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Mr. Monk and the Rapper is the second episode of the sixth season of Monk.

Synopsis[]

Monk is hired to clear the name of a famous rap star who is accused of murder.

Plot[]

After a long night of partying, rapper Xtra Large (Marcello Thedford) emerges from a building in a back alleyway. A young female reporter is waiting and questions him about the threatening messages his rival Murderuss has been sending. When his limo arrives, Xtra Large gets in, and a bomb in the left rear wheel well explodes at 8:00 AM, destroying the car.

Adrian Monk and Natalie Teeger set Monk's clocks one hour forward due to Daylight Savings Time going into effect. Monk obsesses about the clock being two seconds off when Natalie springs it forward. Natalie notices that Monk has brought her flowers, but she is upset to find that the note says "Happy Secretary's Day," considering that what she does is much harder than what a secretary would do. She accuses Monk of disrespecting her. Monk is visited by Murderuss (Snoop Dogg), a rapper from Manslaughter Records, and his two associates, Snake di Assassin and Silent Killa. Murderuss would like to hire Monk to clear his name, since he is the primary suspect in Xtra Large's death. Remarkably, Monk acts quite rationally towards Murderuss, shaking his hand without needing a wipe, and vows to have him proven innocent. After Murderuss leaves, Monk expresses relief that Murderuss was not upset at his turning down the job. Perplexed, Natalie tells him he took the job, showing him his retainer check as proof.

Monk and Natalie join Captain Stottlemeyer and Lieutenant Disher at the crime scene. Natalie asks Randy about if he thinks Stottlemeyer respects him, and Randy says yes. When she tells the Captain about Murderuss' visit that morning and Monk accepting the job, Stottlemeyer explains that when Monk gets nervous, especially around famous people, he sometimes blacks out and agrees to do things he normally wouldn't. He shows Monk the watch utilized as the bomb's timer; it is a white gold imported pocket watch, the same as Murderuss wears. Stottlemeyer is convinced Murderuss is guilty, having arrested him multiple times already back when he was still called Russel.

Stottlemeyer and Disher take Murderuss in and interrogate him. Murderuss has obvious motive: he was ticked off at Xtra Large breaking off from Manslaughter Records and recording for another label, Fresh Rhymes Records. He also recorded a song called "Car Bomb," which expresses a desire to kill Xtra Large and has suggestive lyrics like, "Ch, ch, ch, I put the bomb in your limo, that's what the surprise is / Under your seat, like Oprah giving prizes". There is also a mountain of evidence against him: the police have recovered a blasting cap stolen from a construction site only a half block away from Murderuss's house. The limo driver was with the car all night long, and he's stuck in the ICU unit. Murderuss disparages Randy. Randy takes offense at this and begins talking about his musical repertoire.

Monk is convinced that Murderuss is guilty, but Natalie has a hunch he is innocent. They stop at the studio for Fresh Rhymes Records. They speak to the label's heads, Denny Hodges and Woody Mitchum. Xtra Large had just moved to the label, and they had high hopes for him. They give their alibi for that morning: they were at their weekly breakfast meeting. Woody complains that there was no place setting for him at 8:00 a.m. Denny says he forgot about it, but Woody considers this implausible since they have been meeting like this for years, and says it was a deliberate slight.

Hodges approaches Monk afterwards and says he saw someone of Murderuss's height at 7:00 the night before the bombing in a parking garage, yet it was also very dark so he couldn't make out the man in question. Natalie finds it odd that Hodges happened to see someone in that parking garage, and thinks Hodges is the killer. Monk dismisses her, since Hodges had no motive. Their only hope is to talk to the limo driver after he gets out of intensive care.

That night, a man strangles the limo driver in his hospital bed. A white gold chain is found to be the murder weapon, and the footprint found matches a special edition shoe Murderuss wears.

Stottlemeyer and Monk go to Murderuss' house to back out of the contract. Stottlemeyer must stay in the hallway because he's a cop. Monk tries to back out, but when Murderuss objects and pressures him to smoke a cigar, he blacks out again (and is apparently given gold teeth in the process).

With Murderuss about to be indicted and arrested, Monk packs his belongings and plans to hide out at Natalie's house in order to escape Murderuss' wrath. Natalie once more brings up her suspicion on Hodges and him happening to see Murderuss in the parking garage at 7:00 PM. Monk finally admits it was odd that Hodges knew the exact time. Looking at an analog alarm clock, he realizes that Hodges must have been lying.

At a tribute concert for Xtra Large, Stottlemeyer apologizes to Murderuss for his accusations. Monk explains to Murderuss exactly how he solved the case. The crowd boos Monk when he comes on stage to accuse Hodges, but Murderuss takes over and raps out the summation.

Here's What Happened[]

As it turns out, the target of the bombing was not Xtra Large, but Woody Mitchum, whom Hodges wanted to kill to gain his half of their profits. He planted a 12-hour bomb, planning for it to go off when Woody was in the limo with the intention of making it look like Murderuss was targeting them in retaliation for poaching one of his stars. However, he forgot to factor in Daylight Savings Time when setting the timer, so the bomb missed its mark by an hour and instead blew up Fresh Rhymes' biggest star. Hodges didn't have a place setting for Woody because he assumed Woody would be dead by that time. Hodges then killed the limo driver because he was afraid he saw him fleeing after planting the bomb, as he was sleeping in the limo the night prior. Hodges tells Stottlemeyer that they can't prove any of this, but Stottlemeyer presents him with a search warrant and says they've already found his bombmaking equipment. While leaving out a back route, Murderuss invites Monk to be his security chief on his 27 stop tour. This time, despite blacking out again, he declines the offer.

Background[]

  • The opening credits feature a hip-hop version of the opening theme, performed by Snoop Dogg.
  • A tan station wagon matching the one Sharona drove is visible at the crime scene.
  • Many of the scenes were filmed on the Universal Studios Backlot in Hollywood, California. A soundstage can be briefly spotted in the opening scene, as well as the edge of a facade. NBC Universal owns USA, Monk's home channel (recently, Monk's home channel was switched to Sleuth, also owned by NBC Universal), so many scenes from Monk are filmed at Universal Studios.
  • The episode supposedly began on Secretary's Day as well as on the first day of Daylight's Saving Time. However, Daylight Savings Time always occurs on a Sunday whereas Secretary's Day is always on a Wednesday. Additionally, if you freeze the newspaper article Murderuss shows about Xtra Large's death in Monk's apartment, it's dated May 4, 2007 - in 2007, the United States changed Daylight Savings Time to begin on the second Sunday in March.
  • Xtra Large is killed on the first Sunday of Daylight Savings Time. Murderuss and his two associates show up at Monk's apartment that same morning to ask Monk to take the case and Snake di Assassin hands Monk a newspaper article about Xtra Large's death. However, he was killed at 9:00 AM in the morning, meaning any article about the car bombing would be in the Monday morning newspaper, unless we are to assume that in this universe, the Chronicle has a Sunday afternoon edition.
  • The "Here's What Happened" explanation is rapped over samples of Soul Bossa Nova.

"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
0:10 What did I do? Monk Stottlemeyer Monk wondering why he agreed to work for Murderuss.
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