In episode 5 of Monarch Season 2, Lee, Hiroshi, Cate, Keiko, and Kentaro headed to Santa Soledad in order to stop Apex from enslaving Co-Cai and making it dance to its tune. Unfortunately, Apex reached Santa Soledad before Lee and Co. could, and by the time our protagonists could find Apex’s temporary headquarters, they had already set up shop and were ready to fire the neural implant at Co-Cai as soon as it appeared. Lee and Co. got May’s attention and checked if she had any intention of sabotaging the mission to turn Co-Cai into Apex’s puppet. But May surprised everyone, including the viewers, by revealing that she was in fact very pro-Apex, and she actually believed that her Titan-enslaving program was the only solution to this Kaiju problem. So, she turned her back on her friends and went to the Apex HQ to focus on “scaling up” her code so that she could become Co-Cai’s master. Now, when Co-Cai surfaced, May noticed Cate communicating with the Titan through telepathy or infrasonic waves, and she realized that maybe they didn’t need to take such an invasive approach to stopping further G-Days. However, her realization came way too late as the probe with the neural implant hit Co-Cai and caused it to go berserk. The Titan destroyed whatever was left of the coastal village and Apex’s temporary HQ, and it even killed Hiroshi. Hiroshi’s injuries were so severe that there was no point in moving him, and while everyone got to bid goodbye to him, Kentaro missed out on that opportunity, which only exacerbated the pain of losing his father. How’ll this shape him as a person? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
Lee Leaves Monarch And Then Rejoins It
Season 2 episode 6 turns back the clock to 1958, which is when Bill and Keiko got their very own office at the Monarch HQ in Arlington, Virginia. While they are setting up their stuff, Lee arrives to congratulate them and also inform them that he won’t be a part of this team anymore. When Keiko hears that he has been reassigned, she thinks that he’s been forced into it by his superiors, but Lee clarifies that he is the one who put in the request for reassignment. I mean, the reason is pretty obvious. Lee betrayed Bill by “boinking” Keiko behind his back, and Keiko cheated on Bill by fornicating with Lee. So, even though Bill is unaware of it, the dynamic between the three of them has changed, and it’d be stupid to continue working together. Keiko knows that, which is why, after that initial bit of protesting, she doesn’t say anything. It’s unclear if Bill senses that Lee and Keiko’s relationship is the reason why the trio is breaking up, but it seems like he also doesn’t do anything to stop Lee from leaving. So, Lee shifts from Virginia to Maryland, where he is welcomed by his father, Col. Leland Lafayette Shaw II (given how that’s essentially the same name that Lee has, I’m going to call his dad Leland). Leland cracks open a bottle of liquor so that they chat “freely,” but Lee says that he doesn’t want to get drunk, because he wants to be presentable in front of Puckett on the first day of his new assignment. Still, Leland coaxes him into drinking and Lee gives in, because he does want to vent about his mistakes. Regardless of what Leland does next, I want to say that he makes a pretty salient point about the arrogance that comes with “the uniform.” If someone who isn’t in the armed forces says this, they are labeled an anti-nationalist. But I’m glad that the show, through these fictional characters, is underscoring this undeniable fact that people in the army, navy, or air force do think that they deserve to have anything they want just because they’ve decided to sacrifice their life for the Empire, sorry, I mean, their country. Going back to the plot, Lee wakes up the next morning, hungover and late to his meeting with Puckett. When he reaches the US Army headquarters, he is stopped in his tracks by Leland, who takes him to a nearby diner for some coffee and flapjacks. Lee is afraid that Puckett won’t like it if he delays their meeting any further, but Leland says that he has told Puckett that his son will clock in a little late; so, it’s all fine. Once they get to the diner, Leland breaks the news that Lee won’t be working for Puckett; he has been transferred to MAAG Vietnam. Why? Because Leland thinks that chasing monsters is pointless, and his son is better off killing Vietnamese people. Well, I guess Leland had to balance his poignant observations about the armed forces with something that’s equally dumb-headed. Lee doesn’t take this news very well and, after shifting into his new quarters, he rages out and then goes back to Virginia to have a chat with Keiko. He tells her that, if a position is available, he’d like to join Monarch. Keiko welcomes him with open arms, especially since he promises to not let their feelings for each other come in the way of Titan research. Keiko talks about going to Kazakhstan, but since that fateful adventure technically takes place 4 years later, I’m sure that trip is going to be postponed and they’ll be drawn towards some other locations.
Suzuki Shows Up At Hiroshi’s Funeral
2 weeks prior to opening the portal on Skull Island in order to bring back Cate and the others from Axis Mundi, Kentaro was following Kong around and making sketches of him. Kong did spot him, but he knew that Kentaro wasn’t a threat; so, he just roared at him to send him running back to the Apex-Monarch camp. Kentaro was caught red-handed doing these illicit activities by his own father, Hiroshi, but he wasn’t angry at his son; in fact, he pocketed the Kong sketch, popped open a couple of chilled beers, and initiated a chat about how time works in Axis Mundi. This was where Hiroshi revealed that he actually walked through the rift in Alaska and spent what he thought were 2 days in Axis Mundi, but when he reappeared in Africa, a whole year had gone by. Kentaro wondered why he had kept that information from him, and Hiroshi said that he knew that he was playing with fire, and he didn’t want his son and daughter to get burnt by pursuing him. And while they ended up coming after Hiroshi anyway, which in some way contributed to Cate and the others getting trapped in Axis Mundi, he saw the bright side of the rescue mission, which was him getting to spend some time with Kentaro. This is where the flashback comes to an end and we are brought crashing into the present day, where Hiroshi’s funeral is taking place.
During the funeral, the focus shifts between all the characters present there, but seeing Keiko crying did “hit me in the feels.” Due to some cosmic mumbo jumbo, she got to reunite with her son after several decades, and now here she is burying her son’s remains; it’s painful. Kentaro obviously blames Cate for Hiroshi’s death, and he’s afraid that Godzilla is going to appear, like he usually does, to “balance the scales” and cause widespread damage. Cate tries to explain that maybe her superpowers can be of some use, but Kentaro rubbishes that theory and takes off to either find a solution to this problem or wait until Godzilla inevitably rises. Keiko consoles Cate as she is reduced to a puddle of tears. During the concluding moments of the funeral, Dr. Suzuki shows up and is understandably surprised to see Lee. Suzuki is the mind behind the Titan-calling device, and had worked extensively with Keiko, Lee, and Bill back in the day, and as far as I remember, he was there on the day Operation Hourglass was executed, and Lee got lost in Axis Mundi. I suppose Suzuki didn’t learn about Lee’s return in the ’80s; so yeah, it’s sad that their reunion has happened under such awful circumstances.
Anyway, Lee introduces Suzuki to Cate and reintroduces him to Keiko, who is overjoyed to be reunited with an old friend of hers. Suzuki is, of course, flabbergasted to see that Keiko hasn’t aged a day, and he is glad to finally meet Cate after hearing all about her from Hiroshi. Keiko is shocked to learn that Hiroshi used to stay in touch with Suzuki, and even though we haven’t seen them on-screen, it makes sense, because Hiroshi couldn’t have possibly created (or recreated) the Suzuki device without the help of its inventor. Suzuki says that he’d love to catch up with all of them and also talk about the Titan problem. Since Monarch hasn’t got a ping on Co-Cai yet, they all have some free time on their hands; so they oblige Suzuki’s request. On their way out of the cemetery, Lee leaves his lucky pocketknife at Hiroshi’s tomb (if Lee dies after parting ways with the weapon that has got him through some tough times, this nice gesture is going to sting).
Isabel Recruits Kentaro Into Apex
May shows up at Kentaro’s house to apologize for playing for the enemy team and, directly or indirectly, leading to Hiroshi’s death. To be honest, Kentaro should be more angry at May than Cate because, while Cate is responsible for bringing out Co-Cai way before the end of its hibernation phase, it’s May who agitated the Titan and caused it to kill Hiroshi. So, why isn’t Kentaro angry at May, to the point that he even agrees to go out to have a few drinks with her? After going to Sota’s and getting some liquor into his system, Kentaro kisses May. Yeah, that’s right, the big reason why Kentaro isn’t angry at May for having a significantly bigger hand in Hiroshi’s death than Cate is because he has the hots for her. He has been attracted to her for a while, but since Hiroshi is dead, he expects that even if May doesn’t really want to reciprocate his feelings, she’ll pity him and give him a chance. Well, maybe May would have fallen for this cliche, stereotypical, and utterly misogynistic trap, but before May can get a word in, Kentaro says that he knows that she’s attracted to Cate, and that’s why she doesn’t want to have some sexy-time with him. Before May can process that information, Kentaro drops a jibe about Cate not “wanting” to romance May. By that, he means to say that since there’s no chance that Cate will get into a relationship with May, it’s better if she settles for Kentaro.
Surprisingly enough, May empathizes with Kentaro, because she thinks that he’s trying to hurt her because he himself is in pain, but what’s the point of showing empathy to an idiot like him? I mean, a few seconds after May leaves him at the bar, he is approached by a woman named Isabel. Who’s she? Isabel is the daughter of Walter Simmons and she has been sent to “keep an eye” on Kentaro, which is just a polite way of saying that Isabel has been sent to honeytrap Kentaro. And guess what? Of course he falls for it, despite being aware of the fact that he is being honeytrapped. Kentaro makes it seem like his eyes have opened and he truly thinks that Apex is the only organization out there, not Monarch, that can solve the Titan problem, and that’s why he wants to join their cause. Whereas the truth of the matter is that he has been recently rejected by May and he can see the chance to work beside an attractive woman like Isabel if he becomes an Apex employee; hence, he accepts that proposal. So, yeah, if you encounter idiots like Kentaro, don’t empathize with them even if their father has died recently; punch them in the face if they say anything remotely similar to what Kentaro said to May.
I thought Keiko and Hiroshi’s characters were wonky when it came to the subject of romance, but Kentaro is somehow worse than both of them combined. By the way, in case you’re startled by the information that Walter has not one, but two daughters, with the elder one being Maia (who is going to die in a few years by Kong’s hand), well, you are not alone. I don’t remember Walter talking about having another daughter. So, does Isabel die before the events of Godzilla vs. Kong? Is Isabel going to be limited to the small screen? Or will we see Isabel in the upcoming Godzilla X Kong: Supernova? Only time will tell. Going back to Kentaro, he dreams about Godzilla attacking Tokyo. Yeah, I’m sure Monsterverse fans are going to be normal about this. Ever since they saw that image or clip of Monsterverse’s Godzilla finally showing up in Tokyo, they’ve been trying to figure out what’s gonna trigger his appearance. When they find out it’s just a dream sequence, I think they are going to treat the writers pretty harshly. As a Godzilla fan, though, I am happy to see a glimpse of him, even if it’s through someone’s nightmares.
Lee And Suzuki Discover Time Travel?
At Suzuki’s house, the conversation between the host, Keiko, Cate, and Lee starts off with the topic of “time dilation,” because that’s the reason which caused the debacle of Operation Hourglass, and that’s also the reason why Keiko, Cate, and Lee don’t look as old as they actually are. Suzuki informs them that the failure of Operation Hourglass is why he was chucked out of Monarch and prohibited from touching anything related to Titans. And maybe he wouldn’t have if Hiroshi wouldn’t have approached him for consultation purposes on the Titan phone that he was planning to build. Lee interrupts this conversation by asking Suzuki where the sake is. Why? So that he can pour it down the drain and fast-forward their discussion to the topic of the location of the Titan phone. Why does Lee want the Titan phone? So that he can call up Godzilla and get him to either kill Co-Cai or force it to go to Axis Mundi, Santa Soledad, or Hollow Earth. Now, Suzuki wasn’t only advising Hiroshi; he has actually rebuilt the Titan phone, and this time he has factored in the time dilation aspect. Hence, if they can pinpoint where and, more importantly, when Godzilla was last spotted, they can beckon him back to that spot. While the old-timers are doing all this, Cate and Keiko take a seat at the dock on the lake near Suzuki’s house and have a chat about moving on.
Cate absentmindedly puts her legs into the water, and these weird ripples start forming around her leg. I say “weird” because ripples usually move away from the body that’s causing them, but here the ripples are moving towards Cate; and I think this effect is either achieved through CGI or by simply reversing the footage of the ripples. Well, the in-universe explanation for the ripples seems to be Co-Cai’s infrasonic connection with Cate. Yes, Co-Cai communicates through sound waves but it looks like Cate has somehow gained the powers of doing the same. Keiko observes all this and says that they need to study it, hopefully with the help of the equipment that Suzuki has. When they approach Suzuki and Lee with the intention of talking about this revelation, they learn that they are on their way to Mt. Osore to test Suzuki’s upgraded Titan phone. Why that location specifically? Because, in 1982, that’s where Lee had showed up through a rift; so, if they can reopen that portal, they can reopen a portal to a rift that connects the present to a different time period and call Godzilla (I’ll get back to why this is confusing). Keiko and Cate don’t approve of this decision, but Lee and Suzuki continue with their mission anyway. Keiko and Cate choose to focus on their own experiment and see if they can use the latter’s superpowers to locate Co-Cai before Lee and Suzuki unleash Godzilla upon the world. Once Cate immerses herself into the lake, Keiko gets some good readings. Based on that, they come to the conclusion that Co-Cai is actually lost and can’t find its way back home. Why? That’s unclear. How can it be helped? With Cate’s newfound abilities.
Now, before Keiko and Cate can deliver this info to Lee and Suzuki, in the ending of episode 6, the old timers open a rift. Thankfully, Godzilla doesn’t emerge from it, but Lee’s radio connects to his own radio signal from the time he was stuck in Axis Mundi. See, this is why I was saying that things are going to get confusing. Lee is talking to a past version of himself, which means that the old Lee and the young Lee exist at the same time, albeit at different time periods, and they are connected via Axis Mundi. It’s like a recurring time loop situation, where the same events keep happening in this universe and people are allowed to interact with each other (even their own past or future versions) via the rifts. That can also mean that if you try to call Godzilla, a version of him from one timeline can appear in the present, while the present version of Godzilla is already roaming around. If Kentaro hears about this, he might try to extract a version of Hiroshi from the past and bring him to the present. Here’s a disclaimer though: I might be wrong, and Lee is only hearing the audio from that time that’s floating around in the ether; he isn’t actually talking to himself. What I am saying is that Old Lee’s questions coincidentally match with what Young Lee spoke into his walkie-talkie (he did, I rewatched the moment he tried to make contact with Mission Control and it happens at the 33-minute-mark of Monarch Season 1 episode 9). Hence, it creates this illusion that there are two Lees and they are talking to each other. Either way, we have to wait till next week to get some concrete answers on this time travel theory. What are your thoughts on it? Let me know in the comments section below.
