It's been a while since I saw them, but discussion about these episodes brought memories flooding back. So I had to comment...

I enjoyed these episodes, true, but at the end I felt something was missing. Something very important to the show. In fact, two things were missing!

Julie and Dr. Kroger.

I felt without these two characters' involvement/reactions the episodes were lacking.

I agree. Julie....ummmmm....not so much (I don't know - I mean she knew "Mr. Monk" a bit, but not as well as the other people), but I was surpised there was no Dr. Kroger around - not even a mention! If one of your most regular patients (other than Harold) suddenly dies, I would be around Capt. Stottlemeyer and Natalie and, one, figure out what happened, and two, grieve together.

Anyhoo, my two cents.

I tend to think that with Nat as upset as she was Julie would have come home to comfort her. So her absense was a bit out of character.

As for Dr. K... I wonder if Stanley wasnt feeling well during the shooting of the episode or if they simply didnt have the best way of working him in to the storyline - as I can see how it would have been difficult with the script/episode as it aired.

For a two part episode I think it was fine. If it had been a movie - big screen I mean - I would have wanted more.

My two cents as well,

<clink, clink>

-M

I'm going to pick some nits here (it's better to do it before those little bugger hatch anyway) and say that Dr. K was mentioned twice. Once, in the beginning when Disher had him on his cell phone, and once later one when the sheriff tapped his phone. But it still would have been nice to see him...and Julie too.

Sheriff Rollins could have easily brought Dr. K in for questioning.

I thought it strange that they would check DR.K's and Natalie's mail and tap his phone but the Captain didn't think that his mail, office or phone was tapped. Because Monk sent him a post card telling where he was and the captain told Randy that Monk was alive in his office. I think that was risky especially since the captain could have been in trouble for helping Monk disappear.

. simply put he is the chief of police. Rollins is just a sheriff he isn't about to bug Stottlemeyer's phone

Back to the original pt.

I was surprised during mr monk is on the run part II that julie wasn't there in the beginning after mr monk was thought to be dead.

As for Kroger not as shocked to be honest. they didn't really call in natalie to ask her any questions from what I remembered I doubt they would question kroger who BTW is yes a nice person but, is smart and will be lawyered up. If he calls kroger he might have been facing a lawsuit if kroger found out about the wire tap.

I missed Dr. Kroger and Julie in the episodes as well. I think it would have been good to have at least seen Julie helping Natalie with the flowers and planning the service, if nothing else. Dr. Kroger could have come to court in support of Monk or even to Natalie's house, when everyone thinks Monk is dead. I don't know, maybe like someone said, Stanley wasn't feeling well. There could have been a couple of places that each character could have been written in the script. I missed both characters in the episodes.

I totally agree that Kroger could have lawyered Rollins silly over a phone tap, but, and correct me if I'm wrong, in the episode where Krogers cleaning lady was killed, his lawyer, and I think Stottlemeyer told him that if he had any knowledge that would help them he was legally obligated to provide it. The lawyer gave him a nod and he told them about the paranoid guy who wanted to see his file - who ended up destroying bears with Monk later.

I dont know how the real world works, I think Doctor/Patient confidentiality expires after death of the patient - and I imagine that law enforcement must tried/prosecuted enough mental health professionals that there's probably some more in depth set of rules for when a Doctor would 'have' to talk.

Plus, I think in a lot of those situations it's arguable that it's in the fugatives best interest for the doctor to help the police to restrain him. Reckless behavior being particularly dangerous to the unbalanced.

In fact, it's almost kind of odd to me that Rollins didnt try to muscle Kroger in to helping him somehow.

But, it is a T.V. show. And we have to be willing to accept some storyline stretching from time to time.

As I used to say when I would forge ancient sculptures and tools to scatter through the wilderness of my native Massachusettes... "If it were perfect - It would be real."

-M

because dr. kroger was at least mentioned, i really didn't think too much about his physical absence. but, julie is an entirely different story. though she was also mentioned, i thought it was strange that she wasn't around in the beginning of part 2 when monk had supposedly died. you'd think she would want to comfort her mom and help plan the service. that seems like julie anyway. very strange for me.

Yeah I think if Kroger knew where he was at then most definatley he have to tell him or if any tendecy that might help them catch him.

I just didn't think the could wire tap his phone in fact even stottlemeyer was kind of shocked by it in the episode.

As for Kroger being bullied basically I can't see him going along trying to trap Adrian. Especially if Stottlemeyer told him adrian was innoncent.

but like you said it's a show lol. The fact he even escaped so easily isn't going to happen either.

On the point about the wire tap... I think we're forgetting that Rollins is a bad guy and has little respect for the rules, or that he had another bad guy in the governers office covering for him. That probably explains Stott's shock on the subject too.

And you're right. If Stott told Dr. K that Monk was innicent and Rollins was corrupt Dr. K would have played Rollins like a fiddle - psychologically speaking - probably right up until he got caught doing so. And I only imagine he'd get caught because it's much harder for a good person to be duplicitous than most people think.

What's this now, 6 cents? You guys are gonna break my piggy bank.

<clink, clink>

-M

Now that would have been fun to see. Dr. K and Rollins engaged in some psychological battle. Better yet, I wonder what Dr. K could have done with Dale. Too divergent, yeah.

I think that this is for a reason similar to the possible reason for Stanley not being actually seen in either episode. I don't think that Emmy was sick, though, just that as a minor, she is only allowed to work a certain number of hours per day as opposed to the 13 or so hours that an adult is allowed to work, plus, I think that Emmy lives in another state from where Monk is filmed, I think she lives in New York, or I believe that's what I read somewhere. Anyway, because of the laws about her only being able to work so many hours per day, and the fact that they would have to fly her down, film as many of her scenes as possible at one time and fly her back, I think it's possible that a decision was made to just mention her at the part where Rollins was talking to Dale about Natalie leaving her daughter with a neighbor and going out to find Monk, rather than have her actually appear in the episode. If you think about it, the adult actors can work however many hours per day that it takes to crank out an episode per week, and then go back and reshoot anything that needs to be redone later. With Emmy, once she has hit the number of days that she is allowed to work for that day, she has to leave, whether the episode has been finished, or they are on a deadline or not. And this doesn't mean just the number of hours she is in front of the camera, this means the number of hours she is on the set. So if they have lighting problems, or someone keeps forgetting their lines, even for a scene that she isn't in, the time is still adding up. I would think that when they have scenes with Emmy in them, they try to set that day aside to devote to just shooting those scenes and nothing else. And with her having to fly back and forth, it could be pretty inconvenient and expensive to have to go back and reshoot scenes that didn't work in the first shooting or that have slight changes in them.

As for Stottlemeyer being worried his phone might be tapped, I would think that to do that, Rollins would have to go through Internal Affairs, which would bring him to their attention, and I doubt he would want to risk it. But if he did, there would probably a slightly lengthier process to go through before it could be done. And I think that Monk sent Stottlemeyer the postcard before Stottlemeyer had any idea that Rollins was tapping phones and intercepting mail and before he had a suspicion that Rollins was dirty.

I wondered why Dale and Rollins waited till Natalie found Adrian and went after him. If she found the article that let her know he was alive and where he was by complete accident so quickly, while she was in mourning, and busy arranging his service and packing up his apartment, why hadn't they found it when they were pretty sure he wasn't dead, and actively looking for him? Dale is supposed to be really good at finding information and he's supposed to be addicted to watching the world around him and controlling as much of it as he possibly can, he's supposed to have people in power and in all kinds of businesses in his pocket, he's supposed to own several newspapers... So why didn't he hear about the 'Carwash Columbo' before Natalie or the moving guy? And Rollins, with his connections in law enforcement didn't hear about the guy at the carwash who solved the hit and run case with freakish ease and the strange name? I don't know, though. Maybe it was mere chance, maybe Dale's reach doesn't extend to Nevada, and neither does Rollins's. Maybe they would have seen the article and made the connections eventually, of Natalie hadn't done it first, and since they were watching her, the way it worked out was just faster. Maybe they figured (correctly) that it would be easier and probably faster to just rely on Adrian's friends' loyalty to him and Adrian's nature to do the work for him. It seemed to have worked for them, or almost worked.

Incidentally, I was hoping to eventually see Natalie meet Dale since she first became Adrian's assistant, I figured it would be pretty interesting. She didn't insult him or anything like I had kind of hoped she would, but, I noticed some other things. In Dale The Whale in the first season, Adrian had a little bit of a tantrum about allowing Sharona to be alone with Dale and tried to forbid it, but in On the Run, he didn't seem to be worried about Natalie going to see Dale alone. Of course, the situation was a good bit different, 'alone' being kind of relative considering Dale was in a prison instead of his own apartment, but depending on how you look at it, that could be both more dangerous (because of other prisoners, maybe) or safer (she would be locked in a cell with one fat man who didn't have the abilty to even stand up, let alone attack her, in a wing that seemed devoid of other prisoners with guards around) and because in the first Dale episode, Adrian himself wasn't also in such immediate danger. But I also noticed that Dale didn't talk to Natalie the way he did Sharona. He seemed to treat her as more of an equal. I don't think it was as much to do with the fact that she had family with money, Dale doesn't have any more respect for rich people than for poor people. I think it had more to do with the fact that he didn't really have any good dirt on her that he could use to control her and he knew it, he knew she wasn't easily intimidated and to try to intimidate her was a big mistake, especially if you are incapable of defending yourself physcially, and I think that deep down, where he wouldn't even admit it to himself, he has sort of a reluctant respect for her. She's smart, independant and strong. She had money, but because she wanted to live her own life her own way, she walked away from it and now clips coupons to get by, she took a job with bad hours, low pay and no benefits, but hasn't quit it like she has so many others because it's a job she feels proud of, that she feels like she is making a difference and has integrity working for a good man, and she's very loyal. She lost Mitch, but rather than pulling into herself, going catatonic or binging till she weighed about a ton, she pushed herself through it and kept going, even though it hurt. I think that Dale has to respect that even if he hates her for it.

That would have been interesting to see dr. k go at rollins. Kroger probaly could have determine if he was lying about stuff etc and just overall mislead rollins




The articles was pretty was so small in the paper that it wasn't that noticeable. We have to remember rollins is not only looking for monk but, he is also a sheriff with other respoblities so he has a lot on his plate in SF. so that is kind of far in Nevada. As for Dale it is such a small town he might not have connection or not care. After all there was reason why monk chose the town maybe becuae he didn't dale would bother to look for him there.

You made a very good point. It is possible that Stanley was not feeling well enough to do the episode. This would explain a lot.

Was I the only one who noticed in On The Run Part 2 Monk and Natalie both were wearing Converse shoes. Were they advertising or did Tony and Traylor just think that was cute to do? Because don't the actors wear their own clothes most of the time, except for Monk suits?

I remember thinking, "Wait -- are they wearing the same shoes?" But I never really thought about it after that point.

Same shoes, slightly different colors. One was wearing a darker blue.

That is really cool!! I didn't catch that. I am going to have to go back and rewatch, and obviously pay more attention...LOL!!

Just wanna add my two cents. A quite simple but pretty smart touch: at the scene Monk is in the court - part I - he doesn't have his wedding ring anymore. I guess because he was going to jail, he wasn't allowed to use it.
Then, during the whole part I and almost until the end of part II, he still didn´t wear it. Just puts it back when everything is solved and he is talking to Dale at the Prison.
Quite similar to the real world, eh?
Nice!

hugs
Mi

I agree the police probably took it, along with all his other personal property, when they arrested him. He surely didn't get it back from the police until after he discovered the car bomb and implicated Dale the Whale and the sherrif from SOTL. Once they had him in orange jumpers, he had been inside the wall, and the ring along with other personal effects, would have been at the jail in a plastic bag.