Monk: Mr. Monk Takes The Stand

The episode begins where most Monk episodes end, with Monk's "Here's what happened" flashback detailing the killer's every move. When Monk is halfway through his story the lawyer Harrison Powel pulls up and whisks away his client Evan Gildea, an artist accused of murdering his wife. Stottlemeyer and Disher can do nothing but look in a daze as their suspect drives away.

The case is continued in court where Stottlemeyer takes the stand and details the wife's murder in a flashback. Powel weasels it out of Stottlemeyer that Monk's theory about where the fight started could be false, rendering his client innocent.

In the meantime, Disher runs into a Rudy, a kid he used to mentor. He learns that Rudy robbed an auto parts store and supposedly killed the clerk.

Monk takes the stand, quite sure of himself. Powel unveils a nude marble statue that Gildea was supposedly working on at the time of his wife's murder, but Monk can't look at it. Powel chastises Monk for his phobia of nudity. Gildea claims that there was only one slab of marble, but Monk thinks there was another.

In a flashback, Monk notices a half melted popsicle in Gildea's freezer and a clock that's 20 minutes slow, leading him to deduce that the power went out. Monk thinks that Gildea used a jackhammer, which blew a fuse, to chop up the slab of marble and spread it across his driveway.

Back in court, Powel brings in a sample of rocks from the driveway and demonstrates that they cannot be put back together. Monk leaps out of his seat and tries to reassemble them, which reveals yet another O.C.D. quirk.

The jury finds the defendant not guilty.

In a session with Dr. Bell, Monk says he is quitting. Any criminal could hire Harrison Powel and would dismantle Monk in court, he says.

Randy asks for Monk's help in proving that his little buddy Rudy is innocent. Monk reluctantly agrees. Monk goes to the auto parts store and learns that the clerk was killed with one blow to the back of the head, the same way Gildea's wife was killed. Monk pieces the cases together.

Gildea is brought in for questioning, but Powel swoops in to release him again. On the way out, Gildea makes a comment that Rudy is a chain snatcher. Rudy did take a chain of the neck of the clerk, but that wasn't even on the police report. The only way he could have known that is if he were there. Stottlemeyer places Gildea under arrest and Disher cuffs him. Rudy is presumably clear.

In the epilogue, Gildea is back in court and found guilty. Monk has beaten Powel. True to form, Monk fixes a kink in a microphone on the way out of the courtroom.