Trudy Monk
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| Trudy Monk | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | Mr. Monk and the Candidate (mention) |
| Portrayed by | Melora Hardin Stellina Rusich Hannah Contrucci Lindy Newton |
| Information | |
| Gender | Female |
| Age | 35 (deceased) |
| Occupation | journalist |
| Family | Adrian Monk (husband) Dwight Ellison (father) Marcia Ellison (mother) Ambrose Monk (brother-in-law) Jack Monk Jr. (half-brother-in-law) Jack Monk (father-in-law) |
Trudy Anne Monk (née Ellison) (Melora Hardin) is a fictional character on the television show Monk. She is the late wife of Adrian Monk and daughter to Dwight and Marcia Ellison. Her husband's attempt to solve her murder is the show's longest-running plot arc.
She has formerly been played by Stellina Rusich during the first and second seasons, and Hannah Contrucci as young Trudy during fourth season. Lindy Newton plays Trudy in a college flashback in the fifth season.
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[edit] Fictional character biography
Trudy Monk was born in Los Angeles in 1962.[1] She attended the Ashton Preparatory School and graduated valedictorian in 1977 at the age of 15. She did not date very much while there, expecting to know who the right man would be once she found him.[2] She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley. She met her future husband Adrian while he was working there at the library.[3]
In the fifth season episode Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion, the first meeting of Trudy and Adrian was changed. In this new episode, Adrian takes Natalie to the college library where he was worked when he first met Trudy. Trudy asked for a book and was impressed when Adrian found it by memory out of a large pile of books being moved upstairs. Adrian explains to Natalie that he got Trudy's phone number by remembering it when his back was used as a makeshift surface to jot the number down.
Adrian and Trudy married on August 8, 1990.
In 1993, Trudy was involved in a lawsuit with financier Dale Biederbeck (a.k.a. Dale the Whale) because she referred to him as the "Genghis Khan of Finance". The Whale was unable to win the lawsuit, but the Monks lost their house paying for their lawyer. Adrian harbors an intense hatred for the Whale because of the pain he caused Trudy. The Whale remains an important adversary of Adrian's, especially when it is revealed that he had a role in Trudy's death. Adrian later proves the Whale guilty of murder and sees him jailed.
In Adrian's words, Trudy "enjoyed poetry, was often barefoot, and kept every promise she ever made". In Mr. Monk Takes Manhattan, Adrian offers a glimpse into her mindset by turning Warrick Tennyson's morphine back on after he had turned it off.
[edit] Homicide
Trudy Monk was murdered on a snowy[4] December 14, 1997[5] with a bomb containing 3 lbs of plastic explosives powered by 10 20V magnesium batteries that detonated under the front seat[6] while she was on an errand to get cough medicine for Adrian's brother Ambrose.[7] Ambrose blames himself for Trudy's death, and his guilt led to a 7-year rift between the brothers.
In Mr. Monk Can't See a Thing, Adrian reveals that Trudy lived for 20 minutes after the bomb went off. Her last words to a paramedic were "bread and butter", a message to Adrian that she would never leave him, as this was something she always told her husband when they had to temporarily let go of each other for some reason or another.
[edit] Investigation developments
- The bomb was built by Warrick Tennyson. Tennyson was hired by a six-fingered man whom he could not identify.[8]
- Since the homicide's occurrence, Adrian had believed all along that he was the intended target, with Trudy being an innocent victim. The intense guilt contributed to his nervous breakdown, his obsessive-compulsive manifestations, and his bizarre phobias. In Mr. Monk Goes to Jail, Dale the Whale reveals that the car bomb was actually intended for her, not him. Discovering that Trudy was the true target, Adrian is seen to be visibly affected by this piece of news.
- In Mr. Monk Bumps His Head, Adrian attempts to find this 6-fingered man by purchasing a picture of him. The picture turns out to be a fake.
- In Mr. Monk and Mrs. Monk, Natalie overhears a woman who looks like Trudy say that she faked her own death to protect Adrian. Adrian begins to believe this might be true, but in the end, it turns out that this woman has attempted to pass herself off as the real Trudy in order to get the key to Trudy's old storage unit.[9]
- In Mr. Monk is Up All Night, Adrian sees a Brazilian woman whom he chases for several blocks for no apparent reason. At the end of the episode, it is revealed that the reason he was drawn to her is that she received a cornea transplant from an organ donor, who turned out to be Trudy.
- During the sixth seasons' finale, Mr. Monk is on the Run, Adrian finds the six-fingered man, named Frank Nunn, but unfortunately he is shot and killed by a dirty cop hired by Dale the Whale in a plot to incriminate Adrian. By the end of the episode, Adrian confronts Dale, telling him that the police searched Nunn's home and discovered from some old letters that Nunn was hired by a man named "The Judge". Adrian believes Dale knows the identity of "The Judge", but so far, Dale has not revealed any further information.
[edit] Sources
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