Summary
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters sneaks in its first Season 2 Godzilla cameo in “Requiem”, but it’s mostly a maudlin chapter that languishes in the spectre of a recent loss.
Just in case you were worried that Monarch: Legacy of Monsters might not commit to Hiroshi’s death, fear not — he’s very much dead. You can’t escape the spectre of his loss in the opening scenes of “Requiem”, and it’s clearly going to be an event that informs the rest of Season 2 going forward. As a result, Episode 6 can’t help but feel a bit maudlin as everyone tries to process the loss, which, understandably, affects different characters in different ways. Outside of a sneaky Godzilla cameo, all of the action here is of a decidedly human scale.
It can get a bit much, honestly. Sure, it’s appropriate to honor the character, but when we opened with a two-weeks-earlier flashback to Skull Island so we could see Hiro talking to Kentaro about how time in the Axis Mundi works, and how he regained the year he lost through his relationship with his son, I could tell where things were going.
This isn’t the only flashback of the episode, either, though the others are admittedly focused on Lee. I may as well get these out of the way now, since the events they depict strongly underpin Lee’s present-day decision-making. I thought we might be done with all this, given we seem to have concluded the Santa Soldedad arc, but the dual-timeline structure is pretty integral to the show’s identity, so here we are, back in 1958.
At this time, Keiko and Bill were moving into Monarch’s swanky HQ in Arlington, Virginia, and Lee had decided to put in a transfer request. He obviously framed it as being best for his career, but it was clearly down to his lingering feelings for Keiko, which didn’t go unnoticed by her. But, frankly, the whole thing was a disaster. He went to see his father, Leland Lafayette Shaw II, the night before his new posting as part of General Puckett’s personal detail, got very drunk, and almost turned up late. Then he went out for breakfast with his father, who had supposedly smoothed it over with his new boss, only to discover that Shaw Snr had transferred him to a more impressive posting in MAAG Vietnam. It “might result in some combat experience,” he says as way of a pitch, in what might be the biggest understatement in history.
Deeply unsatisfied with his new electricity-free posting, Lee quickly returns to Monarch and asks Keiko for his old job back. But he carries some of his father’s attitude with him, since we see his all-or-nothing, us-versus-them, it-only-matters-who-wins approach on full display in the present day.
Speaking of which, have I reminded you that Hiro is dead? Well, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2, Episode 6 isn’t interested in letting you forget, since a good amount of time is spent on his funeral. And it has an unlikely attendee in the form of Dr. Suzuki, who is still played by Leo Ashizawa, albeit slathered in wildly unconvincing old-man makeup and prosthetics that are seriously distracting. After his failure to account for time dilation in Project Hourglass, Zook’s career was ruined. He invites the gang to come and stay with him for a while until they get a new lead on Titan X, ostensibly to catch up, but it quickly becomes apparent that there’s an ulterior motive since it’s promptly revealed that he keeps an updated version of his Titan phone in the shed.
Lee’s plan is to use this phone to summon Godzilla and have it kill Titan X. Keiko and Cate are appalled by this strategy, especially Cate, since she’s still very much pushing the idea of the Titans being ancient, intelligent beings who don’t mean anyone any harm and deserve protection, not extinction. This view is supported by Cate’s ongoing connection to Titan X. When Keiko sees her feet causing a suspicious ripple in the lake, she realises that she is being sent a signal from the Titan. Submerging her deeper into the lake while connected to some electrodes — “Electricity and water,” Cate quips, “what could go wrong?” — allows Keiko to record and decipher the signal. The played-back audio sounds like a wounded animal, and Cate intuits that Titan X is lost and afraid.
Speaking of lost and afraid, Kentaro kind of feels the same way. To avoid talking about his feelings, he goes out on the town with May, who shows up to apologise for her part in Hiro’s death, but he makes things awkward by making a move on her when he misinterprets some signals of his own. Left alone in the bar, he’s approached by Amber Midthunder, who turns out to be playing Isabel, the daughter of Apex Cybernetics CEO Walter Simmons. He initially rebuffs her, but after a dream — potentially prophetic? — about Godzilla wrecking the city in a brawl with Titan X, he gives Isabel a call.
But “Requiem” ends with a much more unexpected development. Lee and Zook head out to a nearby mountain to test their telephone, which opens a rift so strong that it almost yanks Lee inside. However, Zook is able to just about shut it down before anything happens. Or so he thinks. Lee’s radio crackles to life with a distress call from… Lee Lafayette Shaw III. Himself. It seems very much like two versions of him, past and present, now exist in the same timeline.
