‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ S2.E4 ‘Trespass’ Recap

To get Hiroshi’s device back, Shaw and the team execute a daring heists at Apex Cybernetics.

The cold open begins with Bill Randa’s desk. In 1962, he has a photo of himself with Keiko. There’s also a smaller photo of him with Hiroshi and Keiko. This is the photo we’ll see over and over again, out of the frame, but being carried in Bill’s leather-bound notebook.

The song we hear is “You Belong to Me” which was published 21 April 1952, written by Chilton Price, Pee Wee King, and Redd Stewart. Jo Stafford covered it in 1952. I was most familiar with the Patsy Cline version which was released on 7 August 1962, released about a year before Cline died in a plane crash.

See the pyramids along the Nile
Watch the sunrise on a tropic isle
Just remember darling all the while
You belong to me

See the marketplace in old Algiers
Send me photographs and souvenirs
Just remember when a dream appears
You belong to me
I’ll be so alone without you
Maybe you’ll be lonesome too and blue

Fly the ocean in a silver plane
See the jungle when it’s wet with rain
Just remember till you’re home again
You belong to me

I’m gonna be so alone without you
And I’m hoping maybe you’ll be lonesome too and blue

Fly the ocean in a silver plane
See the jungle when it’s wet with rain
Just remember till you’re home again
You belong to me

From 1963, there’s a sudden jump to 1973 (when Billy died) as things are packed up (Monarch Box 087 No. 42 A82-4285/772) as Property of Wm. Randa – Deceased.From 1973, time flies to 2015 when someone comes into the dark warehouse and takes the box.

Just remember ’til you’re home again

You belong to me

We see the leather-bound notebook with the photo of the three (Keiko, Bill and Hiroshi) but in an Apex folder.

Flash forward to 2017, on Ofu Beach American Samoa, two male surfers decide they want to surf despite the red flags with Godzilla on them.

Ofu Beach is a real place, a white-sand beach in a National Park. As the two men go into the waves and we see their GoPro images, we already know that something is stirring in the sand. There’s a Monarch patrol boat that tells the two to get out of the water. The beach is pinging. The Scarabs or Trilobilla start emerging just as the surfers hit the sand. And the GoPro shows their panic and then cuts out. The men in the patrol boat don’t fare any better. Krakilla/Titan X is suddenly below them and the tentacles take them down.

In San Francisco on the beach (2017), Cate wakes up. Remember she had been out dancing with a friend, but when the warning came, she wanted to keep dancing and getting drunk. Now she walks into the water and submerges herself.

Back at Outpost 18, Tim learns that a Monarch patrol boat made contact and was possibly attacked. That’s 14 men and while our new hiss-able villain Jason Trissop is looking to calibrate equipment and is sure that the search-and-rescue are all over it, Tim is worried. Trissop will “stay on mission” and stand by as “the predictive algorithm is processing the SOSUS returns.” The creature is heading toward San Francisco and expected to be there in 23 hours. Trissop sounds like a slimy salesman. He tells Tim this is why Monarch needs Apex Cybernetics. He wants time to get Barris “on the horn and tell them that 20,000 tons of trouble is heading their way.” Then he says to Tim, “You get to be a hero today.”

In Pensacola, Florida, 2017, Old Lee says that May believes Hiro’s devices is down the street at the Apex Research facility.May opens the door to a two-star hotel room with a large bed that already has loads of stuff on it. Some of them are fugitives and Old Lee thinks that by tomorrow, they might all be.

Tim text messages Old Lee that “Tracking Titan X, it’s heading to San Francisco. ETA 23 hours.

Hiroshi worried about Cate. Cate had called May, but May wasn’t able to talk. Hiroshi called Cate and leaves a message. Hiroshi wants to go and find Cate, but Old Lee asks him if this is the smartest play. “Or stick with the plan and lure that Titan away before it hits the coast…”

Hiroshi argues, “We can’t just abandon her.”

Kentaro reminds him, “We didn’t abandon her. She left on her own.” Kentaro and Hiroshi argue, but Keiki tells Kentaro that he shouldn’t talk to his father that way.

Old Lee argues that diverting the Titan is the best way to help Cate.

In San Francisco, there is panic. “Attention, Monarch has updated Titan watch to Titan alert.” Cate wanders on the street as car are at a standstill. One of the driver’s who has luggage stacked high on the roof of the car, recognizes her. The woman introduces herself as “Esther Keene. My son Michael was in your class. He was on the buss that day. On the bridge.” Esther thanks Cate and hugs her. Micheal gets out of the car and hugs Cate. “He wouldn’t be a teenager if it wasn’t for you. You got him out of that bus. You could have run and saved yourself. That’s what most people did that day.”

Back in Pensacola, while Hiroshi and Kentaro work on a new prototype, May is working on forging work passes. Old Lee asks Hiroshi for a big diversion.

Then in a van, they look at the target: Kevin Burge, an environmental technician.

They enter a bar with Old Lee looking as red-neck and unattractive as possible, loud and drunk and being steadied by Kentaro. This is Uncle Bob and his whipped nephew. If you want to start a fight, go in and drink their beer and sit next to someone who has a seat already saved.

May returns to get her seat back and Uncle Bob comes on a bit too strong. A guy tries to get Uncle Bob to leave and Uncle Bob has a heart attack. Luckily, Kevin Burge used to be a lifeguard and is ready to help. During this commotion, Kentaro grabs Kevin’s backpack and hands it out to Keiko from the bathroom who takes it to the van. Hiroshi gets the code, Keiko returns the backpack to Kentaro and Kentaro gets it back to Kevin’s chair. Uncle Bob recovers and they exit.

Back at Outpost 18, Tim is arguing with Trissop. “Apex is playing the long game” which is learning to live with the Titans. Monarch’s motto was “Discovery and Defense.” Apex’s motto is “Discovery Is Defense.”

Back at San Francisco, Cate returns to her mother’s home. Caroline and James have been waiting for her as they prepare to leave for the Sierras. Cate wants to take responsibility and to fix the Titan problem. She’s going back to join her father.

In Pensacola, Kentaro sabotages Brenda’s car.

May gets in and talks to her friend Liam, showing off her badge. She pretends she has a meeting with Brenda. Then she sets off something in Kevin’s bag that sets an alarm. The rest of the team shows up in yellow hazmat suits.

In the basement, Old Lee, Keiko, Hiroshi and Kentaro see that the basement contains animals from Skull Island that Apex has been smuggling off.

May gets into Brenda’s network and tries to override the security where the device is. The security door to the east wing is opened. Keiko and Hiroshi go down to sub level two. Hiroshi confesses, “When I was little, I used to dream of this: joining my mother and father on a secret mission to save the world.”

“How did you know I was saving the world?” Keiko asks.

Hiroshi says, “I had to believe that you would only leave me behind for something as important as that.” Using a little electronic know-how, they are granted access into a restricted area.

Back at Outpost 18, Tim is wondering where Trissop is going. Trissop says, “I’m taking a really big risk because we believe the reward is worth it.” He says, that is that you say on Star Trek? “You have the comm.”

Tim corrects him, “You have the conn.”

Back at the research facility in Pensacola, Hiroshi and Keiko are at the last door, but they have figured out the radiation alert was fake quicker than they expected.

And Brenda has cycled to work. While May/Cora tries to stall her. May sees that Apex is trying to re-write something, not just fix a bug. Brenda tells her, “Thing are about to happen and with this new Titan threatening the world, they will have to happen very quickly.” They want to move fast, “but we don’t want to break anything. We want to…restore.”

Brenda shows May/Cora the lab where a Skull Island Leafwing has been implanted with a code that makes it friendly. “You made this possible, Corah. Your code. It allowed us to short-circuit the creature’s natural aggression by isolating neural pathways in its cerebral cortex.” The Leafwing had fallen out of the nest and been abandoned. Maybe that in itself signaled a defect. When May delected the code, Apex was unable to maintain the effect. “This is what coexistence looks like.” Apex is trying to make it happen, but Monarch is not. “If you want to save the world, Corah, Apex will let you do it.”

Back at Outpost 18, the Titan is maintaining course and speed. It will be 26 minutes before it reaches the fleet. Tim doesn’t believe they’ll be able to stop it.

Back in Pensacola, Brenda and May/Corah have returned to Brenda’s office.

Old Lee and Kentaro burst into a hallway where a hatchet is in a case. Old Lee breaks the case with a fire extinguisher and extracts the hatchet.

Back at Brenda’s office, Brenda tells May/Corah that she knows May is here to get the Suzuki device. “We did. We needed a problem so that we could be the solution.”

Downstairs, we see Old Lee ready to create another problem. There’s something with tentacles that has been expelling bones. Kentaro decides that one’s a bad idea so they go for something that is “territorial but not predatory.”

Upstairs, Brenda says, “I’m sure the good doctor Randa and your friends think that they’re doing the right thing, that their scrappy little gangs can deal with a Titan all on their own, and that they have the right to make that call for the entire world. We have a bigger plan and I want you to be a part of it. But you need to make a decision right now. Will you be part of the solution? ”

Downstairs, Old Lee and Kentaro release the Needlewalkers. I see them as punk rock ostriches or agave plants gone avian so Agavillas.

Before May can respond to Brenda, the alarm goes off and Liam reports, “There’s been a bio-containment breach on sub level three.” Just to show what kind of people Brenda and Liam are, instead of letting people in, they lock them out. May is alone in Brenda’s office again as everyone else is evacuating. When May opens the final door, Hiroshi and Keiko get inside and see that the prototype has been taken apart. “There is nothing we can do,” Hiroshi says.

Back in San Francisco, the fleet is going out to intercept the Titan. Yet the pilots can’t find it. “Viper lead to Outpost 18, I have no visual on target.” Tim tells them to turn off all the Apex equipment. The Monarch systems see that it isn’t a Titan. It is a whale. Tim says, “We’ve been conned.”

Kentaro notices the board. It’s Billy’s work. Hiroshi sees the photo of the three of them.

Back in time in 1962, Billy is telling Hiroshi, “I’ve got a super important mission that I have to go one.”

“Then let me go with you. I can work, too,” Hiroshi says.

“And I get you can,” Billy says. “But I gotta go alone, okay? It’s top, top, tippy top, top secret stuff. I’ll be back before you know it, all right?”

“You always say that.”

“And I always come back, don’t I?”

“Mom didn’t. Uncle Lee didn’t either.”

But Billy assure him, “This is gonna be different, okay?”

But Hiroshi also finds something else: Keiko’s letter to Lee.

Old Lee shows Keiko the map. Keiko realizes that Billy completed his map, “The one he started in 1957, the Titan’s migratory route.”

Old Lee says, “Sitting in an Apex basement while the rest of the world hides in theirs.”

Keiko says, “They knew where it was going this whole time.” The next stop is Santa Soledad. “The first place we saw it.” We see an old photo, likely one that Keiko took that night. Old Lee tells everyone to grab some of the stuff as they head out.

As the rest of the gang escapes, May decides to stay with Brenda and Apex. Back at the hotel, Cate shows up. She apologizes and Old Lee hugs her, but Keiko realizes that Hiroshi had read the letter she wrote to Young Lee.

Creatures Featured

Episode 204: