Mr. Monk and the Marathon Man (13 Sep. 2002)

A woman is murdered during the San Francisco marathon and Monk suspects her married lover. But he was running the race, and his tracking chip says he never left.

Director:

Adam Davidson

Writers:

Andy Breckman (creator), Mitch Markowitz

Stars:

Tony Shalhoub, Bitty Schram, Jason Gray-Stanford

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Tony Shalhoub	...	Adrian Monk
Bitty Schram	...	Sharona Fleming
Jason Gray-Stanford	...	Lt. Randall Disher
Ted Levine	...	Captain Leland Stottlemeyer
Peter Outerbridge	...	Trevor McDowell
Paula Barrett	...	Angie Morrison
Arlene Mazerolle	...	Tillie Graves
Martin Roach	...	Carl Jenkins
Richard Zeppieri	...	Arthur Zaleski
Zakes Mokae	...	Tonday Mawwaka
Brendan Connor	...	Sportscaster
Marie Ward	...	Gwen Zaleski (as Brandi Marie Ward)
Bernard Kay	...	Man in Sweater
Natalia Jasen	...	Mrs. McDowell
Shannon Barnett	...	Uniformed Cop

Storyline

A woman is murdered during the San Francisco marathon and Monk suspects her married lover, Trevor McDowell, even though he was running in the race. Although McDowell disappears from the video tape of the race less than halfway through and reappears only at the end, the data from a computer chip indicates that he was present at all checkpoints during the race. After interrogating the murdered woman's ex-husband as a possible suspect only to find that his alibi is probably credible, a frustrated Stottlemeyer provides Monk with a brilliant suggestion--that the computer chip was passed off to someone else during the race. Monk meanwhile has the chance to visit his hero, an aging runner from Nigeria whom Sharona briefly suspects may be the murderer's accomplice--a theory Monk refuses even to consider. When Monk figures out what really happened, he must catch the murderer himself to prove his theory.

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Plot Keywords:

phobia

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Mystery | Crime

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Details

Release Date:

13 September 2002 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mandeville Films, Touchstone Television, Universal TV

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Final acting role of Zakes Mokae.

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Goofs

The camera that Monk is holding at the beginning of the episode (one of two he bought) is a Fujifilm Quick Snap single use camera that sells for about $12 on the street. To zoom in on the man with the uneven buttons as he does, he would need a reflex camera with a zoom lens. A single use camera wouldn't do it.

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Quotes

[first lines. We see several views of the quiet city, and then see the starting gun for the marathon going off]
Sportscaster: [voiceover, overlaid with clips of marathon runners] And there's the starting gun, kicking off the 25th annual Chronicle Marathon, San Francisco. Over 6,000 runners in the race today, and it is perfect running weather. And there is Tonday Mawwaka, number 534.
[We see Tonday, #534, followed closely by Trevor McDowell, #549]
Sportscaster: What a story he is. The legendary "Proud Lion". He's a two time ...
[...]

User Reviews

Standard fare

A woman is murdered and then thrown out of an apartment building. Her boyfriend has an airtight alibi - he was running a marathon at the time. Better yet, all competitors in the race have electronic devices that record their time when they pass sensors, and his shows he ran the whole race. How did he do it? It comes down to chamomile tea of all things. Meanwhile, Monk meets one of his sporting idols, a great runner from the 70s, (yes, we're suppose to believe he likes sports?!) and there is some heartwarming moments when said sporting great gives Monk some words of wisdom in the end. Very work-about, if a little formulaic and it becomes clear quickly how it was done even before Monk gives his usual summation.