‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ Episode 3 “Secrets and Lies” Recap & Review

Spoilers for Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Episode 3 “Secrets and Lies”

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters episode 3, “Secrets and Lies,“ picked up where episode 2 left off, but we’ve already met the characters. Now, it’s down to the business of storytelling. Mysteries begin to unfold, and new monsters are introduced. The third episode of the series fell short of expectations but delivered enough of the unexpected to keep viewers’ interest.

Left with another cliffhanger, kaiju fans will have to accept that we’ll see monsters about as often as we saw the Smoke Monster in Lost (2004 TV series), but when they are on screen the scenes are devastatingly real. Godzilla shots have never looked as gorgeous, and the new creatures are imaginative and downright cool, in this case, literally.

Episode 2 of the new Apple TV+ series left us in 1952 with Lee Shaw (Wyatt Russell) and his research team, Dr. Keiko Miura (Mari Yamamoto), and Bill Randa (Anders Holm) witnessing the Titan, Ion Dragon, hanging around near a ship in the jungle of the Philippines. The USS Lawton (United States Fletcher-class destroyer first seen in Kong: Skull Island) is the nesting place of the kaiju, leaving the radiation trails they are tracking. The same episode’s older version of Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell) has decided to break out of his forced retirement community to help Cate Randa (Anna Sawai), Kentaro Randa (Ren Watabe), and May (Kiersey Clemons) track down the missing Hiroshi Randa (Takehiro Hira).

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters episode 3 takes us to present-day 2015, just after Godzilla’s first appearance in the USA in the Monsterverse. Lee and his new band of young upstarts break out of his community like escaping the Keystone Cops. Count on Kurt Russell to bring the comedy relief while refusing to abandon the action. Wyatt Russell’s Lee and his new band of upstarts secure funding for their monster-hunting endeavor. Funded by the US government, they founded Monarch in 1954. Their own intentions will quickly be hijacked and made secret.

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Godzilla’s footprint is tangible evidence that puts the stamp of approval on Monarch’s blank check budget, a suitable metaphor. But it’s also the catalyst that takes control away from Lee and his team. They’ve convinced their backers that they can lure the unnamed Godzilla to a radiation source to capture and study, but the US Military has another idea. The creature is an existential threat to global security and must be destroyed! A hydrogen bomb ought to do the trick, the trick being the operative word, because the fools will find out soon enough they’ve only made Godzilla more powerful.

Dr. Miura has already established that the Titans absorb radiation. Hasn’t anyone else ever seen a far-fetched sci-fi monster adventure? Even she should know the blast won’t kill him. But even after establishing her credibility as a doctor in a man’s world earlier, the character goes into hysterics when she realizes they plan to blow the creature to Smithereens. She’s consoled by the wrong guy, though. Her future husband, Bill Randa, goes on filming the project as Lee Shaw physically restrains her, adding sexual tension where it shouldn’t belong. This secret is becoming too obvious to everyone but Bill.

Meanwhile, in present 2015, Lee, Cate, Ken, and May ferry on a cargo ship heading to Pohang, South Korea. An old friend of Lee’s is there, and he believes Du-Ho (Bruce Baek) can help them. For some reason, Lee can’t just approach his friend when they reach customs. They have to stage an arrest for the group to escape. They don’t have passports, so that might explain it, but Du-Ho has no idea of that until after he’s assaulted a fellow customs officer and gone AWOL from his place of employment to help an “old friend” and his band of unknown kids.

Immediately following the escape from customs, a bumbling duo of Monarch representatives looking for Cate and Ken are reprimanded for losing them. They’ve been tracking the group ever since May hacked into their database and downloaded some files that gave them hints their father might be alive. Could May have been talking to Duvall (Elisa Lasowski) or Tim (Joe Tippett) from Monarch? She has the right amount of animosity toward Ken to betray him. May was caught by Ken tossing her cell phone overboard after promising a mystery character she’d tell them more if she knew more. Kentaro’s lack of curiosity is explained away by his being a terrible ex-boyfriend.

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Air Du-Ho flies the team to Alaska to find the coordinates of the plane Hiroshi Randa was lost in. Their plane tells them as they approach. All their dials are spin haywire as they find themselves crash-landing in the same place. They find evidence their father survived once down, but they also find a new Titan. The apparently disposable character, Du-Ho, is killed as they try to escape the well-designed ice beast. He served the purpose of getting the group to this new milestone, and now our group is stuck in the mountains of Alaska with the same creature who either killed or drove off Hiroshi.

In the fashion of Hank Marlow (John C. Reilly) from Kong: Skull Island, let’s hope Hiro shows up to pull them to safety. The searching for the missing father trope can only hold interest for so long. Let’s find out why he’s been in hiding by next week, please.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters episode 3 is now streaming on Apple TV+.

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