Two very different farewells.
I'm a bit behind because I got too caught up in rhapsodizing over Koharu, in a very pretentious and nonsensical way. This is the first graduation I've been through, aside from my Yossie so long ago, and it made me a little maudlin. It was unnecessary, though, so I deleted it all. Just enjoy the pictures and know they were all chosen for a reason. What they mean is up to you.
The Monk finale was strange in that it was both satisfying and unsatisfying. The biggest disappointment was the resolution of Trudy's case. The series-long mystery of the show was Trudy's murder, and they had eight years to plan it. There should have been clues over the years that Trudy had previously had/lost a child, the judge should have been a recurring character and the whole thing should have taken more work to figure out. I do like that they went back to the gift Trudy gave him, but I feel like having Trudy just give him the answer in a tape that he could have watched the day she died ruined my enjoyment of the case. Meeting Molly in some way before would have also been nice. She could have been a witness, a cast member in Julie's play... something to introduce her as an individual and show us that she and Monk got along outside of her connection to Trudy because Monk in full obsession mode is a lot to take, and he's obsessed with her now. It's sweet, but a little weird. If you don't think too much about it, though, the resolution was very emotionally satisfying. Apart from the previously mentioned weirdness, finding Molly was very heartwarming and as long as the show is over, we can pretend that it all worked out very well for them. I don't particularly care for Stottlemeyer's new wife and don't think she was necessary, but she didn't ruin anything and at least it's nice to know he's not alone. Natalie's random out-of-nowhere romance was pretty poorly done and makes me think that it was tacked on at the last second for some reason. We've met him before, so some indication that she was dating him or that she'd ever even talked to him again would have been appreciated. Randy's ending was the best. Hooking him up with Sharona was long overdue and I'm happy they were able to bring her back to set them up. It would have been nice if they were all closer together, but I'm very glad Randy is a captain now. He may have been a bit of a goofball but he's always excelled when given the chance to lead. I wish we could have seen Trudy's parents, Ambrose and Benji but all in all, the ending left me with a very warm and fuzzy feeling.
