The eighth and final season of Monk originally aired in the United States on USA Network from August 7 to December 4, 2009. It consisted of 16 episodes. Tony Shalhoub, Traylor Howard, Ted Levine, and Jason Gray-Stanford reprised their roles as the main characters. A DVD of the season was released on March 16, 2010.
Crew
Andy Breckman continued his tenure as show runner. Executive producers for the season included Breckman, David Hoberman, series star Tony Shalhoub, writer Tom Scharpling, and Rob Thompson. Universal Media Studios was the primary production company backing the show. Randy Newman's theme ("It's a Jungle Out There") continued to be used, while Jeff Beal's original instrumental theme could be heard in some episodes. Newman also wrote a song for the final episode entitled When I'm Gone. The song was accompanied by a montage of past and present characters from the show, leading the series into the final end credits. Directors for the season included Randall Zisk, Michael Zinberg, David Breckman, and Andrei Belgrader. Dean Parisot returned to direct "Mr. Monk and the Badge". It was his only credit in the series, apart from the pilot episode. Writers for the season included Michael Angeli, Andy Breckman, David Breckman, Hy Conrad, Tom Gammill, Dylan Morgan, Max Pross, Salvatore Savo, Josh Siegal, Joe Toplyn, Tom Scharpling, and Peter Wolk.
The wholesome child star of Monk's favorite childhood television show has grown into a very different woman (Elizabeth Perkins) who needs his help—partially as her undercover bodyguard—after her tell-all memoir invites attempts on her life. Also guest stars Cameron Monaghan.
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"Mr. Monk and the Foreign Man"
David Grossman
Story by : David Breckman and Justin Brenneman Teleplay by : David Breckman
Monk finds himself increasingly drawn to a case involving a visiting Nigerian man (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) who is investigating his beloved wife's hit-and-run death–a case that strongly resonates with Monk.
Stuck in a small Nevada desert town when their car breaks down, Monk and Natalie join a local sheriff (Daniel Stern) investigating whether a woman's death on a hiking trail ties to a recent UFO sighting.
At the behest of an FBI agent (Reed Diamond), Monk assumes the identity of his doppelganger–a deceased hit man–in an effort to foil a mob execution that makes no sense: the target is a nondescript old man. Also guest stars Vincent Curatola, Eric Balfour, and Kelly Carlson.
Monk ponders retirement after an aggressive defense attorney (Jay Mohr) shreds his phobias and unconventional methods in court, helping a murderer go free. Also guest stars Jonathan Lipnicki.
Natalie suspects a critic (Dylan Baker) of killing a young waitress at a hotel—a critic Monk thinks Natalie obsesses over after he panned Julie's performance in a play. Also guest stars Bernie Kopell.
Unmarked voodoo dolls arrive to three unrelated people predicting their deaths accurately—then Natalie receives one predicting she'll die by decapitation, leading Monk to enlist the doll shop owner (Meat Loaf) to help find the actual killer.
Monk's insurance won't pay for more individual therapy sessions, so he joins Dr. Bell's therapy group—one of whom seems to be killing fellow patients one at a time, until Monk and Harold Krenshaw (Tim Bagley) suspect each other. Also guest stars Amy Aquino.
Natalie tries to throw Monk a surprise birthday party as he investigates the mysterious death of an office building janitor thrown down a trash compactor, while Stottlemeyer begins dating a writer (Virginia Madsen). Also guest stars John Carroll Lynch.
Sharona Fleming (Bitty Schram) returns to San Francisco to handle legal issues related to her distant uncle Howie's recent death, which occurred when he fell down a flight of flagstone steps on a golf course. But when Monk sees photos of the accident, he determines that there has been foul play, to Sharona's consternation. Monk soon finds himself torn by the fact that Natalie's and Sharona's ways of working with him are so different. Also guest stars Jack Wagner.
Monk reluctantly adopts a dog while looking into the suspicious disappearance of its owner—an artist (Marguerite Moreau) who turns up murdered—and finds an unexpected bond with the pet while he solves the crime. Also guest stars Wallace Langham.
To woo the lone holdout on the reinstatement committee (Wade Williams), Monk accompanies Lieutenant Disher on a scouting trip with the man's troublesome son (Alex Wolff), where nature is not the only thing the troop has to fear.
While investigating the charred corpse of a shooting victim found in a park, Monk must figure out who is making anonymous threats against Captain Stottlemeyer and his fiancée (Virginia Madsen) on the eve of their wedding.
Monk is reinstated to the police force at last. But he finds it more than he can handle, after a rookie officer is murdered after catching a serial killer, and Monk suspects the officer's death is tied to the informant who helped expose the murderer. Guest stars Mark Harelik.
After Monk returns to private consultation, he and Stottlemeyer discover a doctor (Ed Begley, Jr.) murdered near the location where Monk first learned of Trudy's (Melora Hardin) murder. Monk hunts a man, Kazarinski (John Edward Lee), he believes is involved, who is also targeting Monk, and Natalie is reunited with her late husband's Navy friend Lt. Albright (Casper Van Dien). After Monk is poisoned during dinner, his friends race against time to find an antidote. Stottlemeyer chases Kazarinski from a railroad station to a train yard where Kazarinski is killed by a swift-moving train, complicating the race for the antidote. Monk finally opens his last Christmas gift from Trudy and gets a jarring surprise. Also guest stars Craig T. Nelson.
Monk finally watches a videotape Trudy left behind that points to her killer—Judge Ethan Rickover (Craig T. Nelson), freshly nominated to the state Supreme Court, who killed the doctor and the midwife he feared would expose his affair with Trudy before she met Monk, an affair that produced a baby girl falsely presumed dead. After it is determined Monk was poisoned by a tainted wipe, he receives an antidote and pursues Rickover, who kills himself as Lt. Disher reveals the midwife's skeleton buried in the judge's yard. Natalie now dates Lt. Albright. Lt. Disher moves to Summit, New Jersey, to become chief of police and have a relationship with Sharona Fleming. Having solved Trudy's murder, Monk conquers most of his phobias, then meets, and begins to forge a relationship with his newly discovered stepdaughter, Molly (Alona Tal), a movie critic who convinces him to continue his police consulting work.
