Mr. Monk Gets Cabin Fever

Synopsis[]

Plot[]

Background[]

"What are you doing?"[]

Quotes[]

Here's What Happened[]

Mr. Monk Gets Cabin Fever is the twelfth episode of the third season of Monk.

When Monk is taken into protective custody after witnessing a Chinese mob killing, he's brought to a remote cabin in the woods where he uncovers another murder.

Natalie and Monk are parked outside a dance studio, waiting to pick up Julie. Monk worries about a bent antenna on the car in front of them, asking Natalie for a pair of pliers so he could fix it. Natalie turns him down, saying that he shouldn't poke his nose in other people's business - it's bad karma. She leaves to get Julie, and Monk seizes the opportunity to duck out of the car and adjust the antenna. It snaps in his hands, but the snap is drowned out by a louder noise down an alleyway... a gunshot. Monk looks up and sees Triad drug lord Tommy Winn shooting someone in an alleyway. Tommy suddenly spots Monk across the street, and threateningly points at him before running away from approaching sirens.

As the sole witness to a gang murder, Monk is placed in protective custody by the F.B.I., and taken to a remote cabin in the woods near the Sierra Nevada Mountains to hide until it is time for him to testify. Natalie and Stottlemeyer accompany him, along with Agent Grooms. Monk won’t go anywhere without Natalie, and Stottlemeyer doesn’t trust Grooms to protect his friend, and pokes fun at Groom's concerns (Tommy has had two other witnesses killed). Natalie is unhappy being stuck in the middle of nowhere with a price put out on Monk's head, and accuses Monk yet again of being bad karma.

Since Monk only drinks Sierra Springs, something Natalie was unaware of, they need to stop at a general store to buy water and stock up on supplies. Monk is given the phony name Frank Conway so to not be identified. He claims to be a hunter inside the store, though a local woman, Kathy Willowby, informs him that hunting season doesn't start for three months. Her husband, Martin, an avid fisherman, tells Kathy to leave Monk alone. Kathy ignores him and tells the store manager to turn up the radio, since Martin hates country music and won't let her play it in the house. The manager obliges, and gives Martin a set of new bass lures he had been inquiring about. Martin takes two - one for the fish, and one for his lucky hat.

Monk, Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Grooms drive to the cabin, which has been used for 30 years. The one-room cabin in the woods is enough to make Monk freeze up in horror, but Natalie and Stottlemeyer help him ease in. Monk and Stottlemeyer later sit out in the backyard, which is on the direct opposite side of a lake from the Willowby's cabin. Stottlemeyer mentions his birthday will be the next day, and talks about how he was the youngest officer to make the rank of detective, and now his career has stalled. Instead of being the Deputy Commissioner like he planned, he's just "the guy who knows how to find [Monk]." Monk assures him he appreciates having him there; Stottlemeyer insists he had to come, he doesn't trust the FBI to keep Monk safe. Monk suggests that he could have sent Lieutenant Disher instead, but Stottlemeyer says Randy is too busy back in San Francisco: "poor kid thinks he's in love."

Back in San Francisco, Randy is enjoying dinner with his new girlfriend, Hayley. They open fortune cookies, each joking reading the fortune and wondering if it will come true. Hayley's says that "true love has finally come her way," which Randy grins at. ("Maybe they know something," he says flirtatiously.) Randy's, however, is less cheery: "a friendly hand will save you from a dirty death." Outside the restaurant, they realize what it means as Randy is almost ran over by a garbage truck, but saved by Hayley.

Monk can’t sleep. Stottlemeyer occupies the top bunk of their bed, and his foot keeps flopping down. Monk resorts to tying the leg to the bedpost. Across the lake, in the Willowby cabin, Martin is taking a bath. Kathy turns on a portable radio, playing country music, and throws the radio into the tub, electrocuting Martin to death. Monk hears a scream from the cabin, and gets over to the window in time to see the lights flickering. He wakes Stottlemeyer up, and Stottlemeyer falls out, his leg still attached to the bed.

The next morning, Monk, Natalie and Stottlemeyer watch Kathy through binoculars. Monk is certain that Martin is dead, as she's bought about 20 bags full of ice and a brand new radio. She is also listening to country music, even though Monk remembers from their conversation at the store that Martin didn't let her play it in the house. Natalie suggests that Martin isn't home, but Monk insists that Martin hasn't come out of their cabin all morning; his boat is still moored at their dock, and he did not drive off in their only car. To test Monk's theory, Stottlemeyer calls up the Willoughby cabin under an assumed name, claiming to be looking for Martin. They catch Kathy in a lie right away as she claims that he is on the lake fishing, when they can clearly see that his boat is in the dock. Natalie is aghast at this - murder seems to follow Monk everywhere he goes.

Randy is skeptical that the fortune cookie really predicted his near accident, but Hayley insists they break open another set of fortune cookies. This time, Randy's says he will receive a gift from a rich uncle. Randy says this is impossible, since all of his uncles are deceased; then a messenger arrives with a tax refund from "Good Old Uncle Sam."

Stottlemeyer believes Monk's suspicions about Kathy Willowby, and they try to explain their beliefs to Agent Grooms. Grooms is furious when he learns that they called the Willowby cabin, and he disconnects the phone.

In the middle of a driving thunderstorm, Monk sees Kathy pushing Martin's boat out onto the lake, with the body loaded into it. He insists that they have to go to the lake and grab the evidence before it is destroyed. Stottlemeyer waits until Grooms goes to the bathroom to wash up, and locks him in. He, Monk, and Natalie get into the car, driving towards the cabin as fast as they can. They get stuck in a pothole, and are stranded in a thunderstorm overnight. Stottlemeyer finds a surprise birthday cake that Natalie brought for him, which is now mush. As they are trying to ride the storm out, Stottlemeyer reminds Monk about the other occurrences where murders have happened where he goes - including the time he went on vacation, the time he took a plane to Newark, and the stage play.

With their ride disabled, Monk, Natalie and Stottlemeyer hike through the woods, trying to find their way to the Willowby cabin. After several hours, they find a stream to drink from. Monk refuses, until Stottlemeyer and Natalie convince him that Sierra Springs is actually bottled there, and the stream is the same as the water Monk drinks. They still have to lower him by his belt, so that no part of him except his lips touches the ground or the water.

In San Francisco, Randy and Hayley open a third set of fortune cookies. Randy’s says that a friend is in danger and only Randy can save him. Assuming this is in reference to Monk, Randy calls the cabin, and hears the phone has been disconnected. He rushes to his car and drives toward the woods, after which Hayley nods to a pair of Chinese assassins, who follow Randy. This reveals that Hayley was in fact a Triad mistress.

Monk, Natalie and Stottlemeyer make it to the Willowbys’ cabin as the local sheriff's deputy, Paul Coby, questions Kathy, who says Martin was killed by lightning while out on the lake during the storm. Monk, Natalie and Stottlemeyer are quick to pick her story apart: there is a scorch mark from where the lightning hit, but it didn't hit the lightning rod on the boat; Martin didn't have his lucky fishing hat or the new lures that he was so enthusiastic about purchasing; and Martin had a life insurance policy with an indemnity clause that would pay double if Martin died due to an act of God.

Randy arrives, having seen them from the other cabin. As he explains what brought him there, Monk looks at the fortunes and tells Randy they've been made by hand. Stottlemeyer realizes Randy has been set up, and pulls Monk to the ground just as assassins start shooting up the cabin with automatic rifles. While everyone is taking cover on the floor, Monk notices scorch marks in the pattern of an electrical cord leading from the radio's power cord leading from the outlet to the bathtub, and ice cubes in the tub. Randy examines the fortunes, and he and Monk give their summations simultaneously:

Monk: Kathy dropped the radio into the bathtub while Martin was bathing, intending to make it look like an act of God so she could collect the double indemnity. But she was unable to fake the accident on the night she killed him, because the rain stopped early, so she kept his body preserved in ice for a day to disguise the time of death. That night, during the storm, she put his body in the boat, cut it loose, waited a few hours, and then called the sheriff's office.

Randy: Randy realizes that Hayley contrived their meeting and relationship, and the Triads arranged the garbage truck and the tax return to get him to believe in the fortunes, before slipping him one that would send him to the cabin, since he was the only one besides Stottlemeyer and Agent Grooms who knew where it was.

Grooms, who has escaped the bathroom and made his way over, gets the drop on one of the assassins and shoots him. While Grooms is checking the man's pulse, the other hit man runs in his direction. Before he can aim at Grooms, however, Stottlemeyer emerges from the house and shoots him down. Inside the cabin, Kathy, shaken, stands up, and Deputy Coby arrests her, telling her that in light of the other evidence, he's planning on ordering a full autopsy on Martin to determine the true cause of death.

As they prepare to leave, Natalie reconsiders what she has been thinking about Monk's "bad karma" and people getting killed around him. Now, she realizes, it's good karma - these murders just happen, and Monk is there to catch them. She vocalizes this to Stottlemeyer, who is amused.

The running joke throughout the episode is at how incompetent the FBI is in protecting its witnesses; Grooms stresses to Monk and the others to not draw attention to themselves, yet enters the woods wearing a three-piece suit at the bait and tackle shop, Natalie mentions reading that the last witness to stay in the cabin was killed (although not in the cabin itself), and when all the locals hear that they are staying in the cabin on the lake, they all say, "Oh, it’s the F.B.I. cabin." In real life, the FBI would also not be utilizing the same cabin for thirty years.
Posters from various martial arts movies can be seen on the walls of Randy's apartment, as mentioned in "Mr. Monk vs. The Cobra."
Randy says the fortune cookie predictions are like an episode of The Twilight Zone. This refers to the 1986 The Twilight Zone segment "The Misfortune Cookie" which is about a restaurant critic who discovers a Chinese restaurant where the fortune cookies all come true.
Agent Grooms previously appeared in "Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect," as an agent of the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms). It seems that he recently transferred to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
When Natalie remarks that people seem to get murdered wherever Monk goes, Stottlemeyer recalls the events of "Mr. Monk Takes a Vacation," "Mr. Monk and the Airplane," and "Mr. Monk Goes to the Theater." This also may prophetically reference later episodes where these occurrences happen, like "Mr. Monk Gets Drunk," "Mr. Monk Goes to a Wedding," "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert," "Mr. Monk Goes to the Hospital," and "Mr. Monk Makes the Playoffs." Other characters' reactions to this occurrence is different: Stottlemeyer's reaction when Monk insists on investigating the death of David Gitelson in "Mr. Monk Makes the Playoffs" is similar to Natalie's in "Cabin Fever," yet in sharp contrast, when faced with a possible murder case in "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert," Natalie doesn't show any sign of objection. Natalie also criticizes Monk for this in the novels Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii and Mr. Monk is Miserable, where murders happen around Monk at such rates that they border on the realm of supernatural.
Monk's alias name is "Frank Conway." Tony Shalhoub co-starred alongside John Travolta as an attorney named Kevin Conway in the movie A Civil Action.
The witness protection program is actually run by the U.S. Marshal's Service. And Monk would also have been "spirited" away to somewhere that was not less than four to five hours driving distance from San Francisco, such as Nevada or Oregon, or more likely Colorado or somewhere east of the Mississippi River.
In this episode, Randy claimed he didn't have an uncle, yet in Season 5 in the episode Mr. Monk Visits a Farm, Randy apparently had an uncle who unexpectedly died.

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
0:14	What are you doing tomorrow night?	Hayley	Disher	Post dinner date conversation.
0:14	What are you doing in 20 minutes?	Disher	Hayley	Post dinner date conversation.
0:38	What are you doing here?	Stottlemeyer	Disher	Disher arriving at the Willowby's cabin.

Season 3 (Monk)

Season 2

Season 4

Natalie: You're the Prince of Darkness.
Stottlemeyer: No, he's not the Prince of Darkness. I've seen him vacuuming the ceiling. You wouldn't see the Prince of Darkness vacuuming the ceiling.
Natalie: I can picture the Prince of Darkness vacuuming the ceiling, to trick us! He's very tricky!
Monk: Stop calling me the Prince of Darkness, that's how rumors get started.

Natalie: Did you make a wish?
Stottlemeyer: Yes, I did.
Monk: What was it?
(Stottlemeyer just looks at him.)
Monk: ...Did it involve me?
Stottlemeyer: Yes, it did.
Stottlemeyer: Cake?

Monk: I've got to know. Are we lost? Tell me the truth, I can handle it.
Natalie: We're... (Stottlemeyer mouths, "NO!") ...not lost.
Monk: Oh, my God! WE'RE LOST!

Monk: Nature! I've got nature on my hand! Wipe...Wipe!
(Natalie hands Monk a leaf)
Monk: What are you doing? No! You can't clean nature with nature!

Deputy Coby: They're staying at the F.B.I. Cabin.
Stottlemeyer: Would you please stop calling it that?

Deputy Coby: Who the hell are they?
Stottlemeyer: Hit men from San Francisco!
Natalie: They’re here to kill Monk!
Kathy Willowby: Good!

Monk/Disher: (together) Oh, my God! I’ve got it! Here’s what happened...

Deputy Coby: My head's spinning. Which one are you listening to?
Stottlemeyer: Neither one.

Disher: Now I have to go back and arrest my girlfriend for conspiracy and attempted murder. She’ll probably break up with me.