TRUDY MONK

'Trudy Anne Monk' (née 'Ellison') is a fictional character on the television show ''Monk''. She is the late wife of Adrian Monk and daughter to Dwight and Marcia Ellison. Solving her murder is a main ongoing theme of the show.
She was played by Stellina Rusich during first and second seasons, Melora Hardin during third season, and Hannah Contrucci as young Trudy during fourth season. Lindy Newton plays Trudy in a college flashback in the fifth season.

Contents

Fictional character biography

Death

References

Fictional character biography

Trudy Monk was born in Los Angeles in 1962 ^[1]. She attended the Ashton Preparatory School, and graduated valedictorian in 1977 at the age of 15. She did not date very much while there, expecting to know who the right man would be once she found him ^[2]. She graduated from Berkeley, and met her future husband Adrian while he was working as a detective ^[3]. In the 5th season episode Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion the first meeting of Trudy and Adrian was changed. In this new episode, Monk takes Natalie to the college library he was working in as an aide when he first met Trudy. Trudy asked for a book and was impressed when Monk found it by memory (he saw it days earlier) out of a large pile of books being moved upstairs. Monk tells Natalie he got Trudy's phone number by remembering the numbers written as someone used his back while they wrote Trudy's phone number down.
Adrian and Trudy married on August 8, 1990. Trudy was involved in a lawsuit with financier Dale Biederbeck (a.k.a. "Dale the Whale"), an important adversary of Adrian's, in 1993, because she referred to Biederbeck as the "Genghis Khan of Finance". Biederbeck was unable to win the lawsuit, but the Monks lost their house paying for their lawyer. Adrian has an intense hatred for Biederbeck because of the pain it caused Trudy, although Adrian became satisfied when he proved Biederbeck was guilty of murder and he was put in jail.
She, in Adrian's words, enjoyed poetry, was often barefoot, and kept every promise she ever made. In Mr. Monk Takes Manhattan Adrian offers a glimpse into Trudy's mindset by turning Warrick Tennyson's morphine back on after he had turned it off.

Death

She was murdered in winter 1997 by a car bomb built by Warrick Tennyson. Tennyson was hired by a six-fingered man whom he could not identify ^[4]. Her last words to a paramedic were "bread and butter," a message to Adrian that she would never leave him, as this was something she always told her husband when they had to temporarily let go of each other for some reason or another.
In "Mr. Monk Goes to Jail", Dale the Whale reveals to Monk that the car bomb that killed Trudy was intended for her. Adrian had believed all along that he was the intended victim, contributing to a deep sense of guilt. He is seen to be visibly affected by this piece of news.
In "Mr. Monk Bumps His Head", Monk attempts to find this 6-fingered man by purchasing a picture of him. The picture turns out to be a fake.
As of the end of the fifth season, Monk has not found either the six-fingered man who hired Tennyson or his motive.
In Mr. Monk and Mrs. Monk, Natalie overhears a woman who looks like Trudy say that she faked her own death to protect Adrian. Monk begins to believe this might be true, but in the end, it turns out that this woman has attempted to pass herself off as the real Trudy in order to get the key to Trudy's old storage unit. ^[5].

References

1. Mr. Monk and the Game Show
2. Mr. Monk Goes Back to School
3. Mr. Monk Goes to the Ballgame
4. Mr. Monk Takes Manhattan
5. Mr. Monk and Mrs. Monk