‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ Season 2, Episode 8 Recap – Choose Your Fighter

If the previous episode of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 was all about the character-driven emotional payoff, Episode 8, “Separate Ways”, is all about the large-scale monster action. This is good, since as satisfying as the character drama can be, there’s a pretty implicit idea that a show set in the same universe as movies about Godzilla and King Kong should now and again feature Godzilla and King Kong in some capacity, even if the budget required to bring the climax of this episode to life is probably why some crucial parts of the previous one felt so cobbled together.

Ironically, Old Shaw’s emotional instruction to his younger self to leave Keiko alone lest his horniness rewrite reality isn’t of tremendous importance here, while Keiko and Cate’s investigation into Titan X’s Big Sad nature takes centre stage. Cate has been adamant for weeks that Titan X doesn’t present a threat to anyone and is trying to mind its own business, and “Separate Ways” provides a conveniently sympathetic reason why – she’s a mother.

So, the reason why Titan X veered off its migratory route to make landfall in Northern Australia was to reach its nest, where a giant egg containing a baby sea monster – Titan x, lower-case, I guess – is happily gestating. From what I could decipher, since there’s thankfully a lot less exposition in this episode than there was in the previous one, the Scarabs are kind of like full-time nannies for Titan X, building the nest and looking after the egg while the Titan is out putting food on the table.

Since we’re already pushing this much more sympathetic angle, the fact that Titan X is just looking after her kid paints Shaw in kind of a terrible light. In case you forgot, with all the emotionality involved, Shaw’s initial plan was to summon Godzilla to beat up Titan X and banish it back to the Axis Mundi, and this is what he goes about doing here after parting ways with Dr. Suzuki after a rather dour suggestion that this will be a one-way trip (he’s carrying on like Dr. Robby). But his determination to see Titan X off violently despite plenty of mounting evidence that it doesn’t mean anyone any harm makes him look needlessly hostile, if not as self-serving as Apex Cybernetics.

Which is another point. As if Godzilla’s imminent arrival didn’t represent enough jeopardy, there’s also a nuclear-armed armada inbound, and Apex, led by Trissop, is present to try and steal the egg. Trissop is working with Isabella, in collusion with Kentaro. It seems like their initial plan is to try to get a hold of one of the Scarabs, but the egg proves a more enticing option. Remember, Apex’s plan all along has been to figure out a way to control the Titans, and latching onto a smaller one, and perhaps most especially a baby, seems to be the most fruitful way of doing that, probably using an updated version of Corah’s code. She’s got a lot to answer for, and so too does Kentaro after this betrayal, which doesn’t go unmentioned by Cate when she realises he’s playing both sides.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2, Episode 8 pulls the same trick it did back in Episode 5, which you’ll recall got Hiroshi killed. Cate walks right up to Titan X to try to communicate with it and seems, on some level, to be able to do so. Unfortunately, they’re interrupted by the arrival of Godzilla, who, in typically territorial fashion, immediately sets about attacking Titan X.  Trissop gets baked by his Atomic Breath, but that doesn’t feel like a loss that anyone is going to mourn with any seriousness.

In the confusion of the battle, Apex are able to make off with the egg, which Titan X pursues, with Godzilla hot on her heels. I strongly suspect that this has become a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy at this point, with Shaw’s actions creating a monstrous, dangerous Titan instead of getting rid of one. I also suspect that Cate’s very vaguely defined connection to the creature is going to be the only hope of saving the day, not that this is typically the kind of show that does happy endings. These are monsters, after all. But even monsters have an innate desire to protect their offspring, and indeed themselves.

This is a good episode, though, with plenty of nice-looking monster action and less of a rickety feeling than the previous outing, even though that one had more compelling character drama and emotional pathos. Isabella’s late introduction and Kentaro’s dumbass need to buy everything she’s selling are obvious weak points, and the Cate stuff remains improperly defined, but there’s still plenty of potential for the final couple of episodes to really get going, especially with Godzilla now involved. All we need is Kong to make his way off Skull Island, and we’ve got a proper party.