Cate, Kentaro, and May are under Monarch’s control as Apple TV+’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters episode five begins. Despite their circumstances, none of the captured friends are willing to in any way assist the top-secret agency.
Duvall (Elisa Lasowski) determines that schoolteacher Cate (Anna Sawai) and artist Kentaro (Ren Watabe) really don’t know anything. But May (Kiersey Clemons) is a different story. She knows how to disappear, but even the Monarch authorities can’t figure out what she’s hiding from.
Tim (Joe Tippett) suggests they recruit Cate and Kentaro since they have the organization in their blood. It doesn’t hurt that they also want to find out exactly what happened to their dad. Duvall thinks they should set Cate, Kentaro, and May free but continue to monitor their activities.
Deputy Director Natalia Verdugo (Mirelly Taylor) will take over the task of getting info from Lee Shaw.
Tim hands over their passports, new phones, plane tickets, and even money at the Nome, Alaska airport while also apologizing for Monarch’s intrusion in their lives. Tim gets angry when they blow off his apology, warning them they’re lucky to be alive after sticking their noses into Monarch’s business. He also reveals he used his influence to get them released, but he won’t help if they’re brought in again.
Kentaro’s shocked May’s planning to fly back to Japan while they’re not even sure Hiroshi’s dead. Cate believes they need to search his San Francisco office for more clues. May’s laptop was frozen by the Frost Vark Titan, but she admits she has a backup copy of Hiroshi’s files. She’s willing to turn them over to Cate and Kentaro but remains leery of continuing to help them find their dad.
Cate’s certain they can’t do it without May’s help.
Meanwhile, old video of a much younger Lee, Bill (Anders Holm), and Keiko (Mari Yamamoto) is shown to Lee in his cell. (The scene features a cool shot of Wyatt and Kurt Russell seeming to merge into one person.) Verdugo unlocks Lee’s handcuffs and says the powers-that-be at Monarch are standing on the shoulders of giants – with Lee being one of Monarch’s giants. Lee corrects her, saying that it feels more like they’re sitting on his shoulders while doing absolutely nothing about the Titans.
Both Verdugo and Lee agree that Hiroshi didn’t want this life for his kids. Lee claims he’ll confirm that when he meets up with his old friend. However, Verdugo insists Lee’s never getting out of Monarch’s custody so any meeting will be in the afterlife.
Tim and Duvall talk about Lee’s age, acknowledging he doesn’t look close to 91. Tim’s heard rumors about a failed mission that might have done something to alter his age. Duvall wonders how Lee found a new Titan just days after breaking out of a retirement home.
Apparently, May gave in as she’s with Cate and Kentaro at the Oakland, CA airport. Cate’s not exactly overjoyed when her mom’s work friend, James, shows up in a van to pick them up. He’s a little too enthusiastic about being their driver and won’t take no for an answer.
They drive through the Alameda Point FEMA Housing mobile home park, and James explains its residents don’t want to leave even though FEMA offered them housing outside of San Francisco. He confirms tourists used to pay to see the destroyed city until the military walled it off. Kentaro confesses his mom tried to sign up for a tour, so that she could find his dad.
May and Kentaro offer to go for a walk so Cate can break the news Hiroshi had another family. Unfortunately, they don’t escape quickly enough and Cate introduces her mom, Caroline, to Kentaro Randa and May. Caroline’s stunned to meet her husband’s son whom she knew nothing about but welcomes them into her home anyway.
Caroline and James’ jobs are to collect personal items from the ruins, and she’s got boxes scattered throughout her trailer. Things get really awkward, and Cate sends Kentaro and May into her room while she speaks to her mom.
Cate says it’s okay to take a minute to have a hysterical breakdown. It’s justified, given that she just found out her husband had a secret family. Caroline confesses she pushed Cate to go to Tokyo to get her out of her room. Cate was deeply depressed after the death of her students during Godzilla’s attack and had been keeping to herself in her bedroom.
Caroline needed to do something to show Cate there was a reason to live.
The walls are thin and May and Kentaro have heard this entire discussion.
Caroline’s upset to learn Cate wants to visit her dad’s office in the restricted area to look for more clues. She warns her daughter that the military’s shooting looters, but Cate won’t back down.
Caroline decides there’s no way to dissuade her daughter and so the best option is to help her. She and James drive the FEMA van to the Reconstruction Area Entrance at South Pier and make it through by bribing the guard not to check the back of the van.
Once inside the destroyed city, Kentaro looks around and asks, “How can anyone believe this is fake?”
Cate thinks it’s easier for some people to believe it’s a lie rather than that Titans are a real and present danger.
Caroline and James need to leave, but first, James gives the threesome flashlights and warns them that if they’re caught, the military will assume they’re looters. They’ll meet back up at 8am, ahead of the gate’s scheduled 8:15am closing.
Back at Monarch, Verdugo asks Lee why, after all these decades, he broke out of the retirement center. She also demands to know what’s in Randa’s files. Lee says there’s nothing there that Verdugo and Monarch don’t already know.
Lee looks into the surveillance camera and says, “Monarch is wrong and has been for a long, long time.”
Cate leads May and Kentaro through the ruins of San Francisco, pointing out where she used to hang out. A flashback shows her outside the now-destroyed Grounds Hero coffee shop, sharing a hug with her girlfriend, Dani. They kiss, and Cate looks incredibly happy as they walk hand and hand down the street.
Cate’s girlfriend asks her to move in and Cate replies, “Haven’t you learned your lesson?” Cate’s given a key to her girlfriend’s place as they head to work at Girard Middle School. It’s one day before G-Day.
Cate’s class is half-empty because parents fear the giant monsters and have kept their children home. Even with videos circulating, Cate isn’t panicking. A school administrator pops into her classroom and says they’re monitoring the situation. Cate’s instructed to make sure her students charge their phones in case of an emergency.
One of the students asks if the monsters are coming to this area next. That seems to jar Cate.
On G-Day, Cate hustles as she assists the students to get onto a bus while Dani explains that she’s staying in the gym with any remaining kids waiting to get picked up by their parents. Cate opts to chaperone the bus that just loaded.
Back to current events and Cate, Kentaro, and May are almost discovered by the military. Kentaro diverts the soldiers’ attention by attracting cats to a bag of food.
A few minutes later, Kentaro breaks the tension by singing a song their dad used to sing. Unfortunately, singing in a restricted area isn’t a wise idea, and they’re once again spotted by soldiers. This time, they escape into the subway as Cate barely controls her panic while experiencing flashbacks of Godzilla.
Lucky for them, they aren’t the only people hiding out in the subway. The military goes after the others who’ve snuck into the area, allowing Cate, Kentaro, and May to make a run for it. Cate’s barely keeping it together now, but Kentaro and May promise to help her out. They won’t move forward without her.
Cate’s confused in all the rubble and doesn’t know which way to go. Kentaro tries to assure her it’s okay, and she replies, “You don’t know that. You can’t know that. We’re going to die down here!”
She has a flashback of her dad telling her she’ll be all right and takes it out on Kentaro.
Kentaro heads off on his own to find a way out while May stays behind to comfort Cate. Cate has yet another flashback, this time to being in bed with another woman the day before G-Day – the same morning her girlfriend asked her to move in.
The flashback explains why Cate asked Dani if she had learned her lesson.
Before the bus doors close, Dani tells Cate she didn’t learn her lesson. “We were good. You just don’t want ‘good,’” says Dani. The bus doors close without Cate replying.
She comes out of the flashback and confesses to May that she hates her dad for leaving. She doesn’t understand why anyone would do anything for her since she always lets people down.
As Cate and May are having a bonding moment, Kentaro finds a way out by following the cats. They eventually arrive at their dad’s towering office building, and of course, Hiroshi’s office is on one of the upper floors. There’s some damage inside the office, but the family photos on the desk are still upright.
Kentaro rips the map off the wall, assuming the safe will be underneath since that’s where it was located in Hiroshi’s Japan office. Unfortunately, there’s nothing there.
Cate takes a good look at the map with fresh eyes and a basic understanding of Monarch. She traces loops on the map and asks May for the files. The map doesn’t make much sense until Kentaro figures out they must put one image on top of another. When they do it, the loops go over San Francisco, Alaska, and Africa.
“This must be the path he took,” says Cate.
They fold up the map and hustle as the sun’s rising; they can’t be late for their 8am rendezvous with Cate’s mom. They make it out just in time, and when they return to Cate’s home, Cate apologizes to her mom for what Hiroshi put her through for 30 years.
Caroline admits James is interested in her but willing to wait until she’s ready. She also admits she could have discovered Cate’s father was cheating, but she didn’t want to know the truth. Caroline didn’t mind having a part-time husband.
Cate drops the bombshell that Hiroshi worked for a secret organization having to do with Godzilla and didn’t die in Alaska. She promises her mom she’s going to find him.
May sneaks away and calls Duvall, telling her she wants to go home. Duvall promises to be in touch.
- Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Episode 1 “Aftermath” Recap
- Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Episode 2 “Departure” Recap
- Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Episode 3 “Secrets and Lies” Recap
- Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Episode 4 “Parallels and Interiors” Recap
- Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Episode 6 “Terrifying Miracles” Recap
- Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Episode 7 “Will the Real May Please Stand Up” Recap
- Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Episode 8 “Birthright” Recap
- Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Episode 9 “Axis Mundi” Recap
- Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Episode 10 “Beyond Logic” Finale Recap
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New episodes of Apple TV+’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters stream on Fridays.
