Titan X and Godzilla swim through a lightning storm, with Monarch Outpost 18 following behind as Apple TV’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters season two, episode nine opens. Their destination? Skull Island. Titan X is relentlessly pursuing the helicopter with her egg as Keiko, Lee, May, and Tim attempt to figure out who’s behind all of this. Apex denies involvement, so who else has the resources?
(The following is a recap of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters season two, episode nine – “Ends of the Earth” – and there are spoilers.)
Trissop’s men confirmed Cate and Kentaro are with the team heading to Skull Island. Lee (Kurt Russell) wonders if they were taken or went voluntarily. He’s still rooting for Godzilla to vanquish Titan X and cheers him on as the Titans stop swimming and face each other. But the group’s confused when Godzilla doesn’t attack. They’re face-to-face but nothing’s happening, and Keiko (Mari Yamamoto) suggests it’s because Godzilla did what he needed to do: make sure that Titan X returned to where she was supposed to be.
Keiko’s theory seems to be correct when Godzilla turns around and swims away.
Since Godzilla’s gone, Lee believes they need to focus on retrieving Cate and Kentaro and getting Titan X to return home. Which means they need to go back to Skull Island.
Meanwhile, Cate (Anna Sawai) is angry that she’s been tricked by Kentaro (Ren Watabe) and angry that Isabel (Amber Midthunder) talked Kentaro into going along with her plan. The trio watches from the helicopter as the chopper with the egg lowers it onto the island. Cate insists this is inhumane and will just enrage Titan X.
Keiko, Tim (Joe Tippett), May (Kiersey Clemons), and Lee arrive on the island with a well-armed Monarch support team. Tim tells the team they need to be in and out quickly since Kong will come running as soon as he realizes Titan X is on his island. Their mission is to get Titan X back to Axis Mundi as fast as possible.
Keiko and Lee look over Bill’s satellite map from the ‘60s, and Keiko believes there’s a stable rift somewhere on the island that Titan X always uses. They’re heading out to the first of many sites that Bill marked as possible rifts, just as Keiko sees a journal entry dated October 21, 1958.
A flashback to that date in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea shows Bill excited about confirmation of a rift. It confirms his Titan network and changes everything. They’re giddy about the discovery and still laughing when they knock on the door of a justice of the peace and ask to be married. They exchange vows and Keiko promises to always believe in Bill during an impromptu ceremony.
Back on Skull Island, Isabel leads Cate and Kentaro through an abandoned Monarch base that Isabel’s team is using. She finally reveals her big plan: she wants Titan X to show them where the stable rift is on the island. People who are ill with terminal diseases could go into Axis Mundi, stay there a few days, and then emerge when enough time has passed that doctors have discovered cures for their illnesses. “You want to exploit Axis Mundi as your personal time machine?” Cate asks, stunned.
Cate begs Kentaro to not go along with this, reminding him it won’t bring their dad back. Kentaro turns his back and doesn’t reply.
May continues to use the tracker implanted on Titan X to follow the monster’s movements as the team walks through the woods. Tim trips over a branch on the ground, complaining he never even got to walk outside the base during the two years he spent on Skull Island before. May and Tim are joking around when suddenly one of their security team is pulled into the trees. Tim didn’t trip on a tree branch; he tripped on a creature’s leg and woke it up. It pulls another Monarch guard up into the trees as Lee screams at everyone to run.
They fire into the trees overhead and discover too late that it’s not just one creature attacking them. More Monarch team members are taken, and Tim sees May being pulled up. He grabs her arms and is able to pull her from its grasp.
Lee and Keiko are separated from the group during the attack. Lee radios the ground team and Tim responds that four of the tactical team were killed. The radio crackles and then goes out before they can get each other’s location.
Lee and Keiko decide to keep looking for the rift on their own.
Tim informs his team that they are not leaving the island, even though they’ve lost four people.
Cate continues to insist that their father wouldn’t want anyone else to get hurt. Isabel actually agrees and urges them to leave and be with their family. She offers them the chopper, but Kentaro won’t leave. Cate screams for her brother as security takes her to the chopper.
Isabel receives a report that Titan X is 12 minutes away and Kong seems to be heading toward her. They use a Skullcrawler’s call as a distraction to lure Kong away from Titan X while Isabel shows Kentaro the spot where they will launch their mission into the rift. It’s above the valley where the egg is positioned.
Isabel doesn’t have her father’s financial backing, but she does have a team of scientists who believe in her mission. She believes that Kentaro will become the most famous person in the world if he is the first to go into the rift as part of this project. However, Kentaro’s shocked when Isabel reveals even more of her plan. Part of the reason they need Titan X is for her to kill Kong! Kong can’t be allowed to roam the island when their operation is up and running.
Kentaro’s angry he’s been lied to and that Isabel never mentioned this before. However, their argument’s interrupted by the arrival of Titan X. She approaches her egg as Cate’s loaded into the helicopter to fly out. Isabel’s people prepare to act as Titan X exams her egg.
Cate runs from the helicopter before it can take off.
Titan X turns its attention to Isabel and Kentaro on the platform, and Isabel gives her team an order to execute. A system of spray containers appears from below ground and fills the air with an anesthetic agent. Titan X flails around, shaking the complex as Cate reenters the base.
Titan X passes out and Isabel declares she’s theirs. Kentaro no longer looks certain that he’s backed the right horse.
Lee and Keiko spot Isabel’s people who are also searching for a rift. They didn’t find one at this location and Isabel orders them to return to the base. Keiko’s confused about the importance of this island and why Bill thought he was onto something here. Why was he trying to find a specific rift?
Keiko doesn’t understand why Bill left Hiroshi alone or what changed after she fell into Axis Mundi. Lee reveals everything changed.
A flashback to Kazakhstan in 1959 shows Bill refusing to leave without Keiko. Lee’s sure she’s dead, but Bill believes she might have found a space to hide in. Bill blames himself for not being able to hold onto her, and Lee’s angry neither of them listened to him when he said not to go down there. “This is going to haunt us for the rest of our lives,” says Lee.
Isabel and Kentaro approach the unconscious Titan X as Isabel confesses they’re not sure how long she will be out. Isabel believes that Titan X will fight Kong if she’s protecting her egg. They are going to implant something to increase Titan X’s aggression to make sure she kills Kong.
Cate makes her way into an electrical room and manages to radio Tim and May. She warns them to get off the island because Isabel has Titan X. Kentaro’s switched sides so they should forget about rescuing him. It’s the first time Tim and May learn that Isabel Simmons is behind the whole operation and that they’re operating out of an old Monarch base. Before she stops transmitting, she tells them to find the valley.
Tim knows where she is and they head in that direction, hoping to get there before Kong does.
Lee and Keiko make it near the next site Bill marked and discover a monster graveyard. Lee finds spent shell casings and realizes something horrible happened there. Keiko locates Bill’s camera, and they think this is where he died. She sobs, angry that she believed in him and trusted him and then he threw everything away.
Bill and Keiko’s Love Story
A flashback to Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1968 shows Bill delivering a lecture about his discovery of cross-circuited quantum entanglements, or what he calls “rifts.” He describes them as being used by creatures (his class suggests Bigfoot) to move around the globe wherever they want.
He ends his class early to argue with Suzuki about the rift theory. Suzuki wants to stop their research, insisting Keiko and Lee would still be with them if they hadn’t started down this path. Bill refuses to give up, even when Suzuki tells him to dedicate his time to taking care of Hiroshi instead of chasing the family he lost.
Keiko insists that they check the final spot Bill marked. He died before he could investigate it. Lee points out something reflecting the sun on the edge of a lake. They retrieve it and it’s one of Suzuki’s devices. They find dozens more and Keiko realizes they are probes. One is inscribed William Randa, July 1966, Madagascar. Others are from 1971 New Guinea, 1968 Loch Ness, and 1972 Kazakhstan. They realize he sent them into rifts all over the world which means they’ve found Bill’s rift or, as Lee describes it, Grand Central Station.
They open the probes and inside are letters Bill wrote to Keiko. Keiko reads one and it’s a wedding vow Bill wrote long after their actual ceremony. He wasn’t able to put his feelings into words back then, but the letter reads, “I vow to love you in this world or any other. No matter where this love takes us, I’ll follow you to the ends of the earth and beyond.”
Keiko remembers their wedding day and looks up at the sky. “You found me, Billy,” she says with a smile. She had no idea he was looking for her the whole time and never gave up the search. It’s why he was on Skull Island.
Titan X’s anesthetic is wearing off, and Isabel’s team sets off charges that will increase the Titan’s aggressiveness. Titan X squeals as they go off and Kong hears her shrieking just as he realizes he’s been tricked by the Skullcrawler’s call.
Season two’s penultimate episode ends with Cate rushing through the base and hearing Titan X as she sees the egg. Cate places her hand on it and is shocked when Kentaro appears behind her, warning her about Titan X. She wants to give Titan X her baby back. Cate believes Titan X will return to Axis Mundi, where she should be if she has her egg. Cate wants Kentaro’s help and Kentaro confesses he’s involved in this project to save their dad. They can keep Hiroshi from dying!
- Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 Episode 1 “Cause and Effect” Recap
- Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 Episode 2 “Resonance” Recap
- Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 Episode 3 “Secrets” Recap
- Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 Episode 4 “Trespass” Recap
- Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 Episode 5 “Furusato” Recap
- Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 Episode 6 “Requiem” Recap
- Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 Episode 7 “String Theory” Recap
- Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 Episode 8 “Separate Ways” Recap
