Legacy of Monsters’ Delivers Iconic Godzilla Moment With a Twist

Congratulations, MonsterVerse fans! Episode 6 of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters features a scene that longtime Godzilla fans have been looking forward to ever since the MonsterVerse cinematic universe officially began in 2014. Sort of. Warning: Spoilers ahead for Season 2, Episode 6 of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.

Titled “Requiem,” the episode follows the unexpected death of Hiroshi Randa (Takehiro Hira), who is struck by debris after Titan X escapes during a botched Apex control attempt. He passes away in the arms of his mother, Keiko (Mari Yamamoto), and his daughter, Cate (Anna Sawai), who sing a childhood song to him.

In a flashback, Kentaro (Ren Watabe) chats with Hiroshi before they get Cate back, sharing a beer and discussing the possible time-flow issues with the Axis Mundi. During their conversation, Hiroshi mentions that he went to Alaska to prove his parents’ theories and discovered a rift to the Axis Mundi. When he entered it, a year passed in what felt like a breeze.

Back in the present day, the Randa family gathers for Hiroshi’s funeral alongside their friends. While there, Lee (Kurt Russell) runs into an old friend, Dr. Suzuki a.k.a. Zook (Leo Ashizawa), who can barely believe that both Keiko and Shaw are alive. Zook worked with Lee on Project Hourglass, which ended in disaster due to time dilation.

“Without that piece of information, all the equations were off,” Zook explains.

After the failure, his reputation was destroyed, his visa was revoked, and he was blacklisted as a scientist. He admits that Hiroshi later hired him to create a “Titan phone.” Zook takes Shaw to his machine, convinced that it can now be effective with the right equations.

At the funeral, Cate is consumed by grief, burdened by guilt over helping bring the Titans back into the world in order to find Lee. She confesses to an angry Kentaro that something is happening within her, something she cannot control, and that it is linked to the Titans.

“You’ve lost your mind,” Kentaro tells her. As his anger escalates, Keiko steps in and separates the siblings, reminding them that they only have each other now.

Meanwhile, in 1958, at Monarch HQ in Arlington, Virginia, the organization had expanded to three continents thanks to Keiko’s photos, and both she and Bill now have impressive offices. Lee (Wyatt Russell) was asked to be reassigned, believing it is the best course of action for all of them.

Lee meets with his father, Colonel Leland Lafayette Shaw II (Bill Sage), who has him transferred to MAAG Vietnam as a military advisor because he “knows what’s best for him.” Lee is less than thrilled.

In the present, Kentaro meets with May (Kiersey Clemons) to blow off some steam and tries to kiss her, unaware that she has feelings for Cate. When May leaves, a woman named Isabel (Amber Midthunder) swoops in and joins him for a drink. After more than a few drinks, she admits to being Apex’s Walter Simmons’ (Demián Bichir) daughter.

Cate and Keiko sit together on the pier, talking about Hiroshi, when Cate notices ripples forming in the water around her, eerily similar to the disturbances caused by the Titans. Keiko quickly realizes that Cate has developed a connection to Titan X. As they rush to track it down, they run into Lee and Zook, who are armed with Zook’s machine. It becomes clear to Keiko what Lee is planning: he wants to lure Godzilla into a confrontation with Titan X at a place and time of their choosing. Keiko insists that no one can control a Titan, but Lee and Zook argue that they have no choice but to try.

Meanwhile, as Kentaro walks through the streets of Tokyo, sirens begin to blare, and alerts flood his phone. Crowds of people scatter in a frenzy as a low, ominous rumble builds beneath the city. Then, without warning, the skyline erupts in chaos.

It’s Godzilla.

Godzilla is attacking Tokyo, marking the first time the King of the Monsters unleashes his fury on the Japanese city within the MonsterVerse.

Apple TV

The moment is a frenzy of destruction as the ancient reptilian monster knocks over buildings while rockets are fired in an attempt to stop him. People scream and run as Kentaro finds May and his mother and takes off, eventually colliding with Cate, who stands eerily calm in the middle of the chaos.

“It’s okay,” she tells him. “I told you it doesn’t want to harm us.”

Looking out at the skyline, Godzilla appears poised to battle Titan X in the center of Tokyo… But it is all a dream.

As of the end of 2024’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Godzilla has not attacked Tokyo in the main MonsterVerse film canon, making the scene in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters all the more striking. Even as a dream sequence, it taps into decades of franchise history and delivers a moment longtime fans have been waiting to see within the modern cinematic universe. TV Insider spoke to exec producer Tory Tunnell about the long-awaited moment.

“We’re a television show that has to exist within the movies, and one of the things is always one of the fun challenges is: How do you do that without disrupting what we know is coming? You can’t have decimated a city in there, in our TV series, because that won’t exist in the movies that are upcoming,” explained Tunnell. “And so with the dream, it is something where we get to actually have that experience, but we get to put the genie back in the bottle, and we’re always looking for opportunities to have those satisfying moments and really make this role come alive.”

Back in Tokyo, Kentaro decides to work with Isabel while Keiko tests Cate and her new abilities to possibly send out signals to Titans. Cate submerges herself in water where the duo records unearthly screams of panic and fear. “I think it’s lost.”

Back in the ’50s, Lee visits Keiko, and the two make good on their past. Keiko informs Lee about a nonfunctioning Soviet powerplant in Kazakhstan with “something more going on” than it appears, setting up her impending vanishing into the Axis Mundi.

And finally, Zook and Lee test Zook’s machine that can summon Titans, and they cause a chasm of some sort. Lee then picks up a radio transmission on his radio. “Whom am I speaking to?” The voice is familiar. “This is Major Leland Lafayette Shaw III,” says the younger version of himself. “My crew is dead. My vehicle is damaged. My food has run out. Control, I need an extraction.”

It is Young Lee stuck inside the Axis Mundi, asking Older Lee for help.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Season 2, Fridays, Apple TV