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(S05E04) In this episode, Monk must investigate a murder by arson, despite being blinded by the man who committed the crime.

While visiting the local fire station to have his thirty smoke alarms tested, a man from the street walks in. The fire chief tells the man he's not supposed to be there, and then he tries to apprehend him, the man beans the fire chief with a shovel and throws liquid solvent into Monk's eyes, blinding him. The doctor tells Monk it's uncertain whether or not his eyesight will return, and Monk's colleagues do their best to help him out. Disher tries to help out, too, though his idea of helping is to explain everything he's doing, whether it's relevant or not. There's a funny scene later in the episode when Disher is looking for his notebook and tells Monk which pockets he's looking in, as if that even matters. I also laughed when he tells Monk he's going to work 24/7 to figure out who blinded him, except for May 11 because that's when his niece is getting confirmed.

Natalie also tries to cheer Monk up by insisting a lot of blind people have gone on to great things, such as Ray Charles and Mr. Magoo. Monk doesn't know who Mr. Magoo is, so she tells him he was a famous inventor and entrepreneur.

Monk starts off feeling sorry for himself, but when he begins to crack the case despite his handicap, he goes into a kind of denial and begins to think that being blind might actually be the best thing that's ever happened to him. After all, if he can't see the things that normally trigger his anxiety than nothing can bother him. However, while he's at a construction site trying to evade the man who set the fire, he ends up on a steel beam just ten inches of the ground, but thinks he's actually twenty stories in the air. When Natalie finds him he asks, "Natalie, are you flying?" That's enough to humble Mr. Monk and send him spiraling back to normal, or whatever "normal" would be in his case.