Monk Season 4
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Mr. Monk and the Big Reward is the thirteenth episode of the fourth season of Monk.

PlotEdit

In San Francisco, shadowy thieves enter a museum and steal the world-famous Alexander Diamond.

Natalie drags Monk to the police station to talk about money. Natalie tells Captain Stottlemeyer that Monk's normal consulting fee isn't stretching far enough, and asks for a raise. Failing that, she asks the department to put Monk on a retainer, instead of hiring him on a case-by-case basis. Stottlemeyer says he doesn't have the authority to grant her requests, but, knowing what Monk's brain is worth to the department, promises to propose it to the higher-ups.

While they are there, Lieutenant Disher brings in Warren Landis, a security guard from the gallery, for routine questioning about the diamond theft. When Monk notices some chemical residue on Landis's fingers, Lieutenant Disher arrests the security guard on drug charges.

When Natalie learns that Lloyd's Bank in London is offering a $1 million reward for the diamond, Natalie excitedly persuades Monk to take the case, believing that, with Monk's talent, the reward is as good as theirs. But when they go to the gallery to investigate, they encounter a novelty: competition. Three other detectives are also after the reward: retired Scotland Yard Inspector St. Clare, young techno-whiz Rufus, and muscle-bound, motorcycle-riding bounty hunter Dirk.

Whatever their individual talents, the three other detectives are quickly outclassed by Monk, who deduces that the heist was an inside job. Clues indicate that at least one of the thieves was a trained contortionist, given that he concealed himself inside a roll top desk, before emerging to lift the diamond after the gallery closed. Other clues indicate the thief could have been a practitioner of transcendental meditation. Monk and Natalie head to a meditation retreat, where they find their man: Danny Chasen – or, to be more precise, his recently-murdered body.

Back at the police station, Monk is conferring with Stottlemeyer, trying to identify the inside man. While there, he notices a woman named Jennie Mandeville. Disher explains that Mandeville has been coming into the police station, repeatedly, to confess to crimes, only to be told that she hasn't, in fact, broken the law.

In session with Dr. Kroger, Monk discusses the case. When he mentions the meditation retreat, Kroger mentions having been there, named for its founder, Jennie Mandeville. Monk solves the case!

Monk excitedly calls Natalie, telling her he's solved the case – but makes the mistake of doing so in the street, where one of Rufus's distant listening devices picks him up. By now, the other three detectives have given up all pretense of finding the diamond on their own, and are simply dogging Monk's footsteps.

Monk and Natalie race to police headquarters on foot, with the other three running after them. The chase takes them into the observation room next to one of the interrogation rooms, carrying Stottlemeyer and Disher along with them. As they argue, Dirk turns to the door and breaks off the key, trapping them inside. He then proposes that, as "adults," they can each content themselves with a four-way split of the reward. Natalie begins to tell him what she thinks of that, when Stottlemeyer yells for everyone to shut up, except Monk, so he can explain the case.

Here's What HappenedEdit

There were three robbers involved in the theft: Danny Chasen, who lifted the diamond; Warren Landis, the security guard, was the inside man; and Landis's girlfriend, the woman calling herself "Jennie Mandeville." After lifting the diamond, Chasen handed it to Landis, who still had it in his pocket when the police brought him in for questioning. When he was interrogated on the drug charges, he panicked and stuck the diamond under the table in the interrogation room with a wad of chewing gum.

From jail, he called his girlfriend, who repeatedly "confessed" at the police station in the hopes of being led to that interrogation room. She took a liking to the name "Jennie Mandeville" after seeing it at the retreat, where she went to kill Chasen. Unfortunately for her, she never did manage to get herself into the right room.

With the case solved, everyone turns their attention to the interrogation room where the diamond remains. Then Gladys, a cleaning lady whom Monk has been harassing to be more thorough, enters the room and starts to clean. Trapped in the observation room, the police and the detectives can only pound on the glass and yell. Hearing faint noises, Gladys thinks Monk is following her again, and irritably starts to follow his advice, cleaning the underside of the table – where she finds the diamond: "Ka-Ching!"

A few days later, Natalie bitterly reads the news story about Gladys flying to London to collect the million-dollar reward in person. But Stottlemeyer has a consolation prize for Monk: the department has agreed to put him on retainer, guaranteeing him a minimum of sixteen homicide consultations per year.

Background Information and NotesEdit

• On the Monk Cast Favorites Marathon, this episode was shown as one of Stanley Kamel's favorites.
• The terms of Monk's retainer are an inside reference to the number of episodes (16) per season of the show.