course for murderers. Furious, Monk concludes that Jack lied about returning to prison, and his only interest in clearing his name is to make sure he can get away.

Monk goes back to his apartment where Jack is conning Natalie out of a donation, to build an orphanage in Canada. Monk confronts Jack, telling Natalie the truth about his identity, and she snatches her check back. Jack begins his "hand to God" routine again, only to have Monk notice that he also swiped Lindsey's watch from her house. Jack says that, technically, it's a man's watch, so it probably wasn't even hers... but under Monk's glare, hands it over. Monk begins a tirade, calling Jack the most selfish person he's ever met in his life, but when he notices a set of initials engraved on the watch, he solves the case.

Monk, Jack, and Natalie visit Daniel Reese, the prison guard, at his rustic country farm, while he is drinking coffee on his porch. Natalie then asks why Monk didn't tell her first, to which Monk claims that it was because he didn't want her to get involved, and explains to Natalie that it wasn't her that he didn't trust that prevented him from getting her involved sooner, but rather Jack. Monk points out the inscription, "L.B., To D.R.", on the watch, indicating that Reese (who is married), was having an affair with Lindsey. Reese denies it, claiming that he's been faithful to his wife, and claims that there are a dozen people with those initials, but Monk points out that there are only two other people at the prison with the same initials as he. Monk apologizes and they start to walk away, but Monk whispers that Reese is "the guy" - the silver spoon in his coffee cup matches the set that the homemade shiv came from, and both were made from Sterling silver. Monk says he's 80% sure, but when Reese starts firing a semi-automatic rifle at them from his rooftop, Monk amends to 95%, and they all scramble for cover behind an outdoor shelf.

Here's What HappenedEdit

At some point, Reese's affair with Lindsey turned sour, and he decided to kill her. He planned to frame an inmate for her murder, so he approached Shiv (according to Jack, one of the prison's dumbest inmates) and offered to help him escape, telling him exactly how and when to go down the tunnel: Monday night at 3:00 AM.

On that night, Reese walked Lindsey to her car, stabbed her, and then took his post in the guard tower to wait for Shiv to appear beside the car. The fact that Jack emerged instead made no difference to the plan, except that Reese also had to kill Shiv.

While Monk is explaining what happened, Jack returns fire using Monk's own pistol, which Jack "borrowed." When he runs out of bullets, the shootout from Reese's end seems to have ended, with Jack speculating that he may have got Reese. Monk peeks a check despite Natalie's protests, and immediately the shootout restarts, collapsing the shelf, and Natalie, Monk, and Jack are forced to split up to different hiding spots: Jack behind the trailer, and Monk and Natalie behind a woodpile. He volunteers to run to their car to get Natalie's cell phone and call for help. Natalie throws him the keys, he runs to the car... and drives away.

With Monk and Natalie left alone, Reese moves in for the kill, when Jack runs him over with Natalie's car. Monk is impressed, and even more impressed when Jack decides not to run, but to wait to be taken back into custody.

Monk and Natalie visit the court house where Jack is being taken back to prison. While there, Stottlemeyer informs them that Reese just regained consciousness in the hospital and they have got him on both Lindsey Bishop and Shiv Logan.

Jack has been slapped with extra jail time for his escape, but he's been cleared of the murder charge. Monk finally acknowledges that he 's proud to consider Jack a full brother, "rounding up" from half-brother. Jack prods Monk into giving him a hug. However, as Jack is taken away, Randy notices that his handcuff keys are missing, although he deduces that they must be in his other coat.

Background Information and NotesEdit

• Jack, Jr.'s first appearance, after his existence was made known in "Mr. Monk Meets His Dad."'
• Technical Error: When Jack Jr is returning fire with Monk's gun, just before he runs out of bullets he fires two rounds towards the roof, and just before the camera cuts you can see the action slide back showing he is out of ammo. The very next shot he fires two more rounds towards the roof and the slide locks back again, which is impossible.