Monarch Episode 3 Reframes A Key Moment From 2014's Godzilla
This article contains spoilers for the latest episode of "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" (and also the 2014 "Godzilla" movie which, come on now, you should've watched by now).
At what point do we finally acknowledge that multiple other properties have been doing this whole shared universe thing more effectively than any of the major blockbuster franchises out there? First, "The Boys" pulled off what its Marvel and DC predecessors could not after debuting "Gen V" to rave reviews and taking a genuinely nifty approach to building an interconnected universe between both shows — without ever making either one feel like homework, importantly. Now, "Monarch" is bringing the world of Titans to the small screen and, as of episode 3, has integrated and re-contextualized a surprising moment from "Godzilla" (2014).
While the overall series is not entirely without its flaws (for more on that, check out Chris Evangelista's review for /Film here), it's been a joy to see how this series has incorporated and added to the world-building of the MonsterVerse. Its latest instance comes about in a wonderfully organic way, circling back to one of the most memorable visuals from the movie that started it all. In the opening credits of "Godzilla," we're shown film reels of old atomic bomb tests during the 1950s. One in particular is revealed to have been an attempt to kill Godzilla, though the radiation had the opposite effect. Well, we probably should've expected the 1950s-set storyline in "Monarch" to circle back to that thrilling sequence. It does that and much more, adding several layers to our understanding of Monarch as an organization while also marking a crucial turning point for protagonists Keiko (Mari Yamamoto), Bill (Anders Holm), and Lee Shaw (Wyatt Russell).
Be careful what you wish for
Leave it to the US military to have very different ideas from scientists about how to deal with the discovery of a brand-new species of animal. Almost from the moment we first meet them in the premiere, both Keiko and Billy have been nothing but protective towards the Titans that have begun to appear with alarming frequency — even the terrifying "Ion Dragon" they tussled with at the end of episode 2. So when given the green light to lure what turns out to be Godzilla closer to shore in order to study him, well, Shaw's superiors aren't having any of it.
At this point in the timeline, the fledgling organization of Monarch is pretty much entirely at the mercy of the Army. Any requests for funding, mission objectives, or plans of attack must first go through Shaw. So when Keiko and Billy ask for uranium to help with their monster-hunting goals, it probably shouldn't have been a surprise when the episode cuts to a soldier painting that familiar anti-Godzilla symbol on a nuclear device at Bikini Atoll in 1954. Yes, it's somewhat shocking to remember that we've seen this exact image before in the opening credits of "Godzilla," followed by the dawning realization that the entire setup of the Castle Bravo "test" we only glimpsed previously in the movie is about to be reenacted in "Monarch" from a much more personal point of view.
Understandably, Keiko and Billy assume that setting off the bomb will kill Godzilla and ruin their one and only chance to learn what they can from the beast. Shaw knows how the Army tends to operate with unexpected threats and resigns himself to the inevitable. And when Godzilla appears, we can only watch helplessly as this plays out.
The beginning of Monarch
With the benefit of hindsight, this was the moment Monarch took its biggest step towards becoming the highly-functioning (and highly-secretive) entity that we would eventually see across the various movies of the MonsterVerse. Although depicted as a stunning setback for science in the series, Keiko and Billy quickly realize that the military considered the detonation an overwhelming success — and a good reason to essentially give these crackpot scientists a blank check to do whatever research they want. In one fell swoop, our main characters (in the flashback storyline, at least) have received everything they've wanted all along.
Of course, the present-day timeline continues to show the dark side of Monarch's ambitions. The older Shaw (played by Kurt Russell) expresses his regrets that the group he indirectly helped found no longer hunts monsters, but innocent kids like Anna Sawai's Cate, Ren Watabe's Kentaro, and Kiersey Clemons's May. There's something to be said about how absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely, and this hapless trio has experienced the fallout of this firsthand simply as a result of stumbling onto the truth that Cate and Kentaro's father Hiroshi (Takehiro Hira) took great pains to hide from them.
If the title of the series didn't give it away, episode 3 makes it clear that "Monarch" is heading towards some sort of reckoning with the super-shady organization monitoring Titans across the globe. Whatever happens in the weeks ahead, however, it's somehow fitting to know that Godzilla inadvertently played a huge role in its origins.
New episodes of "Monarch" stream on Apple TV+ every Friday.