Mr. Monk Gets Drunk

Infobox Television episode
Series = Monk
Title =Mr. Monk Gets Drunk
Season=4
Episode=5
Airdate=August 5, 2005
Writer=Dan Schofield
Production= T-2355
Director=Andre Belgrader
Guests=Daniel Roebuck
Paul Ben-Victor
Prev =Mr. Monk Goes to the Office
Next = Mr. Monk and Mrs. Monk
Episode list = List of "Monk" episodes

Mr. Monk Gets Drunk is the 5th episode of the 4th season of the USA Network series Monk. [http://www.tv.com/monk/mr.-monk-gets-drunk/episode/419378/cast.html] [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0650596/] It aired on August 5th 2005.

Plot synopsis

Adrian Monk goes to a winery for his anniversary, where he and his wife Trudy honeymooned. Over dinner, he meets an annoying man who introduces himself as Larry Zwibell. Monk appears tipsy after a single sip of wine, and Larry invites him to come to his room the next morning for a sure-fire hangover cure. While Monk goes upstairs, Larry sits down to join a poker game with the hotel's other guests.

The next morning, Monk is indeed hung-over, and decides to take Larry up on his offer. But when he and Natalie go to the room Larry said he was in, another occupant is there, and does not know who Monk is talking about. None of the other guests, nor the owner, remember any such man, and Natalie suspects that he was a figment of Monk's imagination, brought on by drunkenness. Monk, however, insists that he met the man and continues searching the hotel for him. Then Natalie sees that "Larry Zweibel" is the signature on a painting in the lobby, and believes that Monk made him up. Doubting his own sanity, Monk prepares to leave the resort, drive back to San Francisco and see Dr. Kroger.

Then, another man drives up, asking if they've seen his brother. He shows them a picture, and Monk recognizes the man in the picture as Larry. The brother says that "Larry," whose real name is Al Gruber, stole some money from the bank where he worked, and the brother is trying to convince him to turn himself in and return the money, in exchange for a lenient sentence.

In fact, Gruber and his partner stole $3.1 million from a crime family, and the "brother" is Al Nicoletto, a contract killer. Having killed the partner, Nicoletto has tracked Gruber to the winery. Monk figures out quickly that the man is not who he says he is, and has Natalie break into his car while he keeps him busy. Unfortunately for Monk, keeping him busy involves drinking enough wine to get Monk very inebriated. In the car, Natalie finds identification with Nicoletto's real name, and calls Captain Stottlemeyer.

Just as she returns to Monk, Nicoletto figures out that they're on to him, and forces them into the bottling room at gunpoint. However, they manage to overpower him.

Stottlemeyer and Disher arrive and take Nicoletto into custody, as he is wanted by the F.B.I. for a string of crimes, including the murder of Gruber's partner in New York City. Disher tells Stottlemeyer that Monk, still very drunk, is giving the summation in the hotel living room.

Here's What Happened

While it takes Monk a few tries to get it right, he summarizes the case: after a few hands of poker, Gruber/Larry went back to his room for more cash, then died of a sudden heart attack. The other guests, along with the hotel owner and one of the waiters, came up to check on him, and found him dead, with a suitcase full of money open beside him. They decided to divide the money among themselves, and then act as though he had never been there. This included hiding the body, junking the man's car, removing his name from the guest register, and collectively denying that he had been there.

One of the guests, a psychiatrist, points out that the police have found neither the body nor the money, and so the more likely explanation is that Monk has invented a conspiracy theory to explain his drunken hallucination. The police start to let the guests depart, then Natalie notices a strange taste in the new house wine she has been drinking, which Stottlemeyer recognizes as Aqua Velva aftershave. Armed with that clue, the police find Gruber/Zweibel's body concealed in a wine vat. The guests and hotel staff are arrested, though Stottlemeyer predicts they will receive light sentences.

Natalie prepares to drive Monk home as he is sleeping off his drunkenness. She apologizes for not believing him.

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