Mr. Monk and the Three Julies

Mr. Monk and the Three Julies is the eighty-ninth episode of the dramedy television series Monk. It first aired on January 25, 2008.

Summary
To Natalie's understandable fear and horror -- and the detriment of Leland's new car -- a serial killer appears to be targeting women who have the same first and last name as her daughter. Monk and the police search for the culprit before he strikes again, especially this close to home.

Synopsis
The episode opens up with Capt. Leland Stottlemeyer and Lt. Randy Disher driving up at a possible crime scene in the former's new car, a "midnight onyx" Dodge Charger. As the Captain shows off the car he begins to clean crumbs off the hood and look for scratches. When Natalie asks Monk if it reminds him of someone, he doesn't get the hint. In fact he helps the Captain clean it off. In the meantime Randy directs the cops to execute a search warrant for a gun in the nearby building. As they go inside Randy gives Natalie the police radio and the Captain gives Monk his car keys while they are inside.

At that point Natalie tells Monk that her daughter Julie is at driver's ed. Once she gets her license she wants a car and Natalie doesn't know what to tell her. When Monk says to reject the request because she can't obviously afford it, Natalie responds that it is difficult to say "no" to a teenager. They are in her words "a force of nature".

Then the radio reports a 187 on a Julie Teeger on Bose Street. A fearful Natalie asks the dispatcher to repeat the name to be sure and then asks Monk what "187" means. When Monk says it means a homicide, she grabs the keys from him and rushes off in the Captain's car.

Arriving at the scene Natalie rushes past the officer into the house to see the body but finds that the victim was not her daughter but a different Julie Teeger. This was a housewife stabbed in the chest in her own hallway. At that point Monk, Randy, and Leland drive up in a patrol car. Leland notices that in Natalie's frantic driving broke the rear view mirror on the passenger side. As she apologizes he responds that it was what any parent would have done. In the meantime Lt. Frank, the primary detective, asks Leland to take over since he was already there. While questioning the neighbor (Johnathan Terry) who found the body, Monk moves a yellow package from a chair to allow him to sit but becomes agitated when he unwittingly picks up the undershorts that package came in. However an even more agitated George Teeger (John Rosenfeld), the husband of the victim, bursts in to be restrained and calmed down by Leland.

Outside Natalie is trying to reach Julie when word arrives of another Julie Teeger found dead in an apparent hit-and-run in the park. She frantically rushes to the scene, causing more severage damage to Leland's car in the process when she took a shortcut across the creek -- even though there is no bridge crossing it. She and the guys, who arrive a few minutes later, find that this Julie Teeger was a graduate student riding her bicycle when she was run over. While a very understanding Leland looks over his damage, which of course is insured, Monk and Randy find evidence that the hit-and-run was deliberate and not accidental. Monk finds evidence that Julie #2 was chased down while Randy finds a square-shaped bruise on her back, a trailer hitch. Knowing this they realize someone is killing Julie Teeger's, prompting Natalie and the police to find her Julie at the drivers' ed school and bring her to safety.

At the police station Leland has the detectives check on every Julie Teeger west of the Rocky Mountains. Randy then researches old cases and finds out about a Matthew Teeger (John Hawkes), a paranoid schizophrenia and amateur taxidermy, who attacked his stepfather several years before in defense of his mother -- also named Julia. They go over to the house where they find not just stuffed animals but a stuffed Julia Teeger. (Can anyone say Psycho?)

As Monk tells Dr. Kroger later that night in an emergency appointment, she died of a heart aneurysm but Matthew never reported it. Dr. Kroger called it "radical cognitive bonding". He could not live without his mother. Monk asks him to look at the police file for a preliminary profile but only after the doctor cautions him that since Matthew is not his patient he could only give a hypothesis.

Meanwhile Julie is upset because her mother refuses to let her go to school and even worse, not take her driver's test until the man they are looking for is behind bars. Natalie cannot understand that with two dead women named Julie Teeger her Julie's only concern is her test. While Randy reassures her Leland arrives to announce their move to the police station for added security. It appears that with their name search, Julie is the only Julie within a thousand miles of San Francisco. "The only one left", adds Julie.

Back at the Teeger home, the police are staking out the place for Matthew with Randy in drag as the mother. He even imitates an older woman's voice when Matthew comes home and says he has been a bad boy. He climbs on Randy's lap while a panicked Randy searches for the signal to move in. Soon Matthew is arrested and brought to the police station.

At the station Natalie convinces Julie to keep her name and tells her about her fathers aunt Julie for whom she was named. At that point Monk bursts in to tell that Matthew Teeger has been arrested. When Julie says she can take her test Natalie is hesitant but then passes the responsibility to Monk while she went to call her parents.

A reluctant Monk tries to avoid it but learns what a force of nature teenagers can be. While this is going on after Matthew spots her and speaks to her. He had noticed her name on the notebook she was holding. Julie is shaken but renews her attack and Monk eventually gives in especially when Sargent Denise Brown offers to take her to the testing ground on Vinton Street, only four blocks from the station.

In the interrogation room Matthew denies any wrongdoing and keeps asking for his mother. He also says the girl is in danger. When Leland mentions the knife stapped to his leg, Monk hearing in the two-way mirror begins to see something wrong. Julie Teeger the housewife was killed with one of her own knives. He leaves with Randy to check out his theory.

Later as Natalie and Leland discuss the insanity of Matthew, they hear gunshots. Matthew Teeger has escaped. He took a laundry truck and heads toward the driver's testing zone. Leland, Natalie, and the police are in hot pursuit. This time Leland drives his car.

In the meantime, Monk and Randy are at Julie Teeger the graduate student's apartment when he notices a yellow box top. He asks the landlady if she received a delivery the day she died which the landlady confirms as true. Just then Randy gets a call about Matthew Teeger.

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