Episode 7 of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters largely revolved around unpacking May’s past. It was revealed that her actual name is Corah, and she used to work for a company called AET, which later evolved into Apex Cybernetics, the organization behind the making of Mechagodzilla. When AET tried to punish May for deleting all the work they had done by torturing animals, Cate, Kentaro, and Tim tried to get her out of their clutches. Natalia brokered a deal with AET’s Brenda Holland because Cate wouldn’t help her find Lee Shaw if she didn’t have May by her side. Talking about Lee Shaw, he led Duvall and her army of ex-Monarch soldiers to Alaska to seal the Hollow Earth portal there after sending the ice-breathing Titan back to its realm. Yes, he succeeded, and it seemed like he was motivated to keep doing this until Earth was safe from the creatures of the Hollow Earth.
Spoiler Alert
Tim Brings Cate, May, and Kentaro to Monarch
While traveling to the Titan-infested plant in Kazakhstan, Lee Shaw started to reminisce about the day he went with Keiko and Bill to the same place, but was snapped back to reality by Duvall. That said, episode 8 of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters took us back to the ‘50s to show the young Lee Shaw, Keiko Miura, and Bill Randa dealing with their new boss, the naval officer Hatch, who is hellbent on shutting down their Titan-hunting project. Hatch says that the money that’s being spent on this fruitless endeavor can be used to hunt down foreign invaders, thereby turning it into a racial remark against Keiko and her suspicious past. This angers the trio, but Bill takes some initiative and throws a punch at Hatch. Meanwhile, in the 2010s, Tim brings May, Cate, and Kentaro to Monarch. Cate notices that, despite being “Monarch royalty,” there are no photos of Bill and Keiko, and Tim briefly explains Bill’s complicated history with the institution. That’s a sad remark, though, because Bill kept working for Monarch until the day he died. If I remember correctly, in Kong: Skull Island, he went to that treacherous island on Monarch’s behalf. Just because all the evidence he had collected didn’t make it back to Monarch, and he talked a lot about the Hollow Earth (which is something that totally exists in the MonsterVerse), his contributions have been erased? That’s really unfair, and I am guessing that Bill and Keiko will be properly honored once Monarch realizes that they were right. Anyway, coming back to the plot, Natalia asks Cate to return the favor (after saving May from AET) by locating Lee Shaw. Of course, the kids don’t know where he is going because they don’t have Hiroshi’s map with them. Natalia reminds them that whatever Lee is doing can lead to something worse than G-Day (the day Godzilla emerged) if the kids don’t use all the skills they have acquired by going to the ends of the planet for Hiroshi.
We briefly see Lee and Duvall approaching the plant where Keiko had died before going to the ‘50s and watching Bill, Lee, and Keiko being shoved into a small office by Hatch, a huge departure from the lavish room they were working in. They argue about whether or not they should reveal the fact that Godzilla has survived the H-bomb explosion because that’s the only thing that’ll get them out of this situation. Keiko thinks that they should not tell Puckett or Hatch about Godzilla because they’ll keep hitting him with bigger bombs. Lee wants to do the exact opposite because that’ll allow them to pursue their dreams of studying Titans. However, he tries to create a way around this pickle by making a detailed case study and a map of everything they know about the Titans. He plans to show that to Puckett and convince him to let the trio run Monarch instead of Hatch. The episode then cuts to the present to show Tim and the kids at the same location as the OG trio, trying to figure out where Lee Shaw is currently. Cate stumbles upon the file detailing Keiko’s death in Kazakhstan. Tim points out that that spot is showing an unusual rise in gamma radiation. Even though Natalia isn’t convinced that that’s where Shaw is, she allows Cate, May, Kentaro, and Tim to take a small team and head over to Kazakhstan.
Bill Randa meets Keiko’s son, Hiroshi.
In the ‘50s timeline, Bill and Keiko begin to pool all the information they have collected into a cohesive report. Sparks begin to fly between them as Keiko appreciates Bill for taking a stand against Hatch’s racism, while Bill applauds Keiko for being trustworthy and an all-around awesome person. It does seem like Bill is going to confess his love for Keiko, but they choose to focus on pushing their Hollow Earth theory by marking all the spots on Earth where the Titans have been spotted. Lee Shaw witnesses Bill and Keiko’s chemistry and realizes that he doesn’t have a chance with Keiko. However, instead of acting like men usually do, he chooses to present Bill and Keiko’s work to Puckett before the budget proposal meeting and have them reinstated as the heads of Monarch, while also revealing that Godzilla is alive. In the 2010s, Cate, May, Tim, Kentaro, and the team of Monarch soldiers approach the plant in Kazakhstan. Cate advises against using lethal force or anything that’ll scare Lee Shaw, and they refuse to wear the bulletproof vests that are given to them. Upon reaching the plant, they notice a huge hole on the side of the main building. It’s how Lee, Duvall, and their team have entered the facility. After stepping inside, Tim points out that the level of radiation in there is minimal, which is unnatural, and that means that something is absorbing it. Upon venturing further into the plant, they come across the shells of the mini Titans that had dragged Keiko into the abyss in the first episode, and that foreshadows the fact that something big is about to attack them. I don’t know if those shells are CGI or practical, and the fact that I can’t figure it out shows that the final product is really good.
The team gets to the center of the plant, where they find the hole that Keiko had fallen into, and, lo and behold, there is a portal to Hollow Earth there. It’s not like the one in Alaska, which was emitting a strange light. It looks like a regular hole. They also find an explosive near the hole, much like the ones that Lee Shaw used in Alaska. When Tim and his colleague try to approach it, Duvall shows up out of nowhere and advises them to step away from the device. Lee emerges out of the shadows as well and asks Cate to follow him for an important conversation. The narrative swings back to the ‘50s as Bill finally realizes that a whole ecosystem exists underneath the Earth’s surface, and that’s where the Titans are coming from. We all know that Bill is right because we have watched Godzilla vs. Kong, haven’t we? In case you are still sleeping on that maximalist masterpiece, you should rectify that mistake. Bill rushes to Keiko’s house to talk about it, and that’s where he finds out that the “suspicious past” thing that Hatch was referring to was about Keiko’s son, Hiroshi. From what I could gather, Keiko was married to someone before World War II, and she had a son with him. Given how she says she is a widow, it seems like her husband died during combat. Since she wanted a better future for Hiroshi, she applied to Berkley and chased an ambitious dream. Bill assures Keiko that he isn’t going to let Keiko fail. This altercation refutes the theory that Lee Shaw is actually Hiroshi’s father and Cate and Kentaro’s grandfather, something that even Cate mentioned earlier in this episode. And it confirms the fact that Hiroshi is Keiko’s son and Bill’s stepson.
Did Cate, Shaw, and May enter Hollow Earth?
Lee tells Cate about the Hollow Earth, and he floats the theory that the MonsterVerse’s version of Godzilla is a gatekeeper of sorts. He prevents the Titans from traveling from the Hollow Earth to Earth, and he keeps humans from traveling from Earth to the Hollow Earth. It’s an explanation that fits this version of Godzilla, and as much as I like it, I have to say that it’s probably the most simplistic allegory that has been linked to the Titan. If you watch every Godzilla film that has ever been made, even the recently released Godzilla Minus One, you’ll see that the best movies have used him as a symbol of the creation of nuclear weapons or warfare in one way or another. So, turning him into some kind of superhero is fine. I will say that it’s better than just using him as a dumb monster or for comic relief. Now, Lee believes that he is doing everyone, including Godzilla, a favor by shutting down all the portals between Earth and Hollow Earth. Cate says that Lee can say he is on a noble mission to save Planet Earth, but he is doing all this because he feels responsible for Keiko’s death. Lee doesn’t deny it, and in this moment, you can see Kurt and Wyatt Russell’s performances beginning to blur. This is top-tier, perfect casting.
At the end of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters episode 8, we see Tim and Duvall having an argument about the latter’s endeavor, and Duvall reminds Tim that her sister probably would’ve survived if Monarch had closed these portals. If they don’t seal them off now, many more lives will be lost. Lee says something similar to Cate and starts the countdown to the explosion. When the devices go off, a beetle-like Titan emerges out of the portal and starts to attack everyone. However, the explosions cause the Titan, May, Cate, and Shaw to fall into the portal. The rest of the building crumbles and probably seals off the portal. We don’t see Tim, Duvall, Kentaro, and the rest of the soldiers making it out of there, but I think they are safe, and they’ll try to enter the Hollow Earth from another portal in order to rescue Cate, May, and Shaw. By the way, if you have seen Godzilla vs. Kong, you know that Shaw is right. In that movie, Apex Cybernetics harnessed the energy of the Hollow Earth to power Mechagodzilla. That pointed at the fact that as long as humans have access to a finite source of energy and power, they’ll try to mine it, and the Hollow Earth seems to be teeming with various kinds of resources. The only problem is that poking and prodding the Hollow Earth will have disastrous consequences, and they won’t be able to rely on Godzilla to step in all the time. So, sealing it off is the best option. In the next few episodes, I guess we’ll get to see who stopped the supporters of Lee’s mission from cutting off Earth from Hollow Earth, thereby leading to the apocalyptic events of Godzilla: King of Monsters, Godzilla vs. Kong, and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.
Additionally, there is a big question mark on the survival of Cate, Shaw, and May. Godzilla vs. Kong showed us that, even though Hollow Earth’s ecosystem is similar to that of Earth, the trip to that place is treacherous due to the change in gravity. The characters in that film needed a special vehicle to avoid getting ripped apart due to the sudden elemental shifts. Cate, May, and Shaw obviously don’t have such a mode of transport at their disposal. We can only hope that the portal they’ve fallen into somehow protects them from the effects of the trip from Earth to the Hollow Earth. Shaw did insinuate that such a trip was possible. Well, we have to wait until 2024 to find out about their journey to the center of the planet.
