Two years before he was cast as Dwight Schrute in the American remake of The Office, Rainn Wilson starred in an episode of Monk that had one of the show’s most bizarre cases. Monk was a very clever whodunit for the most part, and while it had a lot of tropes, it always tried to come up with fun and creative cases for its titular character to solve. Adrian Monk was described as the greatest detective of his time, meaning that the show always had to give him equally complex cases.
One of the ways Monk found to stand out from other whodunits and crime shows was to often reveal the identity of the killer in the cold open. The real catch of a lot of Monk’s best episodes was not “who did it” but rather how or why they did it. That said, Monk did have several episodes in which neither the audience nor Adrian was sure of who did it until the very end. For example, “Mr. Monk Goes to the Ballgame” hid the identity of the killer until the end of the episode, and he was played by Rainn Wilson.
Rainn Wilson’s Monk Character Had One Of The Wildest Plans On The Show
Browning Killed Two People To Make Sure A Ball Wouldn’t Lose Its Value
Rainn Wilson played Walker Browning in Monk, who is revealed as the killer of a billionaire and his wife. Monk season 2, episode 3, “Mr. Monk Goes to the Ballgame” opens with a man in a mask ambushing Lawrence Hammond and his wife’s car and proceeding to shoot both to death. While Lawrence survived long enough to call for help, his wife, Erin, was shot multiple times and died there. Monk quickly deduced Erin was the target, not her billionaire husband, but he couldn’t figure out why.
The police eventually had access to security footage that revealed the killer’s face. Adrian was sure that he had seen that face before, except that he did not remember where or when. After Monk discovered that Erin was having an affair with a famous baseball player, he started to crack the case. Erin’s death was meant to take a toll on her lover, Scott Gregorio, who was expected to break a baseball record in his next game. This is when Monk remembered where he had seen the killer’s face – Walker Browning had cached the ball from the previous home-run record.
Browning had yet to sell the ball for the estimated $3 million price tag, but he knew that it would be worth nothing as soon as the previous record was broken by Gregorio. The Office star’s character had tried to attack Gregorio and break his arm but failed, and since the famous player had a lot of security, he would never get to him again. Knowing that Gregorio was having an affair, Browning came up with a plan – he was going to kill Erin Hammond so that the news would take Gregorio’s mind out of the game.
Rainn Wilson’s The Office Success Makes Rewatching His Monk Episode Even Better
Rainn Wilson Is One Of Many Familiar Faces You Will Find In Monk
“Mr. Monk Goes to the Ballgame” is a quintessential Monk episode that perfectly illustrates what most cases on the show are like. While it had some plot holes and inconsistencies, it was a clever whodunit story with a surprising twist at the end. The fact that Rainn Wilson, who was going to star in The Office two years later, plays the killer makes watching this episode even better in hindsight. Browning might not have been one of the best Monk villains, but his plan was one of the most elaborate on the show.
