Monk episode review — 2.9 — Mr. Monk and the 12th Man

Original air date: August 22, 2003
Director: Michael Zinberg
Writer: Michael Angeli

Rating: 7/10

Monk investigates a series of seemingly unrelated killings that he realizes are serial killings by noticing that a couple of $20 bills the killer used are sequential in terms of their serial number. But still nothing seems to connect the killings.

Meanwhile, Sharona is dating the deputy mayor, which leads to everyone with the police constantly sucking up to her.

Monk complains about this with Dr. Kroger. He thinks she doesn’t really like him and is only into it for the attention she’s getting.

Monk remarks upon how the killings are seemingly too random, with no connecting demographics in terms age, race, or socioeconomic background. The only connecting tissue is they’re all from the same county. He soon finds out they were all members of the same jury in a case involving a man with a pipe in his head, which leads to one of the funniest scenes in the show so far.

The other real standout scene is a bit of a small moment here, but I like it quite a bit. Randy makes a point of leaving an open space on the board for the next victim, which is pretty funny.

Anyways, the episode isn’t great, but it has some fine moments. I think a bit of the magic of this episode is the slow reveal that ultimately this is a jury situation, but that reveal loses its impact if you’ve seen it before (which I have).