After twenty-two-month-old Tommy Graser finds a severed finger and gives it to a policeman, Monk walks through the park with Tommy trying to retrace the child's steps. He finds no body or other incriminating evidence, but he does discover a surprising affection for the placid and intelligent toddler, who constantly repeats Monk's name and quietly submits to having his hands wiped when he touches "nature." A lab technician identifies the finger as that of a twenty-five-year-old man, and Monk deduces from a callus that the young man played the violin. After visiting the home of Daniel Carlyle, a musician who fits this description, Monk concludes that Daniel's mother and her other son, Jason,huged Daniel and that Jason is masquerading as his brother. Meanwhile, little Tommy is temporarily removed from the custody of his foster parents, and Monk surprises everyone, including himself, by volunteering to care for him for two weeks until his new adoptive parents can take him. With Tommy in tow, Monk and Natalie follow the Carlyles. After seeing them waiting for a pay phone to ring and Mrs. Carlyle crying on her son's shoulder, Monk arrives at a new conclusion, which is verified when he again talks to the Carlyles--Daniel has been kidnapped. Monk agrees to follow the kidnapper's bizarre instructions, which include delivering the $500,000 ransom fee in a garbage bag onto a rooftop while wearing only a bathrobe (and his shoes and socks). Unfortunately, Monk is distracted by a phone call from Julie, who is babysitting Tommy, and delivers the money to the wrong man. While Captain Stottlemeyer and Lieutenant Disher straighten out the mix-up, Monk resumes caring for Tommy. Controlled chaos and dirty diapers give way to more urgent matters when Monk realizes that Tommy has taken a tube of lipstick out of Natalie's purse--and inadvertently given Monk the clue that solves the case. After reading Tommy to sleep with a fairy tale about a heroic little prince who solves a mystery, Monk realizes that Tommy will never live happily ever after with Mr. Monk and sadly decides to give him up to his adoptive parents.

Episode Viewers and Ratings

Season 3 Episode 16 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.