Monarch: Legacy of Monsters season finale review - Beyond Logic

I am pretty sure I'm not the only one sad that this is the last episode of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters for the time being. In the span of 10 top-notch episodes, this show has given us a more human side to the MonsterVerse and a nice backstory on Monarch and how it came to be.

So let's get right into it, shall we? Let's recap and review this monster (no pun intended) of a season finale before we go hug our Godzilla Squishmallows and cry because it's over for now. No? Just me? Ok.

SPOILER WARNING FOR THOSE WHO VENTURE PAST THIS SENTENCE: I will be spoiling the entire series, including the finale, below. Do not read unless you want everything to be spoiled for you.

Episode 10 review - "Beyond Logic"

So, picking up where we left off last week, Keiko rescues Cate from a Titan. Cate can’t believe she’s met her grandmother, whom everyone expected to be dead. Well, everyone except maybe Shaw? While Cate doesn't reveal her relationship to Keiko yet, the two of them go around Hollow Earth trying to find May and Lee, who also fell into this rift.

We flashback to Kentaro and his father, Hiroshi, talking. Kentaro had already told him that Cate fell and was expected to be dead and now they’re just going over Hollow Earth and how both Keiko and Bill Randa (Hiroshi's parents) were correct, with Hiroshi wondering if Cate is still alive and actually traveling around the Titan network. He reveals he had been trying to open a rift to Hollow Earth when they saw him in the desert and didn't expect Godzilla to be there.

Hiroshi then asks Kentaro for his help in solving the Titan-human coexistence issue in order to help save others and prevent people from feeling the way they do now - the pain of losing a loved one. He wants to prevent another G-Day. Ladies, what’s even more annoying than a man who has made mistakes and hurt others? Yep - a man who won’t acknowledge or take responsibility for his actions. Hiroshi is not one of my favorite characters, which sucks because he's totally likable except for the having-two-whole-families-in-two-different-countries-who-didn't-know-about-each-other thing. Ugh. Why?

Anyway, we switch back to Keiko and Cate. Keiko thought Cate was part of a rescue mission, and is both confused and sad when finds out she’s not. Right when it looks like Keiko might get some answers, May and Lee find them, and Keiko has the shock of her life when she sees Lee and how much older he is. Well, she is not done being shocked - turns out she’s been there for 57 years, though it only feels like 57 days. He tells her about the recon mission in 1962, which confuses her. She thinks it’s still 1959. Sweet summer child.

He tells her about his 20-year stay down in Hollow Earth. Keiko is visibly shaken and upset, understandably so. She realizes it’s 2015 as Lee comes out from hiding and Keiko is shocked to see him. This is a very emotional reunion between the two since it’s been a reeeeeeally long time since they’ve seen each other. Keiko learns Bill has passed away while she’s been down there, and it's yet another shock she has to go through. She doesn't have the time to mourn him now. It’s so sad and such a palpable pain. She asks about Hiroshi and, when Cate says he's fine, she asks who she is. That's when Keiko learns she's also a grandmother now. 

Out of the family drama and back into Monarch business, we shift to Tim and Director Verdug as they talk at Monarch HQ. Duvall, our queen of kicking ass and taking names, hasn’t been seen since the cave-in and Tim is worried. He expresses that he wants to look for signals in case there are survivors from the massive cave-in, but Verdugo is very much against that idea. She’s worried about the wave of Titan events and doesn’t want to use resources to save three people instead of seven billion people. But Tim brings up an important point - what if the three they save can help save the seven billion? Tim wants Monarch to do better. As a result, Verdugo threatens to suspend Tim indefinitely because he’s right and she can’t stand to be wrong, just like crappy bosses tend to do.

Back to Hollow Earth, Lee finds his round… gizmo thing from the expedition years ago. Keiko had rewired and reprogrammed it to try and send a signal back to Earth, as a beacon to her location. We get into some more family drama when Keiko asks Cate to tell her about Hiroshi. Cate says only nice things about him, which is really nice of her. Lee asks Keiko if she can rewire the gizmo back to being whatever it was instead of a beacon. She says maybe, and Lee says that’s their ticket home.

Back in Japan, Hiroshi is gathering his belongings to move out of his house while Kentaro and his mother watch. Hiroshi gets a bit of a much-deserved slap in the face in the form of words. Emiko, Kentaro’s mom, explains to him that after G-Day, they called the hospitals and the Red Cross, and did so much research to check if he was still alive or where he was. They found nothing. He told them nothing. She hands him back her wedding ring as she tells him she and Kentaro had been waiting for the day he’d come home. She says that no matter what he did to her, Kentaro still deserves a relationship with his father and that when he figures out where he’s going to let Kentaro know.

TAKE THAT, HIROSHI. Emiko doesn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry. What an icon, truly an inspiration.

We shift back to Hollow Earth. Nothing to see here, they’re still trying to get the thing running.

Kentaro is drinking at his favorite bar when Tim joins him out of nowhere. Yes, in Japan. Emiko told him where to find him. He brings files with him, which he hands to Kentaro. They’re about the gamma-ray bursts, and they’ve found a signal/message, but not sure from whom. But it’s coming from inside the rifts, and Tim says that Hiroshi might know about this stuff. We know who it is though.

Back to Hollow Earth. Lee says Keiko hasn’t changed a bit, looking the same way he’d always remembered her. She talks about her time in Hollow Earth, and how she always thought about him and Billy. She asks what happened to Billy and Lee tells him he died during an expedition, that he went down swinging and saved Monarch. Keiko is grieving the time she’s lost and asks how it is in 2015. Lee tells her about smartphones, flat-screen TVs, about the landing on the moon (he also missed that one because he was in Hollow Earth at the time). It’s a bittersweet conversation. You can see how much he cares about her, and how their bond has stayed intact. I feel for both of them.

Tim and Kentaro visit Hiroshi. Hiroshi doesn’t want to work with Monarch. Tim shows him the files about the gamma-ray bursts coming from the rifts. He explains that they're not like the ones from G-Day, that they’re a signal from someone. Hiroshi is being stubborn even though there’s plenty of evidence that Cate and Keiko could very well be alive. Kentaro asks him to help him find his sister. Tim informs him he’s quit Monarch and wants to help since Monarch wouldn’t budge. GOOD JOB TIM!!

Back in Hollow Earth, Cate, Keiko, Lee, and May move the gizmo around as they talk about the place. They’re not sure if they’re underground or in another space, entering through a portal. They continue to move the gizmo thing closer to what they think might be the source of the rift. They find yet another pod, the one Lee actually sat and maneuvered into Hollow Earth during his mission, and they’re planning to use it to get back home. Keiko decides she’s going to stay behind and make sure the team gets out. Cate wants Keiko to come back because she needs her grandma. Awww. 

"“You still have work to do up there.” "

- Cate Randa

I just want to hug Keiko. Poor thing. It’s a day from hell for her, huh?

They attempt to power up the pod with the gizmo thing, as they believe their ticket out of there is luring Titans over to them so the rift will open and they can escape. Before Lee can even finish explaining, they find out they did lure a Titan, but that Titan was already there, so the rift didn’t open. But……. Lo and behold - the rift starts opening as another Titan is making its way downtown, causing the smaller Titan to leave - and while leaving, it almost cuts the chord connecting the pod to the energy thing. Lee gets out to fix it, the Titan circles around to get him, and just as things are heating up, the Titan tries to eat Lee. 

Enter Godzilla.

Out of the rift, our magnificent beast of a friend arrives to save the day with his “HEY, THE HUMANS ARE MY TOYS, NOT YOURS” attitude. Gods, he’s so pretty. The other Titan does what any other silly Titan would do and attacks Godzilla, and so a monster brawl begins.

Godzilla finishes the fight by tearing the Titan’s wings off and yeeting them aside like they were nothing, and Lee stays attached to the pod long enough to say thank you to Keiko as he lets go so they can close the hatch. Again -it’s not a good day for Keiko, is it? The three ladies in the pod hold hands as Godzilla looks in and basically says “You’re welcome for the rift”, and the pod makes it back to our Earth…………… a whole two years later, and without Lee.

The moment Hiroshi and Keiko reunite.. so many goosebumps. As a mom myself, my heart just hurts for her. The way Hiroshi just folds in half in her embrace…… Hiroshi really needed his mama. She continuously apologizes in Japanese as they hug. I love this show’s ability to balance out emotional moments and kick-ass fights.

Turns out it’s not just Monarch who’s in the monster business now - Kentaro, Tim, Hiroshi, Monarch, and freaking Brenda - May’s old boss. 

As the episode comes to a close (and I try to cope with the fact I don’t have any more episodes to watch), we finally see where they are - APEX's compound. In Skull Island. With Kong approaching.

I sit here, researching once a week to see if a second season has been announced yet. No such announcement has been made, but I am confident that a second season will be confirmed soon. With the show’s high ratings, extraordinary cast, deeply rooted story, and this freaking cliffhanger, there’s no way AppleTV would leave us hanging like that, right? Right?

All episodes of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters can be streamed on AppleTV.