"That's all I know. With God as my witness!" // "He is your witness -- and so am I."
NOTE: These theories assume that you have seen all episodes of "Monk" up to and including episode 8.15, "Mr. Monk and the End - Pt. 1," and also assume that you have seen the preview/trailer for the final episode. I know absolutely no spoilers for the final episode, so all of these theories will be based entirely on guesswork from the evidence of said episodes and preview. However, if, like me, you fear Theory!Spoilers, proceed at your own caution. I'm mostly just trying to keep myself amused here, anyway.
Also, please feel free to comment, but understand that there is an excellent possibility that I will not read your comments until after Friday night, because I'm Just Like That.
Theory: Why Was Trudy Murdered?
Okay. So here, more or less, is what we know.
Trudy's murderer was Judge Coach, who hired Frank Nunn (the six-fingered man) to kill her. Frank Nunn found Warrick Tennyson and got him to make the car bomb. Nunn most likely actually installed the bomb in Trudy's car, and we know now that Nunn was definitely in the parking garage the morning she was killed. Because Nunn was in the garage, he was probably the one who actually made the call that activated the bomb and killed Trudy. However, Tennyson and Nunn both knew very little about who had hired them and what the motives for the murder were; they didn't even know much about Trudy, other than possibly her name.
But in the end, no matter who dialed the phone, Judge Coach is Trudy's murderer. He _said_, "Twelve years ago, I killed his wife." Case closed there.
Judge Coach is also the only person involved in Trudy's murder left alive. As far as we know. (And it seems likely that this is the case.)
We've known since the end of season two that the car bomb was intended for Trudy, not for Monk. We know that Trudy was an freelance reporter, so it's possible that she was working on a case and got too close to something.* And, aside from the finer (and often confused) details of exactly how she died (last words, Monk getting to the hospital in time to see her, that sort of thing) -- that's really all we've known for a long time.
* [I have a co-worker who loves to offer the theory that Trudy was killed because the killer wanted to hurt and debilitate Monk with her death, but I hate that theory. Partly because it downplays Trudy's importance in her own murder, and partly because it is stupid. If there is a brilliant detective who you want to screw up, you don't kill his wife in the hopes that that hurts him enough to ruin him. There's too big a risk that you won't have hurt him QUITE enough and he will still has enough skill to solve the murder. If you want to stop the brilliant detective, you put the bomb in his car. DUH. So, yeah, it is not that.]
We know now that Trudy knew her life was in danger in the days leading up to her death, which is something I had never suspected being the case before watching "And the End - Pt. 1." She knew enough to make a tape for her detective husband (disguised as a Christmas gift -- so that, one assumes, he doesn't open it until after she is killed, if it came to that) -- in which she reveals some information that conceivably explains why she was in danger, why she was murdered.* She may not have even known that it was Judge Coach who was after her -- although perhaps she did. It's also a safe bet that the fact that a birthing center is involved is somehow significant; Trudy asked Monk if he had any leads on the "missing midwife" case the morning she (Trudy) was killed. Although she tries to ask the question casually, the center's doctor being murdered twelve years later leads us to think that she knew something about this missing midwife.
* [I imagine her plan was to remove the tape from beneath the tree and put something else in that gift box if she made it to Christmas without being killed. Monk was definitely not meant to find out about the secrets on that tape unless he was going to need them to solve her murder, so I believe that tape was meant as a clue for Monk if she didn't manage to escape her murderer on her own. It would have disappeared before he could see it if she had lived.]
In fact, lemme just outline the sequence of events exactly:
- Trudy asks about the missing midwife, knowing something about the woman that she does not mention to Monk.
- That same day, Trudy is murdered.
- Monk gets the news about Trudy while investigating the birthing center, and while talking to the doctor there who mentions how odd it is that the midwife has been gone for several days without warning. The midwife is almost certainly dead.
- Twelve years later, "almost to the day," the birthing center doctor is killed. Monk is able to work out that the murderer (who turns out to be Casarelli, Mr. "Tra-ain!" himself) is a professional who was trying to make the murder look like a junkie breaking in for drugs.
- When the doctor was killed, he was scanning old records into the computer system.
- Casarelli, who will be dead before the Part One episode is over, gets a call from Judge Coach, who is upset because Casarelli left a partial print at the scene of the doctor's murder. Judge Coach knows Monk is too great a detective not to eventually link the doctor's murder to what happened to Trudy (though we don't know why), and so tells Casarelli to kill Monk to keep Monk from coming after Judge Coach.
- (A bunch of stuff happens.)
- Monk, for no other reason than deciding it is time to truly accept Trudy's death, opens her Christmas gift from twelve years ago and finds out that, "If you're watching this, it means I'm dead. I know we said no secrets ... but something happened. Something terrible. Years ago, before we met."
- Jackasses fade the screen to black.
So. What to figure from here?
I think I mentioned before that my first thought when Trudy asked about the missing midwife was, If it turns out that she was secretly pregnant when she died, I am going to have to be angry. Simply because that would have NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING.
However, I have to rule this possibility out. Because of what Trudy says at the end: she was murdered because of something that happened "years ago." Before she met Monk.
I could, I suppose, do some research and a bit of math and work out the exact ages Trudy and Monk were when they met and all that, based on the dates on her tombstone, Monk's recent 50th birthday, and the reunion episode. However, I'm at work right now (which would make the checking-the-DVDs-to-research part hard) and anyway it doesn't really matter. Suffice it to say: while I am fairly certain that Monk is/was a couple of years older than Trudy (I worked it out once based on his birthday and her tombstone dates), even without knowing that -- they met _in college_. While they were _both students_. So, even if he was a senior when she was a freshman, they are, at most, three years apart in age. (MAYBE four, because that's possible, but going with the traditional how-old-you-are-in-what-grade, it would be three.) (And Trudy could have been the older one, except I remember just enough of my math to know she wasn't older than him, and they weren't the same age. So, yes.)
The point is -- when Trudy said years ago, she had to mean when she was in high school ... or younger. She met Monk in her late teens (or possibly when she was 20; again, doesn't matter) -- anything "years ago" from that makes her still a teenager. Now, it's true that "years ago" can mean anything from "fifteen years ago" to "three," really -- but if it's _before she met Monk_, it was pre-college. That much is certain.
Ever since the jail episode six seasons ago, I've assumed that Trudy was murdered because of a story she was working on. Now, while it's true that the answer right now could technically be pretty much anything, it is no longer PROBABLE in the least that it had anything to do with a story she was working on. Because we just found out that her death is tied to something that happened "years ago, before we met." That "before we met" really makes it clear that it's something that happened _to_ Trudy, and because of that -- because it would have happened long before she began her career -- it can't be linked to a story. (Unless it is.) (IS IT FRIDAY YET OHMI_GAWD_.)
Aside from that point, however, "something terrible happened years ago before we met" could mean almost anything. All we know is that a birthing center is somehow involved.(More on why it _has_ to be involved in a moment.)
My mother's immediate theory, which she told me on the phone when I called at 10:01 last Friday evening in an effort to un-plode my brain, was that it had "something to do with an abortion." She didn't say who she thinks might have HAD an abortion -- I'm pretty sure she was belatedly remembering my request to not tell me any theories* -- but for the theory to have anything to do with anything, the person in question would have to be Trudy.
* [My mother has a horrible, HORRIBLE habit of blurting out what she thinks is about to happen next while we're watching films and shows, and then turning out to be _right_ about it. It is highly annoying, particularly when she makes a guess that hadn't occurred to me at ALL and then she says it and it comes true but my suspense was already gone because I realized she was right as soon as she said it. You may recall her guessing the high-speed chase being Monk's surprise party. To this end, I have BEGGED her not to theorize on the ending of "Monk," in order to keep a repeat of the Harry Potter Debacle from happening. It's true she had theorized that Monk would remain a consultant by show's end, and that turned out to be right,** but that episode went about the whole thing so creatively that I truly don't feel she spoiled me for that one. Still, she's not allowed to make any other guesses before Friday!]
** [Assuming he LIVES at show's end ... but that is Friday's theory, after all.]
I know boo-all about birthing centers, having had no occasion to need to find OUT about them (thank God) -- but after thinking about this theory all weekend, I found myself wondering if a birthing center is where one would go to get an abortion. The doctor (who would be murdered twelve years later) was admonishing the detectives for not knowing about the importance of midwives and the natural birthing process and what have you, so it makes me think that the birthing center would probably be pretty much about _birthing_, as opposed to, oh, an OB/GYN's office or an abortion clinic or just a general prenatal care office or wherever the hell abortions are done. (Hospitals, too? See, I really _know nothing_ about this stuff. I mean, I know there are abortion clinics, but surely you can get abortions done at other places? But maybe not birthing centers?)
Still -- I suppose it's possible. The other possibility (along this line of thought, I mean) is that Trudy didn't have an abortion but a _baby_ -- which she had and then, I suppose, gave up for adoption. I don't know how I feel about that idea -- I don't need The Sudden Miraculous Discovery Of Trudy's Lost Child to take over the ending of the episode, because, again, it would be beside the point -- but if this would actually prove to be the case, I'll give them a chance to play it out in a good way before making too many snap judgments.
So. If Trudy did have either an abortion or a child when she was a teenager, why would Judge Coach kill her some dozen-plus years after the fact? Why kill her in the _first_ place, actually?
Possibility: Judge Coach raped Trudy, and, whether she had an abortion or a child as a result, he became afraid of getting caught. Maybe he was a lawyer when he raped her, or in law school, or even younger, but perhaps he raped her and was never caught. And then he's about to become a judge -- so maybe he killed her, and the midwife who was involved with her giving birth to the kid (or who assisted in the abortion she had, although I doubt that midwives assist in abortions? Unless they do. Oh, I know _nothing_ about this stuff), because Judge Coach wanted to make sure the rape went unsolved with his career about to take off?
Possible, I suppose. It fits the bill in terms of "something terrible" -- rape is pretty much as bad as you can get. And yet that's precisely what makes me wonder if they'd actually do it this way: for all the corpses and the blood-splatter and the poisoning of the main character, this is still a pretty gentle show. It seems out of character for the _show_ to have Trudy tell her husband via home movie about a horrible, brutal attack that violated her physically and emotionally and spiritually and left her too scarred to even tell Monk about it and oh, by the way, she also has a kid out there somewhere? This scenario _is_ a possibility, but I just don't know.
(Also -- why on earth would Trudy not tell her husband about being raped as a teenager? Because of the shame that rape victims often feel? Because she was afraid he'd obsess over finding the rapist and bringing him to justice and so wouldn't be able to focus on anything else until he did? I don't know.)
Another possibility: Judge Coach (and his wife) adopted Trudy's baby (the father of whom was someone else) and had Trudy killed a dozen-plus years later. Only problem with this guess? Doesn't really make any sense. Why _murder_ the biological mother of your adopted kid? Because you are afraid of your kid wanting to know about or meet their adoptive mother? Why?? Who cares? I can understand an adoptive parent feeling a bit threatened or something when their kid starts talking about finding their birth parents -- that would just be human -- but _murdering_ their kid's biological mom to keep said bio-mom from meeting your kid? Doesn't really ... make a lot of sense. Hardly any, in fact.*
* [Ahh, and QUOTE! Oh, Monk, so very much love ...]
So, it's all possible -- if not, as Cap'n Sparrow might note, probable.* But if not that, what else could it be?
* [See, Cap'n, I haven't forgotten about you _entirely_ ... ;-D]
... oh, any number of things: Trudy witnessed a murder (which the missing midwife ALSO witnessed?) and the murderer was afraid she'd tell the cops; Trudy ... I don't know, stole a bunch of birth control pills from the clinic as part of her birth-control-druggie past?? The problem with trying to come up with other theories is that, any time I come up with a _slightly_ more likely one (like the one about Trudy witnessing a murder), I come back to: "... but the birthing clinic." It could have just been coincidence that the other person to be murdered twelve years ago happened to be a midwife -- I mean, their profession had to be _something_. But the fact that the clinic doctor was killed twelve years later while he was scanning old files seems to suggest that the birthing clinic is very much involved.
Maybe Trudy was a ... a candy striper (do birthing centers HAVE teenage volunteers/workers the way hospitals do??) and saw a murder? But, again, why not tell Adrian?? And what else could it be??
I don't have any other guesses -- and, to be honest, I'm trying not to think that hard about it. I don't _want_ to guess the answer -- I want to be watching in as much open-mouthed amazement as I watched Part One unfold last week. Even more amazement, really. I've waited eight seasons to find out the answer to this mystery -- I'm okay with waiting two more days to finally see the case solved. And with this kind of build-up, well -- of course I'd love a jaw-dropping surprise!
I will say this: I think one reason why I'm having such trouble guessing is because I can't figure out what on _earth_ would be so terrible, or so big, or so _dangerous_, that Trudy would keep it from Monk. We know how much she trusted him, how much he trusted her, how much they loved each other -- so for her to keep a secret from him, well ...
It's gotta be epic.
And in less than two days, after eight seasons of waiting, we -- and Monk -- will finally have the Answer.
Also, please feel free to comment, but understand that there is an excellent possibility that I will not read your comments until after Friday night, because I'm Just Like That.
Theory: Why Was Trudy Murdered?
Okay. So here, more or less, is what we know.
Trudy's murderer was Judge Coach, who hired Frank Nunn (the six-fingered man) to kill her. Frank Nunn found Warrick Tennyson and got him to make the car bomb. Nunn most likely actually installed the bomb in Trudy's car, and we know now that Nunn was definitely in the parking garage the morning she was killed. Because Nunn was in the garage, he was probably the one who actually made the call that activated the bomb and killed Trudy. However, Tennyson and Nunn both knew very little about who had hired them and what the motives for the murder were; they didn't even know much about Trudy, other than possibly her name.
But in the end, no matter who dialed the phone, Judge Coach is Trudy's murderer. He _said_, "Twelve years ago, I killed his wife." Case closed there.
Judge Coach is also the only person involved in Trudy's murder left alive. As far as we know. (And it seems likely that this is the case.)
We've known since the end of season two that the car bomb was intended for Trudy, not for Monk. We know that Trudy was an freelance reporter, so it's possible that she was working on a case and got too close to something.* And, aside from the finer (and often confused) details of exactly how she died (last words, Monk getting to the hospital in time to see her, that sort of thing) -- that's really all we've known for a long time.
* [I have a co-worker who loves to offer the theory that Trudy was killed because the killer wanted to hurt and debilitate Monk with her death, but I hate that theory. Partly because it downplays Trudy's importance in her own murder, and partly because it is stupid. If there is a brilliant detective who you want to screw up, you don't kill his wife in the hopes that that hurts him enough to ruin him. There's too big a risk that you won't have hurt him QUITE enough and he will still has enough skill to solve the murder. If you want to stop the brilliant detective, you put the bomb in his car. DUH. So, yeah, it is not that.]
We know now that Trudy knew her life was in danger in the days leading up to her death, which is something I had never suspected being the case before watching "And the End - Pt. 1." She knew enough to make a tape for her detective husband (disguised as a Christmas gift -- so that, one assumes, he doesn't open it until after she is killed, if it came to that) -- in which she reveals some information that conceivably explains why she was in danger, why she was murdered.* She may not have even known that it was Judge Coach who was after her -- although perhaps she did. It's also a safe bet that the fact that a birthing center is involved is somehow significant; Trudy asked Monk if he had any leads on the "missing midwife" case the morning she (Trudy) was killed. Although she tries to ask the question casually, the center's doctor being murdered twelve years later leads us to think that she knew something about this missing midwife.
* [I imagine her plan was to remove the tape from beneath the tree and put something else in that gift box if she made it to Christmas without being killed. Monk was definitely not meant to find out about the secrets on that tape unless he was going to need them to solve her murder, so I believe that tape was meant as a clue for Monk if she didn't manage to escape her murderer on her own. It would have disappeared before he could see it if she had lived.]
In fact, lemme just outline the sequence of events exactly:
- Trudy asks about the missing midwife, knowing something about the woman that she does not mention to Monk.
- That same day, Trudy is murdered.
- Monk gets the news about Trudy while investigating the birthing center, and while talking to the doctor there who mentions how odd it is that the midwife has been gone for several days without warning. The midwife is almost certainly dead.
- Twelve years later, "almost to the day," the birthing center doctor is killed. Monk is able to work out that the murderer (who turns out to be Casarelli, Mr. "Tra-ain!" himself) is a professional who was trying to make the murder look like a junkie breaking in for drugs.
- When the doctor was killed, he was scanning old records into the computer system.
- Casarelli, who will be dead before the Part One episode is over, gets a call from Judge Coach, who is upset because Casarelli left a partial print at the scene of the doctor's murder. Judge Coach knows Monk is too great a detective not to eventually link the doctor's murder to what happened to Trudy (though we don't know why), and so tells Casarelli to kill Monk to keep Monk from coming after Judge Coach.
- (A bunch of stuff happens.)
- Monk, for no other reason than deciding it is time to truly accept Trudy's death, opens her Christmas gift from twelve years ago and finds out that, "If you're watching this, it means I'm dead. I know we said no secrets ... but something happened. Something terrible. Years ago, before we met."
- Jackasses fade the screen to black.
So. What to figure from here?
I think I mentioned before that my first thought when Trudy asked about the missing midwife was, If it turns out that she was secretly pregnant when she died, I am going to have to be angry. Simply because that would have NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING.
However, I have to rule this possibility out. Because of what Trudy says at the end: she was murdered because of something that happened "years ago." Before she met Monk.
I could, I suppose, do some research and a bit of math and work out the exact ages Trudy and Monk were when they met and all that, based on the dates on her tombstone, Monk's recent 50th birthday, and the reunion episode. However, I'm at work right now (which would make the checking-the-DVDs-to-research part hard) and anyway it doesn't really matter. Suffice it to say: while I am fairly certain that Monk is/was a couple of years older than Trudy (I worked it out once based on his birthday and her tombstone dates), even without knowing that -- they met _in college_. While they were _both students_. So, even if he was a senior when she was a freshman, they are, at most, three years apart in age. (MAYBE four, because that's possible, but going with the traditional how-old-you-are-in-what-grade, it would be three.) (And Trudy could have been the older one, except I remember just enough of my math to know she wasn't older than him, and they weren't the same age. So, yes.)
The point is -- when Trudy said years ago, she had to mean when she was in high school ... or younger. She met Monk in her late teens (or possibly when she was 20; again, doesn't matter) -- anything "years ago" from that makes her still a teenager. Now, it's true that "years ago" can mean anything from "fifteen years ago" to "three," really -- but if it's _before she met Monk_, it was pre-college. That much is certain.
Ever since the jail episode six seasons ago, I've assumed that Trudy was murdered because of a story she was working on. Now, while it's true that the answer right now could technically be pretty much anything, it is no longer PROBABLE in the least that it had anything to do with a story she was working on. Because we just found out that her death is tied to something that happened "years ago, before we met." That "before we met" really makes it clear that it's something that happened _to_ Trudy, and because of that -- because it would have happened long before she began her career -- it can't be linked to a story. (Unless it is.) (IS IT FRIDAY YET OHMI_GAWD_.)
Aside from that point, however, "something terrible happened years ago before we met" could mean almost anything. All we know is that a birthing center is somehow involved.(More on why it _has_ to be involved in a moment.)
My mother's immediate theory, which she told me on the phone when I called at 10:01 last Friday evening in an effort to un-plode my brain, was that it had "something to do with an abortion." She didn't say who she thinks might have HAD an abortion -- I'm pretty sure she was belatedly remembering my request to not tell me any theories* -- but for the theory to have anything to do with anything, the person in question would have to be Trudy.
* [My mother has a horrible, HORRIBLE habit of blurting out what she thinks is about to happen next while we're watching films and shows, and then turning out to be _right_ about it. It is highly annoying, particularly when she makes a guess that hadn't occurred to me at ALL and then she says it and it comes true but my suspense was already gone because I realized she was right as soon as she said it. You may recall her guessing the high-speed chase being Monk's surprise party. To this end, I have BEGGED her not to theorize on the ending of "Monk," in order to keep a repeat of the Harry Potter Debacle from happening. It's true she had theorized that Monk would remain a consultant by show's end, and that turned out to be right,** but that episode went about the whole thing so creatively that I truly don't feel she spoiled me for that one. Still, she's not allowed to make any other guesses before Friday!]
** [Assuming he LIVES at show's end ... but that is Friday's theory, after all.]
I know boo-all about birthing centers, having had no occasion to need to find OUT about them (thank God) -- but after thinking about this theory all weekend, I found myself wondering if a birthing center is where one would go to get an abortion. The doctor (who would be murdered twelve years later) was admonishing the detectives for not knowing about the importance of midwives and the natural birthing process and what have you, so it makes me think that the birthing center would probably be pretty much about _birthing_, as opposed to, oh, an OB/GYN's office or an abortion clinic or just a general prenatal care office or wherever the hell abortions are done. (Hospitals, too? See, I really _know nothing_ about this stuff. I mean, I know there are abortion clinics, but surely you can get abortions done at other places? But maybe not birthing centers?)
Still -- I suppose it's possible. The other possibility (along this line of thought, I mean) is that Trudy didn't have an abortion but a _baby_ -- which she had and then, I suppose, gave up for adoption. I don't know how I feel about that idea -- I don't need The Sudden Miraculous Discovery Of Trudy's Lost Child to take over the ending of the episode, because, again, it would be beside the point -- but if this would actually prove to be the case, I'll give them a chance to play it out in a good way before making too many snap judgments.
So. If Trudy did have either an abortion or a child when she was a teenager, why would Judge Coach kill her some dozen-plus years after the fact? Why kill her in the _first_ place, actually?
Possibility: Judge Coach raped Trudy, and, whether she had an abortion or a child as a result, he became afraid of getting caught. Maybe he was a lawyer when he raped her, or in law school, or even younger, but perhaps he raped her and was never caught. And then he's about to become a judge -- so maybe he killed her, and the midwife who was involved with her giving birth to the kid (or who assisted in the abortion she had, although I doubt that midwives assist in abortions? Unless they do. Oh, I know _nothing_ about this stuff), because Judge Coach wanted to make sure the rape went unsolved with his career about to take off?
Possible, I suppose. It fits the bill in terms of "something terrible" -- rape is pretty much as bad as you can get. And yet that's precisely what makes me wonder if they'd actually do it this way: for all the corpses and the blood-splatter and the poisoning of the main character, this is still a pretty gentle show. It seems out of character for the _show_ to have Trudy tell her husband via home movie about a horrible, brutal attack that violated her physically and emotionally and spiritually and left her too scarred to even tell Monk about it and oh, by the way, she also has a kid out there somewhere? This scenario _is_ a possibility, but I just don't know.
(Also -- why on earth would Trudy not tell her husband about being raped as a teenager? Because of the shame that rape victims often feel? Because she was afraid he'd obsess over finding the rapist and bringing him to justice and so wouldn't be able to focus on anything else until he did? I don't know.)
Another possibility: Judge Coach (and his wife) adopted Trudy's baby (the father of whom was someone else) and had Trudy killed a dozen-plus years later. Only problem with this guess? Doesn't really make any sense. Why _murder_ the biological mother of your adopted kid? Because you are afraid of your kid wanting to know about or meet their adoptive mother? Why?? Who cares? I can understand an adoptive parent feeling a bit threatened or something when their kid starts talking about finding their birth parents -- that would just be human -- but _murdering_ their kid's biological mom to keep said bio-mom from meeting your kid? Doesn't really ... make a lot of sense. Hardly any, in fact.*
* [Ahh, and QUOTE! Oh, Monk, so very much love ...]
So, it's all possible -- if not, as Cap'n Sparrow might note, probable.* But if not that, what else could it be?
* [See, Cap'n, I haven't forgotten about you _entirely_ ... ;-D]
... oh, any number of things: Trudy witnessed a murder (which the missing midwife ALSO witnessed?) and the murderer was afraid she'd tell the cops; Trudy ... I don't know, stole a bunch of birth control pills from the clinic as part of her birth-control-druggie past?? The problem with trying to come up with other theories is that, any time I come up with a _slightly_ more likely one (like the one about Trudy witnessing a murder), I come back to: "... but the birthing clinic." It could have just been coincidence that the other person to be murdered twelve years ago happened to be a midwife -- I mean, their profession had to be _something_. But the fact that the clinic doctor was killed twelve years later while he was scanning old files seems to suggest that the birthing clinic is very much involved.
Maybe Trudy was a ... a candy striper (do birthing centers HAVE teenage volunteers/workers the way hospitals do??) and saw a murder? But, again, why not tell Adrian?? And what else could it be??
I don't have any other guesses -- and, to be honest, I'm trying not to think that hard about it. I don't _want_ to guess the answer -- I want to be watching in as much open-mouthed amazement as I watched Part One unfold last week. Even more amazement, really. I've waited eight seasons to find out the answer to this mystery -- I'm okay with waiting two more days to finally see the case solved. And with this kind of build-up, well -- of course I'd love a jaw-dropping surprise!
I will say this: I think one reason why I'm having such trouble guessing is because I can't figure out what on _earth_ would be so terrible, or so big, or so _dangerous_, that Trudy would keep it from Monk. We know how much she trusted him, how much he trusted her, how much they loved each other -- so for her to keep a secret from him, well ...
It's gotta be epic.
And in less than two days, after eight seasons of waiting, we -- and Monk -- will finally have the Answer.