Villainess Review: Mandy Bronson (Monk)

Hard to believe that this summer will mark the 20th anniversary of Monk, the long-running hit USA Network series that starred Tony Shalhoub as the titular Adrian Monk, a former police detective turned consultant--with an immense amount of phobias. I love this show immensely, it's an amazing series, it's made me a fan of Tony Shalhoub and his various co-stars (including Jason Gray-Stanford, who's done a few Lifetime films), and the show has featured an impressive group of villainesses, and I've written reviews about a few of them.

Another amazing villainess appeared in Season Five's "Mr. Monk and the Leper," which sees Natalie waiting outside as Monk meets with a mysterious man, who introduced himself as wealthy CEO Derek Bronson. Derek was believed to have been killed in a ballooning accident, but he claims to have been living in Guam in for the past seven years, but didn't return until very recently due to his illness. Monk later learns what was ailing Mr. Bronson: Hansen's Disease, aka leprosy.

The germaphobic Monk runs off in a huge panic, and we see him attempt to wash any traces of the disease by any means necessary. A dermatologist, Aaron Polanski, tells Monk that leprosy is curable and it's not contagious (the latter having just learned when I watched the episode for the first time a number of years ago), but to Monk, a disease is a disease is a disease, and any of them can be caught. Despite his fears, Monk meets with Derek again, while sitting two booths away from him (the original social distancing), and agrees to enter Derek's home and steal love letters from his mistress, as he didn't want lawyers entering the house and finding them, while also fearing his wife's reaction.

Natalie and Monk ended up encountering the wife, Mandy Bronson, during the job, with Mandy claiming that she had known about the affair but simply wanted Derek home. Derek refused because of his condition, and later revealed that his nephews were heirs to his fortune, adding that he had to be proven to be alive in order to save Mandy from eviction. We later see Mandy approaching Derek, who's face is suddenly much clearer than it was before, and he's playing the piano. Mandy smiles at the performance, right before she takes out a gun and shoots "Derek" to death.

The following day, Monk's deductive powers ended up being helpful in proving Derek is alive, but he suddenly figures out that he was deceived. He remembered that the home's security panel came from a company that was founded in 2003, yet Derek (who, remember, hadn't been in his house in seven years) suddenly knew the code like it was nothing. Monk and Natalie's trip to the Bronson home saw the former reveal everything, Derek really had been dead for seven years...because Mandy killed him. Mandy murdered her husband for his money, and had been enjoying living in luxury ever since. But there was a problem: as mentioned before, Derek willed his fortune to his nephews, and after seven years, he could be officially declared dead, leaving Mandy with nothing. Mandy seduced a pianist, known only as Mr. Steiner, into posing as Derek and sending him to convince Monk, and to make sure that Monk wouldn't look too closely at the imposter, Steiner was portrayed as a leper.

Of course, Steiner outlived his usefulness once Monk agreed to testify to having seen Derek, so Mandy offed him, and Monk and Natalie spotted the scheming villainess inflating a hot air balloon, as she planned to use the balloon and the weights inside to dump Steiner's body in the ocean, just as she (most likely) had done with Derek. Monk and Natalie entered the balloon when Mandy walked off to answer her phone, but the pair ended up having to dodge Mandy's gunshots when she caught them. Speaking of "caught," that's what happened to Mandy, as Randy Disher (having figured out everything when he and Leland Stottlemeyer visited Steiner's home and found makeup and books on diseases) arrived at the scene and arrested Mandy.

"Mr. Monk and the Leper" was the 10th episode of Monk's fifth season, and aired on December 22, 2006. Sarah Joy Brown appeared in the episode as the evil Mandy Bronson, who served as Season Five's one and only villainess. She was one of the best of the series, though; Mandy was greedy, scheming, and absolutely ruthless. The way she walked up to fake Derek smiling, and then just pulls out the gun and shoots him dead in mere seconds was absolutely cold-blooded. Brown's performance stole the entire episode; she acted out Mandy's relentlessly evil nature to absolute perfection--truly one of Brown's best performances.

To me, Sarah Joy Brown will always be Kaitlin Star, the lone female member of the titular VR Troopers (fun fact, her Troopers co-star, Brad Hawkins, also appeared on Monk, doing so two seasons before Brown in "Mr. Monk and the Panic Room," also in a villainous role). Soap opera fans definitely remember Brown for originating the role of villainess Carly Corinthos on General Hospital, a role currently played by Laura Wright. Brown also appeared as a villainess on The Closer, and she also guest-starred on Power Rangers Zeo, Crossing Jordan, and Castle, among many other shows.

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Check out Mandy Bronson's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki down below!