‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ Episode 10 “Beyond Logic” Recap & Review

Spoilers for Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Episode 10 “Beyond Logic”

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters episode 10, “Beyond Logic,“ was the season end we needed. Heck, if the show wasn’t picked up for a second season, it’s also a satisfying close to a short series that has enriched the MonsterVerse in unexpected ways. Imagine the challenge of story-building for a list of franchises that have fans who come in for a variety of reasons. It should be impossible to please everyone. One common thread among MonsterVerse fans is the idea that what you’re seeing must be fun to watch. While the season stumbled along, plot holes abound, it opened strong and ended stronger. Many of what we thought were holes were mended by the end.

There is a necessity to consider expanding the range in one’s suspension of disbelief as a season-long plot unfolds. When a program manages to right the ship with a killer finale, audiences tend to make room for forgiveness, especially when time travel can be so confusing. If there is indeed a season two we’ll have higher expectations. It was a good start to rock the ending. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters episode 10 is so good you may have to let confusing inconsistencies go. We accept our loved ones despite their intrinsic flaws. Why shouldn’t we allow the same for our entertainment? Especially when the vindications tear through your heart like a Titan through Tokyo.

Cate Randa (Anna Sawai) knows her immediately, but Dr. Keiko Miura (Mari Yamamoto) has no idea who she just saved from the forest boar Titan at the end of the penultimate episode. This is good writing. In fact, the writing and directing on this one seem to be on a different level. You can see it in how easy it is for the actors to tap into all the emotions they face. We can feel it, too. Everyone won this game, but Mari Yamamoto deserves extra attention and commendation for her portrayal of the mixed emotions Keiko must feel when learning she’s lost fifty-three years. Her lover is gone, her friend is elderly, she’s meeting her adult son she hasn’t seen since he was a child, and she has adult grandchildren. Give her a minute to take it in. Yamamoto takes us through her steps one tear at a time, and we cry with her. This is just the beginning, but it’s finally clear. Keiko has been the main character all along. How daring to have your main protagonist presumed dead for two-thirds of the story?

RELATED: Check Out Our ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters‘ Coverage Here

Keiko was the one sending the message through pulses of radiation. What she didn’t know was the amount of time her signal was being transmitted. It was a long shot to hope Monarch, or anyone else, might be not only listening but keen enough to decipher the pattern at all. Lucky for her, someone who wasn’t even born when Keiko went missing, Dr. Barnes (Jess Salgueiro) would determine it was a message.

In Tokyo, Kentaro Randa (Ren Watabe) and his father, Hiroshi Randa (Takehiro Hira), are still picking at open wounds. Hiroshi doesn’t do much to justify his double life. The writing tries really hard to compare his two families a half world apart as a deeper metaphor for the split world that separates Titans from the surface-dwelling human world. Something we can appreciate is that the Monarch series has made the Under Space a little more magical and interesting, possibly even more believable than a simple Hollow Earth. We’re left to wonder if the Titans are entering more of an adjacent dimensional space. This idea actually jibes better with some of the theories presented in the original TOHO Godzilla (1954).

Hiroshi is still a bad father. We must see him as a man with an obsession. His need to close the door on the Titans is based on losing his mother, Lee Shaw, and his adoptive father, Bill Randa. His trauma as a child explains it, but it’s not an excuse that will satisfy his children. Keiko is the only one who can close the wounds of her son. The ensuing salutary impact of seeing their father eventually reunited with his mother softens Kentaro and Cate’s hearts enough to begin the healing. That doesn’t mean Horoshi’s wives need to accept it. Understanding it is good enough. Emiko Randa (Qyoko Kudo) closes the door on Hiroshi when she sees him again. Qyoko Kudo’s portrayal of a betrayed wife who sees the bigger picture is also one to commend.

Here’s a nice twist that was set up in the first episode. I’m sorry I missed it. Better fans would have already known this based on the character’s name, so for that, I’m turning in my nerd card for a big red X. Bill Randa isn’t a new character made up for Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. The Bill Randa portrayed by Anders Holm is the same Bill Randa portrayed by John Goodman in Kong: Skull Island (2017). Bill is eaten by a Skull Crawler on Skull Island, but not before tossing a waterproof packet of research into the sea. It would finally find its way to his grandchildren, sparking the arc of the Apple TV+ series.

Not knowing his actual fate is difficult for Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell) but devastating for Keiko. Hiroshi only followed in his father’s footsteps. Another blow to Keiko to ultimately learn her son’s trauma directly impacted everyone around him. Keiko bears the pain of everyone involved in this series. Quick pitch to Apple TV+: We need a mini-series showing how Keiko survived for a “few weeks” while it was over five decades for everyone else.

RELATED: ‘Godzilla Minus One’ Review: An Emotional and Visual Powerhouse

To escape Under Space Cate, May, Bill, and Keiko must rewire the gamma emitter device she used to send her signal to charge the Hourglass pod. They still need to lure a Titan to follow its wake back to the surface world. It’s a nice touch to place a bat specimen on the wall in Hiroshi’s apartment, foreshadowing the Titan bat that will threaten his mother. It’s ultimately Godzilla’s wake that stabilizes the tunnel enough for them to get through. The meeting was enough to satisfy our thirst for kaiju fights, but there’s more!

Lee must sacrifice himself to get the pod into the rift, leaving his fate up in the air. The CGI trajectory seemed to have pushed the pod into a fork in the rift, but it’s not clear by the end why this happened, and the characters didn’t see it. Cate, May, and Keiko arrive two more years after Cate, May, and Lee were lost. A lot has happened. The fork might be an indicator that they’ve devised a safer way to travel back and forth. The pod “lands” on a company helipad instead of a random portal already established. Apex Cybernetics is now working in conjunction with Monarch, planting seeds for further seasons.

Keiko’s emotional reunion with her son leaves us vulnerable. May (Kiersey Clemons) realizes her boss, Brenda Holland (Dominique Tipper), is heading the project now. Cate and Kentaro have closure upon their father’s reconciliation with his mother. And Monarch: Legacy of Monsters episode 10 has a final tease: the facility is actually an Apex research plant located on Skull Island, 2017. To hammer it home for viewers, we get a glorious gander at our favorite giant ape as the camera pans up in the rain outside. It’s King Kong. Chills commence.

Let’s do this, Apple TV+!

We’re hardworking geeks who love to geek out, but we can’t do it without you! If you enjoyed this article and want to see more like it, please consider tipping our writers. Also, as an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.