Villainess Review: Meredith Preminger (Monk)

The episode, "Mr. Monk and the Girl Who Cried Wolf," was an interesting one for Sharona Fleming, as it started with Sharona seeing a murdered man in a parking garage. Sharona's hectic day included finding objects in her home in strange places, as well as being informed by her creative writing teacher, Meredith Preminger, that she didn't turn in her story; despite Sharona swearing that she did so just a few days ago. Sharona's fear that she was losing her mind actually led her to a session with Adrian Monk's therapist, Dr. Charles Kroger, which saw Sharona voice her fear that her time with Monk and his phobias have resulted in her mind possibly unraveling.

Sharona even went to Meredith and stated that she would be dropping her writing class, which was met with disappointment from Meredith, who praised Sharona's writing skills in response. It was during this conversation that the murdered man appeared again to Sharona, this from outside the window of Meredith's class, but when Sharona pointed him out, Meredith turned around and stated that she didn't see anyone outside. Of course, Sharona also distanced herself from Monk as well, enlisting her classmate, Varla Davis (played wonderfully by Niecy Nash), to fill in for her.

As for Meredith, we later see her at her home dining with her husband, Maxwell Preminger, who is served a bowl of soup--and notices a strange taste. The scene established that their marriage was quite a contentious one, as the couple engaged in a bit of a spat before Maxwell began to cough and gasp for air, and in a stunning response, Meredith turned heel by revealing that she poisoned her husband's soup and coldly watching his steady demise. Following Maxwell's passing, a man appears and reveals himself as Meredith's lover--as well as the same man that Sharona had been seeing, and they celebrated the success of their plan, with Meredith adding that they couldn't have done it without Sharona.

Speaking of Sharona, Monk and Varla arrived as Sharona was packing, with the former telling Sharona that the man she saw was real and he had a name: Denny Graf. Sharona recognized the name, as Denny as a security guard at the community college where Sharona attended her class. That detail and the revelation that Meredith canceled her class due to her husband's passing began to reveal their connection, and Monk pieced it together as only he can. Sharona had written a short story titled, The Fatal Recipe, which centers on a woman who kills her husband with an untraceable poison.

When Meredith received the story, she used it as a blueprint to kill her own husband, but there was a problem: she and Denny could be suspected by Sharona once their deed was done, so they had to discredit her sanity. This included the couple breaking into Sharona's house and moved her things around, and Denny posing as a murder victim that only Sharona could see. However, the group's confrontation with Meredith only saw her deny everything, with the final draft of the story also being different from what was originally written. But after learing that Sharona used her first draft as scrap paper and the contents were read, everything fit, and Meredith ended up defeated and arrested.

"Mr. Monk and the Girl Who Cried Wolf," was the sixth episode of Monk's third season, and aired on July 30, 2004. The third season had a crop of impressive villainesses played by amazing actresses, but the best one from that season had to be Meredith Preminger, played by Emma Caulfield (who now goes by Emma Caulfield Ford). Caulfield is best known for her years on Buffy as vengeance demon Anyanka (later shortened to Anya), an originally villainous character who became part of the show's "Scooby gang" later in the series. Regarding Meredith, we first see her as a caring teacher to her students, especially Sharona, in the early scenes, but as we see later on, Meredith's geniality is a mask for her true persona as a cunning and deceptive villainess.

Without question, Meredith's heel turn was the highlight of the episode; I remember the first time I watched this episode and being legitimately surprised that this kind woman turned out to be an evil and cold-blooded murderess. Caulfield played Meredith's kindness to Sharona very well, but her shining moment was Meredith's heel turn, as it showed a different (and sinister) facet to the character. In that regard, Caulfield's portrayal of Meredith's cold-hearted and vicious demeanor was magnificent; she truly gave an amazing performance in this episode. Other than this and Buffy, Caulfield recurred as the Blind Witch on Once Upon a Time, and recently recurred on the Disney+/Marvel series, WandaVision.

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