Last week’s episode of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters revealed a big bad threat. The Randa kids finally found the location of their father and, in turn, also discovered that Godzilla hadn’t returned to the hollow earth but was hibernating, waiting for a moment to emerge and cause more havoc like he did back in San Francisco. Shaw decided to ditch the group and stop the Titan with rogue Monarch operatives, leaving the Randa kids and May to fend for themselves. Content with the situation, they carried on, but a bombshell was dropped when May revealed she had sold the group out to Monarch in hopes of returning home. Now divided and unsure of where to go, the group must carry on in hopes of finding their father, Hiroshi.
Meanwhile, in the past storyline, we finally got a glimpse at Monster Island and its dangers. We also got a glimpse of how Shaw gave up Monarch to pursue a relationship with Keiko, allowing the government to fully take control of the organization. We know from the debut episode that this relationship doesn’t really pan out, so I have to wonder what Shaw’s real feelings are regarding Monarch and how he gave it up.
The pieces are lining up quite nicely for the climax, and with a clear goal, everyone is on the move. You know the drill for these recaps: separate sections for past and present for clarity. Let’s get into the weeds of Episode 7.
The Present:
The episode opens up with the wreckage of Monarch’s helicopter after their encounter with Godzilla. Unsurprisingly, Tim has survived but is pretty shaken up from the whole event. Meanwhile, the Randa kids, Cate and Kentaro, are in an Algerian airport waiting to board their first-class flight when they notice May has been missing. We cut to see May on the verge of an anxiety attack in the bathroom when two suited figures walk in, and she asks what the routine for kidnapping is. Cate goes looking for May and discovers her belongings on the floor. We learn that May is already on a flight with her captors. Cate and Kentaro run into Tim at the airport and press him for answers about May’s disappearance and her deal with Monarch. While telling his side of the story and Monarch’s true intentions, Tim is surprised to learn that Hiroshi is still alive and reveals that their father is working to prevent another G-Day from happening again. Cate tries to make a deal to lead Monarch to Shaw in exchange for their father, Hiroshi, and May. Tim contacts superiors but is surprised to learn that Monarch didn’t capture May and that there may be more to her than we realize.
Cate tells Tim that if anything happens to May, they must contact her sister. Tim shares that he ran background checks on everyone when they were in Monarch custody and found out that the passport May was using was a fake, revealing that her real name is actually Corah.
Elsewhere at an Alaskan Monarch outpost, Shaw and his “Anti-Monarch” show up and commandeer the base, putting themselves fully in control. Operative Barnes manages to make a quick escape and alert Monarch of the situation. Shaw discovers an alarming amount of explosives and decides to arm Anti-Monarch with them.
The Randa kids and Tim arrive at May/Corah’s last known address in Washington. Inside, they meet with Corah’s mother and sister, reveal to them that she was in Japan, and begin to inquire where she might be. This draws suspicion from her sister, who begins to question how the group even knows Corah. After they leave, they decide to follow her sister into the city. Corah’s sister threatens to attack the group, asking them if they’re a part of the “company.” Things nearly turn violent until Kentaro reveals personal information about Corah, proving that he knows her.
Corah’s sister admits that she has been in contact with her and that she made a deal with her former employer, AET, to return home. We cut to AET headquarters, where Corah is being questioned by department head Brenda about the source code she corrupted. In doing so, Corah wiped out years of research that AET was conducting. Brenda reveals that AET’s secret work wasn’t working to help disabled people walk again but instead form a neural interface that would allow them to control Titans. Knowing that Corah is running out of options, she makes a deal to set her free in exchange for every bit of information she learns about the Titans from Monarch.
The group decides to use Tim’s Monarch connections and hatch a plan to save Corah that involves sending out a false Titan warning that allows them to sneak into AET during the chaos. They reunite with Corah, and she comes clean about her identity and past life. She confesses that when the Randas brought her the Monarch files, she thought she could give them to AET, allowing her to return home. She begs the group to abandon and forget about her so that she can’t put them in any more danger.
The group meets back up with the Deputy Director Verdugo of Monarch. Cate makes a deal with Monarch that if they help them get Corah back, the Randa kids will cooperate and help them find Shaw (who’s turned into public enemy #1). With a single visit from Verdugo and a deal set in place by Monarch, AET allows Corah to return home and work with the Randas to find Shaw.
Monarch decides to go public and step out from the shadows, revealing their mission to study the Titans and hopefully prevent another G-Day. Meanwhile, AET is renamed Apex Cybernetics. For those of you paying attention, that is the nefarious corporation from Godzilla vs. Kong.
The episode ends with Shaw and his group finding the Titan in Alaska from earlier this season and destroying it with Monarch’s experimental explosives that they stole earlier in the episode—proving that they have the means to stop a Titan attack.
The Past:
The past segment for this episode focuses on May (known as Corah), the most mysterious character of the bunch, and looks a little into her life, starting with Seattle three years before the series begins. We open on May having drinks with a friend named Brenda, who promises her a hefty income if she decides to work with her at Applied Experimental Technologies (AET). Flash forward a few months, and we see May has taken Brenda up on her offer and shows up at the AET headquarters for the job. She questions Brenda about her purpose there and her desire to work in the “neuro-cybernetics” department, which is well above her pay grade.
May pokes around in AET’s Neuro-Cybernetics division and makes a horrifying discovery. AET isn’t looking to help disabled people at all but is instead working on a neural interface that will allow them to take full control of a Titan.
Some time passes, and May begins to receive numerous messages on her phone from AET asking if she has corrupted a source code of some sort. In a panic, she begins to pack her bags and asks her sister to cover for her. In a tearful goodbye, she tells her that she needs to flee the country.
Holy hell that was a lot revealed in a single episode. We learned more about May’s mysterious plan, the origin of Apex, and the technology they use in Godzilla vs. Kong that controls Mechagodzilla! We also see Monarch go from the mysterious, sinister corporation they are in 2014’s Godzilla to the public powerhouse that they are in 2018’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters. We also learn that Monarch aren’t really the villains, the tables have turned, and Shaw is the series’ big bad.
With the Randa kids having full access to Monarch and a mission to bring in Shaw, the goals are set. They’re in for a surprise when they learn Shaw is now a full-on Titan killer. How are they going to deal with that? Does Hiroshi have an alternate plan that doesn’t involve killing Titans but can still stop the impending doom? I’m sure we’ll learn the outcome quickly in the final few episodes.
Recommended Kaiju Film of the Week: Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)
My personal favorite film from the Heisei era of Godzilla films. If you thought Invasion of the Astro-Monster was a buck wild addition to the canon, Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah puts it to shame as it not only introduces a mechanized version of Godzilla’s greatest villain but also adds time travel to the mix. In the film, time-travelers convince Japanese scientists to travel back in time to prevent Godzilla from ever existing, only for them to unleash hell in the form of Mecha-King Ghidorah. It’s an absolute blast of a movie. Part of me was a little bummed that Godzilla vs. Kong didn’t semi-remake this film after the perfect setup in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, but I hope one day the MonsterVerse decides to do a take on this unique kaiju film.
