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Mr. Monk and the Daredevil is the seventh episode of the sixth season of Monk.
Plot
Monk and Natalie are waiting in Dr. Kroger's office, and Monk is mad because Harold made him wait an extra two minutes. Natalie is reading about the Frisco Fly, a person who climbs buildings and escapes police. While fantasizing, Monk opens the door and spies on Harold and Dr. Kroger's conversation, and hears Harold crying. Harold suddenly comes out, and Monk claims he heard him crying through the wall. Harold gets mad and tells him they were laughing, Monk says Dr. Kroger doesn't laugh, but Harold retorts that he only doesn't laugh with him and leaves.
Later, when Monk and Natalie are leaving the building, Monk suddenly gets a comeback. He then wants to call Harold, but gets the idea to go and tell Harold at his house, but Natalie thinks he should mail it, not wanting to make the trip, but Monk thinks it wouldn't be the same.
In the city, a boy spots the Frisco Fly on Telegraph Tower. A man (presumably his dad) looks up and see him, and a small group of people form and watch him. He suddenly falls, with a crowd of people rushing over to him. An awning broke his fall, and a man called 911. They remove his mask and goggles, revealing the Frisco Fly to be.....Harold Krenshaw, who looks very confused as to where he is.
Meanwhile, Monk, Captain Stotlemeyer and Lieutenant Disher are standing around the torched remains of a car in the forest. The car has hit a rock, had its vehicle identification number filed off of the engine, and burned. They have the match, gasoline can, and flashlight that the arsonist used, but whoever did it also stole any traces of the driver's ID. Monk notices that the headlights are switched off and there is a piece of antler lodged in the windshield, indicating that the driver may have tried to avoid a deer but failed. The arsonist did the job at night, because of the presence of the flashlight. Monk also figures that the car had been there for about a week, since the grass has just started growing back around the vehicle. Monk then spots poison oak and thinks it is poison ivy. Randy relieves him for a moment, telling him it isn't poison ivy, but then tells him its poison oak.
Natalie then arrives, saying she has weird news, really weird news, and really really weird news. Randy asks for the weird news, which is that the Frisco Fly was climbing Telegraph Tower and fell off. Stottlemeyer asks what the really weird news was, which was he survived by hitting a flag pole and two awnings. Monk gets confused on the 'reallys', and then asks what the last news was, which is that the Frisco Fly was Harold Krenshaw. Monk, dumfounded, laughs, along with Stottlemeyer.
Monk and Natalie go to the hospital where Harold is being treated. Monk is aghast: how can Harold be the Frisco Fly when he's more afraid of heights than Monk himself is? When they enter the hospital room, Harold is surrounded by his wife, his son, and is being interviewed by reporters and posing for pictures with fans. Harold's wife reads a postcard from Evel Knieval telling him to "check your damn parachute" (she is reading it because Harold cannot find his reading glasses). While Monk and Natalie are there, Harold's cousin Joey drops in and apologizes that their uncle couldn't make it because he's ill. The statements that Joey and Harold's son Jimmy give seem to confirm that Harold is not afraid of heights.
The interview time is cut short by a nurse, and Harold asks to have a few minutes to talk to Monk. In private, Harold brags about being strong. But Monk cannot figure out how Harold got over his fear of heights, considering that he recalls that Harold got vertigo when Dr. Kroger reupholstered his office with thicker carpet.
Monk and Natalie go up to the roof of the building Harold fell off of. Monk still cannot believe that Harold could climb a 24 story building all by himself. He tries to theorize that Harold hired an accomplice to throw a dummy off the roof while Harold hid below waiting to be found, but Natalie points out that the injuries Harold received were too extensive to be self-inflicted. Then she finds a pair of eyeglasses on the ground and realizes that Harold was definitely on the roof, as she recalls him complaining that he'd lost them at the hospital.
Natalie and Julie later attempt to help Monk conquer one of his fears (heights, milk, germs, or ladybugs), but the attempt proves unsuccessful, nor does therapy with Dr. Kroger. It is clear that Monk is falling into a depressive phase.
At the police station, Stottlemeyer and Disher are investigating the torched car death. The gasoline can is of no use as there are no prints on it and it was bought with cash at a hardware store, but they discover that there is one instance of the car's VIN number that survived the fire. As Randy is rattling off the numbers for Stottlemeyer to type into the computer so they can ID the car's registration, Stottlemeyer gets a phone call. Whatever it is, it is obviously not good, because the scene promptly cuts to Stottlemeyer and Disher walking up to Monk's doorstep. As they arrive, they realize something is wrong as the doormat is askew, one of the umbrellas on the rack in the front hallway is facing the opposite direction of the other two, one of Monk's jackets is lying unfolded on the floor as if tossed there, there is a partially uneaten cube of a sandwich sitting in a plate, and Dr. Kroger is in the kitchen putting knives into a box. Natalie comes up to them and informs them that Monk is on suicide watch.
Monk stays on suicide watch the rest of the night. Natalie and Stottlemeyer watch him sleeping on the couch and try to guess what he's dreaming about. Stottlemeyer guesses it is cleaning supplies, while Natalie guesses that it is a perfect world where everything is neat and organized in groups of ten. Noticing that Monk is smiling, they figure he's talking to Trudy. Stottlemeyer suggests that Monk enjoy his solitude while he can, because the Frisco Fly's unmasking has resulted in Harold getting a lot of sudden attention from the media, pointing to a newspaper article on the front page. This causes Monk to wake up, and he reads the article, which calls Harold "a real-life Spider-Man." Stottlemeyer and Natalie disagree with the naming given by the papers, since Spider-Man goes around helping people, much like Monk does. Monk gets up to go to the bathroom, and Stottlemeyer decides to go with him, but Monk refuses to go because of this. So the two men sit down on the couch instead and try to hold their bladders for the whole night.
At the hospital, Joey is helping Harold out. Harold has recovered enough that he is now able to walk, although his legs are still pretty weak so he has to use a cane. As they're walking, a local schoolteacher and two of her kindergarten students approach Harold with a poster they made of him in front of a San Francisco skyline. Harold gets nitpicky about it, and thoroughly criticizes the two kids for all their inaccuracies (like not putting suspension cables on the Golden Gate Bridge, and also joking about how disproportionately sized his head is compared to the rest of his body). While Harold marking up the poster with a Sharpie, Joey's cell phone rings. It's his uncle Ronnie's doctor, who is calling to inform him that their uncle is dying and only has a few days left to live. Joey hangs up, and when Harold asks about the call, Joey lies and says that it was a Neptune Energy Bars executive who is interested in featuring Harold in their next commercial.
The next morning, Randy is out getting breakfast when a detective calls him, having run the torched car's VIN number through the computer, which has identified the driver as a man named Victor Grajna. Randy starts to write down Grajna's name, asking the detective to spell it out, but he is drowned out by the sounds of cars on the street.
At Monk's apartment, Monk and Stottlemeyer are still sitting on the couch as they have been for the last few hours. Stottlemeyer informs Monk that he's acquainted with all seven of the deadly sins, and envy is the "granddaddy sin" that causes the most problems in the world, such as Monk's rivalry with Harold, which he points out is getting Monk nowhere. They are interrupted when Natalie suddenly barges in and informs them that Randy has found something very important. Monk hesitates until Natalie tells him that it's something he'll want to see for himself. This causes Monk and Stottlemeyer to jump into action.
Monk, Natalie and Stottlemeyer meet Randy in a rundown apartment that belonged to Victor Grajna. Randy has found a scrapbook with newspaper clippings. He then produces something else that's very interesting: in the closet, there is a box with a trademark yellow parachute and pair of goggles stuffed in it. Randy believes, based on this evidence, that Grajna, who they now have confirmed was the man who died in the burned out car, was the real Frisco Fly. Monk notices a lot of Hungarian posters for traveling circuses plastering the walls, just as Randy notes that Grajna was a circus performer. Then Monk notices something else on a table: pictures of landmarks that the Frisco Fly has climbed. They realize that they are reconassiance photos Grajna took while casing climbing sites.
Now Monk is baffled: if Victor Grajna was the real Frisco Fly, then how did Harold come into possession of Grajna's outfit? This question is answered when he notices Natalie scratching her right leg, complaining about a rash from the poison oak that was all around Grajna's car, and also apologized for not telling him sooner as she didn't want him to get worried. Monk suddenly remembers that when they saw Harold's cousin Joey visit at the hospital, he unconsciously was scratching his right leg the exact same way, meaning he has also been to that same part of the woods. Now Monk realizes what is happening: Joey is trying to murder Harold.
At the hospital, Joey has taken Harold from his hospital room and is walking him to the elevator, on the pretense that he's taking Harold to a commercial shoot. As they get on the elevator, Harold is alarmed when Joey pushes the button for the helicopter landing pad on the roof.
Monk, Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Disher arrive at Harold's room, but they are too late: Harold is gone, and his costume is missing from the closet. Stottlemeyer and Disher quickly call in the alert and instruct Monk and Natalie to stay in the room in case Harold comes back. But then Monk realizes that Harold wouldn't be going outside as he'd be recognized by his fans. They conclude that Harold is going to the roof.
In the elevator, Harold asks Joey to promise that he won't tell anyone one single truth: he is not the Frisco Fly at all. Joey says he knows that, and promptly produces a revolver.
At the top, Joey marches Harold across the landing pad at gunpoint to the edge of the roof, and makes him wave to his fans down below so that there will be witnesses. Once Harold has done so, Joey reveals his true motives: that their uncle is dying, and he has no intention of sharing the estate with Harold. Joey pours some chloroform into a handkerchief, then adds a little more, realizing that he didn't use enough the last time.
As this happens, Monk and Natalie reach the roof. Natalie rushes out, but Monk, due to his fear of heights, waits by the door.
Just as Joey is about to drug Harold, Natalie runs up behind him and strikes him over the back with a piece of metal pipe, knocking the revolver out of Joey's hand. Natalie struggles with Joey for several minutes. Just as Joey gains hold of the pipe, Monk rushes over and joins in, managing to the wrestle the pipe from Joey. Eventually, they end up with Monk lying on the ground and Natalie trying to tackle Joey from behind. Monk then grabs the handkerchief and uses it to drug Joey.
Harold, who has been cowering on the sidelines the whole time, tries to claim that he was about to climb down to please his fans, but Monk reveals that he's figured out what really happened.
Here's What Happened
Joey wanted to kill Harold because he didn't want to share their soon-to-be-deceased uncle's estate, among other reasons. However, Harold would need to be killed in a way that resembled an accident.
A few weeks prior, Joey was driving his car on a back road in the forests when he noticed a car that had just swerved off the road and crashed into a rock. Joey ran down to the car to check on the driver, Victor Grajna, a professional acrobat and the real Frisco Fly, but Grajna was dead. But Joey found something better: in the backseat was a gym bag containing the gear and outfit Grajna wore to perform his high-flying antics. However, he couldn't let anyone identify Grajna lest the ruse be discovered, so he made a detour to buy a two gallon gasoline can. He then returned under the cover of darkness, doused Grajna's car, filed all instances of the VIN number off the car, then lit a match and set the car on fire.
Now Joey just needed to wait for the right moment to abduct Harold and drop him into the Frisco Fly role. The night before the fall, Harold was getting into his car at a downtown parking garage when Joey came up behind him, grabbed him, and drugged him with a chloroformed handkerchief. Joey then dragged Harold, who was unconscious, up to the roof of a 24 story tall building, then dressed him up in the Frisco Fly costume, which took him several hours, then slid him over the edge of the roof onto the top ledge. It was ingenious: everyone would assume that Harold was the Frisco Fly and that he'd died while performing another one of his death-defying stunts. But Joey's plan came apart as instead of smacking the concrete, Harold hit a flagpole and a pair of awnings that broke his fall. Even though Harold admits to being very confused when he woke up 240 feet off the ground, the reason why he never admitted that he was thrown off the roof and played along with the charade was because he loves the public attention, has gotten a golden opportunity to infuriate Monk, and gaining new respect and admiration from his son.
Harold is ungrateful to Monk when Monk reveals that Joey tried to kill him for the money. He tells Monk and Natalie to both go to hell, and sarcastically jokes about keeping Monk waiting at Dr. Kroger's office. As he's doing so, he walks and falls off the side of the building.
Monk and Natalie rush over to the side to make sure Harold hasn't accidentally killed himself, and to their relief, Harold's parachute has opened, and he's being carried off by his fans. Monk and Natalie quickly leave the rooftop as two uniformed officers arrive to arrest the unconscious Joey.