Oddly enough, the thing that made me choke up the most was The montage at the end when you saw Monk get to the latest crime scene. He was wearing his brown suit, but had a brown sweater under it. No more tattersall shirt buttoned up to the neck.
StG
Regarding Monk’s description of Trudy:Is this the first time Monk has described Trudy in less than glowing terms? I took it as a huge sign that he was finally accepting the reality of things that he could talk about Trudy’s imperfection.
Yes, over the years the show got a bit stale and Monk was getting more annoying than quirky, but the series finale was pretty good. Wrapped up pretty much all of the storylines, and gave some indication that life goes on.
They could have done far worse - Trudy not really dead after all, or Monk dies and you see him and Trudy walk off together on a beach; so many ways to badly do it.
As USA Network continually harps, “characters welcome”; Monk was never really a mystery/whodoneit show, it was a character study of Monk. To that end, it was a successful show with a satisfying finale.
I believe I called it a “Monk procedural” here a few times.
I feel kind of like Mr. Garrison when he reviewed CONTACT:
While I loved CONTACT, I thought it was a cheat that you wait years to find out who killed Trudy and when you do-
1- It’s nobody you ever heard of before (I assumed Dale the Whale would at least somehow be involved
2- The case is solved by Trudy, not Monk
3- It’s just another case really
Molly was a sweet girl but I think IRL she’d have gotten a restraining order after the second day she was around him. She was also amazingly accepting for someone who just learned that her biological father was a multiple murderer and that the guy who married her biological mother and who’s now stalking her is the guy who killed her bio dad.
I also wish they’d brought Sharona back for more than just an episode. Surely they could have swung the money for another couple of appearances to build up her romance with Randy. Speaking of, I pity whoever lives in Summit, NJ since if they ever have a meth ring the Chief of Police will likely, based on his prior history, get a hunch and begin looking for 3 foot tall Swiss girls. (Nice enough guy, but Stoddlemeyer and Monk have been propping him up for the entire series.)
Bio Dad whacked himself. 
I can understand Monk’s wanting to bond with Molly, since she was Trudy’s daughter . . . but she was also the daughter of the man who had Trudy murdered. And it was, in fact, Molly’s birth that lead to Trudy’s death. I’d like to see a future exploration of Monk’s love/hate relationship with Molly.
Unless, of course, love truly conquers all, and there is no “dark side” to their relationship.
:smack:
But, if he hadn’t Monk would have killed him.
Favorite scene: the hospital having to send all hands on deck to hold Monk down for bloodwork, or the “is there any chance I can die before I vomit?” and the “You made those appointments in pencil”.
Sure, they had to do that if Monk was going to stalk, er, spend time with his step daughter.
There was an episode where the guy who planted the bomb was dying of cancer and confessed. Monk turned off the morphine as Monk and turned it back on as Trudy. I believed at the time he was going to turn the morphine on all the way and kill the guy, and Stottlemeyer (sp) was going to let him do it.
I remember that one- one of their better moments. I believe that was the NYC episode.
A spoiler request: I haven’t seen all of the episodes this season. Did Monk get his badge back and turn it back in?
I loved when Monk had to take a capsule, but first had to sort the little granules by color.
I liked this too, but not having watched Monk much until this last season, I was surprised when watching the old Dale the Whale from the marathon to see Sharona and Randy being very rude to each other. When did things turn around?
They’d always had a kinda sorta flirtation (Randy made little secret of having the hots for Sharona) but they hooked up when she visited earlier this season.
I was surprised to see such a small thankless role for Ed Begley Jr.
Summit, NJ?
Tha hell?
That’s just wrong. It just doesn’t fit. The people in Summit would eat Randy Disher for lunch.
I haven’t seen the episode. Is Sharona supposed to live in Summit? If so, that’s even more weird.
Honey, don’t waste your sympathy on the people in Summit. If they ever have a meth ring, the bigshots who live in that town will work their connections and bring in ATF, the FBI, and the USDA.
Really quite surprising. All of one minute in part 1 and a dead body in part 2. I thought he would have a meatier role in the series finale.
As to Monk killing the judge, I really don’t think so. He had a chance to kill the guy who made the bomb that killed Trudy and didn’t do it. He had a chance to kill the six-fingered man who set off the bomb and didn’t do it. And in the finale he put his gun down instead of firing at the judge. Murder is not in him.
During that scene, I was expecting him to count them, and only take an equal amount of each color. 
I’m fairly happy with the finale. It was pretty good. Not as good as I’d hoped it would be, but it wasn’t horrific like I feared it would be. I was halfway expecting Monk to die, somehow, and be re-united with Trudy that way. Molly is clearly more Trudy’s daughter than her bio-dad’s, and she does give Monk someone to love. We had a foretaste of this when Monk took care of a dog for a while. I’ve always thought that he really needed a dog, something large that needed a lot of exercise, maybe a retired racing greyhound. But having a human to love, unconditionally, is even better for him.
I liked the scene in Part 1 where Monk acknowledges that he’s been in prison for the past dozen years. I think that was a very important psychological breakthrough for him. It’s not going to CURE him, but it gives him an insight about himself that he didn’t have before.
“Mr. Monk and the End” was the most watched episode ever for an hour long drama in the history of basic cable. The Friday finale drew 9.4 million viewers, 3.2 million of them in the 18-49 demographic. The ratings eclipsed the record of 9.2 million for “The Closer” on TNT. The episode also beat the previous high total viewership for “Monk” by 37%.
So, what was the point of Stotlemeyer’s wife having the name “Trudy”? I thought there would be some explanation.
I think that was covered in “Happy Birthday, Mr. Monk,” the episode where she was introduced. It was just treated as a weird coincidence.