How Did ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ Season 1 End? Everything You Need to Remember Before Season 2

AppleTV’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is gearing up for Season 2, which appears to promise more Titans, more battles, and more time jumps as the story of the MonsterVerse continues on the small screen. The first season introduced long-time Godzilla fans to the new theories and beasts about their beloved universe, as the ongoing story promises to dive deep into the lore while offering more nonstop action.

The first season not only dug deep into the lore of MonsterVerse, but jumped from timeline to timeline to create a full narrative of the shadowy Monarch organization

What is a Titan?

A Titan is a giant, powerful creature, often ancient, that emerges from the Earth. The best-known example is Godzilla, but other famous titans include King Kong, Mothra, and Rodan. The show introduced new Titans as well, including Mantleclaw, a crab-like beast, and Ion Dragon, a winged, amphibious creature.

Titans aren’t in one place; they’re scattered globally, often in places that match their mythical origins, with many living either underground or deep in the ocean.

Apple TV

What is the Axis Mundi?

A “between world,” the Axis Mundi is a pocket dimension located between the surface and the Hollow Earth where time behaves differently due to gravitational and spatial anomalies. Time moves far more slowly there than on the surface, resulting in dramatic age disparities over what seem like short intervals. So, a few hours in the Axis Mundi can equal several years on Earth, without the person or object inside the Axis Mundi aging.

In essence, it acts as a pathway that connects to the stable environment of the Hollow Earth.

What is Monarch?

Monarch is a secret globe-trotting scientific organization dedicated to researching, tracking, and containing Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms (MUTOs), which are commonly known as Titans.

In Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, the Monarch organization was founded in the early 1950s by Colonel Lee Shaw, Keiko Miura, and Bill Randa (Wyatt Russell, Mari Yamamoto, and Anders Holm). They established the organization to investigate Titans after discovering evidence of monsters following an encounter with a radioactive creature after the destruction of the U.S.S. Lawton. The MONARCH Unit was an off-the-books research division tasked with “the systematic study of Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms.”

From its inception, the group operated under strict secrecy, with its very existence kept hidden from the public.

Apple TV

Monarch transitioned from a shadow group to a public entity after Godzilla’s 2014 reveal.

What happened to Cate, Kentaro, Hiroshi, and Keiko at the end of Season 1?

More from this section

Movies and TV shows casting across the US

Is K-pop music bad for your mental health? The answer might surprise you

Dr. Keiko Miura was a scientist who vanished after falling into a fissure in 1959. Her son, Hiroshi (Takehiro Hira), devoted his life to finding her and became an active member of Monarch before he also disappeared. His daughter, Cate, and her half-brother, Kentaro (Ren Watabe), spend much of the series traveling the world in search of him.

Hiroshi was conducting secret, unauthorized research on Titans, specifically attempting to track or lure them using technology he salvaged from his father, Bill Randa, who was eaten by a Skullcrawler on Skull Island in 2017’s Kong: Skull Island (played by John Goodman).

In 2015, due to an explosion caused by Lee (Kurt Russell) in an attempt to close a portal, Cate (Anna Sawai),  May (Kiersey Clemons), and Lee fall into the Axis Mundi and are reunited with Keiko, young and unchanged despite the many decades that had passed.

Apple TV

Monarch Season 1 ended with Cate, May, and Keiko returning from the Hollow Earth in an Operation Hourglass vehicle. However, they end up on Skull Island two years later (so it is now 2017), learning Kentaro and Hiroshi have joined Apex Cybernetics (or so it seems), the rival organization to Monarch.

What happened to Lee Shaw at the end of Season 1?

Colonel Leland “Lee” Lafayette Shaw III first met Dr. Keiko Miura (later Randa after marrying cryptozoologist Bill) in the early 1950s when he was ordered to give her a military escort. During one of their attempts to study Titans, everything goes awry, and Keiko falls into the Axis Mundi. Lee attempted his own experiment a few years later to rescue her, only to accidentally fall into the Axis Mundi as well. Though to him it seemed like he had been trapped for days, it equaled 20 years of Earth time.

Related

'Monarch: Legacy of Monsters' Season 2: Premiere Date, Trailer, Cast, Plot, and More

In 2015, a much older Lee tried to close a portal in Kazakhstan, but was instead sucked into the Axis Mundi along with Cate and May. It is there that the trio discovers Keiko.

Lee sacrifices himself to allow the others to escape. He is left behind, letting go of the pod so the others can leave. The trio returns to the present time (plus two years), where Hiroshi has an emotional reunion with his mother, Keiko.

What happened to Godzilla?

Godzilla appears in the Axis Mundi to battle and kill a dragon-like Titan that was threatening the main characters. Following this, Godzilla remains in the Hollow Earth.

The show concludes with a time-jump to 2017, where it is revealed that Apex Cybernetics has established a base and King Kong is quite active on Skull Island.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Season 2, Premieres Friday, February 27, AppleTV

More Headlines:

• CBS News: All the Changes Viewers Should Expect Under Bari Weiss
• ‘DWTS’ Stars Support Carrie Ann Inaba After Heartbreaking Loss
• HGTV’s Leslie Davis Salary Revealed Amid Divorce & Surprise Engagement
• ‘9-1-1: Nashville’ Sneak Peek: Blue Impresses Taylor With His Cooking (VIDEO)
• How Did ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ Season 1 End? Everything You Need to Remember Before Season 2