Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
Monk opens the season in New York with Sharona, Stottlemeyer and Disher, following Dale Biederbeck’s lead about Trudy’s murder. The group gets sidetracked by crimes in the city before Monk finds Warrick Tennyson, who admits that he built the bomb that killed Trudy for a man with six fingers on one hand. It is a major piece of information, but it does not identify the person who hired Tennyson, so Monk returns to San Francisco with the larger mystery still open.
Back at work, Monk’s routine changes sharply after he takes medication intended to ease his phobias. It makes ordinary situations easier but also dulls the observations he relies on, especially while the police search for the person who shot Stottlemeyer. Sharona’s final regular appearance comes in that episode. After she moves back to New Jersey and remarries her former husband, Monk struggles to find a replacement; Natalie Teeger enters when she asks him to investigate the break-in at her home, where she killed one intruder and suspects they were after her daughter Julie’s goldfish.
Natalie becomes Monk’s new assistant as the season moves through cases involving witness protection, a highway traffic jam and an attack on Natalie’s school-board campaign. The closing story gives Monk temporary foster care of Tommy, a toddler found holding a severed finger. Monk traces it to a kidnapped concert violinist being held for ransom, while caring for Tommy makes him confront how much he wants a child and what he can provide. The season leaves Monk and Natalie working together, with Sharona’s departure settled and the investigation into Trudy’s killer still incomplete.