Mr. Monk Bumps His Head

First off, the whole idea of being knocked on the head and developing amnesia is a complete fantasy. There is precedence for it happening, however it's not that simple. Amnesia is a defect caused by brain damage or by drug induced side effects, and of course diseases. In this episode monk get hit on the head and forgets who he is, and winds up in a town where he is taken advantage of by a crazy lady played by Laurie Metcalf. I hate amnesia plots, or at least bad amnesia plots. This one is bad, with it's comedy and it's mystery. Also Monk gets covered with bee's and the jerks around him do nothing. What a bunch of A-Holes. Also I should inform everyone that Amnesia in the real world has a lot of physical after effects such as motor and cognitive which are really life altering and can take years to recover from. When superman gets bumped on the head and developed amnesia why stopping a comet, that was entertaining and fun. This episode of monk, was just a slog to get through and I hate it.

This one is pretty funny. I won't give away any spoilers, but it's great to see Monk out of his environment. Laurie Metcalf is great in this, playing her usual type of character. Without clicking the "spoilers" button for this review, I can't say much else.

Monk is ambushed and struck on the head. He falls onto the back of a truck and ends up in Wyoming. He gets a new identity while he searches for his past. This leads to some interesting developments. I remember this episode from years ago and really enjoyed it once again. I liked that while he could have been seen as insane, he was embraced, in a way, by the locals.

Monk meets a man who says he has information about Trudy's death. The man is willing to say what he knows in return for cash. When Monk smells a scam, the man hits Monk on the head, takes the money anyway along with Monk's wallet, and throws Monk into the back of a truck which then departs, with the driver knowing nothing about what happened. Monk wakes up when the rig arrives in a small town in Wyoming. The driver just thinks Monk is some bum and gives him five dollars to buy a meal. Monk doesn't know he's Monk. He has amnesia, and without his wallet has no way to know who he is.

In this same Wyoming town, a middle-aged woman (Laurie Metcalf) is living Eleanor RIgby's life - nobody even noticed she was gone on a cruise for three months, and people try to have as short a conversation as possible with her. And then she spots Monk, hears about his amnesia, and sees his wedding ring. She convinces him that he is her husband and that they met on the cruise. Monk still remembers to be polite and kind, but he doesn't find her attractive, finds her house to be a mess, and is being forced to do chores such as roof repair that mess with his phobias. He may have amnesia, but those phobias are a part of him and are still there.

And then a waitress in the town disappears suddenly while leaving all her possessions behind, including a beloved pet, and Monk's detective instincts surface even though he doesn't remember being one. Back in San Francisco, Monk's friends and associates are working to find out what happened to him.

I felt sorry for Metcalf's character. She was overbearing, rude, and manipulative, but she was also alone in the world and thought she could grab a little happiness for herself as she was drowning in her loneliness.

This had to be one of the poorer episodes that I have seen in this series. An attempted extortion scheme from a man ,who claims to have insider knowledge regarding Trudy's death, leads to Monk being assaulted, dumped on the bed of an oil truck and waking up in some really small town in Wyoming, with no memory of how he got there. He falls into the clutches of a woman, who is a certifiable relative to Kathy Bates of "Misery" and is led to believe he has skills , which he obviously doesn't have and tries to do things which he is hopeless in (like climbing a ladder). In the midst of this hallucination, he manages to get involved in a senseless disappearance and does put his skills at detection to work. Improbable and unreal in every respect.