‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ Episode 4 “Parallels and Interiors” Recap & Review

Spoilers for Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Episode 4 “Parallels and Interiors”

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is moving in the wrong direction. They’ve introduced a most imaginative monster living under the tundra in Alaska. It’s so cool it can suck the heat right out of you for sustenance with its tendrils. But the characters we’re supposed to be caring about are falling flat. This ice beast was introduced at the end of episode 3, “Secrets and Lies,” promising a fierce showdown in the follow-up. Despite the wasted death of Du-Ho (Bruce Baek), it seemed as if Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell) and his band of misfit young adults would make some plot progress in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters episode 4, “Parallels and Interiors,“ I regret to report the episode already feels like filler.

The show opens in the Utah desert, where Dr. Barnes (Jess Salgueiro) is camped out in an Airstream, monitoring the planet for radioactive anomalies. No explanation for why she needs to be in such a remote location (Outpost 47) with all her systems and gadgets. She reports a phenomenon happening in Alaska that has readings unseen since “G-Day,” the Godzilla attack on San Francisco a year prior.

The monster action has gravity. The weight and texture of the beast are quality CGI, but the actions of the characters feel a tad under expectation. Then the monster, despite its size, has trouble keeping up in the chase. The group hides in a nearby cave and waits for it to go away. May (Kiersey Clemons) inadvertently steps through some ice, soaking her legs and setting up a plot point that will carry throughout the episode. She’s mostly miffed with Kentaro (Ren Watabe) about being there, but she’s concerned she’ll die from hypothermia.

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In a flash back to the time when Ken and May first meet. Kentaro is a budding artist, about to host his first show when the two meet by happenstance. Their chemistry is as believable as Kryptonite or Unobtainium and equally contrived. The script makes a point to compare May’s cynicism with Ken’s naïveté, hammering it down when the sponsor for his show drops him despite selling a few of his paintings. His passion and instincts fail him, and May knows it, so he’s got vindication coming to him like a telegraph in all caps.

When the group finally feels safe enough to begin a trek to safety, the sun is already setting. Cate (Anna Sawai) sees a strange light in the distance. It’s ridiculously far, and they are on foot in the mountains. Spoiler: most of the group makes it there before dawn, as impossible as it looks. Kentaro is convinced he saw an outpost earlier that would be closer. He sets off alone with very little resistance from the others, another unlikely occurrence.

Kentaro has a ‘Luke sees Obi-Wan in the Hoth storm’ moment when he comes across a hallucinated version of his father. He eventually makes it to the abandoned outpost and finds more evidence that his father survived the plane crash and camped there. All the while, Lee, Cate, and May accidentally circle back to the original camp. They set a fire to warm May, who is hallucinating herself. May and Ken’s shared memories play before us to show their early relationship and the fact that May, for some reason, is hiding the existence of a sister named Lyra, who keeps calling her.

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The Ice Titan makes another appearance for the sake of reminding viewers that Monarch: Legacy of Monsters isn’t a WB romance. Awkward sequences with members of Monarch as they monitor the Gamma readings in real time make the organization look like a bunch of Bumbling idiots. If not for Natalia Verdugo (Mirelly Taylor) wrangling the oddly young selection of agents, they wouldn’t seem fit to run a daycare.

In the end, Ken’s visions guide him to radio for help. A nearby outpost hears his call, sending a chopper to rescue the larger group just in time. Lee, Cate, and May were followed by the monster all the way to the far-away anomaly. An aurora is emitting from a crevice in the Earth, but no one except Lee seems interested in it. Monarch is on the way to investigate by episode 5. Cate, who earlier looked like a central character, was relegated to doting half-sister.

It’s not clear from Monarch: Legacy of Monsters episode 4 where the season’s arc is going, but this episode felt unnecessary.

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