First off, I want to apologize for my tardiness on the review. As Christmas gets closer, work has been very exhausting and I have been prioritizing my personal life lately by spending time with family. So again, I do apologize.
So here is a recap of what happened in this episode:
Story A (2015): Lee discovers an unlikely ally defecting Monarch and helps him escape. They catch up with Cate, May, and Kentaro after they snook into San Fransisco to get to Hiroshi's office in search of more clues and discover their next stop is in the desert of Algeria where the gang finally discover Hiroshi is alive and well. However, he was discovered doing something with a strange device that mimics gamma signals and awakens Godzilla.
Story B (1954): After Project Castle Bravo had given project Monarch the finances needed to search for more monsters, Lee and Keiko start growing feelings for each other. However, Lee abandons his post to meet up with Bill and Keiko at Hateruma Island nicknamed "Monster Island" during an experiment with a device that mimics gamma signals. Even though the device's purpose was to attract a monster that was sighted at the location, Keiko, Lee, and Bill were shocked to find that Godzilla is still alive.
For episodes four and five, the focus has been centered on "Story A" developing the characters (Cate, May, and Kentaro) a bit more and I found them to be much weaker episodes. We learned that the characters in this story line are not good people. May is on the run due to some debt and Cate is a two-timer like her father. Kentaro is the only innocent character, so far, as he was just a struggling artist trying to get by when he first met May. Before May was let out with Cate and Kentaro, May made a deal with an agent whose name is Duvall to cooperate with Monarch if she wanted to go back to her normal life and that cooperation involved feeding intel on where Cate and Kentaro were heading.
For episode six, we see the repercussions as May confesses to them about this and Cate's and Kentaro's reactions are about what you expect from them. It was a punch in the gut for them and Cate basically told May to buzz off. As for Lee, we discover that his main goal is to save Godzilla from Monarch of repeating another G-Day. Right now, Monarch does not have very good leadership and Lee argued that they had 60 years to prepare for G-Day in 2014 and they did nothing about it. You would think that considering Godzilla is following the Hiroshi in the same direction that Cate and Kentaro would want to stay with Lee to follow Godzilla to continue their search for their father. Instead, the trio refused because of Cate's last encounter with Godzilla and Kentaro and May not wanting anything to do with these monsters.
I am liking the direction for the Story A characters a little better now, but still not as much. I find that a lot of decisions made by Cate, May, and Kentaro are made by emotions and not based on logic. It annoyed me with how Cate, May, and Kentaro parted ways with Lee by calling him a psycho after learning that he wanted to go help save Godzilla. The three of them wanted nothing to do with Godzilla nor any other monsters. Cate and Kentaro just wanted to find their father, which they did. However, the direction Godzilla was following is the same direction as Hiroshi because of the beacon that was mimicking gamma signals. So the logical thing to do should have been to save their father with Lee's assistance.
This is why I feel Story B is the stronger story here. The adventure and story flows so much better and we get more of an incite on Lee's younger life and we got to see how his and Keiko's relationship started before Keiko got together with Bill. The characters can be a little complex, but they are thinking rationally and not based on emotion. These characters can work together and are always ready to investigate when a Titan has been sighted or a spike of ionized radiation has been recorded. The complexity comes in when they need funding for their expeditions and the only way to get that funding is to report to the higher ups in the military, mainly Colonel Plunkett. Yet, Plunkett wants to get rid of the Titans. He finds the monsters to be a threat to national security while Bill, Keiko, and Lee think otherwise. So the three of them are trying to keep any Titans discovered a secret so the monsters don't get killed. It plays into that old argument from the original 1954 film of whether a monster should be killed or studied.
When it comes to the Monarch agents (Tim, Duvall, and Natalia), we also got quite a development. I won't spoil it, but one of them was revealed to be related to a character from the 2014 movie and he/she decides to switch sides from a Monarch agent to joining the side of Lee Shaw. This individual even reveals there are many others in Monarch that joined the organization because of G-Day and they know something is up inside Monarch and thought Monarch would have all of the answers only to find out that Monarch did not have much of a clue as everyone else. So it makes me wonder if there will be a division inside Monarch and this is how the terrorist group in Godzilla: King of the Monsters came to be.
It would further understand those people's motives were not about saving the planet, but rather sending a message to Monarch that they could have prevented all of this. Think about how the leader of the terrorists said to Emma Russell, "Man does not control the laws of nature... and neither do you." He says it not only to make a point to not interfere with their plans, but also to be sarcastic. We can take this as more of a jab at Monarch because Monarch stood on the side lines and let Godzilla destroy San Fransisco while he fought the MUTOs rather than interfering. That is why the terrorists didn't want to interfere Ghidorah's rampage. All of this was to mock Monarch for allowing G-Day to happen and not doing anything to stop it. This is just me speculating and seeing people inside Monarch defect to become terrorists may not be the case at all. However, the development of that one single character defecting Monarch to join Lee's group had me pondering on this possibility.
As for Godzilla's appearance in this episode, it is cinematic to see Godzilla rising up from the ground, but I don't think it makes the episode great. We saw Godzilla in two both story lines. In Story A, Godzilla rose up from the ground after being woken up by Hiroshi and started chasing after him. In Story B, Godzilla ate the beacon and spat it out before breaching out of the water. These moments were cinematic, but I don't consider them to be the reason why this episode was better. I have seen a lot of people say that Godzilla's appearance in this episode was what made the episode great when that is not the case for me. Godzilla has not really done anything extraordinary this episode, but the way he appeared is moving toward the episode that will be even more cinematic, which is the Godzilla vs the Ion Dragon fight. That is where the show is leading up to at this point.
Overall, I thought this was a better episode than the previous two, but there is still more to come. I am liking how some characters are being developed while others I am starting to lose interest on. So I hope that changes quickly in the next episode.
What are your thoughts on episode six of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters? Did you like this episode or do you think it could have been better? Leave a comment in the comments section of your thoughts on this episode. Make sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Minds, MeWe, Gab, and TRUTH Social to stay up to date for more news, reviews, and discussions.
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