Mr. Monk and the Three Pies
Encyclopedia
Mr. Monk and the Three Pies is the eleventh episode of the second season
of Monk
, and is the 24th episode overall. The episode introduces Adrian Monk
's brother, Ambrose. For his performance as Ambrose, John Turturro
won an Emmy Award
for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series
. Tony Shalhoub
listed the episode among his favorites during the Monk Cast Favorites Marathon. It was also featured on the Best of Monk DVD.
contest, intent on winning a homemade cherry pie. However, the ticket number called out is not one of van Ranken's tickets. It's the ticket of an elderly woman, who wins the pie. van Ranken follows her back to her car, and demands the pie. She refuses, and he smashes her head against the steering wheel and steals the car. While Captain Stottlemeyer
dismisses the homicide
as a carjacking
gone very, very wrong, Adrian Monk
remains suspicious.
While he is looking over the crime scene, Sharona
gets a call from Monk's estranged brother Ambrose, an agoraphobic
who has not left his house for thirty-two years. The brothers have not spoken for seven years - Adrian is still angry at Ambrose because he never called or wrote after Trudy died. Ambrose suspects van Ranken, his neighbor, of murdering his wife, Rita. Adrian and Sharona visit Ambrose and there are various clues of how dysfunctional the Monks were all those years ago. Sharona sees that Ambrose is obsessed with the belief that their father will return one day: he has saved thirty years' worth of mail and newspapers in filing cabinets, and always sets a place for their father at the dinner table. He is employed writing instruction manuals for appliances and tools, at which he is very successful. Despite his eccentricities, Sharona can tell that his intellect is on par with, and even surpasses Adrian's - he has a similarly prodigious memory, and has taught himself to speak and write over seven languages. After leaving, Sharona actually hugs Adrian, thanking him for making her own family seem normal.
Ambrose is suspicious of van Ranken, as two nights ago, Ambrose heard van Ranken and his wife arguing, and heard gunshots. Three hours later, van Ranken got in his old pickup truck, drove away and was gone all night. The next morning, Ambrose called the house looking for Rita, and van Ranken said she had flown to Argentina. Suspiciously, he denied leaving the previous night, saying his truck had been broken down all summer. Adrian dismisses his brother as delusional, but as they are leaving the house, he notices the dead spot on the grass under van Ranken's truck. Indeed, the truck has been moved recently.
Adrian and Sharona visit van Ranken, on the pretext of taking back a bag of flour
that Rita borrowed from Ambrose, and Adrian catches van Ranken red-handed in several lies about his wife's whereabouts. For instance, he has a parking permit for a local state park that indicates that he got to the entrance near closing time, one of Rita's shoes is in the trash can, and there is evidence to suggest that he has been bleaching the floor.
The next day, Adrian and Sharona follow van Ranken back to the fair. He takes part in a potato sack race and deliberately trips in order to win second prize: another cherry pie (he only gets in by taking a ripped sack). Later, they see him rooting around in it, looking for something, apparently without finding it. Ambrose remembers that Rita baked three cherry pies to give away at the fair, and there must be something in them, or one of them, worth killing for. Stottlemeyer is skeptical, but admits that there was no pie in the car when the police got there. However, the airline records confirm that Rita van Ranken boarded a plane to Buenos Aires on the night of the murder.
The next day, Adrian and Sharona track van Ranken back to the fair again, having found that the third and final cherry pie will be given away at bingo. Despite purchasing twelve tickets, Adrian loses to van Ranken. Adrian convinces Stottlemeyer to search the third pie, but nothing is found.
Over dinner with Ambrose, Adrian berates him for not calling after Trudy died, and Ambrose, taken aback, says the reason he didn't call was because he felt guilty: Trudy was running an errand to get cough medicine for him when she was killed, and he blames himself. He breaks down crying, and Adrian, shocked, tells him it wasn't his fault, and embraces him.
Adrian and van Ranken each reenact the murder in their own apartment. They quickly both realize that the shell casing is in the bag of flour that is at Ambrose's house. Adrian and Sharona race to Tewkesbury, realizing that Ambrose is in danger.
Van Ranken tries to get the flour back by claiming he is using it to make chilli, but Ambrose sees through his ruse, pointing out that the recipe van Ranken named does not call for flour. He locks the door, causing van Ranken to set the house on fire
. Adrian and Sharona arrive, and see the flames, and while Sharona calls the fire department, Adrian rushes inside to convince Ambrose to leave the house. Adrian resorts to dragging Ambrose out of the house just as the fire department arrives to put out the fire. Meanwhile, Stottlemeyer and Lieutenant Disher arrive to arrest van Ranken; they just found Rita's body in the state park 20 minutes ago, and the "Rita van Ranken" that flew to Argentina
is actually his girlfriend. Ambrose gives them the shell casing they were looking for.
The episode ends with Adrian and Ambrose visiting Trudy's grave.
Monk (season 2)
The second season of Monk originally aired in the United States on USA Network from June 20, 2003 to March 5, 2004. It consisted of 16 episodes. Tony Shalhoub, Bitty Schram, Ted Levine, and Jason Gray-Stanford reprised their roles as the main characters. A DVD of the season was released on...
of Monk
Monk (TV series)
Monk is an American comedy-drama detective mystery television series created by Andy Breckman and starring Tony Shalhoub as the titular character, Adrian Monk. It originally ran from 2002 to 2009 and is primarily a mystery series, although it has dark and comic touches.The series debuted on July...
, and is the 24th episode overall. The episode introduces Adrian Monk
Adrian Monk
Adrian Monk is a fictional character portrayed by Tony Shalhoub and the protagonist of the USA Network television series Monk. He is a renowned former homicide detective for the San Francisco Police Department...
's brother, Ambrose. For his performance as Ambrose, John Turturro
John Turturro
John Michael Turturro is an American actor, writer and director known for his roles in the films Do the Right Thing , Miller's Crossing , Barton Fink , Quiz Show , The Big Lebowski , O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the Transformers film series...
won an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor - Comedy Series
This is a list of winners of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series.-1980s:Outstanding Guest Performer In A Comedy Series*1986: Roscoe Lee Browne – The Cosby Show as Dr...
. Tony Shalhoub
Tony Shalhoub
Anthony Marcus "Tony" Shalhoub is an American actor of Lebanese descent. His television work includes the roles of Antonio Scarpacci on Wings and sleuth Adrian Monk on the TV series Monk. He has won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe for his work in Monk...
listed the episode among his favorites during the Monk Cast Favorites Marathon. It was also featured on the Best of Monk DVD.
Plot
The town of Tewkesbury is holding their centennial fair. At the fair, Pat van Ranken enters a roll of tickets into a raffleRaffle
A raffle is a competition in which people obtain numbered tickets, each ticket having the chance of winning a prize. At a set time, the winners are drawn from a container holding a copy of every number...
contest, intent on winning a homemade cherry pie. However, the ticket number called out is not one of van Ranken's tickets. It's the ticket of an elderly woman, who wins the pie. van Ranken follows her back to her car, and demands the pie. She refuses, and he smashes her head against the steering wheel and steals the car. While Captain Stottlemeyer
Leland Stottlemeyer
Captain Leland Francis Stottlemeyer is a fictional police officer played by Ted Levine on the American crime drama Monk. He is Captain of the San Francisco Police Department 's Homicide Detail, and a longtime friend of Adrian Monk from their days on the force together where he served as Monk's...
dismisses the homicide
Homicide
Homicide refers to the act of a human killing another human. Murder, for example, is a type of homicide. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English...
as a carjacking
Carjacking
Carjacking is a form of hijacking, where the crime is of stealing a motor vehicle and so also armed assault when the vehicle is occupied. Historically, such as in the rash of semi-trailer truck hijackings during the 1960s, the general term hijacking was used for that type of vehicle abduction,...
gone very, very wrong, Adrian Monk
Adrian Monk
Adrian Monk is a fictional character portrayed by Tony Shalhoub and the protagonist of the USA Network television series Monk. He is a renowned former homicide detective for the San Francisco Police Department...
remains suspicious.
While he is looking over the crime scene, Sharona
Sharona Fleming
Sharona Fleming is a fictional character in the award-winning series Monk. Sharona is a divorced practical nurse from New Jersey and a single mother with a young son named Benjy. She was played by Bitty Schram. Schram was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance.-Biography:Sharona's...
gets a call from Monk's estranged brother Ambrose, an agoraphobic
Agoraphobia
Agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder defined as a morbid fear of having a panic attack or panic-like symptoms in a situation from which it is perceived to be difficult to escape. These situations can include, but are not limited to, wide-open spaces, crowds, or uncontrolled social conditions...
who has not left his house for thirty-two years. The brothers have not spoken for seven years - Adrian is still angry at Ambrose because he never called or wrote after Trudy died. Ambrose suspects van Ranken, his neighbor, of murdering his wife, Rita. Adrian and Sharona visit Ambrose and there are various clues of how dysfunctional the Monks were all those years ago. Sharona sees that Ambrose is obsessed with the belief that their father will return one day: he has saved thirty years' worth of mail and newspapers in filing cabinets, and always sets a place for their father at the dinner table. He is employed writing instruction manuals for appliances and tools, at which he is very successful. Despite his eccentricities, Sharona can tell that his intellect is on par with, and even surpasses Adrian's - he has a similarly prodigious memory, and has taught himself to speak and write over seven languages. After leaving, Sharona actually hugs Adrian, thanking him for making her own family seem normal.
Ambrose is suspicious of van Ranken, as two nights ago, Ambrose heard van Ranken and his wife arguing, and heard gunshots. Three hours later, van Ranken got in his old pickup truck, drove away and was gone all night. The next morning, Ambrose called the house looking for Rita, and van Ranken said she had flown to Argentina. Suspiciously, he denied leaving the previous night, saying his truck had been broken down all summer. Adrian dismisses his brother as delusional, but as they are leaving the house, he notices the dead spot on the grass under van Ranken's truck. Indeed, the truck has been moved recently.
Adrian and Sharona visit van Ranken, on the pretext of taking back a bag of flour
Flour
Flour is a powder which is made by grinding cereal grains, other seeds or roots . It is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many cultures, making the availability of adequate supplies of flour a major economic and political issue at various times throughout history...
that Rita borrowed from Ambrose, and Adrian catches van Ranken red-handed in several lies about his wife's whereabouts. For instance, he has a parking permit for a local state park that indicates that he got to the entrance near closing time, one of Rita's shoes is in the trash can, and there is evidence to suggest that he has been bleaching the floor.
The next day, Adrian and Sharona follow van Ranken back to the fair. He takes part in a potato sack race and deliberately trips in order to win second prize: another cherry pie (he only gets in by taking a ripped sack). Later, they see him rooting around in it, looking for something, apparently without finding it. Ambrose remembers that Rita baked three cherry pies to give away at the fair, and there must be something in them, or one of them, worth killing for. Stottlemeyer is skeptical, but admits that there was no pie in the car when the police got there. However, the airline records confirm that Rita van Ranken boarded a plane to Buenos Aires on the night of the murder.
The next day, Adrian and Sharona track van Ranken back to the fair again, having found that the third and final cherry pie will be given away at bingo. Despite purchasing twelve tickets, Adrian loses to van Ranken. Adrian convinces Stottlemeyer to search the third pie, but nothing is found.
Over dinner with Ambrose, Adrian berates him for not calling after Trudy died, and Ambrose, taken aback, says the reason he didn't call was because he felt guilty: Trudy was running an errand to get cough medicine for him when she was killed, and he blames himself. He breaks down crying, and Adrian, shocked, tells him it wasn't his fault, and embraces him.
Here's What Happened
Pat van Ranken got into a fight with his wife, and shot her to death. The shells were ejected from the gun as the bullets came out. Midway through disposing of her body, a woman arrived from the fair, coming to collect the pies. When van Ranken returned to cleaning up the kitchen, he realized that one of the shell casings from his gun was nowhere to be found. At first he believed it landed in one of the pies. This meant he had to go after all three of the pies, but despite having to kill for one of them, he never found them.Adrian and van Ranken each reenact the murder in their own apartment. They quickly both realize that the shell casing is in the bag of flour that is at Ambrose's house. Adrian and Sharona race to Tewkesbury, realizing that Ambrose is in danger.
Van Ranken tries to get the flour back by claiming he is using it to make chilli, but Ambrose sees through his ruse, pointing out that the recipe van Ranken named does not call for flour. He locks the door, causing van Ranken to set the house on fire
Arson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
. Adrian and Sharona arrive, and see the flames, and while Sharona calls the fire department, Adrian rushes inside to convince Ambrose to leave the house. Adrian resorts to dragging Ambrose out of the house just as the fire department arrives to put out the fire. Meanwhile, Stottlemeyer and Lieutenant Disher arrive to arrest van Ranken; they just found Rita's body in the state park 20 minutes ago, and the "Rita van Ranken" that flew to Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
is actually his girlfriend. Ambrose gives them the shell casing they were looking for.
The episode ends with Adrian and Ambrose visiting Trudy's grave.
Additional information
- Mr. Monk and the Three Pies is very similar to the Sherlock HolmesSherlock HolmesSherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
story The Adventure of the Six NapoleonsThe Adventure of the Six Napoleons"The Adventure of the Six Napoleons", one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is one of 13 stories in the cycle collected as The Return of Sherlock Holmes.-Synopsis:...
, with van Ranken as the equivalent of Pietro Venucci. - A diorama depicting the carjacking scene from this episode appears in Marci Maven's house in the season 6 episode Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan. It features some anachronismAnachronismAn anachronism—from the Greek ανά and χρόνος — is an inconsistency in some chronological arrangement, especially a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other...
s in it. The most noticeable is the fact that the diorama features NatalieNatalie TeegerNatalie J. Teeger is a fictional character on the American crime drama Monk. She becomes Adrian Monk's personal assistant midway through the third season of the show...
(who is represented by a troll doll), who didn't first appear on Monk until at least a year after the events of Mr. Monk and the Three Pies, and hence the doll should represent Sharona.