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Season 7 | THE END |
Mr. Monk and the Foreign Man is the second episode of the eighth season of Monk.
Synopsis[]
Monk finds himself increasingly drawn to a case involving a visiting African man who is investigating his beloved wife's hit-and-run death, a case that strongly resonates with Monk.
Plot[]
Nigerian woman Ansara Waingaya shops for groceries and chats with the clerk. She then steps outside and calls her husband, Samuel, back in Nigeria and tells him that she misses him and loves him. She finishes her call and crosses the road. But a van rushes madly through the red light, towards Ansara. The clerk rushes outside and finds Ansara's dead body on the road.
At Monk's apartment, Adrian Monk and Natalie Teeger are reading from the same magazine when Monk smells bacon. He goes over to the window and sees Samuel Waingaya, sitting on a cloth on a curb. Monk yells at Samuel to stop selling his incense but Samuel claims he is not selling anything. Monk replies back (saying "No one would want to buy that crap!") Stottlemeyer calls him to the twelve day murder of Maria Fuentes, a housekeeper of John and Carolyn Buxton who had just came back from holiday and found her bludgeoned. Whilst Natalie questions Disher whether or not he is trying to impress a CSI tech, Monk notices that one of her gold earrings is in her front pocket and a counter beside her body, finds a first aid handbook opened to the chapter about head injuries and covered with Fuentes' blood. When Natalie suggests that maybe someone tried to revive her, Stottlemeyer informs them that the book came from a shelf under the counter and that the book was already in that position when the Buxtons returned, meaning that the book was already open when Maria was killed.
That evening, at Monk's apartment, Monk is awaken by some beautiful flute music coming from outside. He goes out and confronts Samuel who is still at the curb, playing a flute. Monk quickly gives Samuel a five dollar note and tells him to go buy himself some dinner and move somewhere else. However, Samuel says he cannot leave the curb because it is now sacred, his wife had died there. Saying this, he shows Monk a picture of Ansara. Monk, knowing how it feels to lose his wife, decides to invite Samuel into his house. In the apartment, Samuel told Monk that Ansara had came to San Francisco for a teacher conference and brought some groceries and was crossing the road when a vehicle, probably a van, he thinks, ran a red light and struck her, not stopping to help. He also tells Monk that 'Ansara' means sunflower (and Monk tells him that 'Adrian' means that no one picks you for the softball team.)
The next day, after meeting Natalie (whom he thought was hilarious), Samuel joins them as they look at four cameras that showed when Ansara was killed. And to confirm Samuel's thinking, they found out that it was a van that had struck the Nigerian. Stottlemeyer tells Samuel that cases like this are hard to solve but that they have their best guy on the case. But after Samuel, Natalie and Randy left, Monk notices something and tells Stottlemeyer to make the "picture go back". The captain does so and they both notice something fishy. As soon as the van hit Ansara, the same van was seen heading the opposite direction.
Monk, Samuel and Natalie go to the gas station where the camera was located and interview two teenagers about the incident. One of them claims that the van had almost run him down twice, (the first in the direction of Ansara and the second when he had turned around), and that the driver was talking on the phone, explaining why the driver turned around and headed the other way, he didn't want the connection to be cut off by a tunnel ahead.The teenager also remembered looking at the van and seeing the word 'poison'.
Monk shows Samuel how to do laundry at a Laundromat, American-style. When Monk points out that exterminator vans don’t typically have the word “poison” on them, Samuel sees a painting of a fisherman and realizes the word is “poisson.” The van belongs to a French restaurant, since “poisson” is French for “fish.” Samuel is clearly angry and planning vengeance, and Monk agrees to bring the killer to justice. However, he starts to confuse Samuel with himself and says he plans to get justice for both of them.
Monk and his new friend are able to track the van to a restaurant called 'Le Poisson Bleu', a french restaurant owned by Kenneth Nichols. They find some rice on the front of the van and Samuel says that Ansara had brought rice the night she had died. They are in time to see Kenneth Nichols fire one of his chefs and Samuel tells Monk, 'he is the guy'.
The next day, Stottlemeyer meets up with Monk as the detective places flowers at the spot where Ansara died. He knows that Monk has been acting erratically, missing his appointments with Dr. Bell and forgetting to eat. He’s also heard from Natalie that Monk and Samuel plan to go undercover at Le Poisson Bleu and find evidence against Nichols. Monk admits it’s true and that he’s learned that Nichols was once arrested for drunk driving. Stottlemeyer warns him that he’s confusing Ansara’s death with Trudy's and asks Monk to drop the investigation for now. Monk agrees to think about it.
Once Monk thinks about it, he and Samuel are hired for Le Poisson Bleu for washing dishes. During their job at the restaurant, the head chef gets mad at them for dicing some potatoes into tiny pieces instead of just peeling them. Monk has just washed a fork when he notices a calendar confirming a farmer's market the night Ansara was killed. He tells Samuel that he would help him kill Nichols if they can prove that he killed Ansara. But as they're talking, Monk recognizes Nichols talking to John and Carolyn Buxton, the owner of the house Maria was housekeeping for. They seemed to know each other very well so Monk disguises himself as a waiter and talks to the couple, asking them about Kenneth Nichols. The couple recognizes him and tells him that Kenneth has John's phone number and calls him a lot, especially during the baseball season.
Back in the kitchen, Monk tells Samuel that he can't prove that Nichols killed Ansara but he can prove Nichols guilty of murdering Maria Fuentes, The Buxtons' housekeeper. But just as Monk is about to call the captain, Kenneth Nichols holds them at gunpoint and orders them to follow him to his van.
Here's What Happened[]
Nichols starts his van with Monk and Samuel tied up in the back with crates of fish. When Monk starts wailing about the smell, Samuel tells Monk to give the summation which he does:
Kenneth Nichols was drunk driving that night. He called his friend John Buxton but he wasn't at home. He had gone on vacation and had left his mobile phone behind so Maria Fuentes answered the phone. Nichols and Maria talked for a while when Nichols accidentally sped through a red light and killed Ansara.
Nichols had a problem; he had just killed a woman and Maria had heard the whole thing. So he kept her talking and told her he had pulled over and that Ansara was hurt badly but someone had already called the paramedics. Maria tried to help and read from the first aid handbook. She was still reading to Nichols when Nichols had driven to the Buxton house and killed Maria.
Monk starts crying when Samuel tells him that he has an idea to escape. He asks Monk to reach into his pocket and pull out a lighter which Monk uses to burn the ropes off of Samuel (burning the Nigerian's flesh in the process.) Nichols soon arrives at his destination, walks to the back of the van and opens the back door. Immediately, Samuel and Monk both shove the crates of fish right onto Nichols and he falls backwards. Samuel beats Nichols and forces him to say his wife's name out loud and Monk does the same, too (though Kenneth Nichols had no idea who Trudy is.)
Later, Samuel is just about to leave for the airport when Natalie gives him some CDs, claiming that he'll love these. Samuel tells Monk that they'll meet again someday. Monk then asks him how does it feel knowing the person who killed his wife and Samuel says knowing is everything. He also tells Monk that his turn to find out who killed his wife is next and that he should never give up. Just before Samuel leaves in a taxi, he gives Monk his flute as his present.
Background[]
- Samuel tells Monk that the corner where his wife was killed is "sacred ground." In season 7 episode 16, Mr. Monk Fights City Hall, Monk says the parking garage where Trudy was killed is "hallowed ground."
- The news clippings of Trudy's murder that Monk shows to Samuel include a photo of Stellina Rusich, the actress who portrayed Trudy in the first two seasons.
- Samuel correctly guesses that the homeless man misread the word on the truck. Instead of "poison", it was "poisson", the French word for "fish". This knowledge was crucial to them solving the case. As he is from Nigeria, it is plausible that Samuel is either fluent in French or at least conversant. Although Nigeria's official language is English, all of its neighboring countries are Francophone, so French is mandatory to be studied in all schools in Nigeria. In January 2016, the Minister for Education Anthony Anwukah, stated his desire to make French the second language of business in Nigeria (after English). However, this idea never materialized.
- Adrian also knew what the word "poisson" meant in French, but he's Monk, so that's hardly surprising.
- Samuel said that the police didn't call him in weeks but a tourist being murdered makes the city look bad, therefore it be a high-profile case and they would have been working on it more.
"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 |
---|---|---|---|---|
0:11 | What are you doing? | Monk | Samuel | Samuel lighting a cigarette in Monks' apartment. |
0:17 | What are you doing? | Stottlemeyer | Monk | Monk offering to help Samuel when the case is unlikely to be solved. |
0:28 | What have you been doing? | Chef | Monk | Monk spending far too long washing dishes. |
0:28 | What did you do? | Chef | Monk | Monk peeled the potatoes down to nubs. |
0:30 | What are they doing here? | Monk | Samuel | The Buxtons showing up at Kenneth's restaurant. |
Quotes[]
Natalie: What?
Adrian: Do you smell that? Is that you?
Natalie: Is what me?
Adrian: Are you cooking bacon?
Natalie: Does it look like I'm cooking bacon?
Adrian: I knew it. It's a hippie. It's incense. He's burning incense down there By the way, that's a perfect name for that stuff because that's how people react to it. They get incensed. Get it? Incense, incensed. You add the "D." Forget it.
Natalie: Are you trying to impress that girl?
Disher: What girl?
Natalie: The CSI tech. You think that's a quality she's looking for in a man? Do you think she's saying, "Why can't I meet an attractive 30-something nonsmoker who's oblivious to the stench of rotting flesh?"
Adrian: Oh, for the love of crackers.
[Adrian walks down to the street corner where Samuel is playing his flute.]
Adrian: Do you mind? It's 7:45. People are trying to sleep.
Samuel Waingaya: They are?
Adrian: Yes, they are.
Samuel Waingaya: I don’t know your name.
Adrian: Monk. Adrian.
Samuel Waingaya: Adrian. What does it mean?
Adrian: It means nobody picks you for their softball team in seventh grade.
Natalie: Do you drink coffee?
Samuel Waingaya: I love coffee.
Natalie: Ah, then you're gonna hate this. (Samuel laughs) What?
Samuel Waingaya: What you said about the coffee. It was very funny.
Natalie: Am I that funny?
Adrian: No.
Adrian: Okay, this is how we do our laundry in America. There are your whites.
Samuel Waingaya: My whites, excellent.
Adrian: Your off-whites. Your off-off-whites. There are the primary colors, red, yellow, green, blue, and that’s indigo. Left socks, right socks. I’ve labeled them for you.*
Samuel Waingaya: But in Nigeria, we just wash all of our socks together.
Adrian: Well, I don’t like to judge people, but that’s wrong.
Samuel Waingaya: So you mean you separate everything? But how much is that going to cost?
Adrian: $200.
Laundromat Woman: Excuse me, are you using all the machines?
Samuel Waingaya: That's right.
Laundromat Woman: But they're empty.
Samuel Waingaya: That is the pre-wash cleansing cycle.
Laundromat Woman: The pre-wash what?
Samuel Waingaya: The cleansing cycle. If you are going to live here, you should learn some of the customs. [The woman flips her middle finger at Samuel offscreen] Did you see that, with the finger? What does that mean.
Adrian: That means "We're number one" and we should hurry.
French Chef: What about the potatoes?
Adrian: Oh, yeah.
French Chef: What did you do? You were just supposed to peel them. They look like dice.
Adrian: (whispering) American style.
Samuel Waingaya: American style.
Frech Chef: Why do you keep saying that?
(in a van filled with fish)
Adrian: The smell! I can't breathe! I can't get a break! First the incense, then the dead housekeeper, and now this! Oh, God it stinks! Oh! It's like chemical warfare!
Samuel Waingaya: Adrian Monk, will you please stop talking about the smell. Sometimes, you are like a big crying infant. We have other problems, Adrian Monk.(Pause) That's better.
Adrian: Can I say something?
Samuel Waingaya: Is it about the stink?
Adrian: No. Yes! I can't breathe.
Samuel Waingaya: Well, I am not going to give up and neither are you.
Adrian: Samuel, this is your final lesson. This is how we do things in America. We cry a lot. We confuse our dead wife with other people's dead wives. And then we give up.
Samuel Waingaya: I have an idea. I have an idea. Can you reach into my pants? (very long pause)
Adrian: Yes...
Adrian: What's that smell?
Samuel Waingaya: My flesh. It's burning.
Adrian: It stinks.
Samuel Waingaya: Sorry.
Adrian: What's it like?
Samuel Waingaya: What is what like?
Adrian: Knowing.
Samuel Waingaya: Knowing is everything. But your turn will come, Adrian Monk. You are next. Do not give up.
Adrian: Never.
*NOTE: It is unclear if Monk is referring to the entire list of "red, yellow, green, blue, and indigo" as the primary colors, as the primary colors solely consist of red, yellow and blue. Could he be mistaken?