Mr. Monk and the Airplane (2024)

Season 1
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				Season 2

Mr. Monk and the Airplane is the twelfth episode and final of the first season of Monk.

Synopsis[]

Monk braves the unfriendly skies–and finds murder in the air! No one believes him except for Randy, who provides aid back in San Francisco. While in the air, Monk must deal with his fear of flight, a flight attendant, and a zealous extension cord salesman.

Plot[]

Sharona and Monk are at the airport, preparing to meet Sharona's aunt Minn. It isn't long, however, before Monk realizes that they are on the departures floor instead of arrivals, and Sharona reveals the truth: Aunt Minn isn't coming to San Francisco, rather, they are flying to New Jersey to see her. Unable to live without Sharona for a week, Monk is forced to brave his fear of flying. While they wait for their flight, Monk spots a couple across the airport, Stefan and Barbara Chabrol. They kiss, Barbara having to stand on her toes, then she leaves for the women's bathroom. Inside the bathroom, Barbara is suddenly confronted by a woman who looks just like her. She innocently asks if she could borrow Barbara's lipstick, before revealing it was the only thing "we couldn't match," and shooting Barbara with a silenced pistol.

Finally aboard the plane, an annoying extension cord salesman named Warren Beach does little to assuage Monk's fears. However, thanks to the salesman's speech about the many dangerous flights he'd been on, Monk has noticed something: Barbara Chabrol has a million-mile pin, despite having told the stewardess she never flies. He's interrupted when a flight attendant makes an announcement over a speaker, giving instructions on plane safety (something Monk does not take very well, as he begins to panic and shushes all the other passengers).

The plane is about to take off, but Barbara cannot find her passport. Ignoring Leigh the flight attendant's calls to warn them they are underway, Stefan stands up in the aisle and searches their overhead compartment for it. Upon finding it, the two embrace and kiss. Monk notes that when they kissed in the airport, Barbara must have been two inches shorter.

Monk is not dealing with his fear of flying well, to the detriment of the other passengers. A woman behind him won't stop loudly complaining about everything he does, a little girl in the row in front of him has taken to repeatedly telling him a riddle, and Leigh the flight attendant has had to disable his call button. Worst of all, Monk is without Sharona, who decided to wander up to first class in hopes of talking to Tim Daly. He copes by continuing to watch Stefan and Barbara, looking for anything else suspicious.

Having convinced Sharona to come back to their row, and steal Stefan's passport on her way there, Monk is now certain Stefan had murdered his wife. By now, though, Warren is fed up with Monk's constant talk of murder, and tries to get him to relax. Monk reclines in his seat, shoes off and eye mask on, and yet he can't help but overhear another conversation. Barbara Chabrol has apparently forgotten she was a vegetarian.

Monk calls Disher and asks him to check for anything strange that might've happened at the airport that morning. When nothing comes up, he implores Randy to check the guy out anyway, and he obliges.

Here's What Happened[]

Sharona and Warren are now asleep, but Monk is still wide awake, and determined to solve the case. The airplane shifts unexpectedly, and he watches as Stefan lifts his glass. Monk realizes he works for the airlines, and calls Randy back. With Randy's help, he establishes a motive: if Stefan wanted to be with another woman, and still keep the cash flowing, he would have to make it seem like Barbara was alive. He must have found somebody who was Barbara's double, and killed his wife at the airport. Since he was a pilot, he would've had unrestricted access to the airport, making it easy to hide the body. Randy departs to look for it.

The woman in the row behind Monk has been listening to their conversation, and approaches Stefan. She alerts him to Monk and warns Stefan to keep an eye on him.

Unfortunately for Stefan, an old family friend, Bernard, finds them just then. Unaware that the woman he's speaking to is not Barbara Chabrol and doesn't speak a word of French, Bernard recalls the last night they saw each other and how they spoke in the language for hours. Before the situation can get worse, Stefan whispers something to Bernard and leaves to get two glasses of wine. On his way back, he purposefully spills some on Monk, who panics.

Sharona sleepily hands Monk some stain remover, which he takes into the bathroom to use. Barbara gets up from her seat and pushes a table in front of the door, trapping him. Meanwhile, Stefan pulls a curtain shut on the other end of the plane and opens a panel, pouring ethylene into Bernard's wine glass. He carries it back to where Bernard is waiting.

Monk finishes with the stain remover and quickly realizes he is stuck. He pushes on the door, yelling until Sharona hears him and comes to unlock it. She opens the door to a disheveled Monk, who is holding a half-written will. Leigh the flight attendant pushes past them then, not bothering to reprimand either for making a scene as she has bigger priorities: Bernard is dead.

It was ruled a heart attack, but Monk wasn't so sure. He takes the wine glass back to his seat, and, using a lighter given to him by Warren, burns of the alcohol residue. They are almost immediately interrupted by Leigh, who snatches the glass and lighter out of Monk's hands and throws them away, despite Monk's protests.

Sharona is back in first class with Tim Daly, leaving Monk alone with Warren Beach. He studies the couple across from them, looking for anything out of place, and then remembers Stefan had been getting his shoes shined at the airport. Why would someone who just murdered his wife be worried about his shoes? With the help of Warren's new extension cord, he drags the shoe across the aisle and discovers cement on the shoe.

Monk calls Randy back and asks if there's a construction site nearby. The terminal is being renovated, and Randy rushes to find the site.

Monk and Sharona meet Aunt Minn at the airport. Sharona and her aunt embrace, while Monk desperately tries to stall the Chabrols. On the spur of the moment, he asks Randy if he could find a duty roster for flights out of Newark. Armed with this information, he calls air traffic control, posing as a pilot. He mentions that the pilot flying Stefan's plane was "hammered" the night before, forcing the plane to turn back.

While being led away by the authorities, Stefan stops to ask Monk if this was really his first flight. Monk confirms it, and Stefan curses, acknowledging there are some things you can't prepare for.

Background[]

• On the Monk Cast Favorites Marathon, this episode was listed as one of Jason Gray-Stanford's favorites.
• In several novels by Lee Goldberg, Monk uses Dioxnyl, the anti-O.C.D. drug prescribed by Dr. Kroger in "Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine" when he finds it necessary to travel by air.
• This is the first appearance of Brooke Adams, Tony Shalhoub's real-life wife, on the series. In subsequent episodes, she plays three more different characters, but for her cameo appearance on "Mr. Monk's 100th Case," she reprises her role as the flight attendant from this episode, having apparently been driven to drinking and joining Alcoholics Anonymous due to the antics on the flight.
• Tim Daly co-starred with Shalhoub on Wings, Shalhoub's first well-known television role. Their fellow co-star Steven Weber appeared in the later episode "Mr. Monk Is On the Air."
• This is the first in a very short list of Monk episodes which lack the signature summation scene.
• Considering the post-9/11 setting of the show, it's very likely that many of the things Monk does on the plane would probably get him in trouble with the authorities, like interfering with a flight attendant's duties.
• This is the final episode to use the original theme song in the intro.

"What are you doing?"[]

In every episode of Monk and the Monk Movie, at least once, some variation of the question, "What are you doing?" is asked.