Mr. Monk and the Psychic

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Monk
Mr. Monk and the Psychic
Season 1, Episode 2
Air Date (US):	July 19, 2002
Production No.:	#T-1102
Written by:	John Romano
Directed by:	Kevin Inch
Guest stars:	John Bourgeois, Kate Trotter, Jenny Levine
Previous: Mr. Monk and the Candidate	Next: Mr. Monk Meets Dale the Whale
Full list of episodes

Mr. Monk and the Psychic is an episode of Monk.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Former commissioner of the San Francisco Police Department, Harry Ashcombe's (John Bourgeois) wife, Kate Ashcombe (Kate Trotter), is found, dead, three days after she disappeared, in her car at the bottom of a cliff. The person who found the body, a psychic that woke up in her car next to the accident, named Dolly Flint (Linda Kash), is ecstatic to have finally done something "psychic" as a psychic. Not surprisingly, Monk is skeptic at the thought of anyone having psychic abilities, and of course, he finds evidence, scraps on the road made by something metal, and he thinks that the trajectory of where the scrapes were and where the car landed is perfect, that makes him believe it was a murder, not an accident, as Captain Sottlemeyer insists. Sharona believes that Dolly is indeed a psychic and wants to employ her for a private reading. When Dolly drives away from the crash scene, Monk's suspicions that something is amiss is, in his eyes, justified when he notices Dolly pull her seat forward when she gets into the car, implying that someone else drove the car recently.

Monk explains his theory to Captain Stottlemeyer, who still believes it was an accident. The captain thinks that Monk is just mad that a psychic "upstaged" Monk, who was already working on the case, by finding the body. He explains to Monk that Dolly walks in her sleep and shows him a photograph taken as she ran a red light the night the body was found, showing that she was alone in the car. At the memorial service for Kate, as Monk tries to find the bathroom, he accidentally stumbles upon boxes packed full of Kate's things, along with muddy boots belonging to Harry. This obviously sparks Monk's interest again in the case. As Monk goes through Harry's mail, he finds a package that smells like perfume addressed to someone named Jenny Zeppettelli (Jenny Levine). Monk figures out that Jenny was an old girlfriend of Harry's, due to the underlining of the word "declined" on the package.

Monk and Sharona go to Jenny's house to interview her about her affair with Harry. She told them that the relationship ended because she figured he would never leave his wife, even though he despised her. Kate brought in money that Harry just couldn't live without. Jenny thinks of Harry as a crazy, dangerous man, and also believes that what happened to his wife wasn't an accident.

Monk's theory is that Harry put something on the road, which made her fly over the side. He then somehow got Dolly Flint to find the body, but he can't figure out how he got her there.

At the reading, Dolly feels Sharona's head and gives her a tarot reading, telling her current facts about her life and that she is going to meet a new man, a man with a British accent, whose name will be Derrick or David, or "something with a D." Monk interrogates Dolly, finding out no new information, only that Dolly now goes to sleep with her coat on and car keys, just in case. In order to get Monk to leave so she can get on with her session, Sharona kisses Monk's hand and announces that she left the wipes in the car, psychologically forcing him to leave. While outside, he notices some unusual rocks inbetween Dollys tires. He picks one up, and later that night, sneaks to Harry's house and gets a rock out of the tire of his car. The rocks are a perfect match, and after a bit of research, determines that only one or two driveways in the city were filled with those rocks, which strengthens Monk's claims that Harry has met Dolly before, which they both deny.

When confronted about the rocks, Harry becomes a lot less confident, but doesn't admit anything. During this confrontation, Monk asks, and Harry confirms, that Kate had a two million accidental death policy with her insurance.

Monk goes back to talk to Dolly, who finally admits, to Monk, not Sharona, that she is a fraud, and doesn't have any psychic abilities. But on the day that she found Kate's body, she actually believed that she had "the gift," and Monk believes her.

In a short scene, Harry calls Jenny and asks if she's been talking to the police, she denies it; he knows she's lying, and she hangs up.

Monk and Sharona are examining the crash scene again when Stottlemeyer comes down, asking if Monk as been bothering Harry. Monk realizes something, and asks where the captain parked. He had parked up on the road, instead of taking the service road down to the scene. Stottlemeyer says that he couldn't find it, and neither could Monk, but Dolly found it, asleep, before dawn. Monk explains that Harry killed Kate, but a mudslide covered the car. He couldn't cash in on the insurance unless they found the body, so he "recruited" Dolly to find it, not by paying her, but by other means. Stottlemeyer agrees to help Monk prove it.

Harry comes home to the police in his home and Dolly Flint saying that she can "feel her" and "her aura is very strong." Sottlemeyer informs Harry that Jenny is missing, so they employed Dolly, who has been quite helpful so far, to help them find her. Dolly finds a high-heeled shoe in the living room, and a fire poker with blood and hair on it. Harry denies everything that is happening. Dolly "hears" Jenny and runs out into the backyard, finding Jenny in an open grave, with a wound on her head. Dolly tells the story of what happened. Harry is going crazy, trying to figure out how Dolly knows all this, with Monk insisting that she is psychic and that she found Harry's wife. At that, Harry yells that she isn't a real psychic and that he drove Dolly to the crash. Jenny then arises out of the grave, showing that this was all a setup. Monk then explains the story about how Harry took Dolly while she was sleeping, using chloroform to keep her asleep, laying her in the car, putting on a wig and running the red lights on purpose to make sure that he was seen.

In the ending seen, Sharona meets a British man named Daniel ("Oh, Mr. Monk, did you hear that? Thats's Daniel with a d!"), who then asks if Monk and Sharona are together, which causes Sharona to break out laughing. It should be noted that we never see Daniel again.