A jewelry store owner is a little early in opening his shop and looks harried. It turns out "Peggy" is being held hostage and the owner cleans out a good bit of his store and then meets the perps at their waiting car outside. The owner demands to see "Peggy," who turns out to be his dog! A mall security guards senses something is wrong, sees a man with a hooded face mask on and orders him out of his car. The man does so, calmly takes his mask off and then shoots the cop. He then gets back in the car, rolls down the window and shoots the store owner and his partner drives off.
Minutes later, we see Capt. Stoltemyer, Monk, Natalie and a bunch of cops all around the crime scene. Monk won't go near the dead body because there is so dog poo nearby. A disheveled little guy drives up in a beat-up car, says he's a detective (he is but a poor one and nothing but a pain in the ass," according to the captain.) However, within minutes he (Jason Alexander of "Seinfeld" fame) begins making these incredible observations, deductions and looks like a genius, much to the befuddlement of the onlooking Mr. Monk. What's going on here?
It gets worse as the mousy detective, with his mom cheering him on, just about solves the whole thing. "He's cheating," repeats Monk, over and over, but even Monk is having his confidence ruined as this fake keeps impressing everyone. How does he figure out how the man is cheating?
In all, nothing super but a good episode and a solid start to the fourth season.