In an attempt to stabilize his shaky marriage, Captain Stottlemeyer
redecorates his office with the New Age artifacts that his "hippie
wife," Karen, has given him, but he can't bring himself to watch the
documentary that she spent forty-five thousand dollars to film. When Karen
thinks that her documentary subject--the world's oldest man--was murdered, the
captain rejects the suggestion as absurd but calls in Monk to pacify her.
Unfortunately for the captain, Monk agrees with Karen, and Stottlemeyer finds himself
on Monk's front porch with two packed suitcases. Monk, glad for a chance to
repay the captain for helping him through his three-and-a-half year
"slump," invites him to stay as long as he needs to. Predictably,
they both end up with frazzled nerves and very little sleep.
Depressed over his own "slump" and his inability to solve a
five-year-old case involving the death of a seventeen-year-old boy, the captain
becomes even more despondent when Monk finds a clue that he missed involving a
security guard's signature--but is nevertheless perfectly capable of kicking
down a door, saving Monk from a snake, and discovering the body of the murdered
guard. Their on-the-job teamwork doesn't extend to their odd couple living
arrangements, however, and both of them reach the point where they've had
enough. But when Stottlemeyer loses his temper and decides to beg Karen to let
him come back home, Monk reminds him that he still hasn't seen Karen's
documentary and they watch it together. As Monk struggles to stay awake during
the long and treacly film, the captain discovers the clue he needs to solve the
case, or rather, cases. With Monk's help, he confronts the perpetrator, only to
find himself face to face with his camera-wielding wife, still pursuing the
story of the oldest man in the world. A white lie and a letter in a time
capsule help bring them back together.
Written by Gadfly on Jan 24, 2018