"Monk" finale, part one: USA wouldn't dare...would they?

Friday night was the first part of the "Monk" two-part series finale, a finale in which USA has promised fans closure in the way of solving the murder of Monk's beloved wife Trudy.

The finale opened with a flashback to the day Trudy died 12 years ago, and it's obvious to viewers, who have only seen rare glimpses of Trudy through the years, that something is wrong with her. Monk (Tony Shalhoub) senses it too, but he's so deliriously happy that he shrugs it off, giving fans an even rarer glimpse of a happy, carefree Monk. It's delightful.

But the happy mood of the show doesn't last. The flashback ends with Trudy being chased through a parking deck and blown up in her car, and Monk hearing the news from Capt. Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine). You can practically hear Monk's world crashing to pieces in that instant. Then, back in the present, Trudy appears to Monk (in a dream? hallucination?) and ominously comforts him by telling him, "It won't be much longer." Wait. What? 

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

Sure enough, Monk's latest case takes him to a crime scene that happens to be where he was when he learned of Trudy's murder (nice to see Ed Begley Jr in the brief cameo as the murdered doctor). In fact, on the day Trudy died, she'd been asking Monk about the missing woman involved in the case he was working on then, a case which is obviously connected to the current murder of Begley's character. 

Somewhat surprisingly, the show reveals Trudy's killer pretty early on in the episode, leaving us only the mystery of why, and the satisfaction of watching Monk figure it out for himself. Oh, and they threw in one other little thing: Monk is dying.

That's right. Sensing that Monk is close to putting the pieces together, Trudy's murderer (which for some reason, I still don't feel comfortable revealing) orders a hit on Monk, and the killer poisons Monk with ricin. The doctor in charge of Monk's care, played by DB Woodside, tells him he only has 2 or 3 days to live. Monk's only chance is to figure out exactly how the poison was introduced, thereby determining the exact toxin to be treated. Stottlemeyer and Randy track down the man who allegedly poisoned Monk (Ted Levine is either in Olympic athlete physical condition or he has an amazing stunt double) but the suspect is killed during the pursuit. 

Monk, knowing he doesn't have much longer to live, finally opens the Christmas present Trudy had wrapped up for him the day before she died. My guess -- that it was a gift which would inform Monk that she was pregnant (the whole "birthing center" connection) -- was mercifully wrong. Instead, it was a video tape in which Trudy begins to tell Monk about something she was involved in years before she met him.

That's where we end part one: Monk with about a day to live, and on the verge of solving Trudy's murder.

So was Trudy's message of "It won't be much longer" a message that it won't be much longer till he solves her murder and can move on, or that it won't be much longer till they are together again. As in, are they killing off Monk in the finale?

USA wouldn't dare. Would they? I can't decide how I feel about it. 

The show is obviously laying the groundwork for the team to disband and for the other characters to "move on:" Randy was dropping 2-ton hints all night that he's moving (to New York? with Sharona?); Natalie and her Navy doctor boyfriend are about to move in together; Leland got married on the previous episode; and Julie (I know, who cares) is going off to college. So where would that leave Monk?

Also, there's a scene after Leland chases Monk's supposed-killer into the path of a train, where he asks Randy, "Did you talk to the lab?" "Yeah, he's not gonna make it," Randy answers. Then they sit down and have a drink and talk about Monk. Did "the lab" say Monk wasn't going to make it? Or the guy hit by the train?

Also, if Monk knew he was dying and maybe about to be with Trudy again, why did he go to the cemetery to say goodbye to her? Perhaps Monk's belief system isn't such that he thinks he'll be with Trudy when he's dead, so maybe that's not where the show is headed. 

You are sneaky little Monk writers. Yes, you are.

It was a dark episode (and the finale next week promises to be even darker) but there were still many funny moments. One of the best involved Woodside's doctor character. When he informs Monk that he's dying and that he can expect "vomiting, followed by death," Monk fixates on the vomiting part, and moans "vomiting!" to which Woodside responds, "That's right. Followed by death." Again: "Vomiting!" "Yes, followed by death." Woodside  finally tells Monk he really needs him to focus on the "followed by death" part, and Monk asks if there's any way the order could be switched. 

It's absolute perfection to see Monk more worried about vomiting than dying.

I also loved that Monk's shrink, Dr. Bell, in an effort to boost Monk's confidence, schedules more weeks of Monk's appointments ... in pencil. 

The "Monk" series finale airs Friday night at 9pm.