Ep 15. Mr. Monk Gets Married

Despite years of resistance to the idea, everyone’s favorite obsessive-compulsive detective Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub) finally ties the knot in season 2 episode 15 of the hit show Monk, titled "Mr. Monk Gets Married". However, fans of the series (which ran from 2002-2009) know that nothing can ever be too simple for Monk—much less something as big as his own wedding.

At the start of the episode, Monk and his assistant Natalie Teeger (Traylor Howard) are investigating the potential poisoning of a high-profile councilman at a local restaurant. Though they’re there on a professional basis, Monk’s legendary attention to detail soon has him notifying the waiter that there are only six oysters on the platter instead of the seven that are meant to be there.

Following another successful case closed, Monk and Natalie head back to the detective's apartment to find the rest of the team—Captain Leland Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine) and Lieutenant Randy Disher (Jason Gray-Stanford)—waiting for them. They’re all there to deliver some pretty big news: Stottlemeyer has just gotten ordained to marry people, and he wants to perform Monk’s wedding ceremony.

Although Monk has long been resistant to the idea of marriage, he’s suddenly all in, sparking everyone's excitement (except perhaps for Natalie, who seems to have mixed feelings). She says she wants to help with the planning, but Monk takes over and becomes an enthusiastic (and, of course, obsessive) groomzilla.

Over the course of the episode, Monk faces a series of challenges typical of the wedding planning process: finding the perfect venue (which naturally has to be tented to avoid any possible rain); inviting guests (including Monk's estranged half-brother and his wife, who Monk doesn't get along with; and Dr. Charles Kroger, Monk's former therapist, who's been consistently suggesting he needs to get married for years); and figuring out what to wear (which leads to a helmet with a veil attached).

Throughout it all, Monk's usual quirks only get amplified, such as when he obsesses over the number of steps it takes the flower girl to get down the aisle or when he hires a private investigator to confirm that the wedding present from his brother's in-laws is valuable enough to match the one the sibling gave him earlier in the episode.

But as is typical in the world of Monk, the wedding isn't the only thing they have going on. While planning for the ceremony, Monk and Natalie are still investigating the poisoning case from the beginning of the episode. When they catch a break (thanks in part to Monk's fear of flying), they realize that finding the culprit could be closer than they think.

And as the wedding day approaches, Monk's obsessive behavior only grows. In one particularly amusing scene, Monk tries to stop the ceremony because he’s convinced that the caterer is serving the wrong champagne. When Natalie successfully convinces him that it’s the right wine, it triggers a full-blown existential crisis, in which he's suddenly not sure whether he even wants to get married anymore. But as always, Monk pulls it together for the big day, even if he does end up with a few last-minute modifications, like catching a rag on fire and rearranging the entire ceremony to avoid the resulting smoke.

By the time Monk's wedding day arrives, we see that what was once a strange and awkward partnership may have actually been a strong relationship all along. With a cast of determined and endearing characters, "Mr. Monk Gets Married" is a touching and comedic episode in the series that highlights the human relationships between these quirky, lovable characters. And with a few twists and turns alongside the wedding planning, it's classic Monk.