Mr. Monk and the Psychic (19 Jul. 2002)

When a woman drives off the road to her death, her body is mysteriously found the next morning by a psychic known for fudging the truth. Monk must discover if she's telling the truth this time, or else let a murderer go free.

Director:

Kevin Inch

Writers:

Andy Breckman (creator), John Romano

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
Linda Kash	...	Dolly Flint
John Bourgeois	...	Commissioner Harry Ashcombe
Kate Trotter	...	Kate Ashcombe
Jenny Cooper	...	Jennifer Zepetelli (as Jenny Levine)
Max Morrow	...	Benjy Fleming
Dean McKenzie	...	PR Spokesperson (as Dean Monroe McKenzie)
Bill Lake	...	Hardware Owner
Andrew Gillies	...	Daniel
Roger Peterson	...	First Reporter (as Roger Petersen)
J.C. Kenny	...	Second Reporter
Julian Tassielli	...	Uniformed Cop (as Vito Tassielli)

Storyline

A panicky woman driver goes off the road thanks to a skid block placed by her husband, former police commissioner Harry Ashcombe. The next morning Dolly Flint, a psychic on first name terms with Captain Stottlemeyer (who has arrested her three times on bunko charges) wakes up in her car next to the site of the staged accident. Dolly insists that she was led to the site by the dead woman's "aura," but Monk is suspicious. At the memorial service held in the dead woman's expensive home, Monk figures out what the audience already knows--that Ashcombe is the murderer. With the aid of Ashcombe's mistress, Monk, the captain, and Dolly stage a psychic "reading" to catch the killer.

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Plot Keywords:

phobia

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Mystery | Crime

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 July 2002 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mandeville Films, Touchstone Television, Universal TV

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Goofs

At minute 30:23 a blue car passes behind the man Monk is questioning. Then 10 seconds later at 30:33 the same blue car goes by again.

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Quotes

Adrian Monk: Here's what happened... Ashcombe did his wife, but he had a problem. There was a mudslide that night, the car was buried. He couldn't collect a dime until they found her! What could he do? He couldn't just say, "Maybe we should dig over there!" Somebody else had to find her!
Capt. Stottlemeyer: [referring to the psychic who found the body] So he paid Dolly Flint?
Adrian Monk: Too dangerous. She'd never keep her mouth shut. Ashcombe... "arranged" for her to find the body.
Capt. Stottlemeyer: Right, but how did he do that?
Adrian Monk: I think I know.
Capt. Stottlemeyer: Can you ...
[...]

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Connections

References Law & Order (1990)

User Reviews

Quirky as expected

A woman disappears but is soon found by a psychic who claims she found the woman's body through her special gift. Monk doesn't believe in psychic powers and soon suspects it is murder but must convince everyone else, especially Sharona who thinks the psychic is the real deal and wants a lovelife reading.

Monk's techniques are very similar to the sort of stuff in the original Sherlock Holmes stories (blisters on an finger in one later episode leads him to conclude a man has been on a fishing trip), but often the murder case takes a back seat to an exploration of Monk's OCD and the tragi-comedic situations it leads to.

This episode has some amusing and lovely interactions between him and his nurse, Sharona, and lifts the whole thing above the usual detective fare on TV. The endings is a little implausible, and no-one seems to actually feel anything for the dead person, but this is a quirky show rather than a drama.