Villainess Review: Patrice Gesner (Monk)

There are a number of reasons why I loved this episode of Monk, simply titled, "Mr. Monk and the Bully," but I'll get to them later. So the episode has Adrian Monk on the call regarding Roderick Brody, who used to bully him in middle school. Because of this, Monk initially refuses, but agrees to do so under the insistence of Dr. Bell and (especially) Natalie Teeger, who mentioned that Roderick was their first paying customer in weeks. After meeting Roderick's wife, Marilyn, Monk and Natalie get to the reason for their services: Roderick suspects that Marilyn is cheating on him.

The pair's investigation sees the pair discover Marilyn with another man, named Douglas Fendle, after which they inform Roderick, who claims to have never heard of Fendle. Later on, Monk and Natalie receive a call from Capt. Stottlemeyer about Fendle: he was found murdered. Once they arrive at the scene, Monk starts to beam--as he has a suspect in mind: none other than Roderick Brody himself. The belief is that Roderick tracked Fendle and killed him in an act of revenge, and Monk's beaming grin is due to satisfaction over getting payback over his former bully. Roderick appears at the station as a suspect, and it was during this point that Marilyn also enters, with Roderick believing that his wife would clear him.

However, Marilyn claimed that she was in love with Fendle and that Roderick went into a rage after finding out about the affair, and those words ended up resulting in Roderick's arrest. Monk and Natalie visited Marilyn afterwards, with Marilyn claiming that she was planning to visit her aunt before closing her front door and walking to the basement, where we see a surprising reveal:

You are not seeing double; there are two of them. Twin sisters, in fact. Monk had figured this out during his confrontation with Roderick, and detailed everything to Natalie, Stottlemeyer, and Randy Disher. First off, Monk noticed little things that led him to realize that he had been talking to two different people; first off, the pronunciation of "aunt"--Marilyn pronounced it "ant," while her sister, revealed to be named Patrice Gesner, prounounced it "AHN-t." Secondly, the sisters' nails; Marilyn was often biting them, while Patrice's nails were unfettered and manicured.

As for the crime in question, Patrice and Marilyn were adopted by separate families, with neither one knowing about the other. Patrice found out about Marilyn through Fendle, as his firm handled their adoption. Upon finding out about Marilyn's wealth, they worked to get her finances; though Patrice stabbed Fendle to death and later planned to kill both Marilyn and Roderick to gain sole possession of her sister's wealth. However, Roderick's arrest made Patrice's evil plan easier, and as Roderick was being questioned, Patrice appeared at the house and drugged and tied up Marilyn before appearing at the station to incriminate Roderick. As Monk's summation was made, the evil Patrice enacted the final piece of her plan: killing Marilyn by drowning her in the bathtub and making it look like she drowned at sea--pouring salt in the tub as part of the ruse. Patrice ranted about being "ignored" by Marilyn during her scheme, and it was Marilyn's schemes that led to the group entering and rescuing Marilyn from her evil sister, who was arrested.

"Mr. Monk and the Bully" was the 14th and antepenultimate episode of Monk's seventh and penultimate season, and aired on the USA Network on February 6, 2009. The episode featured Julie Bowen pulling double duty as main protagonist Marilyn Brody and main villainess Patrice Gesner, fulfilling two of my favorite attributes: one, it's an evil twin story, and two, it has Julie Bowen playing a villainess. I've been a fan of Julie Bowen since seeing her as Virginia Venit in the comedy classic, Happy Gilmore, so I was elated to see her in this episode. I was even more elated to see her as a villainess, especially since I didn't think she ever played one before. Bowen really showed out in this episode, obviously due to the dual roles, as she portrayed Marilyn Brody very well, but also acted out Patrice Gesner's evil demeanor in stellar fashion. Patrice wasn't too over-the-top either, not even in her rant to Marilyn during the episode's climax; she was calculated and fiendish. For the obvious reasons, Patrice Gesner remains one of my all time favorite Monk villainesses, but overall, Julie Bowen ranks as one of my all time favorite Monk guest stars.

Fun fact: just months after her appearance on Monk, Julie Bowen began her 11-year run as Claire Dunphy on ABC's Emmy-winning sitcom, Modern Family. Among many other credits, Bowen also appeared in 1997's An American Werewolf in Paris, and most recently, Bowen reunited with Adam Sandler in the 2020 Netflix comedy, Hubie Halloween.

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