I just watched this episode last night (okay, so I'm a little behind). It seems to me there's a colossal hole in the plot that invalidates the whole story. Can anyone answer this question? *SPOILER ALERT*
According to Monk's reconstruction, after Billy the sound guy fixed the balls so that the six numbers his truck-driver friend had would come up, he was fired, so he couldn't undo the gaff. So instead, he arranged for Stottlemeyer to share the prize, so that Billy could raise a scandal based on Stottlemeyer's and Natalie's friendship.
But how in blue blazes could Billy the (fired) sound guy arrange for Stottlemeyer's ticket to have the exact same numbers as the truck-driver's? If the lottery is one where you pick your own numbers, he'd have to control Stottlemeyer's mind so that he picked those six numbers. Otherwise, he'd have to know where Stottlemeyer was going to buy his tickets, and hack the computer *at that location* so that *at the moment* Stottlemeyer bought his ticket, it would issue those same six numbers. There was nothing in the plot that would suggest Billy had that kind of skill.
<-----12-22-2009-----MSG----->
According to Monk's reconstruction, after Billy the sound guy fixed the balls so that the six numbers his truck-driver friend had would come up, he was fired, so he couldn't undo the gaff. So instead, he arranged for Stottlemeyer to share the prize, so that Billy could raise a scandal based on Stottlemeyer's and Natalie's friendship.
But how in blue blazes could Billy the (fired) sound guy arrange for Stottlemeyer's ticket to have the exact same numbers as the truck-driver's? If the lottery is one where you pick your own numbers, he'd have to control Stottlemeyer's mind so that he picked those six numbers. Otherwise, he'd have to know where Stottlemeyer was going to buy his tickets, and hack the computer *at that location* so that *at the moment* Stottlemeyer bought his ticket, it would issue those same six numbers. There was nothing in the plot that would suggest Billy had that kind of skill.
<-----12-22-2009-----MSG----->