Shaw and Suzuki test a “Titan phone” designed to summon Godzilla, triggering an unforeseen event that puts Shaw in the path of his own past.

The episode starts on Skull Island, two weeks earlier (2017). That means, of course, we’ll have a sighting of King Kong. Kentaro is observing kong and making ink pen drawings. Kong seems to detect Kentaro and with his white shirt, he does stand out from the foliage. Kong takes a closer look and then roars and Kentaro runs.

Skull Island seems to use the same type of fencing that Jurassic Park did. Kentaro slips through the wires after propping one up with a wooden branch. His father, Hiroshi, catches him at the fence and asks him in Japanese what he’s doing.

Hiroshi: この所、何やってるんだ。(Where have you been?)

Kentaro: 散歩してた。(I was taking a walk).

Hiroshi asks if Hiroshi’s by himself and Kentaro replies, who else would I be with.  Hiroshi asks to see the sketch. As Hiroshi glances through the sketch book, we see that there are many sketches. Then he asks, これ一枚もらっていいか？Or “May I take one of these?” Of course, Kentaro nods yes.  Hiroshi is quite pleased and offers Kentaro a beer which, it seems, is unusual.Hiroshi says that tomorrow they’ll have some answers, if this was all worth it or not, when they get Cate. Kentaro says, “A week, a month, there’s still a good chance Cate would be alive but it’s been two years.”

Hiroshi explains, “It may not be two years. (二年たてないかもしれない). This is to remind everyone that time in Axis Mundi isn’t the same as time on the surface. “What if, time doesn’t work the same way there? What if a year can pass in a day?”

Kentaro wants to know why his father would believe such a thing. Hiroshi explains, “After G-Day, when I disappeared for that year, I told you this before but I went to Alaska, to prove my parents’ theories. There, I found a rift.” Hiroshi entered and thought, “It was a day, two days at most. When I came out, in Africa, it was a year later.”

Kentaro asks, “Why did you hide this until now?”

Hiroshi claims, “I wanted to protect you and I didn’t want you to follow me. But we’ve had this time working together in this mad place, that makes me happy. Thanks to you, I got that year back.”

The scene switches to Kentaro in a black suit with a white shirt and black tie (Tokyo 2017). A small gong has just been struck. We’re in a white room, observing a large photo of Hiroshi propped up in an impressive display of white chrysanthemums, the flower that signifies a death. A priest is seated before the photo and striking the gong.Then we see Keiko carrying a white ceremonial  box out in a graveyard before coming back to the priest chanting before the altar of white chrysanthemums. The camera alternates between Keiko with the box in the cemetery and Keiko, Cate, Kentaro and Emiko and Old Lee seated in an auditorium listening to the chanting priest. Finally, we see the family before the grave stone as Hiroshi’s ashes are lowered into a space beneath the family’s headstone.

As Old Lee stands to one side, an elderly Japanese man asks, “Excuse me, do you know if this is the funeral of Hiroshi Randa?”

Old Lee recognizes the man and we get a flashback to Billy, Keiko and Young Lee meeting a younger version of this man: Suzuki, or as Old Lee calls him, “Zook.”

Suzuki asks, “Is this possible?”

At the gravestone, Cate approaches Kentaro and says, “You know, we’re gonna have to talk sooner or later. I keep thinking it’s unfair that you didn’t get the chance to say goodbye to him. I wish, I wish I could undo what happened. If I knew that he was coming…”

Kentaro angrily says, “If you knew? The hell did you think was gonna happen? It’s a Titan, Cate. Tell me what you were doing down there.”

Cate tries to explain, “I don’t know. I couldn’t control it. I don’t know what’s happening to me. You have to trust me. Dad would want us to figure this out together.”

Kentaro responds, “You’ve lost your mind. Dad’s dead.”

Keiko realizes things aren’t going well between her grandchildren. “Is everything okay?”

Kentaro responds, “No. No, everything’s not okay here. The world is under a Titan alert and no one has the faintest idea of what to do. Do you? Does Monarch? How long before Godzilla shows up and cleans up Cate’s mess?”

Keiko lapses into Japanese and tries to claim Kentaro because “fighting won’t bring your father back.” Kentaro walks away and his mother calls after him. Kentaro and Emiko walk away. Keiko comforts Cate.

“Kei, an old friend would like to say hello,” Old Lee says.

Keiko recognizes Dr. Suzuki, but Suzuki is astonished at how young Keiko remains.

“Major Shaw tried to explain it to me, but seeing it…You should be as old as I am and yet, look at you.”

Keiko responds, “I know it’s a lot to take in.”

“I wish is were for a different reason, but I’m so happy to see you both. You must be Cate. Hiro’s told me so much about you. ”

“Wait,” Keiko says. “I didn’t realize you two kept in touch.”

“Oh, more than that,” Suzuki explains. “He’d come to Hateruma often.”

Old Lee says, “You know, if it wasn’t for what this man created at Hateruma, none of us would be here. You should see it sometime, Cate. ”

“Well,” Suzuki says, “Why not come now?”

Old Lee says that until Monarch gets more intel on Titan X, going to visit Suzuki “might bring us all some peace.”  Because they could “trade stories about Hiro” and “I’m not sure waiting around here for it to show up is helping anybody.”

After everyone has turned away, Old Lee leaves a knife on the grave and says, “Keep it safe, Hiro.” This upset my husband. Old Lee says, “I’m gonna find a way to set things right. I promise.”

That’s just the cold open.

From there we see Keiko and Billy carrying one cardboard box each as they move into new offices in Arlington, Virginia in 1958. They both have secretaries. Keiko’s office is big and has a map of the world prominently displayed. Billy reads a note from General Puckett (Christopher Heyerdahl who doesn’t appear in Season 2): “Don’t screw this up.”

Monarch is now on three continents. We get to see the photos that Keiko took because Billy notes, “You know, your photos of the Titan are what got us all these outposts.”  Billy can’t wait to get back out in the field. Keiko wants to unpack before planning the next expedition and adds, “We don’t know how long until the Titan shows up again.”  Keiko pins up a drawing by Hiro, saying “We decided to call it Hiro-saurus. What do you think?”

Just then, Young Lee comes dressed up in uniform. Lee makes a toast as they christen the new offices: “Six years ago, when I first me you, my first thought was: These two are going to get themselves killed. And then I eventually realized that, actually, you were more likely to get me killed. But now it’s very obvious that you are not only very capable of keeping yourselves safe, but you are probably going to save us all one day. So, cheers.”

Billy is hesitant. “It’s a nice toast, but why do I feel like I’m getting broken up with? ”

Young Lee explains that he’s been reassigned. While Keiko wants to call General Pucket, Young Lee explains that he’s the one who approved Young Lee’s request. “He’s getting this third star and he offered me a position on his staff.”

Keiko has an inkling of the real reasons, but Billy says, “Well, I guess I just always thought we’d see this thing through together.”

Keiko does say, “It won’t be the same without you, Lee.”

“Guys,” Young Lee explains, “I’m relocating to Maryland, not the moon.” Billy argues that he thought Young Lee was happy in Monarch.

“It’s not whether I’m happy nor not, Billy. It’s about what’s best for all of us,” Young Lee says and then toasts to Monarch.

Back in Tokyo 2017, May comes knocking at Kentaro’s apartment door (#504) and apologies for not being at the funeral. “I figured that maybe I wasn’t welcome there.” She’s also not sure if she’s welcome at Kentaro’s place.

“You haven’t spoken to Cate?” Kentaro asks.  May has not. Kentaro says he doesn’t want to talk about his father but gets his things and says, “Let’s get a drink.”

As that door closes, another opens in 1958. Young Lee is looking at his watch. He walks down a corridor to #8, he salutes, but the man who opens the door isn’t in uniform. It’s his father: Colonel Leland Lafayette Shaw II (Bill Sage).  They haven’t seen each other in five years. “I can’t believe I’m stationed at the same place with my son. It’s a tight-knit community here. Hell, I know half the senior officers in this place. It’s basic. You’ll be well taken care of.”

It’s 8 p.m. and his father want to have a celebratory drink. Young Lee doesn’t because “I just wanna be sharp. I wanna be my best.” Young Lee agrees to one drink.

Lee’s father asks, “Are we going to talk about it?…Why you left Monarch?”  When Young Lee notes that their strong suit isn’t “getting personal,” his father asks, “Oh so it’s personal. Did you fight someone or fornicate with someone?”

Young Lee wants to know “Why do those have to be the only two options?”

His father won’t let it go and continues, “Matter of the heart then. Officer’s wife? Secretary? Army nurse? Somebody’s mother?”

Young Lee reveals it was a colleague, a scientist. How many female scientists are in this series?  “The most brilliant person I’ve ever met.”

Lee’s father says that this country tricks us into thinking we can have it all sometimes: success, happiness and family. Honor, however, is something different. “That doesn’t come without a price.” With that, Young Lee accepts another glass, reasoning it was a “stingy pour” and wants to make the most of his one drink.

Back in Tokyo 2017, Keiko, Cate and Old Lee are having dinner with Dr. Suzuki. Suzuki says, he’s been “asking myself why Project Hourglass ended in disaster.” We see a brief flash of a young Suzuki during a disaster that involves high winds.

“What went wrong,” Keiko asks.

“Time dilations, of course,” Suzuki responds. “Without that piece of knowledge every equation was off. It’s a miracle that rift didn’t kill us all. After that, I was blacklisted. My visa revoked. My reputation ruined. My inventions destroyed.”

Old Lee asks, “Everything?”

Suzuki explains, “They said that if I so much as looked at another isotope, Monarch would throw me into asset management. That is until Hiroshi came to me. He wanted to know about my Titan phone…I told him that it had been seized by Monarch years ago, but Hiroshi set to work building a new one from scratch.”

Old Lee proposes a toast to Hiro and they all Kanpai.

Suzuki continues, “Seeing my work live on in him, it restored me.” The liquor bottle they were using is empty.

As Old Lee asks to see where Suzuki keeps the good stuff, we flash back to Young Lee asleep on a couch and another empty liquor bottle. It’s morning in 1958 Maryland,  and Young Lee is late. Dressed up, he makes his way to the military headquarters where he catches his father. His father has already told Puckett that Young Lee will be getting breakfast with him.

From there, we go to Tokyo 2017 with May and Kentaro walking down a street in Tokyo, going to a bar. The last time they went to this particular bar, “He accidentally served us that $9,000 Yamazaki. ”

May mimics, “Don’t swallow it! Spit it back in the bottle!”

Kentaro says, “Hard to imagine that was my life: Going to whiskey bars and hanging out with cool Americans.” That flatters May, but then Kentaro continues, “Now, I’m just a guy who watched his dad bleed out in the dirt.”

May says they could always go home, but Kentaro claims he’s good. Good for what? Unfortunately, Sota’s bar has changed. A running child passes by them after the hostess greets them in Japanese. The hostess informed them that Sota, the previous owner, sold it about a year ago. They don’t have just whiskey, they do have a “blue raspberry whiskey sour.”  It apparently tastes dreadful, but still they sit and drink.

Elsewhere, Suzuki is showing Old Lee into another area and asks, “How long have you been sober now? Hiroshi wouldn’t have wanted his loss to destroy years of sobriety.”

“Relax, Zook. The only thing I’m interested in destroying is the monster that killed him,” Old Lee says.

“Nah, you can’t destroy a Titan,” Suzuki claims.

“No, I can’t, but Godzilla can,” Old Lee responds. Old Lee believes Suzuki is the only man who knows how to get Godzilla’s attention. While Old Lee admits nothing he’s been trying to do has worked out, but he can’t stop trying because “We can still save millions of lives, Zook.”

Then Suzuki confides that Old Lee needs to see his tomatoes. “After seeing the improvements Hiroshi made to my Titan phone, I was inspired to come up with something new.”

Old Lee asks, “Could you use this to draw a Titan away from a major city?”

Suzuki believes theoretically yes. Then Old Lee asks, “Toward an object of your choice?”

Suzuki admits that the “phone” didn’t work. “You see, for all these years, I’ve pondered the wrong question. Now that I know about time dilation, I simply need to calculate the time difference between our world and Axis Mundi. The correct question is not where you last saw Godzilla, but when.”

Back to the Tokyo bar with May and Kentaro, May asks, “You remember a few years ago when I had the flu? I just moved here. I was in this new country and feeling sorry for myself. I was so sad and lonely, and you showed up at my doorstep with ramen.” Yes, ramen is the answer for colds and flu. But Kentaro also brought “every installment of the ‘Back to the Future’ trilogy.” That was three nights in a row. “You know that is the sweetest thing that anybody has ever done for me?”  She adds, “You can still be the  sweet guy who does a really bad Doc Brown impersonation.” Kentaro takes that the wrong way and kisses May. Then he makes it worse by saying that maybe he’s the wrong Randa and that May would prefer Cate, but Cate didn’t want May.

May gets us and tells Kentaro that she’s going to give him some space, but she’ll call him in the morning.

Another girl comes up and starts up a conversation with Kentaro about how he struck out with his date and he had to take his shot. She sits down next to him and notices on the TV a Titan warning. This isn’t some random girl, it’s Isabella Simmons (Amber Midthunder).

Where is Cate? Of course we know she’s in Hateruma. While Suzuki talks with Old Lee, Cate talks with Keiko. Keiko says, “Isn’t it funny? These stars, they’re from another time. The light we see now is their past. It’s already happened, but the light somehow keeps going, like a memory that refuses to fade.”

“Do you find that comforting?” Cate asks.

“It’s what I tell myself,” Keiko says. “Somewhere, in some part of this universe Hiroshi’s light is still shining.” They are sitting near the water and when Cate puts her feet in the water, something weird happens. The water vibrates.

Cate explains this has been happening since she let the Titan X out.  Keiko then decides, “We need to take measurements of the signal you’re receiving. We might be able to retrofit some of Suzuki’s equipment.”

Cate and Keiko find Old Lee and Suzuki loading up something on to one of those really cute Japanese pickup trucks. They are heading for Mount Osore to test the machine’s capabilities. Old Lee explains, “There’s a rift there, same one I woke up in front of in 1982…We just want to know if it’s possible.”  Old Lee makes it clear that he doesn’t want to bring just any Titan into the world. He wants Godzilla. Keiko realizes that Old Lee wants Godzilla and Titan X to fight. Old Lee explains, “But hopefully with this at a place and time that we determine.”

Cate gets angry and says, “They’re not attack dogs to be succeed on one another.”

Old Lee replies, “What if you’ve got the biggest, baddest dog in the fight?”  In any case, Old Lee says, “We’re not opening a rift. We’re simply testing its capabilities.”

“You sound like the generals, Lee. You can’t control Godzilla, you know that,” Keiko says. Keiko turns to Suzuki, but he also wants to try.

Old Lee says that all we as humans want to do is to survive at the top of the food chain. “It’s us versus them, Kei. And in the end, only one thing matters, who wins.”

Back at Sota’s bar in Tokyo, Kentaro is drinking with Isabel. She takes his phone and puts her number in it. “I just figured since you already struck out once today, you weren’t gonna ask. So, I took the initiative.”

They are watching the TV report on a Titan attack and Kentaro says, “Showing all that destruction and death on a loop, it just makes people numb to it.”

Isabel says, “I don’t know that I agree with that.”

“We’ve literally made it into a drinking game,” Kentaro replies.

Isabel laughs but says, that maybe Kentaro needs to be desensitized to it “so what when the moment comes, you don’t panic.”

“No, when a Titan shows up, you’ll panic,” Kentaro says.

“I guess you would know,” she replies.

Kentaro notices and asks, “How do you know I’ve seen a Titan before?”

Isabel is forced to introduce herself as Walter Simmons’ daughter.  Isabel admits to stalking and that she was told not to approach him because he was probably too angry.

Kentaro leaves.

And we leave the present (2017), and return to the past (1958). Young Lee is telling his father, “You should have seen it Dad. This thing was the size of the Empire State. I’m telling you it was breathing fire.”

Lee tries to leave, but his father tells him, he won’t be reporting to Puckett any more.  Then Lee’s father springs it on his son: “I had you transferred to MAAG Vietnam.”  MAAG stands for Military Assistance Advisory. At first Young Lee doesn’t believe his father. Then he asks, “Military advisors? Why would you do something like that?”

His father responds, “Because I know what’s best for you. Now, if you’re done having a fit, I will explain. Look, that cushy job in Pickett’s office might sound impressive, but you’re never going to advance in this army if you don’t have a record people can look up to. Ever since the French shit in the bed in Dien Bien Phu, we’ve gotten more involved in the region which might result in some combat experience. I just don’t want you to make same the mistakes I did. I trusted the wrong people, was too naive. I didn’t care about the politics and got …I missed the boat on my own career.”

Young Lee thinks that is a good story, but he doesn’t buy it. Young Lee has faced monsters and crisscrossed the world, but his father asks, a bit too loudly, what does he have to show for it after five years?

“We are trying to protect people by understanding how these things operate,” Young Lee explains.

His father believes that all the Titans care about is survival and all we care about as humans is survival. “Because in the end, only one thing matters: Who wins.”

Back to Japan 2017, Old Lee is driving at night with Suzuki. Suzuki worries what will happen if Godzilla emerges.

Back with the glum Kentaro in Tokyo, he’s walking the streets alone. The alert sirens begin and he gets warnings on his cellphone. In Tokyo harbor we see something: luminous dorsal fins. Kentaro’s mother finds him. They see Godzilla and a missile strikes a building. Kentaro and Emiko begin to run. They meet May in the crowd. They three are running together, with Kentaro in the middle. Missiles are flying and people are screaming in fear. Godzilla seems to be a few city blocks away.

They suddenly run into Cate who is standing facing them, against the running crowd. She says, “It’s okay. I told you it doesn’t want to harm us.” The camera gives us a bird’s eye view and we see that Godzilla is not alone. There’s Krakilla/Titan X and Godzilla turns to confront the Titan. Of course, this is a dream and Kentaro wakes up in his room. He goes out to find his mother reading a newspaper and hugs her.

When he closes his door to go back into his room, we are transported to someone opening a door for Young Lee in 1958, “Welcome to your new home, Captain.”  The lights to his new office don’t even work. He puts a file and his hat down on a table. It’s late and he finds that none of the lights work and he destroys a lamp in anger.

Back in Tokyo 2017, Kentaro stands before his father’s grave. The stone actually says: Miura for his father’s family.

Cate and Keiko are doing research near a body of water.  Keiko explains, “We have to get answers and find Titan X before Lee calls Godzilla. If what you’re feeling is really coming from Titan X, then maybe the signal you’re receiving can lead us to it…The transducer converts the waves coursing through your body into electric signals we can analyze.”

Cate dips her feet in the water and we hear a rumbling. Keiko says, “The amperage is low; the signal is too weak. If we could immerse you a little more, we might be able to amplify it.” Cate is scared. Cate plunges into the water, totally submerging and holding her breath. Keiko can hear the Titan blowing, but how long is Cate going to stay underwater?  Cate comes up. Keiko plays back the recording for Cate.

“Do you hear that? That’s panic. That’s fear,” Cate says. “I think it’s lost.”

Back to Old Lee and Suzuki in the mountains of Japan. Suzuki says, “Then let’s see if by accounting for time dilation my calculations can locate Godzilla. ..The rifts residual energy, combined with the power we’re adding can trigger a quantum distortion. There is one way to bypass the interference. A conduit to collect readings.”

Old Lee gets to be a conduit “like Benjamin Franklin’s kite.” He has to hold this speed gun like device and stand closer to the rift than a reasonable person should. Suzuki has no idea what is the worst thing that could happen.

Back in 1958, at the new Monarch headquarters in Arlington, Keiko walks in to her office and is surprised to find that Young Lee has let himself in. It’s the weekend, but, of course, Keiko is working. “Lee, I’m sorry I didn’t try harder to convince you to stay,” Keiko begins after an awkward silence.

Lee admits that “even if you two are fine on your own, I’m not so sure that I am.”  That’s because “What you’re doing here, Kei, is way too important and I promise to put my feelings aside for Monarch. That is, if the position is still available.”  What changed his mind was he had “an uncomfortable glimpse into my future without a couple of good eggheads by my side.”

Keiko tells him the position is still open because who cold replace Lee? Billy is already looking at a new expedition. “There was an incident at a Soviet power plant. It was forced to cordon off the rear for 100 miles.” You know where this is: Kazakhstan.

Back to Old Lee in Japan 2017, they are at the rift area. They sync together communication devices because, “Have you ever attempted to have a conversation with in the middle of a hurricane?” Suzuki asks.

Once the machine is started, the faces Suzuki makes are not reassuring. Beams of light rise up from the valley below them. Suzuki says they are picking up an anomaly, but he’s not sure if it is a Titan. Old Lee says there’s a strong signal and wonders if it is Godzilla. Suzuki will only commit to it having detected something. Then, he says, “But I don’t think it’s Godzilla.” The energy forces is pulling Old Lee in. When Suzuki kills the power, the energy doesn’t immediately stop drawing Old Lee in.

Suzuki says, “My instruments are reading something, but it doesn’t make sense.”

Old Lee is getting a message on his device: “Control, do you read me?”

Old Lee asks, “Who is this? Who am I speaking to?”

The reply stuns old Lee, “This is Major Leland Lafayette Shaw III. My crew is dead. My vehicle damaged. My food has run out. Control, I need an extraction.” This is a message from 1962, that Shaw sent when he was trapped in Axis Mundi.

Episode 6 ‘Requiem’ introduces a time loop and a figure from the past.

Creatures Featured 

Episode 206:

• Kong
• Needlewalker – original to Monarch
• Krakilla or Titan X – original to Monarch.
• Trilobilla or Scarab (photo only) – original to Monarch
• Godzilla