Summary
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters returns for Season 2 with all of the hallmarks you’d expect, continuing the dual timeline structure without skimping on the epic monster action.
In its first season, Apple TV+’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters made a surprisingly great case for itself as one of the better small-screen franchise tie-ins. And Season 2, despite a break lasting over two years, seems determined to live up to that reputation in Episode 1. “Cause and Effect” is a premiere that includes everything we’ve come to expect from this show in its leanest, most effective form. The dual timeline structure returns, the lore is fleshed out, and there are giant monsters all over the place. What’s not to like?
In case you’ve forgotten, the first season ended with most of the gang having escaped from the Axis Mundi, a weird pocket dimension between Earth and the Hollow Earth where time moves differently thanks to gravitational anomalies and monsters roam pretty freely. However, Lee Shaw remained behind so the others could escape. In 2017, Monarch is pitched up on Skull Island trying to figure out why Kong is going apeshit – a technical term, I believe – while Hishori, Cate, Kentaro, May, and Keiko are debriefed by Monarch’s deputy director, Natalia Verdugo, aboard Outpost 18, Monarch’s seaborne control platform.
It’s a solid setup for a premiere that refreshingly doesn’t waste any time at all trying to situate returning viewers back in this world. If you’re struggling to keep up, you’ll have to rewatch Season 1 for a primer. In the meantime, “Cause and Effect” splinters off into four-ish core tracts, which are as follows.
In the first, Hishori, Cate, Kentaro, and May steal a Zodiac from Outpost 18 and clandestinely return to Skull Island with the intention of rescuing Lee from the Axis Mundi. Verdugo had determined any rescue efforts to be much too risky, so it’s all very hush-hush.
In the second, Keiko, the same age as in the past timeline, thanks to the effects of the Axis Mundi, gets used to the modern world aboard Outpost 18, while also bonding with Tim, who’s so excited to meet her that I was worried at one point he was going to kiss her.
In the third, grown-up Lee explores the Axis Mundi and is set upon by chitinous bug-like monsters while trying to find a way out.
And in the fourth, we return to 1957, where young Lee Shaw, Keiko, and Bill Randa are exploring a village in Santa Soledad, Southern Chile, known for its deeply inhospitable locals and a legend about a maritime monster that has become an object of worship for the ordinary rank and file. A few people may be inclined to groan about the inclusion of these flashback sequences, but they’re well-handled here. With most of the necessary backstory having already been dispensed in the first season, the flashbacks are instead used to create explicit parallels between the two timelines, since the watery legend in Santa Soledad clearly makes reference to the creatures pursuing older Lee through the Axis Mundi, as well as cropping up above-ground.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2, Episode 1 really heats up once the Skull Island gang bring Lee’s pod back from the Axis Mundi. And to say they thought that creeping past a sleeping Kong – always a fun gimmick – was the biggest of their problems! As it turns out, the little water mite monsters have a big momma, the clear inspiration for the legend in Santa Soledad, and it passes through the portal with Lee’s pod. The “successful” rescue carries with it an uninvited guest.
This thing, Titan X, immediately books it off of Skull Island and into the water, visibly annoying Kong, who tries to chase it and then genuinely moans at the main group for their interference having enabled its arrival and escape. This is why Kong remains a more compelling monster than, say, Godzilla. The ape intelligence is human-seeming enough that you can genuinely read his mood through his body language. And, needless to say, he’s annoyed.
Titan X’s arrival also seems to result in the death of Verdugo, which is sure to shake up Monarch’s leadership, though I’m not sure in precisely what way. Will Tim take the reins? Given how sympathetic he is to Keiko, that might be a good thing. But Titan X loose in the wider world is definitely bad. If only someone knew a monster that could pursue it through the ocean?
