RECAP :
Harvey Disher is tending to his pet pig Nadine when James Belmont arrives. They talk about something down in the gulch that Belmont said he?d get rid of. Belmont offers Harvey $10,000 and Harvey implies whatever Belmont?s involved in is illegal. Harvey goes to call the sheriff and Belmont relents, saying he?ll get rid of it but needs 24 hours.
That night at a square dance, it?s 10:30 and Belmont is there when the lights flicker. Belmont says he heard a gun shot and the local sheriff, Margie Butterfield, goes to investigate. They find Nadine the Pig in the road, and Harvey in his truck where he ran over Nadine, ran the truck into some electrical wires, then shot himself in remorse.
Randy is leading a drug raid and bursts into an apartment where he ends up in the wrong place and ends up terrorizing a lawyer and his wife. The next day Randy hands in his resignation to Stottlemeyer, declaring he?s a screw-up, and goes to take over the farm that his Uncle Harvey left him. Later Randy calls Monk and asks him to come investigate his uncle?s suicide, which may not have been. Natalie can?t come because Julie?s in school and gets Monk to go by bus.
The next day Monk eventually arrives at the Disher farm where Randy is listening to subliminal motivational tapes. The farmhand, Oates, says Harvey was eccentric but not suicidal. Disher shows Monk the truck and the evidence to suggest Harvey didn?t kill himself, and how he knows Harvey argued with Belmont. Sheriff Butterfield and her deputy arrive and explain how someone heard the gunshot, the power flickered, and there were no footprints on the wet ground because of the farm sprinklers. Butterfield invites Monk to the square dance and tells Randy to deal with the deer that are coming through the broken fence. They check the file and figure out Belmont is the one who heard the shot, and they doubt he could have heard it that far away.
That night Monk goes to the square dance and discovers no one else heard the shot. Butterfield gets Monk into the dance and notes that Belmont doesn?t go to the dances, but was there the night of Harvey?s suicide. Butterfield admits it sounds strange and down the road, Randy prepares to fire a shot but forgets to load the gun and has to yell ?Bang!? Monk doesn?t hear him, but Randy is devastated. Oates notes that Belmont never leaves his farm but is looking for a farmhand, and Monk reluctantly volunteers.
Monk arrives at Belmont?s farm and gets a job, then tries to interrogate the Mexican workers while trying to feed chickens? 100 seeds at a time. He then notices there are four salt blocks missing and checks a fenced off area. Belmont confronts him and knows he?s not a worker. Monk responds by pointing out Belmont is growing marijuana and killed Harvey when he found out. Belmont points out he has a perfect alibi and tells Monk to leave.
The next night, Belmont prepares to burn the marijuana as Monk watches him. Monk gets a whiff of the marijuana smoke and runs off in a panic back to the Disher farm. The irrigation sprinklers come on promptly at 8 and Monk snaps out of it and has the solution for the mystery.
Later Oates notes that Disher has been depressed over his failures and Monk comes up with an idea. Monk goes into Randy?s room as he sleeps and whispers the solution into his ear. The next morning, Randy staggers out of bed and the solution comes to him.
Randy has the sheriff and Belmont come out and explains the mystery. Belmont lured Harvey to the road, knocked him over the head, put him in the truck, and shot him in the head. Then Belmont drugged Nadine, propped the running truck up on the salt blocks, and went to the dance. When the sprinklers came on at 8, they slowly dissolved, and the truck drove forward into the electrical fence at 10:30, flickering the lights and giving Belmont a perfect alibi. Belmont points out there?s no physical evidence but Randy realizes something on his own: Belmont left his fingerprints on the truck keys. Belmont is taken away and Butterfield tells him to go back to San Francisco and be a cop where he belongs. She invites Monk back any time for a dance, and Monk says he?s proud of Disher? and just smiles.
Later Randy meets with Stottlemeyer and tries to retract his resignation, but Stottlemeyer never turned it in. Randy wants to try his new technique of sleeping on cases then settles down for a nap in the captain?s office.
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