Mr. Monk and the Candidate

Former police detective Adrian Monk is called in to investigate the stabbing of a woman named Nicole Vasques in her home. Turning up a number of clues, the obsessive-compulsive detective completes his evidence gathering only to be called to the scene of another crime.

Later, shots ring out at a campaign rally, and San Francisco mayoral candidate Warren St. Clair's (Michael Hogan) bodyguard, Jason Ronstaff, is killed. The incumbent mayor instructs Captain Leland Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine) to bring Monk in on the case, and reluctantly, he does. This is also much to the dismay of Lieutenant Randy Disher (Jason Gray-Stanford), the Captain's partner, who seems to regard Monk as a joke.

Monk soon begins turning up evidence and links that may tie the two crimes together, including the fact that Vasques had volunteered on the St. Claire campaign. Monk runs through and investigates the list of possible suspects:

The candidate himself, trying to look like a hero to raise his standing in the polls
The candidate's wife Miranda St. Claire (Gail O'Grady), hoping to collect on her husband's insurance
Gavin Lloyd (Ben Bass), campaign manager & former embezzler. He had been booted of a California senator's campaign when he pleaded guilty to embezzlement some years before
Finally Jesse Goodman (Vincent Gale), St. Claire's running mate, who turns out to have been sexually involved with Miranda.

Monk questions Carl Brewer (Christopher Shyer), one of the volunteers about Nicole. He remembered that shortly before she quit the campaign she had noticed some printouts and had questioned Lloyd about them. Monk asks Carl to get those printouts. Later Monk is nearly run down by someone in an SUV. Monk escapes but in his OCD state he can't resist touching every parking meter on the way. Later Carl is on his way to see Monk when at a stoplight a man pretending to be a window washer smashes his head against the wheel, gets in, and drives the car to a ledge where he pushes Carl to his death. At first the police believe suicide but Monk knows and proves otherwise.

The FBI points the police toward a mercenary named Ian Sykes (Shawn Reis) since the rifle used in the shooting was registered to him. However they find Sykes in a wheelchair. He claims the rifle was a gift for his father. However as they are leaving Monk remember the man had dirt on his shoes, meaning he was not handicapped at all. A chase ensues but Monk's fear of heights get the better of him while chasing the suspect over city rooftops, and Sykes escapes. Monk is taken off the case due to the captain's concern that the detective's many fears will cause him to compromise fellow officers' safety. To make things worse, his assistant, Sharona Fleming, has quit.

However, while trying to persuade Sharona to return to work, Monk watches news coverage of the assassination attempt, which alerts him to odd elements of the event; later, while standing in the very parking garage where his wife Trudy (Stellina Ruisch) was murdered, Monk solves the case with Sharona's assistance. The key was that when Sykes climbed past him he did not recognize him. Sykes was not driving the car that tried to run down Monk.

[edit] This Is What Happened

Monk re-assembles everyone as they were the day of the shooting. He posits that while she was working for the campaign, Nicole Vasquez discovered Lloyd was embezzling again. When he was confronted and discovered he could not buy her off, Lloyd unsuccessfully tried to hire Jason Ronstaff to kill her. It must have galled him as Monk said to have honest people on the campaign. Lloyd then hired Sykes to kill Vasquez and Ronstaff, disguising the first killing as a burglary and the second as an assassination attempt on the mayor.

Lloyd laughs it off saying how he could prove it. That was when Monk showed the picture in the newspaper. It showed that Lloyd was only person in the coverage who was pointing in the direction of the shooter. But when Lloyd protested that he may have seen the shooter Monk shows that balloons were blocking his view.

Then Lloyd says he probably heard the source of the shot but Monk proves the echo from surrounding buildings made it impossible for Lloyd to identify the source by sound. Sharona and Monk do a test proving this theory with a starter pistol, but Sykes appears on a nearby building, shoots Lloyd (probably because Lloyd did not pay him the remainder of his fee) and then flees into the sewers, followed by Sharona who is taken hostage. Overcoming his horror of the unclean sewers, Monk follows Sykes down to the grimy depths and rescues Sharona. The episode closes with Monk's psychiatrist Dr Kroger (Stanley Kamel) praising his bravery and saying it may be time to approach the department and recommend that Monk be reinstated.