When Monarch: Legacy of Monsters concluded its first season, it did so with a status quo-shifting cliffhanger, in which many of the primary characters re-emerged from the Axis Mundi to find themselves in a whole new world of possibilities, quite literally. What had been mere hours for them had been years in the surface world thanks to some of the series’ trademark time dilation shenanigans, and so not only did they find themselves entering into a new time with Keiko in-tow (a character who they spent a large part of season one searching for and who had been stuck in Axis Mundi since the ‘50s), but they also found themselves entering a new place: Skull Island with its resident king, Kong.
And yet, despite this clear set-up for what the stakes would likely be moving forward, the second season of Apple’s MonsterVerse series has done surprisingly little to capitalize on the most interesting elements here. The gang of primary characters just kind of gets right back to work, paying little to no mind to the years of story development that they missed in the interim, with apparently precious little of any importance happening in the intervening time. Keiko (as wonderfully played by Mari Yamamoto) would have an occasional fish-out-of-water moment relating to new technology, but has for the most part just been another member of the crew since returning to the world she left 60-plus years earlier. And Skull Island? Every character left the island within the first five minutes of the second episode, leaving the iconic setting and Kong basically entirely absent from the season ever since.
At least, all of that was true prior to this week’s new episode, “Ends of the Earth,” the penultimate episode of the season. Written by Tanner Hansinger and directed by series veteran Lawrence Trilling, this penultimate episode is so clearly the story that the show had planned from the beginning, and everything prior to it was reverse-engineered, with varying degrees of success, to get audiences here. While such an approach inevitably came with drawbacks over the course of the season, it isn’t inherently a totally bad thing; in fact, it results in “Ends of the Earth” being far and away the single strongest episode of the season.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters season 2 Episode 9 review
With that overall positive impression in mind, let’s dig into the weakest elements of this episode. First and foremost, Monarch continues to struggle with making the motivations of its characters feel coherent or cohesive in any way. Instead, it seems to consistently feel as if the mechanics of the plotting are tearing through the very fabric of celluloid, trampling these characters, performances, themes, and would-be emotional beats in the process. Nowhere is all of this more apparent than in this episode’s opening minutes, in which it has to very quickly brush all of the lingering questions from the past few weeks under the rug so that it can get on with the real stuff. So suddenly, Lee Shaw (as played wonderfully by Kurt Russell in the present-day timeline) is not only no longer working against everyone else from the main crew, but is also so cool with modern-day Monarch that he’s more than happy to put on their officially sanctioned fatigues to trot around Skull Island. It’s also objectively funny that all of last week’s episode was spent building up to Godzilla's arrival, only for the big guy to dip out before the opening credits this week.
Having said all of that, the incredible majority of this episode works so much better than the whole rest of this season that it’s honestly kind of a culture shock. Tanner Hansinger’s writing feels motivated and full of momentum in a way that the show simply hasn’t until now. Entire stretches of episodes this season have covered far less narrative ground than merely what is conveyed in the first half of this episode. Which is not to say that “Ends of the Earth” is in a rush; far from it. It feels like a natural progression of story, rather than one in which you can feel everyone trying to stretch things out for as long as possible so as to hit a predetermined episode quota.
If your season is going to have 10 episodes, and you know the last two episodes are where all of the big cathartic character beats and climactic action is going to unfold when they return to Skull Island, then you inevitably have to find a way to fill those eight earlier episodes without touching on any of that material. Is there a better way to do this kind of hindsight storytelling than what Monarch has done this season? Of course there is, but the episode at hand is still quite an accomplishment, even if the season routinely tripped over its feet when trying to get there.
Not only is there a real sense of propulsion to the events as they unfold in this episode, but there’s also a much greater and more resonant kind of focus placed upon the character beats. It is utterly insane that the characters of Lee Shaw and Keiko have now both been in the same place at the same time for an entire season of storytelling, but this is the first time they’ve even begun to broach the emotional fallout of what happened after Keiko fell into Axis Mundi and disappeared in the ‘50s. But credit where credit is due, the scene in this episode where that finally does happen is nothing short of great. Russell and Yamamoto are both fantastic throughout the episode, but especially here. Russell’s delivery of “it changed everything” in response to Yamamoto asking what changed after she was gone is genuinely jaw-dropping; the kind of moment that reminds you why Kurt Russell is the man in the first place, as he cuts to the bone of this character in an unexpectedly revealing and volatile fashion.
And then, this scene is immediately followed by a flashback to young Lee Shaw (the ever-scene-stealing Wyatt Russell) and Bill Randa (as performed by the excellent Anders Holm) having the conversation that it feels like audiences have been waiting to see them have since the first episode of the first season: their defeat in the immediate aftermath of losing Keiko in the ‘50s. It features some of the most succinct and powerful writing of the season, Trilling’s direction is simple and incredibly effective, and the performances are great, selling this crucial moment in a way that even makes it feel worth the multi-season wait.
It also must be said that this is easily the best looking episode of the series thus far. Sure, part of this is due to returning to the predominantly physical shooting locations for Skull Island, which are just inherently stunning, but there’s also some really strong lighting and staging choices throughout. A massive kudos to both Trilling and cinematographer Ben Nott, who has worked on several episodes this season. This is really where I found his work to stand out in sublime ways. I mean, even the choice to utilize flood lights above the rotating ceiling fans in the old Monarch base on Skull Island is such a great one, adding so much depth and texture to what could have been a stock-standard location.
And as always, the monsters look incredibly well-realized thanks to ILM, but I will say that even their integration into the real-world footage here is much stronger than it has been in previous weeks. This lends a much heftier sense of weight to the action, capturing a sense of inertia and power that was sorely lacking from some of the earlier episodes.
Overall, “Ends of the Earth” feels like the episode of Monarch audiences have been waiting for since the finale of season one. After an occasionally dull and laborious second season thus far, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters finally makes good on all of the immense promise of the first season’s finale in what is easily the strongest episode of season 2. As we move into the finale next week, all signs point to the show maintaining this renewed sense of momentum and purpose, and dear Lord, I hope it does.
Episode grade: B+
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