Hollywood writers really need to get expert advice before writing stories on subjects about which they know absolutely nothing. The ignorance of the writers is glaring in this episode. In addition, they have another of the continuity inconsistencies for which the writers on Monk are infamous (yes I meant infamous, not famous).
I am going to address the errors in three groups, holes and errors in the crime method, errors in the setting and procedures on board a navy submarine, and backstory inconsistencies (something the writers on Monk do all the time).
This section has spoilers.
The locked room mystery itself is not particularly ingenious nor original. Even to the average TV viewer who may have never read Sherlock Holmes, some of the problems with the plot should be obvious.
1) While it may seem ingenious to use a cigarette as a fuse timer, it has been done so many times that it is trite. The problem here is that the cigarette smoke would trigger alarms, and even if that did not happen, the smell would be obvious to anyone entering the room, especially if it were in the vent.
2) Unless he planned this crime ahead of time, which it does not seem likely given the spontaneous decision of his victim to blow the whistle, he would not have cigarettes aboard a nuclear submarine where smoking is prohibited.
3) One wonders how he could use the cigarette to get the time exactly right, so that he and the other men would be standing outside the door just as it went off. Did he sit in his cabin burning cigarettes until he got the timing, and if so, how did he avoid detection since smoking is prohibited?
4) Using the same reasoning as in 2 above, he would not have a firecracker on board, either.
5) Firecrackers sound nothing like gunshots.
6) Unless we are to believe that NCIS is completely incompetent, they would have detected pieces of plastic in the wound, as well as the lack of blow back (gun shot residue) on his hand.
Next, I will talk about problems in the procedures and setting.
1) Civilians would not be allowed aboard a top-secret nuclear submarine without express permission of the Commander. Had the junior officer somehow managed to sneak them on board, their presence would be reported by the first man who saw them, the officer would be relieved of duty and arrested, and they would also be arrested. In real life a submariner was arrested and sent to prison for taking and sending a selfie inside a nuclear submarine, so imagine the penalty for bringing unauthorized civilians on board.
2) Monk and Nataly would be confined to quarters with a guard at the door so they would not be able wander freely around the top-secret vessel.
3) Ballast tanks do not have hatches making them accessible from inside the submarine.
4) Ballast tanks do not have lights inside them.
5) Ballast tanks do not fill gently like a bathtub.
6) Ballast is blown out with compressed air, not drained like water going down a sink drain, so Monk and Nataly would be subjected to extremely high, possibly fatal, air pressure.
Finally, I will address the problems with back story continuity for which the writers on Monk have problems. They seem to just make up whatever suits them for the particular episode without any regard to what has happened before. In this episode, Monk claims he can't swim, and yet in the previous season, Season 6, he is shot, falls into the cold, dark, rough ocean and SWIMS to shore where he meets Captain Stottlemeyer. Not bad for someone who supposedly can't swim.
When I complain about these things my wife says, "TV!" She is correct, it is fantasy, but after a while the errors piling up on top of each other can no longer be ignored.
I am going to address the errors in three groups, holes and errors in the crime method, errors in the setting and procedures on board a navy submarine, and backstory inconsistencies (something the writers on Monk do all the time).
This section has spoilers.
The locked room mystery itself is not particularly ingenious nor original. Even to the average TV viewer who may have never read Sherlock Holmes, some of the problems with the plot should be obvious.
1) While it may seem ingenious to use a cigarette as a fuse timer, it has been done so many times that it is trite. The problem here is that the cigarette smoke would trigger alarms, and even if that did not happen, the smell would be obvious to anyone entering the room, especially if it were in the vent.
2) Unless he planned this crime ahead of time, which it does not seem likely given the spontaneous decision of his victim to blow the whistle, he would not have cigarettes aboard a nuclear submarine where smoking is prohibited.
3) One wonders how he could use the cigarette to get the time exactly right, so that he and the other men would be standing outside the door just as it went off. Did he sit in his cabin burning cigarettes until he got the timing, and if so, how did he avoid detection since smoking is prohibited?
4) Using the same reasoning as in 2 above, he would not have a firecracker on board, either.
5) Firecrackers sound nothing like gunshots.
6) Unless we are to believe that NCIS is completely incompetent, they would have detected pieces of plastic in the wound, as well as the lack of blow back (gun shot residue) on his hand.
Next, I will talk about problems in the procedures and setting.
1) Civilians would not be allowed aboard a top-secret nuclear submarine without express permission of the Commander. Had the junior officer somehow managed to sneak them on board, their presence would be reported by the first man who saw them, the officer would be relieved of duty and arrested, and they would also be arrested. In real life a submariner was arrested and sent to prison for taking and sending a selfie inside a nuclear submarine, so imagine the penalty for bringing unauthorized civilians on board.
2) Monk and Nataly would be confined to quarters with a guard at the door so they would not be able wander freely around the top-secret vessel.
3) Ballast tanks do not have hatches making them accessible from inside the submarine.
4) Ballast tanks do not have lights inside them.
5) Ballast tanks do not fill gently like a bathtub.
6) Ballast is blown out with compressed air, not drained like water going down a sink drain, so Monk and Nataly would be subjected to extremely high, possibly fatal, air pressure.
Finally, I will address the problems with back story continuity for which the writers on Monk have problems. They seem to just make up whatever suits them for the particular episode without any regard to what has happened before. In this episode, Monk claims he can't swim, and yet in the previous season, Season 6, he is shot, falls into the cold, dark, rough ocean and SWIMS to shore where he meets Captain Stottlemeyer. Not bad for someone who supposedly can't swim.
When I complain about these things my wife says, "TV!" She is correct, it is fantasy, but after a while the errors piling up on top of each other can no longer be ignored.