This article contains spoilers for Apple TV’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2, Episode 7
An interesting thing has happened in season two of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. What started as a race between Monarch and Apex Cybernetics has splintered into even more groups, each with its own agenda regarding Titans, especially Titan X, still roaming present-day Earth. Obviously, there are good intentions mixed with just the outright need to control and exploit, but when you’re dealing with Titans, things can go sideways in a hurry. As we found out this week, some of the best intentions can lead to circumstances nobody saw coming.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2, Episode 7 begins where the last one ended, with current-day older Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell) trying to figure out how he is receiving a signal from his younger self (Wyatt Russell) from 1962. It seems Dr. Suzuki’s (Leo Ashizawa) machine, while searching for a Titan signal, latched on to this old cry for help instead.
In a way, this predicament Lee Shaw in the present now finds himself in is his own doing, as this plan with Dr. Suzuki was always a sloppily laid out long shot at best. Now, he has to decide how to talk to his younger self without changing any past events.
Meanwhile, Cate (Anna Sawai) and Keiko (Mari Yamamoto) continue to work together on Cate’s strange connection to Titan X and a way to track it down. Using Billy’s (Anders Holm) notes, they discover a place in Japan that seems to have a unique connection to Titan X in terms of its migratory path.
Once there, they put a plan in motion to try and use Cate’s ability and the area’s connection to Titan X to track the Titan down and maybe even figure out the mixed emotions Cate has been sensing from it. It is a true scientific endeavor, using knowledge and investigative skills to reach a logical conclusion, but one wonders if that’s applicable when dealing with Titans.
The strange journey of Kentaro (Ren Watabe) continues this episode when, after a call to Isabel (Amber Midthunder), asking her to prove some of what she said at the bar, she invites him to Phuket, Thailand, to tell him more. Being the daughter of Walter Simmons, the creator and CEO of Apex Cybernetics, raises all kinds of red flags, but Kentaro is desperate to get away, in part to find his own path but also to try to escape the pain of his father’s death.
Though this whole storyline still feels out of place, hopefully, due to a lack of information, Kentaro will leave early. He is not convinced of anything Isabel has to say, until, in the car ride to the airport, she teases him with the idea of changing things so G-Day didn’t have to exist. With the mention of Axis Mundi and the possibility of changing the course of his life, Kentaro is left with a choice to make.
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With the ability to now talk to his younger self, Lee helps him (himself) through the pitfalls of Axis Mundi, without changing anything. However, as with all time travel storylines, it’s not that easy. Young Lee Shaw finds Keiko, who is also stuck in there, but the elder Lee explains to him why he must not only leave her be, but that this is the moment where he has to let her go for good. It is a powerful, well-executed scene, and both Kurt Russell and his son, Wyatt Russell, do a great job of making the audience feel their turmoil and confusion.
Older Lee directs his younger self to what they describe as a giant hornet’s nest, where Titan X is sleeping, and guides younger Lee to slap a tracker on Titan X. Shortly thereafter, they lose their connection, but not before Axis Mundi Lee Shaw is directed back to his entry vehicle to prepare for his trip home. This whole series of events triggers yet another plan for the current older Lee Shaw, a plan he tells Dr. Suzuki he must do on his own, as he doesn’t know how it’s going to turn out.
Cate discovers through the ‘Titan song’ that Titan X isn’t dangerous, isn’t lost, but does need their help. At the same time, the floating Monarch 18 outpost begins to pick up a signal that turns out to be from the Hourglass beacon that was planted on Titan X. We witness it rising up from the ocean and landing on what looks to be a familiar desert region. Now that Monarch knows where it is, you can bet everyone else soon will too, and the race to be the first there will begin again.
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The older/younger Lee Shaw storyline helped carry this episode, with the father/son combo of Kurt and Wyatt Russell doing a wonderful job of dragging us into their mental chaos. While there are still some pieces in motion, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2, Episode 7, “String Theory,” did a good job in keeping most of the storylines coherent and interesting, giving us another push towards the inevitable Titan showdown. However, it remains to be seen which characters will be there to witness it when it finally happens.
