Mr. Monk Goes Camping - Recap

Monk gets up early in the morning and goes to the closet to examine his police uniform. Natalie has left him notes saying to smile, to not smile too much, and to be himself (but not too much). He then goes to the courthouse for his afternoon reinstatement meeting. He arrives hours early and waits.. and waits... and waits. Finally the three panel members arrive and call the reinstatement meeting to order. The first two members are impressed with Monk and talk glowingly about his detective work. The third one, Captain Frank Willis, tells Monk that he doesn't believe he's qualified. The panel makes their final decision in a week but it has to be unanimous.

Stottlemeyer calls Monk to investigate the death of two men during an armored car robbery. As he arrives, Monk complains to Natalie that the only way he can convince Willis to reinstatement him is if schmoozes. Natalie suggests that he play the game and do some schmoozing. Monk investigates the crime scene, where two men waited for an armored car to stop and then killed the guard and the driver. The armored car was running later and Monk suggests that Stottlemeyer check the fingerprints on all the coins in the nearby parking meters, figuring the men waited and tried to avoid drawing attention. Disher arrives, wearing camping gear, and explains that he's participating in an outreach program that takes boys camping. He's dressing up early to get into the groove of things. He tries to convince Stottlemeyer to come along, and the captain isn't interested. However, when Monk discovers that Captain Willis' son Tony Brian is one of the participants, he invites himself along.

The first three boys, Norman, Will, and Nicky, arrive with their parents and get into the van. Natalie drives Monk there and makes sure that he has all of his wipes. Captain Willis arrives and it's clear that he and Brian don't get along well. Monk introduces himself and reminds Captain Willis who he is, and Brian realizes he's trying to suck up to his father.

Stottlemeyer has Winona brought in. She's the boyfriend of Luke Johnston, whose fingerprints turned up on the parking meter coins. Stottlemeyer wants Winona to give up the location of Luke and his brother Del, but she refuses to talk.

The six campers hike through the woods and Monk spends his time spraying for bugs. He tries to talk to Brian, who says that there's no way Monk can make his father like him.

After she's done talking with Stottlemeyer, Winona calls Luke. He insists that they covered up all the evidence, but then figures the police will check their cabin at Spider Lake and he goes there with his brother to dispose of the evidence.

Disher and his group get to Spider Lake. As they set up camp, the boys find bullet shells all over the ground. They're unaware that the Johnston brothers have arrived and found the parked van, and realize that someone is there.

Monk makes a campfire and tries to get Brian involved, but Brian smashes apart the wood and refuses to let Monk schmooze with him. Nicky catches a fish with a makeshift pole and has Disher take a picture of it with his cell phone camera. Will tries to grab Disher's gun and the officer takes it back. Luke and Del arrive and watch from the bushes and realize that Disher is a cop.

That night, Disher tells a campfire story about a killer with a hook for hand. Monk interrupts to point out there's no nearby insane asylum and people don't have prosthetic hooks any more. Disher gives up and they pack up their food so they don't attract bears, while Luke and Del continue to watch them from hiding. After the boys are asleep, Monk apologizes to Disher for coming along for the wrong reasons, and then wonders how Disher manages to remain so calm when people tease him. Disher talks about how he once saw a bumper stick at a fatal car accident saying "Happiness is a choice," and he decided to choose happiness. Monk doesn't think that he can do that. They go to bed, Monk leaning up against a tree, and Luke and Del sneak into the camp and scatter the food around.

Monk wakes up later and finds a bear in the camp. He screams like a girl and everyone runs. Once they're a few miles away, Nicky tells Monk that you never scream at a bear. He explains that you speak calmly to it. Once they realize they're lost, they head back to Spider Lake.

At the camp, Luke and Del recover all the bullet shells that they left at the lake. Disher's phone rings with his Randy Disher Project song and they find it, and discover that Nicky used one of their shell casings as a sinker for his fishing pole.

After the campers find the lake, Brian catches a big fish using Nicky's pole and insists on keeping it, despite the fact everyone else wants to eat it as food. Luke and Del show up and claim to be hunters. They tell Disher how to find the highway and then Luke offers Brian $50 for his fish. Brian tries to haggle and Monk wonders why Luke would pay anything for a fish. Disher's cell phone rings and he comments that it's his song. Realizing it will give him away, Luke avoids answering it. The brothers leave and Monk realizes that the fish has Nicky's sinker in the mouth, and the sinker is a bullet casing. He figures that the casing is a match for the ones found at the crime scene and the Johnstons are the robbers. Disher left his gun behind when they ran away from the bear and they have to escape. Monk asks Brian for the fish so they can get the evidence, but Brian refuses to give it up and runs away. Monk goes after him while Disher gets the other three boys to the highway.

Monk catches up to Brian and they fight over the fish. A bear shows up, attracted by the fish, and Monk has no choice but to reach his hand into the fish and take the shell casing out. He does it and gives the bear the fish, but it's not hungry. Monk tries to calm the bear down. Brian says he should tell it a story. So Monk does. Here's what happened: the Johnstons practiced firing their guns at their cabin near Spider Lake. A park ranger saw them and asked them to stop. Since the robbers left shell casings at the crime scene, the Johnstons realized they could be implicated and needed to get rid of all the evidence at the lake. The bear dozes off and Brian thanks Monk for saving him.

Disher has the three boys hide and then ambushes Del and Luke. He knocks out Luke, grabs his rifle, and takes Del prisoner. He calls in the police and Stottlemeyer takes away the brothers and the evidence. Brian warms up to Monk and then goes to show his fish to his father.

Later, Monk goes to the final reinstatement meeting. Willis compliments him on how he displayed courage and bravery, and helped get through to Brian. He votes to reinstate Monk. However, the other two panel members change their minds and vote against Monk. Monk is so overcome with Willis' praise that he doesn't even hear the other two panel members, and offers to buy Natalie and the others lunch in celebration. Stottlemeyer figures that that they'll tell their friend what happened later.

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