In episode 4 of Monarch Season 2, Jason predicted, with the help of Apex’s advanced geo-tracking technology, that El Gran Dios Del Mar was headed towards San Francisco, and he told Tim to steer the Monarch ship in the Titan’s direction. No, neither Apex nor Monarch would do anything to the Titan; the Pacific Fleet would blow it to smithereens, and then Apex would collect whatever would be left of it for research purposes. That turned out to be a wild-goose chase, because Jason had used the Apex tech to make Tim and his Monarch crew think that they were going after the Titan, whereas in reality they were chasing a whale. It was a con job conducted by Apex to supposedly steal something from Monarch’s database. Now, since Lee, Hiroshi, Kentaro, Keiko, and May thought that El Gran Dios Del Mar was heading towards San Francisco, which was where Cate was at, they scrambled to break into the Apex research facility, get their hands on Hiroshi’s Suzuki device, and stop the Titan from making landfall. By the time they did learn that it was all a hoax, they had stumbled upon some major revelations.
For starters, Apex wanted to capture and remotely control the Titans. They had achieved some degree of success when it came to small creatures kidnapped from Skull Island. However, when it came to the big ones, yeah, they needed May on the team so she could tailor the code to the size of the Titans. Since May had anyway been tasked by Tim to be his eyes and ears inside Apex, and she did want to see if her code could help with the Titan menace, she stayed at Apex. The rest discovered that the Suzuki device had been taken apart so that Monarch couldn’t use it to keep the Titans away from mankind, because if they did that, Apex wouldn’t be able to put their Titan-controlling program to use. Moreover, Bill’s old files were found in the basement of that Apex research facility, which pointed the protagonists in the direction of Santa Soledad. Amongst Bill’s files, Hiroshi found Keiko’s letter to Lee, which confirmed his theory that Bill had abandoned him after finding out about Keiko’s extramarital affair with Hiroshi. Did that derail the protagonists’ mission to get to Santa Soledad or not? Let’s talk about episode 5 of Season 2 to find out.
Spoiler Alert
Lee & Co. Head to Santa Soledad
Episode 5 opens with a flashback that takes us to 1990, where Hiroshi, while waiting for Emiko to give birth to Kentaro (which was actually the name of Hiroshi’s biological father), is singing a lullaby called “Fursato” to Cate on the phone; it’s the same lullaby that Keiko used to sing to Hiroshi. As soon as Emiko has delivered their baby, Hiroshi hangs up on Cate and goes off to be with his second wife and child. In the present day, Hiroshi confronts Keiko regarding his romantic affair with Lee and blames them for Bill leaving him in the lurch. Keiko says that Bill wasn’t like that; even if he had learned about their affair, he wouldn’t have abandoned Hiroshi. Since Bill isn’t around to clarify his stance, based on the evidence that’s before him, Hiroshi sticks to his theory that Keiko and Lee’s one-night stand was the reason why his stepfather abandoned him. And given how there’s no way to resolve this matter quickly, Hiroshi advises Keiko and the rest of the group to focus on getting to Santa Soledad so that they can deal with El Gran Dios Del Mar.
Lee finds Hiroshi sulking and tries to impart some words of wisdom on him about not dwelling on the past and cherishing what’s before him. Before they can have an in-depth discussion on this, their transport arrives, and everyone boards it to get to that fictional village in Southern Chile. Meanwhile, Tim can be seen having a heated debate with Director Barris, because the latter believes Apex’s lies about the Titan being in the Bering Sea, which is why he can’t understand why Monarch is going to South America. Tim tries to convince Barris that they are on the right track, but it seems like either Apex has its boot on Monarch’s throat or Barris is facing some kind of pressure from his investors, the government, or Apex, and that’s not allowing him to refute Apex’s claims. Since Tim is adamant that his team is right about the Titan going to South America, Barris tells him to bring proof of the monster’s movements so that he can put his seal of approval on that mission.
Lee & Co. Reach Santa Soledad
Keiko and Cate have a chat about the latter’s superpowers and how she can hear El Gran Dios Del Mar’s “voice.” Since Keiko seems to be distracted by Hiroshi’s sulking, Cate drops the topic. And then Lee starts talking about how they are going to reach that village on Santa Soledad by boat, thereby sidelining Cate’s thoughts on her superpowers completely (at least for the time being). By the way, while talking about the Titan’s relationship with the villagers that used to live on Santa Soledad, Keiko says that they used to call it Co-Cai (from now on, I’m going to call it that because El Gran Dios Del Mar is a mouthful). Lee adds that Bill predicted that Co-Cai would surface every 15 years. Which means that, technically, Co-Cai would have emerged from its cocoon in Axis Mundi in 2023. But since they activated the Suzuki device to rescue Lee from that hellhole, it has arrived a little early.
That said, since Co-Cai has a fixed path, it hopefully won’t go out of its way to harm places that aren’t on its migratory route. Cate wonders what Apex will do to Co-Cai if they get their hands on it (because she wasn’t a part of the heist mission at the Apex research facility), and Lee informs her that Apex intends to put a neural implant in Co-Cai and control it like a puppet. They intend to launch it via some kinda device, and it’s important that they stop that from happening, because if it backfires, it’ll be catastrophic. While hiking to the village, Kentaro and Cate have a chat about their disloyal father. Kentaro has processed his feelings for him, as he got to spend 2 years with him while working on the Axis Mundi rescue program, and forgiven him for being a cheat, but Cate can’t do the same because, well, she was a bit busy with Axis Mundi. Keiko reprimands Lee for keeping that letter and causing all this drama, and Lee repurposes his old advice: the past can’t be changed, so just keep moving forward and hope time heals everything.
Apex’s Plan For Co-Cai Is Revealed
Apex has already reached the village on Santa Soledad and set up their camp. That’s not a big surprise, because it wasn’t like they were doing an art project with Bill’s work; they had studied his notes on Co-Cai’s migratory routes, and as soon as the Titan emerged from Axis Mundi, they reached its favorite hangout spot. However, after looking at the elaborate setup that Apex has organized, the realization dawns upon May that this whole operation depends on her scaling up her code, which was being used to control a small Leafwing, to puppeteer a fully grown Titan like Co-Cai, and she starts to have second thoughts. Brenda tells May to believe in herself and get cracking on that code. Jason informs Brenda about our protagonists’ arrival on the shores of Santa Soledad, and Brenda confronts May regarding this matter because she believes that she is the one who has led them to this place, and she’s counting on Lee and his crew to sabotage Apex’s mission. May assures Brenda that she isn’t second-guessing her program because of her friends; she’s basing that on her own understanding of how coding and Titans work.
Brenda doesn’t exactly have the luxury of benching May, even if she is sure that May is lying through her teeth, which is why she just tells her to focus on programming the neural implant before it’s shot at Co-Cai via a projectile probe. In the meantime, Lee and his crew find an abandoned Monarch outpost to lie low at until Monarch arrives. That’s where Keiko comes across a piece of artwork that proves that Bill was there, and she breaks down. Once Lee is done consoling her, Keiko tries again to have a dialogue with Hiroshi, and this time she succeeds, because he’s feeling a little more forgiving than he was before. As they are reflecting on their mistakes and how they should own up to them instead of defending their reckless actions, we get a flashback to a telephonic conversation between Hiroshi and Tim, which takes place in 2014, about a package with Bill’s name on it that had been unearthed. Instead of meeting his family, even though he was at their doorstep, Hiroshi took off to inspect that package, which indicates that Hiroshi has always idolized Bill and his work, even though he keeps saying that he doesn’t.
May Supports Apex’s Vision
Tim and his Monarch ship, while heading to Southern Chile, come across Co-Cai, as it is headed in the same direction. That serves as proof (that Barris was asking for) that Apex was lying and Tim and his friends are on the right path. Speaking of Apex, at their campsite, Brenda is seen updating someone named Walter regarding their plans to wrangle Co-Cai; that’s Walter Simmons, CEO of Apex, that she’s talking to. Now, Brenda assures Walter that things are fine in their hands, but when we hear May telling Jason that she needs time to perfect her code (time that she clearly does not have), it becomes clear that this whole plan is about to go sideways in a really royal manner. Lee and his crew notice May complaining about the way Apex is running this op and pull her over to the side to get her to abort this mission.
Surprisingly enough, May starts singing a completely different tune as she starts doing propaganda for Apex and says that she fully believes that mind-controlling the Titans is the only way to save people from this menace. After May leaves, Lee essentially kinda predicts the events of Godzilla vs. Kong by saying that, while the neural implant is being sold as a means to stop G-Days, it can be used to cause G-Days too. I say “kinda” because in Godzilla vs. Kong, Apex’s device was used to provoke Godzilla into doing heinous deeds. Once his public image was ruined enough, Mechagodzilla was brought in to serve as the savior. Well, we all know how badly that went, and that Walter died in that movie. In case you are wondering why Apex had to take the mecha-provocation route instead of, you know, putting a neural implant in Godzilla’s head and making him dance like a puppet, well, the answer to that is in the ending of today’s episode.
Cate Communicates With Co-Cai
As Co-Cai approaches the village in Santa Soledad, the Scarabs come out of hiding and make their way to the shore. Lee and his crew secretly approach the launching pad of the drone that’s going to be used to shoot that neural implant into Co-Cai with the aim of disabling it before the Titan surfaces. Unfortunately, they fail to disarm the drone, and Jason orders his crewmember to take it to the sky. While Keiko, Kentaro, Hiroshi, and Cate take shelter in one of the broken huts of the abandoned village, Lee gets stuck in the scarab stampede and suffers a leg injury as well. Once all the Scarabs have gone into the water to reunite with Co-Cai, Keiko, Kentaro, and Hiroshi rush to Lee’s rescue. Cate spots Co-Cai and is drawn to it for some reason.
Instead of hurting Cate, it seems like the Titan is communicating with her via telepathy or infrasonic signals, and Cate is responding to it as well. This magical moment is ruined by Apex and its probe, which lands on one of the tendrils of Co-Cai. Every attempt made by May and her program to mind-control Co-Cai causes excruciating pain, and it looks like Cate can feel that pain as well. Hiroshi comes to Cate’s rescue and drags her away from Co-Cai. Meanwhile, the Scarabs come to Co-Cai’s rescue as they sever the tentacle that the probe has lodged into. Once the tentacle comes off, Co-Cai goes into rampage mode. Apex has to evacuate the camp, because that’s the first thing that the Titan targets. Brenda is stun-locked because she can’t believe that her big plan has failed so miserably; May has to literally pull her out of their makeshift HQ to keep her from getting crushed by Co-Cai. Jason uses this moment of chaos to steal some valuable tech and exits the scene. Once the Co-Cai is done lashing around, it goes back into the sea.
Hiroshi Is Dead
In episode 5’s ending, as the dust settles, Cate notices that Hiroshi has been severely injured. Initially, Cate assures him that he’s going to be okay, but since the time for lies is over, she and Keiko sing the lullaby that’s been passed down generations to send Hiroshi into eternal sleep. As the lullaby draws to a close, Hiroshi draws his last breaths and passes away. Tim and his Monarch crew finally arrive to salvage whatever’s left of the Apex camp, and that’s when he finds out that his old friend and colleague has died. He joins Keiko, Cate, Kentaro, and Lee to mourn Hiroshi’s passing. I won’t say that I liked Hiroshi, and at the same time I do feel a little sad that he is dead. It doesn’t matter how far or how close he was to solving the Titan problem, but he had made some great progress in terms of accepting his flaws. It looked like he was about to work on himself to be a better parent to his kids and a better partner to both of his love interests. His kids had forgiven him and were ready to forge a new bond with him.
So, yeah, it sucks that Hiroshi died just when things were about to get better for him. However, I think that’s kinda the point of his death. The Titans take on a lot of metaphors; sometimes it’s about climate change, other times it’s about the repercussions of war. In this case, I think Co-Cai represents the unpredictability of life. You never know when things are going to take a wild turn. One second, it’s all smooth sailing, and the next, you are bleeding out in the village where your mother and your uncle had a one-night stand. It’s impossible to consistently make decisions that you’ll never regret; we are humans; we are bound to mistakes. However, if you find yourself at a crossroads where you can have one loving family and a job that’ll allow you to study Titans, or you can have two families (with the members of both families hating you for being a cheat) and a job that’ll allow you to study Titans, please, go for the first option. Don’t go for that second one; it’s really not worth it. Do you agree or disagree with my inference? Let me know in the comments section below.
