The scene where Monk is observin' around the elevator, the Police let Stottlemyer and Sharona go talk to him, but when Randy crosses the line, they won't let him through. I'm tryin' to figure out why. Thank you.

-Traci-

Hi, Traci.
I believe it was for the sake of comedy. He did not look like a police officer there, just more like a amazed tourist from a small town reaching "The Big Apple" !

Hugs
Mi

I thought that maybe it was because he didn't 'look' like a cop either because he was dressed so casually, but while Stottlemeyer is wearing a suit, he doesn't have his badge on and even if he did, he was out of his jurisdiction. And we know from the opening scene when the ambassador was shot that Randy had his badge with him, he showed it to the clerk at the desk when he told him to call 911. *And* both Sharona and Adrian are behind the police lines and neither of them were cops or had badges.

I have three possible ideas for why Randy wasn't allowed back there when they were.

1. The uniform cop at the scene wasn't aware Randy was a cop, he probably wasn't there when Randy was flashing his badge and he may have just decided that with Sharona, Adrian and Stottlemeyer already back there along with the Manhattan cops, there were just too many behind the crime scene tape.

2. By the time the Manhattan cops got there, Stottlemeyer had already gotten Adrian (along with Sharona to help him focus) over to the elevator to start the investigation with Randy acting as crowd control, which, before the NY cops got there was a good distribution of manpower, putting everyone to work doing what they would be most effective at. When the NY cops arrived, Stottlemeyer, the likely choice for this sort of thing, explained to the highest ranking NY officer on the scene what they saw, who they were (that Adrian was sort of a savant but needed Sharona to help him focus) so the other cops just left them alone where they were, but they didn't realize that Randy was a lieutenant or even a cop.

3. The writers needed a way to have that suggestion be offered early on, but not explored or to be dismissed and forgotten. Having Randy suggest that the shooter switched coats is one way to ensure that it loses credibility, given Randy's history with theories. Not allowing him to join the rest of his team and further discuss his theory put a full stop to any consideration anyone might have given it right there, plus make the idea seem to have even less merit, by treating him like he's not a cop and he's not worth their time. But in the end, it showed that Randy really did bring something of value to the team, and that no theories should be dismissed without at least giving them some thought first. I liked the way that Adrian turned around and smiled at Randy when he figured it all out in the bar, he looked so proud of him, the way he did in The Farm, and I liked Randy's smile, too, kind of like, "Okay, what? Something good just happened, I wish someone wouod tell me what it was." I was proud of Randy, too.