This week’s episode of Monk begins with a surprise proposal from Captain Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine) to his new love, TK Jensen (Virginia Madsen). Well, it’s not really a surprise after Monk (Tony Shalhoub) figures out what the captain has up his sleeve and lets the cat out of the bag. The couple hasn’t wasted any time moving forward with their relationship as there are only three episodes of Monk remaining.

Stottlemeyer arrives to the crime scene of a man, who had been shot and burned, dancing and singing. His jubilant demeanor makes it obvious that TK accepted his marriage proposal. He announces that the wedding is taking place in nine days.

Monk is a little surprised when the captain asks him to be his best man. Monk accepts and the captain hands him TK’s wedding ring to keep until the wedding. Monk, promising not to lose the ring, keeps it tightly clutched in his fist for nine straight days.

Monk throws a bachelor party for the captain, if that is what you want to call it. His idea of a great bachelor party is gathering a few guys to watch the movie Bachelor Party. Monk buys enough beer for each person to have just one. The guys decide it will be more fun to give their beer to Lt. Randy Disher (Jason-Gray Stanford) and watch him get drunk. The party is interrupted when Disher announces that the captain’s car is on fire. This incident, along with an earlier break-in at the captain’s house, makes TK a little leery about going through with the wedding. She is afraid that her life with Stottlemeyer will be filled with more unwelcome surprises such as this since he is a police officer. Stottlemeyer assures her that isn’t the case and that these are isolated events that she shouldn’t worry about.

The story takes a drastic turn when TK’s maid of honor (Teri Polo) is identified as the killer. She carries out the murder after the victim blackmails her and threatens to expose her involvement with a terrorist group 14 years earlier. In the end, she gets arrested and Natalie (Traylor Howard) takes her place as the maid of honor.

I think the show’s writers redeemed themselves after last week’s boring episode. This week’s episode is full of surprise twists, humor and lots of romance as the lovely couple exchange vows in a small ceremony on the beach. Next week’s episode is titled Mr. Monk and the Badge, leading me to believe that maybe, just maybe, Monk’s 11 year dream comes true and he is finally reinstated to the police department. I can’t wait to find out.