Mr. Monk and the Naked Man - Recap

A woman runs up to a gated estate and tries to get someone to help her, claiming it’s a matter of life and death. She gets no answer and a hooded figure comes up behind her. The woman tries to offer her pursuer an envelope but instead the figure draws a knife. The woman flees to the nearby beach and pounds on a trailer door, but gets no answer. The figure catches and kills her.

The next day the police investigate and Monk is called in, and Stottlemeyer, Disher, and Natalie have to try and distract Monk from the fact that it’s a clothing-optional beach. Monk notices that the dead woman, Vickie, was carrying something that is now missing. However, he soon notices the naked flesh when Chance Parker, the owner of the trailer, arrives. Chance has a seemingly airtight alibi: he was in jail the previous night when he was arrested at a protest to keep the beach clothing-optional. Monk goes rigid with panic but they manage to get him up to the nearby estate where software mogul Peter Magneri lives. Magneri says he heard the intercom call but ignored it since he gets people bothering him all the time. He boasts of being in perfect physical health after his recent exam, but is upset that the nudists are using the beach and has been using the zoning board to get them removed. Monk agrees with him and insists that Chance is the killer, while Disher tries to get Magneri to look at his mp3 player, which isn’t working.

Monk and the others go to Vickie’s apartment and talk with her roommate Arlene. Natalie borrows a pad of paper from Arlene to take notes, as the roommate hints that Vickie was seeing someone. Monk immediately concludes that Chance was Vickie’s boyfriend, proving there’s a connection and a reason for him murdering her. That night Monk hauls Natalie to Chance’s trailer and breaks in to search the place. They don’t find anything but Chance and his fellow nudists arrive after meeting with the zoning board and Monk and Natalie hide in the closet. Relaxing naked, they plan for the meeting the next day until Monk can’t take it any more. He switches off the power and makes a break for it, but ends up grabbing Chance’s hand and leading him outside. The two exchange heated words and Monk continues to insist Chance is guilty despite his ironclad alibi.

The next morning Monk tries to figure out how Chance could have got out of prison and spins impossible theories until it’s clear to everyone that he’s gone beyond obsession. Stottlemeyer calls him on it, accusing him of outright bigotry and telling him to solve his own prejudice. Monk goes to Dr. Kroger and talks about how as a child he was naked and a masked man slapped him repeatedly while Monk’s mother smiled. However, Kroger figures out that Monk is actually remembering back to the moment of his birth.

A relieved Monk is happy that he’s overcome one of his fears and goes to see Natalie, where he notices her piece of scrap paper from Arlene’s apartment. Monk realizes that it’s from the same hospital that Magneri went to for his physical, and that Arlene worked there as a radiologist. He goes to Stottlemeyer who gets a warrant to search Arlene’s apartment. Arlene comes in and Monk explains how it happened: Arlene did the x-ray scans on Magneri and spotted something life-threatening. She kept it quiet and switches the x-rays, giving him a clean bill of health. Then she quit her job and began selling short, knowing that when Magneri died his software company would go bottom-up. Vickie found out and refused to accept Arlene’s deal, so Arlene killed her. Stottlemeyer finds the x-rays behind the toilet, clinching the case. Arlene admits that Magneri has a heart condition and any stress could kill him.

Realizing that Magneri is at the zoning board meeting to get Chance and his friends off the beach. The stress will kill him so Monk calls Chance just as the nudists win their case. Chance decides to calm Magneri down by forfeiting their claim on the beach, and Stottlemeyer and Disher get there with the EMTs to get the magnate to the hospital for treatment. Disher almost manages to aggravate Magneri again with his malfunctioning mp3 player until an irritated Stottlemeyer crushes it.

Later Monk and Natalie go to visit Chance, who is moving to the private island that a grateful Magneri purchased for him. Monk apologizes for his irrational hatred and Chance gives him a big hug. That’s a bit much for Monk, who passes on the wipes and decides to walk into the ocean to clean off.

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