Mr. Monk and the Wrong Man

Synopsis[]

Plot[]

Background[]

"What are you doing?"[]

Here's What Happened[]

Mr. Monk and the Wrong Man" is the eighth episode of the sixth season of Monk .

When a man Monk sent to prison years earlier is cleared by new DNA evidence, Monk helps him rebuild his life.

NDVD 000-2 — The murder victims John & Valerie Davis.

On a quiet day in 1993, a mailman drops a package off at normal suburban house. As he continues on his way, the sounds of a woman screaming are heard from inside the house.

The noise is heard by a neighbor, Sarah McNally, who is talking on the phone with a friend. She hangs up and looks out her window and sees a mysterious man walking away from the house. McNally goes over to the house, owned by John and Valerie Davis, to investigate. When she enters the living room, she finds a gruesome tableau: John is tied up in a chair, tortured and killed and Valerie is lying dead on the back patio, and someone has managed to break into their wall safe. McNally staggers out of the front door, screaming for help.

14 years later, at the Seabrook State Penitentiary, Max Barton is up for parole, also present are McNally, the witness who found the bodies and Adrian Monk, the detective who investigated the Davis murders, and whose work led to Barton being arrested and convicted for the crimes. McNally also identified Max as the man near the victim’s house. Monk describes the crime scene as something that haunts him to this very day, more than some of the other crime scenes he's worked. John had been tortured and Valerie was killed while trying to flee. He states that he became a cop specifically to put away killers like Barton and firmly believes that Barton should never be even considered for parole. Just as Monk is reaching this point in his testimony, a lawyer from the appeals court enters the room and Barton's attorney announces that Barton has withdrawn his parole application. It turns out that DNA found under the victim’s fingernails at the crime scene does not belong to Barton at all, meaning Monk nabbed the wrong guy 14 years ago. Sarah tries to say something but the parole board has finalized their decision to release Barton.

At an apartment in a different part of the city, a security guard, Paulie Flores, watches a news broadcast on Barton's exoneration. He silently curses the news of Barton's release.

At the police station, Captain Stottlemeyer and Lieutenant Disher are rehearsing for the questions that the press will ask. These include questions about Barton's plans to sue the state for wrongful conviction and the fact that the department has reopened the case, which will involve revisiting the crime scene and going back over all of the evidence. Stottlemeyer is concerned about this mistake because Monk is evidently very devastated by what's transpired.

Nonetheless, Dr. Kroger convinces Monk not to quit being a detective. He encourages Monk to work through it because empathizing with Barton will make him a better detective and human being in the long run.

Monk and Natalie go to see Barton as he’s being released from prison. As Monk watches Barton pick up his belongings from the guard, including his belt and wallet, Barton finds his belt doesn't fit anymore. The guard suggests that he punch a hole through it because it looks good on him. As they walk, Monk tries to apologize again profusely to Barton, reminding him of all the evidence that implicated him: namely, the fact that the killer used an upholsterer's knot (and Barton worked as an upholsterer at the time), he had a criminal record, his fingerprint was found on the doorknob (he claimed in questioning that he made a delivery to the house the week before the murders), he's left-handed like the killer was and Sarah McNally identified Barton as the man she saw leaving the house. Barton refuses to listen, telling Monk to curl up in a hole and die. Barton also mentions the he is not left handed anymore as his left hand got stomped on during a prison fight.

Monk and Natalie visit Barton again at the halfway house where he's staying as he reintegrates himself into society. He's outside, lifting a barbell, when they arrive. Monk is distracted when Barton takes off his shirt and begins weight-lifting, and Monk notices that Barton has a tattoo of Monk on his right arm and a tattoo of a knife positioned in a such a way that when Barton bends his arm, it looks like the knife is stabbing Monk’s tattoo image between his eyes. However, Barton turns down Monk's help again.

At Monk’s apartment, he tries to convince Natalie to go to Barton by herself to get him to open to her but she refuses. However, they are interrupted when Natalie gets a call that Barton is causing trouble. Barton has gone to the hair salon where his ex-wife Sherry worked and is causing a scene. It turns out that Sherry has not worked at the salon for years. Monk talks Barton down, investigating a photo that she had sent to the salon that reveals she is likely seeing another man. This doesn't help. Monk then points out that the two cops who have arrived outside are itching to find even a slight excuse to return him to prison and offers to help him find Sherry.

Monk, Stottlemeyer and Disher later drop by the Davis' house. It's come into new ownership by a suburban couple, Eric and Cindy Gelbertson and their two children but the exterior is virtually unchanged from 14 years ago. As they walk up to the front door, Monk mentions that Natalies father has found Barton a job, and they are working to track down Bartons ex-wife. Coming into the house, the three men tell the owners some of the small details about the murders. The owners initially wonder if the previous couple were drug dealers but Stottlemeyer notes that they actually had a wall safe full of jewelry, which is what the killer was after.

Monk looks around the room where the bodies were found and uses his photographic memory to recreate the room as it had been back then from reference points, as the arrangement of the furniture is different from 14 years ago. For instance, a sandbox now exists where the wife's body was found. He asks the Gelbertson boys if they ever have found unusual things like shell casings or bone fragments while playing outside but then Monk notices a crucial clue: scratch marks on a sliding door to the room that were made by a dog. The Gelbertsons mention that the marks had been there when they first moved in and Monk is perplexed: he doesn't remember seeing a dog at the original crime scene investigation in 1993 but Randy looks at the file and notes that actually, the Davis’ did have a Doberman Pinscher but it died just the day before the murders. They buried it by a pine tree in the backyard. The obvious conclusion is that the killer must have murdered the dog to get him out of the way and even though 14 years have passed, there ought to be enough solid remains for them to do toxicology tests to check for poison.

That night, Barton pays a visit to Paulie Flores, the security guard we saw watching the news earlier, at his apartment. As it turns out, Paulie is Barton's former partner-in-crime: the two of them committed the Davis murders together and it was Paulie's DNA that was found at the crime scene. Barton is none-too-pleased: not only does he blame Paulie for only Max going to prison all those years ago but the police's search for Paulie will undoubtedly bring attention to their other crimes they've committed, which could lead to Barton going back to prison. As Paulie nervously tries to appease Barton by offering him a beer, Max sneaks up on Paulie and strangles him to death using his belt.

A toxicology report quickly comes back on the Davis' dog. It turns out the dog was poisoned with benzedrine, a drug used in heart operations. It's also very rare, which is good news for them. At Stottlemeyer's direction, Randy is told to go back to 1993 and look for someone who had access to the drug, who had a rap sheet and missed work on the day of the murders.

Monk goes to the loading dock at a Davenport Toothpaste processing center and finds Barton slacking off, complaining about back problems. Monk has to do some of Barton's assigned work for him and as he's doing so, Natalie shows up, having located Max's ex-wife Sherry. There's just one small problem, though: she's getting married to someone else.

Monk ends up crashing said wedding, which is broken up when he convinces Sherry that Max wants her back, that Max is a "good, good, good man." As the original wedding party disperses, the groom expresses hatred for Monk. Monk gets a surprise encounter with Sarah McNally, who is aghast at the fact that Monk has been helping Barton. Monk tries to point out that it isn't her fault as she was a good distance way when she saw the man she believes to be Max Barton. McNally promptly reveals that she has eidetic memory and remembers everything about the day of the murders, including the fact that Monk measured the viewing distance from her house to the crime scene house and his measuring tape broke, the details of the car he was driving that day, the details of his clothes from that day and even the badge number of Monk's partner at the time. She remembers how Barton walked down the street with his hands in his pockets, like he didn't have a care in the world.

This stray detail jolts Monk's memory. He remembers that the killer broke into the wall safe inside the Davis' house using an acetylene torch, which they never recovered. If the man McNally saw had his hands in his pockets, someone else must have carried off the torch: an accomplice, which must have been the DNA they found, meaning Barton was guilty of the original murders after all. Unfortunately, McNally points out that it's too late to put Barton back in prison on the original charges due to double jeopardy. This is what McNally had tried but failed to say at parole hearing.

Monk and Natalie join Stottlemeyer and Disher at Paulie Flores's apartment as Paulie's body is being removed. A DNA match proves he was Barton's mystery accomplice. Furthermore, he had access benzedrine from working as a security guard at a pharmaceutical company for the last 15 years, and the fact that he and Barton were old high school friends. Stottlemeyer notes that Paulie was found hanging from his closet door by his own belt, a "prison style" suicide. The obvious theory is that Barton and Paulie were in on the Davis murders together and poisoned the Davis’ dog before breaking in the next day and Paulie got away by escaping out the back door while Barton left out the front door. So it's now official: Monk was right about Barton being guilty after all, though Monk amends that he was half-right as he never knew about Paulie being there, since Barton never ratted him out. Stottlemeyer confirms that the D.A. cannot do anything because of double jeopardy. Monk is guilt-ridden over letting Barton walk, until he gets a look at the belt used to kill Paulie Flores and realizes they can still arrest Max Barton, this time for Paulie's murder.

Monk, Natalie, Stottlemeyer and Disher return to the church just as Barton and Sherry are being remarried. Monk repeats the same statement he made to convince Sherry to return to Barton earlier but changes it to warn her that he's a "bad, bad, bad, bad man". Barton feigns innocence, claiming he hasn't seen Paulie since high school. Monk then reveals that Paulie didn't hang himself with his own belt and Randy produces the belt that was used to hang Paulie. Monk notes that it's Barton's own belt, the one he realized he needed to have a hole punched into because it didn't fit anymore when he was being released from prison.

Max scoffs, exasperated and Monk agrees, there's no way to prove that the belt in the evidence bag is Max’s but they can prove that he's wearing a belt that isn't his. It turns out that Paulie’s own belt wasn't on his body or in his apartment. Max doesn't believe this is solid enough evidence, only for Randy to reveal that it's actually pretty incriminating: Paulie's belt is part of his company uniform, so the logo is stamped on the inside of it. Reluctantly, after some coaxing from Sherry, Max removes the belt. Upon seeing the lettering of Paulie's employer, that's good enough for them to arrest him on the spot and take him away, just as Sherrys original groom returns again.

Sometime later, Stottlemeyer calls Randy into his office to inform him of a screwup he just made on another case. Randy tries to apologize but Stottlemeyer makes clear that it was Randy who screwed the case up, not Monk nor anyone else. As Randy leaves the office, Stottlemeyer comments, "God's in his heaven, all's right with the world."

During the news broadcast, the news ticker at the bottom of the screen references several of Monk's prior cases.
- "Local Boys Find Buried Treasure in Cement Processing Plant" Mr. Monk and the Buried Treasure
- "Frisco Fly acrobatic stunts leave San Francisco officials perplexed." Mr. Monk and the Daredevil
- "Novato Housing Market Hits a Record High." Mr. Monk and the Bad Girlfriend
- "Extra Large and Murderuss..." Mr. Monk and the Rapper
On leaving prison, Max shows Monk his curled and damaged left hand, saying it was stomped on. Throughout the rest of the episode, Max's left hand is normal, particularly when he is lifting weights at the half-way house.
When Monk says he can feel Max's knife tattoo stabbing him, "like voodoo," Natalie says, "There is no such thing." In Mr. Monk and the Voodoo Curse, she is terrified by the use of voodoo dolls and confesses that, due to an event related to Mitch Teeger's death, she believes in and fears voodoo.
All three times that Monk or Justin bang on the glass door at the back of the church seem to be references to the finale of the movie The Graduate.

Season 6 (Monk)

Season 5

Season 7

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
0:12	What are you doing here?	Max	Monk	Monk visiting Max at his halfway house.
0:14	What are you doing?	Monk	Natalie	Natalie eating the sandwich Monk made for Max.
0:16	What are you doing?	Monk	Cop	Cop going in to arrest Max.
0:20	What's he doing?	Michael	Stottlemeyer	Monk investigating the room.
0:26	What are you doing?	Natalie	Monk	Monk loading boxes that Max is supposed to be loading.
0:31	What are you doing here?	Monk	Sarah	Sarah confronting Monk after crashing the wedding.