While I fully understand that big budgeted TV shows need an episode or two to focus more on story in order to both enrich the plot as save the pennies, that didn’t stop the fifth episode of Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters from feeling somewhat underwhelming. I accept that in order to keep the impact of Godzilla intact, he probably shouldn’t be in every episode, not to include an episode with no monsters in it at all? In a show subtitled Legacy Of Monsters?
Anyway, now that we’ve had some back story on Cate, Kentaro and May, it’s time for the show to get back to doing what it does best: delivering cool monster shit and cementing Monarch’s past as this episode also restores the Legacy part of the title by including the 50s flashbacks. However, after one episode without monsters and two episodes without a whiff of Bill, Keiko and young Shaw, can the series regain the momentum of the earlier episodes?
In 1955, we find Shaw and Keiko bonding during a decidedly awkward defence industry ball as the majority of the room gives suspicious glances to the Japanese woman in their midst, but as the two leave the party in order to sleep with one another, the third member of their team, the military-phobic Bill, inadvertently cock-bocks them with a message that excitedly calls them back to their head quarters.
Meanwhile, in 2015, an older Lee Shaw is liberated from Monarch custody by the unlikeliest of sources, Agent Duvall. She apparently joined Monarch in the first place in in order to right the wrong of her sister being killed in the original Janjira Power Plant disaster but has decided to suddenly switch sides due to her disillusion with how the operation is being run now. Meeting back up with Cate, Kentaro and the ever reluctant May, they pool their knowledge and figure out that the missing Hiroshi (Cate and Kentaro’s father) is most likely in the Algerian desert, still toiling on his mysterious mission.
Back in 1955, Bill has noticed suspicious gamma emissions enimating from Japan and suggests they all go, but Shaw reluctantly has to stay in order to present a budget proposal. However, in Japan they meet scientist Suzuki who has managed to invent a gamma radiation simulator in order to “speak” to Titans – however, after Lee shows up unexpectedly due to his growing feelings for Keiko, we find out exactly who this “Titan Lure” is speaking to – a rather healthy looking Godzilla who survived his nuclear execution attempt the previous year.
Speaking of Godzilla, while our 2015-based heroes finally manage to track down Hiroshi in Algeria, Monarch and Agent Tim has also managed to track down them, but any chance of a reunion, emotional or otherwise, is scuppered when it’s revealed that the King of the Monsters awakens from a slumber from beneath their very feet!
So with the 50s flashbacks back in effect and the show not just gifting us a monster, but the monster to spectacular effect, is it safe to assume that Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters has managed to get back up to speed? It’s certainly a very safe assumption, although some parts of the episode are a little bit too wobbly for comfort.
Firstly, Duvall’s sudden defection from Monarch literally comes out of the blue and unless it’s some sort of eventual double cross, it just feels like a cheap way to get Kurt Russell’s incarnation of Shaw back into the game as soon as possible. Don’t get me wrong, the results are incredibly welcome, its just, as a plot twist, it feels a little ungainly even if it means we get yet another callback to the 2014 Godzilla movie. However, it does raise the obvious question that if there’s dissension within the ranks of Monarch, couldn’t that have been the focal point of the 2015-set sections instead of the family issues of the last couple of episodes?
Anyway, now that the modern plot threads are moving quickly again, it means we free up some time for the dearly missed 50s stuff, and we get three major plot points that will undoubtedly prove to be huge to the remainder of the show and beyond. The first is Lee is finally making his long overdue move on Keiko after attempting to buffer her from some poorly concealed bigotry from the military brass and this only heightens the tug of war in Lee between his loyalty to his country and his feelings for his colleague. The fact that he chooses Keiko proves to be the final nail in the coffin for Monarch to achieve any sort of autonomy Lee finds that upon returning from Japan, the freedom that Monach has enjoyed thus far has been taken away from them directly as a response to Lee’s actions.
However, the real lead here is that while in Japan, Lee, Keiko and Bill discover the Godzilla still lives after his atomic facial back at the Bikini Atoll nuclear tests. While we obviously knew he was still alive, the fa t that the trio choose not to inform their superiors that the King of the Monsters is still thriving is an incredibly telling detail. However, even more intriguing is the invention of the “Titan Lure”, a whirring lump of spherical tech that can communicate with Titans wherever they may be and while it proves incredibly useful in 2015 (as we’re about to find out) it may be a prototype to the ORCA, the Titan communication device seen in 2019s Godzilla: King Of The Monsters. While Godzilla’s 50s reappearance is welcome despite interrupting yet another poignant moment between Lee and Keiko (these two simply cannot catch a break), it’s his second appearance in the 2015 thread that really impresses as the episode pays homage to the moment in 1964s Mothra Vs. Godzilla where the Big G suddenly emerges from beneath the ground. Not only is this his first chronological appearance since the MUTO battle of San Francisco, but watching him emerge while sending all the human players scattering like insects is immensely cool. However, the real story here isn’t actually the presence of yet another Godzilla scene (although they are always extraordinarily welcome), but the long awaited appearance of Hiroshi Randa who is seen from a distance tinkering with one of those Titan Lures. Obviously whatever Hiroshi is planning is directly tied with Godzilla and Lee’s cryptic cryptid comments about helping Godzilla is obviously what’s going to fuel the plot from here on in.
While all the disparate plot points that include Titan Lures, Lee aiming to overrule Monarch, Hiroshi’s reappearance, Duvall’s loyalty, Agent Tim’s apparent death in a Titan-related helicopter crash and May’s overdue confession that she was willing to sell everyone out, are somewhat drowned out by Godzilla stealing the spotlight, Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters finally seems to have regained its focus and its adventurous spirit as it ploughs toward its final six episodes.
🌟🌟🌟🌟
We Have Issues 