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Mr. Monk and the Voodoo Curse is the seventh episode of the eighth season of Monk.
Synopsis[]
Natalie displays surprising belief in superstitions when Monk consults on a case that involves Voodoo. Unfortunately, her uneasiness turns to terror when the killer targets her.
Plot[]
At a little league baseball park, a team coach, Chauncey, tries to help encourage the boy at bat, 12 year old Petey Cunningham, to keep his eye on the ball. As Petey steadies himself with his bat, an elderly woman named Martha Murphy comes passing by on a power walk (carrying weights in both hands). Chauncey jokingly asks her to help them out, and Martha asks her if he's trying to kill her. She continues on, and with encouragement, Petey knocks a ball over the fence. One of the girls is sent to retrieve the ball, and finds Martha Murphy dead, struck over the head with the ball.
Three days later, Martha’s family members stop by to pack up her belongings. The husband finds something of real interest – a doll in a box, with a baseball on its left temple. It’s a voodoo doll, and it's postmarked for three days before Martha died.
The following day, Captain Stottlemeyer calls Adrian Monk in to investigate. He calls the discovery of the voodoo doll the most unnatural case he's had in his history on the police force, which causes Monk's assistant Natalie Teeger visible discomfort. While Stottlemeyer is briefing Monk at the station, Monk is distracted by the fact that the squad room has been rearranged. After the room is restored to its original layout, Stottlemeyer continues briefing Monk. Lieutenant Disher confirms that the post mark on the box the doll was mailed in was legitimate, and it was mailed from a mailbox in Nob Hill.
They question the baseball team, who are not being charged with anything since it was most likely an accident. Monk learns that not many baseballs get knocked over the fence. With nobody able to explain how the voodoo doll seemingly predicted Martha Murphy's death, Natalie argues that the doll must have possessed real magical powers. Disher jokingly suggests to Monk and Stottlemeyer that they start rounding up witch doctors. They each give different theories as to how the ball incident was predicted: Disher believes that someone was hiding waiting with a pitching machine and waited for a home run to be hit. Stottlemeyer theorizes that it was suicide, but Martha had an insurance policy with a no-suicide clause in it, so she needed it to look like an accident - she waited for a home run to be hit, grabbed the ball, and managed to fracture her own skull. Natalie quickly picks apart all of their theories. Not even Monk can figure out what is going on.
They're interrupted from their brainstorming session when Randy gets a call from a police sergeant reporting the discovery of a second voodoo doll. They meet the officer in the apartment of a recently deceased golfer named Ralph Farris. A few days ago, Farris was out golfing during a thunderstorm, and (in what Stottlemeyer claimed "single-handedly proved Darwin's theory") got struck by lightning, and was killed instantly. This morning, when the building super came by to start packing up his belongings, he found a package, containing a voodoo doll with a paper lightning bolt sticking out of its head.
Like with Martha Murphy, the doll was mailed a few days earlier. Monk is stumped - try as he might, he can't explain how anyone could have arranged either of the deaths. Meanwhile, Natalie is spooked, and Monk is surprised to find himself taking the lead.
The next morning, Natalie shows up at Monk's apartment and tells Monk that they're going on a vacation to Santa Barbara. She even calls Stottlemeyer, but Monk points out that he unplugged the phone she is using. He forces Natalie to admit that Stottlemeyer called her an hour ago to report a third doll related death. This time, the doll came with a dead body.
At an upscale house, Stottlemeyer and Disher are talking to Angeline Dilworth, a Paramedic for the SFFD and the niece of the latest victim, 64 year old Robert Boyd (founder of a cell phone company). After she calms down, Angeline tells them that she was alone in the house when her uncle had a heart attack, and she tried everything she could to save him but it was too late. Stottlemeyer notes that they found nitroglycerin pills and Angeline confirms that her uncle had a heart condition, in part the reason why she moved back in with him recently. The medical examiner asks Stottlemeyer for the okay to take the body away, but Stottlemeyer wants Monk to see the scene intact, and is getting impatient. When Monk and Natalie arrive outside, Natalie refuses to enter the house, and Monk is forced to soldier on, superstitions not having an effect on him.
When Monk arrives inside, Stottlemeyer is baffled to find that Monk is the 'level-headed mature one'. He and Disher brief Monk on Boyd, and explain what they know happened: it turns out that Boyd was obsessed with the voodoo killings and was following the case and news. He'd even put up a lot of good luck charms around the house. This morning, he checked his mail, opened a box with a voodoo doll depicting him with a broken heart, and his heart promptly stopped.
Monk notices a few discrepancies with their apparent crime scene: Boyd put up a horseshoe over his doorway upside down, and he informs Angeline that the horseshoe should be facing up so that the good luck stays in the shoe, to which Angeline jokingly claims is likely why her uncle's good luck charms didn't work . Natalie refuses to enter the scene, and barely has Monk had a look when she decides to head home.
All the dolls can be traced back to a single shop in the Haight: Reverend Hadley Jorgenson's Voodoo Boutique. Stottlemeyer and Disher go to question Jorgensen at his shop, which is doing a thriving business thanks to the sensational newspaper stories about the "voodoo killings." Stottlemeyer shows one of the full page advertisements that Jorgensen has taken out in the newspaper to capitalize on the sudden upsurge in demand for his merchandise, and suggests that Jorgensen has an obvious motive - publicity - but admits that he can't think of a way to call the three deaths "homicides".
Meanwhile, Monk goes to check on Natalie. He finds her on her stairs in an almost catatonic state. He doesn't know what is wrong with her, and then she silently points a finger towards the kitchen. Monk goes into the kitchen, and finds a box with another voodoo doll in it. As he holds the doll up to take a closer look at it, its head falls off.
Monk quickly calls Stottlemeyer to report the doll. Before they arrive, he tries to ask Natalie for information about the doll and the package, but Natalie is too catatonic to answer, forcing him to do the heavy lifting himself. He notices two clues: first off, the package was mailed from Pacific Heights. Also, the sender misspelled Natalie's last name on the shipping label, "Teager". Natalie finally states that the head being cut off indicates that she will be decapitated. Monk tries dismissing it on the grounds that the head could have broken in shipping, though he then notices that the head was surgically cut with a scalpel.
Monk tries to reason with Natalie, and she explains to him why she believes in voodoo: when she and Mitch were living in an apartment in South Carolina near Mitch's base, one of their neighbors claimed to be a voodoo priestess; the woman warned Natalie that her husband was in danger, but Natalie, disbelieving, said nothing - and the very next day, Mitch was shot down.
Since Natalie refuses to leave her house, Randy is assigned to guard her there. That night, Natalie can't sleep - she freaks out when she sees her ceiling fan in her bedroom rotating. That morning, Randy tries to get some gingerbread cookies out of the cookie jar but can't find an opener, as Natalie has thrown out all of her sharp utensils. He eventually uses a spatula as an opener, and momentarily spooks Natalie when he bites off the cookie's head.
Monk confers with Stottlemeyer at the police station about the case. Things have erupted into a frenzy, as the mayor has gone public despite Stottlemeyer's warnings, and now there are copycats sending voodoo dolls in the mail to their friends as pranks. Both are baffled: the handwriting on all of the packages is identical, meaning that the same person sent the dolls, but there's no connection at all between the four recipients. And not only is Jorgensen their only reasonable suspect, but he's also no longer a suspect at all because he's got a solid alibi for all three deaths.
Monk notices another clue: the still-unidentified sender wrote the delivery addresses for the four packages on labels instead of writing directly on the boxes. When Stottlemeyer asks Monk about Natalie, Monk mentions that he's learned that she is wearing a dog funnel around her neck. They agree that there is one possible solution.
Fearing for her life, Natalie agrees to let Jorgensen perform a ritual to rid her of the curse. But the ceremony quickly goes awry when a nervous Natalie drinks a potion he's prepared when she was only supposed to apply it to her skin. The potion is toxic, and Monk calls for an ambulance. Monk is surprised to recognize one of the arriving paramedics as Angeline Dilworth. Jorgensen exchanges greetings with Angeline, who happens to be one of his customers, before Natalie is rushed to the hospital.
Monk rides shotgun with Jorgensen, following the ambulance, he remembers Angeline mentioning that it's a small world. He then realizes something else about Angeline: she wasn't only Robert Boyd's niece, but Monk remembers seeing her in her paramedic uniform in a newspaper photograph for an article about Ralph Farris's death. When Jorgensen confirms that Angeline has bought a few dolls from his shop, Monk solves the case.
Here's What Happened[]
The only person who has been murdered is Angeline's uncle Robert Boyd. The first two deaths were nothing more than the accidents they appeared to be, and Angeline just used them to disguise the murder of her real target.
To create the voodoo effect, Angeline first mailed several empty packages to herself, to get them postmarked. Then she waited patiently for the right types of accidents to occur - specifically, ones that could not possibly be interpreted as either natural causes or homicide, and also lived alone. Each time Angeline was called to a fatal accident scene, she learned the victim's address and lifted his or her house keys. Then she customized a package and doll from Jorgensen's shop. The next time she went off duty, she broke into the deceased person's house, and plant the doll in plain sight.
After creating the illusion of supernatural forces at work with two victims, she poisoned her uncle. It wasn't hard: being a paramedic, Angeline utilized an untraceable drug to make it look like Boyd had a heart attack. Angeline also planted a number of good luck charms around her uncle's house, to give the appearance that he was superstitious. When Monk got suspicious of the upside down horseshoe that Angeline had placed on wrong, and Angeline overheard Monk talking about Natalie's fear of voodoo, she sent a doll to Natalie's house in an attempt to distract Monk. Jorgensen is profoundly disappointed, since he will likely never sell another doll now that Monk has solved the case.
Inside the ambulance, Natalie glances up from the gurney and realizes that Angeline is the culprit when she notices that Angeline has misspelled her name as "Teager" on the patient chart, just like the misspelling on the shipping label. Angeline realizes Natalie has caught onto her at that same moment. She attacks Natalie, and Monk, seeing the two women struggling inside the ambulance, tells Jorgensen to ram it. Jorgensen does, sending the ambulance skidding off the road and grinding to a halt. Having subdued Angeline, Natalie emerges from the back of the ambulance, then collapses into Monk's arms with Jorgensen telling the driver to call for another ambulance as that one was 'cursed'.
A few day later, Natalie is relieved that her superstitions turned out to be nothing, as Monk explains to her why Angeline sent the doll to her. Monk teases her for being so irrational - even as he touches every parking meter he walks past them.
Background[]
- Martha Moxley is coincidentally the name of a real murdered teenager, whose murder was solved years later.
- In this episode, a major plot point is Natalie's fear of voodoo. However, in Mr. Monk and the Wrong Man, when Monk complains he can feel a stabbing sensation (after seeing Max Barton's tattoo of a knife going into Monk's face) and compares it to voodoo, Natalie says "There's no such thing." Though it's possible she was still in denial at that point and the events of this episode brought her fear to the forefront again.
- Monk claims the horseshoe in Robert Boyd's home is upside down, but this is not necessarily true. While some people believe a horseshoe should be pointed upwards to keep good luck contained, others believe it should be pointed down so that good luck washes over the people who enter. The position of the horseshoe is not evidence of anything. Given that it was nailed to the wall, Monk should have prioritized the number of nails used; superstition states seven nails must be used. Though the on-screen appearances of the horseshoe were short, Angeline clearly did not use seven nails.
- This is the second time in which the roles of Monk and his assistant are switched, where they are the ones going through mental distress while he has to be the calm, supportive figure. In Mr. Monk Goes to the Circus Monk tries to help Sharona Fleming overcome her long time fear of elephants after becoming traumatized when Dede the circus elephant came near her. While in this episode, Monk didn't directly help Natalie overcome her fear of voodoo, his solving of the case that Angeline had planted the dolls at the victims' houses after they had died was enough to convince her that her fear was unfounded.
"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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0:04 | What did you do here? | Monk | Stottlemeyer | Stottlemeyer rearranged the squad room. |
| 0:33 | What did you do? | Rev. Jorgensen | Natalie | Natalie drinking the cleansing potion. |
| 0:34 | What do we do? | Monk | Rev | Natalie drinking the cleansing potion. |
Quotes[]
Monk: We live in the real world. It is governed by science, physics, laws of nature. There is always, always a non-Voodoo explanation for everything.