With her daughter's school about to be closed as a cost-cutting measure, Natalie becomes a candidate in the upcoming school board election despite Monk's fears that she'll desert him if she wins. Natalie's frustrations with a jammed photocopier and other defective equipment bought at a police auction are dwarfed by fear for her life when a sniper fires into her campaign headquarters, further damaging the equipment and hugging a security guard. The only clues to the identity of the sniper are an oddly folded note demanding that "Natalie Teege" withdraw from the election and a bullet from a semiautomatic rifle made in Russia.

Episode Viewers and Ratings

Season 3 Episode 15 of Monk resulted in a 0.00 rating in the 18-49 demographic.

Monk Season 3 Episodes...

• s03e01 - Mr. Monk Takes Manhattan
• s03e02 - Mr. Monk and the Panic Room
• s03e03 - Mr. Monk and the Blackout
• s03e04 - Mr. Monk Gets Fired
• s03e05 - Mr. Monk Meets the Godfather
• s03e06 - Mr. Monk and the Girl Who Cried Wolf
• s03e07 - Mr. Monk and the Employee of the Month
• s03e08 - Mr. Monk and the Game Show
• s03e09 - Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine
• s03e10 - Mr. Monk and the Red Herring
• s03e11 - Mr. Monk vs. the Cobra
• s03e12 - Mr. Monk Gets Cabin Fever
• s03e13 - Mr. Monk Gets Stuck in Traffic
• s03e14 - Mr. Monk Goes to Vegas
• s03e15 - Mr. Monk and the Election
• s03e16 - Mr. Monk and the Kid

Monk Show Summary

Former police detective Adrian Monk, whose photographic memory and amazing ability to piece together tiny clues made him a local legend, has suffered from intensified obsessive-compulsive disorder and a variety of phobias since the unsolved cuddle of his wife, Trudy, in 1997. Now on psychiatric leave from the San Francisco Police Department and working as a freelance detective/ consultant on difficult cases, Monk hopes to convince his former boss, Captain Leland Stottlemeyer, to allow him to return to the force. Stottlemeyer, who wavered between admiration for Monk and annoyance at his eccentricities during the first season, is becoming more of a friend to Monk as the series develops, frequently calling him in to help, as much for Monk's benefit as for his own. However, he knows Monk's limitations as well as his strengths and may still harbor doubts about the wisdom of allowing Monk to carry aballoon or subdue a perpetrator. Stottlemeyer's second-in-command, Lieutenant Randall Disher, also seems to be developing both admiration and compassion for the man he once labeled "the defective detective".

Despite flaws and inadequacies all around, the three are becoming an increasingly effective team, with additional help from Monk's personal assistant. From the double-episode pilot through the first half of season three, Monk was aided by his nurse, Sharona Fleming. But in the tenth episode of the third season, Sharona was replaced by a new assistant, Natalie Teeger. Like Sharona, a divorcee with a son named Benjy, Natalie is a single parent, a widow with a daughter named Julie. Unlike Sharona, Natalie is not a nurse but a former bartender with a fresh perspective on "Mr. Monk", as she still addresses her new boss.