Episode 3x01 - Mr. Monk Takes Manhattan [Season Premiere]
Monk and his friends go to New York to track down a man who has information on Trudy's murder, but Adrian becomes involved with another murder.
Episode 3x02 - Mr. Monk and the Panic Room
In yet another case of murder in a room locked from the inside, a music producer is found dead with bullets in his back, head. and chest, clearly neither an accident nor a suicide. But this time there's a further twist: the dead man's pet chimpanzee, Darwin, is caught with the murder weapon in his hand. Not wanting to make a monkey of himself by falsely accusing a chimpanzee of murder, Stottlemeyer takes the chimp into the interrogation room, tempting the animal to fire what he thinks is an empty gun. Meanwhile, Disher realizes that he's inadvertently given the captain a loaded gun and panic ensues. When the gun goes off, endangering not only Stottlemeyer but Disher, Monk, and Sharona as well, Stottlemeyer is persuaded that the chimp is guilty and is ready to allow animal control to put him to sleep. Sharona, however, is convinced that Darwin is innocent. In desperation, Sharona resorts to breaking and entering to rescue Darwin, persuading the most unlikely person imaginable to take him in. A reluctant Stottlemeyer is forced to arrest Sharona, and a severely distressed Monk has a "monkey" on his hands. Fortunately for everyone, Darwin himself provides the clue that solves the case and the real murderer is trapped into revealing his identity.
Episode 3x03 - Mr. Monk and the Blackout
Three deaths during a blackout lead Monk to a killer who was a '90s radical... and has been dead for a decade.
Episode 3x04 - Mr. Monk Gets Fired
Karen Stottlemeyer has decided to film a "cinema verite" documentary about her husband's work, but her timing couldn't be worse. The police commissioner shouts at the captain (on camera) for focusing on a routine arson fire in a wig factory and relying on Monk to solve a more newsworthy case involving a female victim whose body was cut up with a chainsaw. Monk is in even worse trouble. After presenting some useful leads involving the chainsaw victim's age and nationality, he accidentally erases several years' worth of crucial computer files, and the enraged commissioner revokes Monk's private practice license despite Stottlemeyer's protests that doing so will destroy him. With Sharona forced to return to her old job as a nurse, the devastated Monk sits in the hospital hallway all day waiting for her until, at her exasperrated insistence, he finds a job with a magazine as a fact checker.
Episode 3x05 - Mr. Monk Meets the Godfather
The Mafia and the FBI both pressure Monk into taking on the case of five mobsters gunned down in a barbershop.
Episode 3x06 - Mr. Monk and the Girl Who Cried Wolf
It's Sharona's turn to be terrified. After several frightening and mysterious encounters with a blood-soaked man that no one else can see, she begins to doubt her own sanity, and Stottlemeyer advises Monk to give her time off to restore her nerves. Monk is left with an irritating substitute nurse whose philosophy is the opposite of Sharona's: everything from Monk's requests for wipes to the obsessively systematic organization of his refrigerator has to go. Wanting Sharona back again, Monk goes to the garage where Sharona first saw the blood-soaked man and finds a clue--the silver tip from the toe of a cowboy boot. Meanwhile Sharona, who is attending a night class in creative writing, apparently forgets to turn in an assignment and seems to be misplacing objects. But when her writing instructor's husband dies of a heart attack after eating tomato soup, Sharona recognizes the plot of her missing story and realizes that she's not crazy. All she and Monk have to do now is tie together the boot tip and the tomato soup to prove that the death is murder and solve the mystery of the bloody man.
Episode 3x07 - Mr. Monk and the Employee of the Month
Monk takes a job at a department store to solve the murder of one of the store's employees.
Episode 3x08 - Mr. Monk and the Game Show
With Sharona in New Jersey to visit her ailing mother, Monk is left in the very incompetent hands of his annoying upstairs neighbor, Kevin Dorfman, but the prospect of a week with Kevin is eased somewhat by a visit from Trudy's father, Dwight Ellison. Dwight invites Monk (and Kevin) to spend the week with him and his wife, Marcia--and at the same time investigate gameshow host Roddy Lankman, who appears to be involved in a conspiracy to allow one of his contestants, Val Birch, to win every game. Despite the memories of Trudy aroused by spending time with her parents in her former home and the questionable help of Kevin, Monk discovers evidence that Lankman visited Birch's house--and that Birch visited the site of the accident that killed Lankman's assistant, Lizzie Talvo. To discover exactly how Lankman and his crooked contestant are communicating--and possibly prove that they're involved in something much worse than cheating--Monk becomes a contestant on the game show. His knowledge of trivia is not much help, though, since Birch keeps shouting out the answers (A, B, C, or D) before Lankman has finished asking the questions. With a little help from Dwight, Monk discovers a novel way to expose the guilty parties--an onscreen phone call to Birch.
Episode 3x09 - Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine
After Captain Stottlemeyer is shot in the shoulder by an unknown assailant, a somewhat rattled and very angry Disher is left in charge of the investigation. Although Monk is almost as distressed as Disher, he provides very little help with the investigation, even allowing a suspect to get away. Feeling depressed and helpless, Monk decides to try a new medication that controls his OCD and eliminates his phobias but also makes him insufferably egotistical, unempathetic, and oblivious to the details that are so vivid to the "normal" Monk. Meanwhile, the suspect Disher has been pursuing is proven innocent, and the bullet taken from the captain's shoulder is traced to a gun belonging to a dead woman. Stottlemeyer impatiently checks himself out of the hospital with his arm in a sling and arranges to interview the new suspect with the help of Monk, Sharona, and Disher. Monk arrives late, dressed in a loud Hawaiian shirt and talking like a "cool cat" from the 1950s. "The Monk," as he calls himself, contributes nothing useful to the interview and discovers nothing when he does his Zen routine in the dead woman's apartment. Undeterred by Sharona's insistence that the medication is making him sicker, he drives off in his new red Mustang. Only when he's made a fool of by some college kids does he realize that "the Monk" is no more normal--and a lot less competent and compassionate--than his usual self. Returning to the dead woman's apartment, he figures out what was wrong and how to prove the suspect guilty of more than one crime, and Sharona triumphantly throws the pills in the dumpster.
Episode 3x10 - Mr. Monk and the Red Herring
Monk ends up hiring a new assistant, Natalie, but she has been the subject of a brutal attack involving the attempted theft of...her daughter's beloved pet fish.
Episode 3x11 - Mr. Monk vs. the Cobra
Monk investigates the murder of an author who wrote a biography of a famous deceased martial arts movie star, Sonny Chow. It begins to look like Chow to commit murder against the man who maligned him.
Episode 3x12 - Mr. Monk Gets Cabin Fever
Monk witnesses a gangland killing and has to go into protective custody in a cabin in the woods. But he notices suspicious activity at a nearby cabin and suspects a murder has occurred there.
Episode 3x13 - Mr. Monk Gets Stuck in Traffic
When Monk, Natalie, and Julie get stuck in a traffic jam after a multi-car collision blocks the freeway, Monk gets out of the car to investigate. He soon deduces from the absence of skid marks and other clues that the young man in the overturned Volkswagen that caused the pile-up was murdered and his body placed in the car to make his death look like an accident. But the highway patrolman in charge of the "accident" scene wants nothing to do with Monk (or the not-very-successful lawyer who has latched onto him), and the mountains blocking the signal prevent Monk from calling Captain Stottlemeyer for an authorization to investigate. Monk briefly returns to Natalie's car, where he finds Julie in need of a bathroom and Natalie nursing an injured wrist. Unfortunately for them, Monk's mind is on the fatality, and he returns to the Volkswagen. The angry officer gives him the victim's name and occupation (environmental activist), but he still refuses to listen to Monk's evidence. Meanwhile, the murderer, realizing that he has accidentally switched cell phones with the victim, is also trying to get back to the Volkswagen--and he kills again in order to do so. Monk's suspicions turn to a paramedic wearing mud-spattered construction boots, but the highway patrolman still refuses to listen. Furious at Monk's continued interference, he arrests him and handcuffs him in the backseat of a police car. Natalie finds Monk and, after a bit of good-humored teasing, decides to help him by checking the back of the suspect's dump truck for evidence. The suspect drives away with Natalie still in the back of the truck and the cops ignore Monk's pleas for help until the discovery of a second body proves Monk right. At that point, the patrolman joins forces with Monk and the chase is on to rescue Natalie and catch the murderer.
Episode 3x14 - Mr. Monk Goes to Vegas
Stottlemeyer is in Las Vegas and drunkenly figures out how a wealthy casino owner secretly murdered, but calls in the Monk the next day when he can't remember how he solved the murder.
Episode 3x15 - Mr. Monk and the Election
With her daughter's school about to be closed as a cost-cutting measure, Natalie becomes a candidate in the upcoming school board election despite Monk's fears that she'll desert him if she wins. Natalie's frustrations with a jammed photocopier and other defective equipment bought at a police auction are dwarfed by fear for her life when a sniper fires into her campaign headquarters, further damaging the equipment and killing a security guard. The only clues to the identity of the sniper are an oddly folded note demanding that "Natalie Teege" withdraw from the election and a bullet from a semiautomatic rifle made in Russia. Suspicion falls on Natalie's opponent in the election, Harold Krenshaw, whom Monk knows as a fellow patient of Dr. Kroger's. Although Monk thinks that Krenshaw is lying about his friendship with Dr. Kroger and Krenshaw admits to being an excellent shot, Monk is sure that Krenshaw is innocent because he wouldn't misspell Natalie's name. When Krenshaw passes a polygraph test that eliminates him as a suspect, Stottlemeyer concentrates on protecting Natalie, assigning Disher the role of full-time bodyguard, only to have the perp throw a hand grenade through a window in an attempt to kill Monk. A fragment of the grenade reveals that it was made in Chechnya, solidifying the Russian connection. At a debate between Natalie and Krenshaw, one of Natalie's campaign workers hands Monk a flyer folded exactly the same way as the note, and Monk informs Disher that "he's the guy." Following this new lead, Stottlemeyer discovers that the man is suspected by the FBI of being a major arms dealer and decides to go after him, but it's only when Monk is suffering from claustrophobia in a voting booth that he figures out the man's motive and anticipates his next move. The perp is arrested and Stottlemeyer finds the evidence he needs to convict him. The outcome for Natalie and Monk is bittersweet; she loses the election and he learns that Krenshaw was telling the truth (or something close to it) about Dr. Kroger.
Episode 3x16 - Mr. Monk and the Kid [Season Finale]
After twenty-two-month-old Tommy Graser finds a severed finger and gives it to a policeman, Monk walks through the park with Tommy trying to retrace the child's steps. He finds no body or other incriminating evidence, but he does discover a surprising affection for the placid and intelligent toddler, who constantly repeats Monk's name and quietly submits to having his hands wiped when he touches "nature." A lab technician identifies the finger as that of a twenty-five-year-old man, and Monk deduces from a callus that the young man played the violin. After visiting the home of Daniel Carlyle, a musician who fits this description, Monk concludes that Daniel's mother and her other son, Jason, killed Daniel and that Jason is masquerading as his brother. Meanwhile, little Tommy is temporarily removed from the custody of his foster parents, and Monk surprises everyone, including himself, by volunteering to care for him for two weeks until his new adoptive parents can take him. With Tommy in tow, Monk and Natalie follow the Carlyles. After seeing them waiting for a pay phone to ring and Mrs. Carlyle crying on her son's shoulder, Monk arrives at a new conclusion, which is verified when he again talks to the Carlyles--Daniel has been kidnapped. Monk agrees to follow the kidnapper's bizarre instructions, which include delivering the $500,000 ransom fee in a garbage bag onto a rooftop while wearing only a bathrobe (and his shoes and socks). Unfortunately, Monk is distracted by a phone call from Julie, who is babysitting Tommy, and delivers the money to the wrong man. While Captain Stottlemeyer and Lieutenant Disher straighten out the mix-up, Monk resumes caring for Tommy. Controlled chaos and dirty diapers give way to more urgent matters when Monk realizes that Tommy has taken a tube of lipstick out of Natalie's purse--and inadvertently given Monk the clue that solves the case. After reading Tommy to sleep with a fairy tale about a heroic little prince who solves a mystery, Monk realizes that Tommy will never live happily ever after with Mr. Monk and sadly decides to give him up to his adoptive parents.
Episode descriptions adapted from: tv.com
contributed by janenjab