Mr. Monk and the Red Herring
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| “Mr. Monk and the Red Herring” | |
|---|---|
| Monk episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 3 Episode 10 |
| Guest stars | Emmy Clarke |
| Written by | Andy Breckman |
| Directed by | Randy Zisk |
| Production no. | T-3010 |
| Original airdate | January 21, 2005 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine" | "Mr. Monk vs. the Cobra" |
| List of Monk episodes | |
Mr. Monk and the Red Herring is an episode of the USA Network series Monk. During this episode, Monk's new assistant, Natalie Teeger (Traylor Howard) is introduced.
[edit] Plot synopsis
A burglar breaks into Natalie Teeger's (Traylor Howard) house. She surprises him in the darkness, they start to fight and she grabs her daughter's scissors, afraid he'll kill her, and stabs him. He is dead.
Captain Leland Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine) and Lieutenant Randy Disher (Jason Gray-Stanford) investigate. Natalie tells them of a previous intruder who posed as a water meter reader - he fled through the back door, after looking around in her living room. Since Stottlemeyer realizes that they have reached a dead end, he tells Natalie to ask Monk solve the case. Since the departure of Sharona Flemming (Bitty Schram), his personal nurse, who married her ex-husband and moved to New Jersey three months ago, he has not taken any cases.
Natalie manages to convince Monk to help her. Back at her house, he stumbles over a fish net, left behind by the burglar - which means, the intruder was possibly after the pet fish of Natalie's daughter Julie (Emmy Clarke). The burglar had a note with him that points towards an exhibit at the local museum which Julie visited with her class about the Apollo moon landing.
Monk and Natalie visit the museum in order to investigate. The tour guide there, Lyle Peck, turns out to be the fake water meter reader. They lose sight of him during one of Monk's ticks.
At Natalie's house, they look for anything special in the aquarium kit Julie has bought at the museum. Monk thinks the thieves may have hidden something in it, but he cannot take the kit to the lab, since Julie has a science fair at her school and her fish, Mr. Henry, is her project.
Monk realizes what happened: the thieves stole a moon rock from the museum and tried to smuggle it out in the aquarium kit, but Julie bought it. At the science fair, the tour guide is trying to steal the rock - along with Mr. Henry, who is in the net, too. Monk runs after the thief, who falls and instead of taking the moon rock, he saves the fish, while Stottlemeyer takes the moon rock just in time.
Natalie is impressed by Monk saving Mr. Henry and quits her job as a bartender, choosing to accept Monk's offer to become his new assistant.
