Mr. Monk and the Marathon Man
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| “Mr. Monk and the Marathon Man” | |
|---|---|
| Monk episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 4 |
| Guest stars | Zakes Mokae Peter Outerbridge |
| Written by | Mitch Markowitz |
| Directed by | Adam Davidson |
| Production no. | T-1106 |
| Original airdate | September 13, 2002 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "Mr. Monk and the Other Woman" | "Mr. Monk Takes a Vacation" |
| List of Monk episodes | |
"Mr. Monk and the Marathon Man" is an episode of Monk.
[edit] Plot
At the San Francisco marathon, Monk's obsession with a misbuttoned sweater causes him to miss a chance at seeing one of his favorite celebrities, runner Tonday Mawwaka (Zakes Mokae). Meanwhile, a runner from the same race, Trevor McDowell (Peter Outerbridge) shows up in his mistress's apartment, kills her, and throws her body out of her high-rise building and onto the street below.
Monk and Sharona encounter the police team investigating the death, which Monk immediately determines to be a murder, citing the woman's half-painted toes as proof. Capt. Stottlemeyer hires Monk to the case, and suspicion quickly falls on McDowell, whom they correctly reason was sleeping with the victim.
Unfortunately for the detectives, Trevor McDowell, who turns out to be a wealthy local merchant, was in the middle of the marathon at the time of the murder. The race committee offers hard evidence: The runners are tracked by microchips affixed to their clothes, and McDowell's chip passed every computer checkpoint.
After ruling out the victim's ex-husband as a suspect, Stottlemeyer wonders if perhaps McDowell dropped his chip into the pocket of another runner. Following up on this lead, Monk and Sharona find that Monk's hero Tonday has a suspiciously similar race time to McDowell's.
Monk takes this opportunity to meet with his idol and discuss his own experience with track-and-field (Monk was on the track team in high school), but categorically refuses to believe Tonday was involved. Instead, he is struck with an alternative explanation: McDowell attached his computer-chip to the TV camera bike, which spent the entire race driving directly in front of Tonday, accounting for the similarities in their race results, and allowing McDowell to commit the crime while his chip continued the race.
Arriving at the TV station parking lot at the same time as McDowell, Monk gets to put his running talents to the test as he sprints after a desperate McDowell who hopes to throw the hidden computer chip (Monk's only evidence against him) into the water. To McDowell's dismay, however, the chip doesn't sink, and Sharona has no trouble fishing it out and delivering it to the waiting police unit.
