Mr. Monk Goes to the Dentist

Infobox Television episode
Series = Monk
Title = Mr. Monk Goes to the Dentist
Season = 4
Episode = 15
Airdate = March 10, 2006
Writer = Daniel Dratch
Joe Toplyn
Production = T-2362
Director = Jefery Levy
Guests = Jon Favreau
Brooke Langton
David Pressman
Rick Yudt
Michael Dempsey
Steve Heinze
Ed Fusco
Christian Pikes
DeSean Terry
Joel Bryant
Brian Kimmet
Sven Holmberg
David Shackelford
Prev = Mr. Monk and the Astronaut
Next = Mr. Monk Gets Jury Duty
Episode list = List of "Monk" episodes

"Mr. Monk Goes to the Dentist" is an episode of the USA Network series "Monk".

Jason Gray-Stanford listed the episode among his favorites. [cite web
title = Monk Cast Favorites Marathon
work = USA Network
url = http://www.usanetwork.com/series/monk/community/castfavorites/index.html
accessdate=2007-01-01]

Plot synopsis

Lieutenant Randy Disher has a horrible toothache while investigating the robbery of an armored truck and the murder of its two drivers, so Captain Leland Stottlemeyer orders him to go see the dentist. Disher goes to see Dr. Oliver Bloom and his hygienist, Terri. Bloom places Disher under general anesthesia so that he can remove the infected tooth.

While Disher is sedated, he has brief moments of semi-consciousness. During one of those glimpses, he sees a man barge into the dentist's office and demand to know where "Barry Bonds" is. Bloom's hygienist Terri attacks the man with an object just as Disher fades back into unconsciousness. When he comes around, there are no signs of the man or of any struggle.

Disher tells Captain Stottlemeyer about the incident, but the captain just dismisses it as a side effect of the anesthesia. He sends Disher to Monk's house to deliver a case file and tells Disher to take the day off. While there, Disher asks Monk—who has a very strong phobia of dentists—to investigate the crime, which Monk hesitantly agrees to do after some persuasion from Natalie. Monk, Natalie and Disher go to Bloom's office, but are called away by Captain Stottlemeyer before Monk has a chance to look around the room.

The captain is at the scene of a crime where a dead body has been discovered. The police believe the man is involved with the armored truck case. Disher identifies him as the man from the dentist's, continuing to persist about his story; after becoming frustrated with being laughed at by Stottlemeyer and the other officers, he finally quits his job.

Stottlemeyer goes to talk to Disher, who has brought his old high school rock band, The Randy Disher Project, back together and is rehearsing with them. The band plays their song "Don't Need a Badge", which lashes out at Stottlemeyer's dismissive attitude towards his lieutenant position. Disher refuses to rejoin the force, and Stottlemeyer leaves. Meanwhile, at Monk's house, Terri shows up with a rag soaked with chloroform. She knocks Monk out with the chemical, and kidnaps him to Bloom's office.

When Monk goes missing, Natalie goes to the police station where Captain Stottlemeyer, distraught at the situation he has caused with Disher, is working late. Stottlemeyer does not know where Monk is, but Disher has figured out the case and has the two of them meet him at Bloom's office; it appears that what Randy heard as Barry Bonds was actually bearer bonds.

Monk awakens strapped into Bloom's chair. When he notices a giant tooth in the corner that matches the pattern of bruises found on the dead man's body, he figures out what happened. The man who was found was Denny Jardeen, an ex-cop. Jardeen broke his tooth while struggling with the armored car drivers, and went to Bloom to get it fixed. While under anesthesia, Jardeen divulges the details about where he has hidden a stash of bearer bonds. Terri and Bloom finished working on Jardeen, and went to get the bonds for themselves. Jardeen figured out what happened, and confronted Bloom during Disher's operation. Terri and Bloom killed him with the giant tooth, just as Disher saw, and threw his body in the river.

Unfortunately, Monk is still strapped down to the chair and can't do much with his theory. Bloom shows up, intending to torture Monk until he reveals information about the police's knowledge about the missing bonds. However, Monk stalls him until Stottlemeyer, Disher and Natalie show up to arrest the two. His band once again dissolved, Disher rejoins the force, and Monk concludes that his "super-mega-phobia" of dentists is one that is well-founded.

References

Trivia

When Bloom is torturing Monk, he makes references to the movie Marathon Man. Monk begs for Bloom to wash his hands, and Terri points out the dentist washed his hands in the movie.

External links

* [http://www.usanetwork.com/series/monk/theshow/episodeguide/episodes/s4_dentist/index.html USA Network page for "Mr. Monk Goes to the Dentist"]
* [http://www.usanetwork.com/series/monk/webexclusives/disher/ Music video of The Randy Disher Project's "Don't Need a Badge"]
* [http://www.usanetwork.com/series/monk/ Official Site for Monk]