Mr. Monk Is Underwater - Recap

Commander Whitaker, captain of the submarine USS Seattle, orders a surprise drill. When his second in command, lt. Commander Pierce, doesn’t attend the drill, he takes medical officer Lt. Steven Albright and two other men to Pierce’s cabin. As they arrive, they hear a gunshot. The door is locked and they bust in to find that Pierce has shot himself in the head after drinking heavily.

Later, Albright goes to visit Natalie at Adrian’s apartment. They’re old friends, knowing each other through Natalie’s ex-husband Mitch. However, it’s Adrian that Albright wants to see. He doesn’t believe that Pierce killed himself and wants Adrian to investigate. Albright only mentions serving aboard a “boat,” but Adrian is still nervous about investigating. Natalie manages to convince him to check it out. Arriving at the pier, Adrian discovers that a submarine is involved. He panics but Natalie convinces him to go on-board and check out Pierce’s cabin. Adrian finds a chip of plastic with adhesive and gunpowder on it. The drill light flashes as the sub is called out on fleet drills. Adrian and Natalie go to the bridge but Commander Whitaker refuses to let them leave and they wont’ be returning to land for the next 4-5 days. Whitaker insists that Pierce killed himself.

As Adrian considers the case, he starts hallucinating that Dr. Bell is there to encourage him and praise him endlessly. Adrian believes that Pierce was murdered and contacts Disher to research Pierce’s background. Albright shows Natalie to her private quarters and warns her that the crew haven’t seen a women in quite a while. He wonders what might have happened if he and Natalie had ended up together.

Adrian goes to Whitaker’s cabin and the commander insists that Pierce had confessed to him that he was drinking. Adrian wonders about why Whitaker conducted two drills on the day of Pierce’s death but the Commander says it was his discretion to make sure the crew was ready. Whitaker tells Adrian to stay with him but as he leaves, Adrian takes one of Whitaker’s plastic soda bottles that he’s noticed. Back in his cabin, Adrian confirms that the plastic shard he found earlier matches Whitaker’s bottle, and no one else on the sub drinks that soda. Using Albright’s sidearm, Adrian concludes that Whitaker used the bottle to make an improvised silencer and shot Pierce.

As Adrian eats with the crew, there’s underwater turbulence and the crew mention that they struck an underwater mountain, but the officers were cleared in the subsequent investigation. Albright goes to see Natalie and they kiss, but Natalie admits it’s uncomfortable because of Mitch. Meanwhile, Adrian is escorted to a bunk that belonged to Jones, a crewman whose neck was broken during the collision with the mountain and died a few days earlier: the same day that Pierce died. Adrian calls Disher who confirms that Pierce’s family doesn’t believe he was suicidal, and Pierce was contacting a criminal attorney. On the bridge Adrian notices an empty navigational chart container. He goes to confront Whitaker and inform him that he knows the commander committed murder but Adrian doesn’t know why. Adrian explains that Whitaker was responsible for the collision but got Pierce to help cover for him by putting in out-of-date charts. When Pierce got word that Jones died, he had a change of heart and planned to confess. Whitaker forced Pierce to drink and then shot him with a silenced pistol. Whitaker claims he’s God when he’s the captain and that Adrian is insane.

Adrian goes to Natalie to tell her they need to search Pierce’s cabin again, and they receive a note from Albright saying to meet him in a compartment. They go there and Adrian hands the note to the imaginary Bell before going in. Adrian and Natalie find themselves in a ballast chamber and Whitaker locks the door behind them. The commander then goes to the bridge and orders a dive. As the sub descends, the ballast tank starts to fill and Adrian and Natalie are in imminent danger of drowning.

Albright realizes that they’ve disappeared and finds the note. When he’s unable to get the ballast compartment open, he goes to the bridge and demands that Whitaker surface. Meanwhile, Natalie uses the good luck belt that Julie made her as an improvised snorkel. Whitaker is forced to surface and the ballast chamber drains. Adrian confronts Whitaker and explains that they found cigarette and firecracker ash in the vent to Pierce’s cabin. Here’s what happened: Whitaker forced Pierce to drink and then shot him. The commander then used a cigarette as a five-minute fuse for the firecracker, which he placed in the vent. Five minutes later he ordered the drill and went to find Pierce with the others. The firecracker went off and Whitaker had the perfect alibi. However, they’ve found Whitaker’s thumbprint in the vent and he’s implicated. The commander salutes Adrian and congratulates him on his skill as Albright has him taken into custody.

Later back on land, Arian admits that he was scared but “Dr. Bell” saw him through. While Disher checks out the sub, the real Dr. Bell arrives and Adrian is astonished that he managed to get on land, find a parking spot, and come back so soon. Although Adrian can’t understand how Bell has forgotten everything that happened…

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