godzilla
Overview
Gallery

Spoiler
SPOILER WARNING
This section may contain major plot and/or ending details. Proceed at your own discretion.

"Birthright" is the eighth episode of the first season of the MonsterVerse series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.

Synopsis

The team goes back to where things all began to confront Shaw. On the brink of collapse, Monarch takes drastic measures.

Plot

Billy and Keiko laugh over their son, Hiroshi, who takes after Billy. He's got Keiko's brains and Billy's curveball. They both miss their son. She asks Lee if they'll be home before his birthday.

2015

Kazakhstan

Lee wakes up from his daydream when Duvall tells him they're at the target. He's sure this is the one.

1955

Washington D.C.

Lieutenant Hatch reads Keiko, Lee, and Billy's latest report. They have a lot of progress with their gamma-ray technique. Hatch isn't impressed by their reports and dislikes the amount of funds going into their project. He still believes they defeated Godzilla two years ago. He asks where all the monsters are. Hatch thinks their focus should be on the infiltration of hostile foreign spies. He references that their breakthrough is based on technology made by a former officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy. He's not sure how "Doctor Miura" ever qualified for clearance. Lee snaps that he's out of line. Hatch doubles down that she has juicy tidbits in her background check, too. Billy swings at Hatch.

2015

Monarch Headquarters

Tim brings May, Cate, and Kentaro to his office at Monarch headquarters. They're underwhelmed by the space. Cate doesn't see any Randa's on the walls. Tim reveals the family has a complicated history with Monarch. After their grandmother died, Billy became obsessed and started pushing theories about teleportation and wormholes. Tim lets them into the communications room. Monarch's outposts all over the world are picking up Gamma Rays they haven't seen since G-Day. Tim wonders if Hiroshi is predicting the rays or following them. Verdugo joins them - they want answers. Shaw just exploded something in Alaska which dropped the gamma rays to zero, though it spiked in a dozen different locations after that. If Shaw sets off another blast, it could push the rays over the top and another G-Day could happen. Kentaro's not sure how they can help since Shaw stole their map. Verdugo asks Cate to think about her father, the map he made, and where it's leading Shaw.

Kazakhstan

Shaw arrives at the same rundown plant he visited decades before. He flashes back to losing Keiko in the pit. It has new bars and security, which Shaw believes is to keep things from getting out, not in as Duvall suggests.

1955

Billy is angry that Hatch sent him to the basement, which was the best Lee could manage to keep Billy from being thrown out onto the street. He punches a wall out of anger; Lee admits he did him a favor, knowing that had he assaulted Hatch himself, he would already be in the stockade. Keiko knows he'll write up a report painting them as con artists. She hopes General Puckett can help, but Lee knows he can only help if they find him a monster. Lee suggests telling them that their attempts to kill Godzilla failed, despite Keiko's concerns that it would only spur the military to build a bigger bomb. He thinks this qualifies as something they need to know, referencing their pact. Lee looks over the maps and asks them to make a map of everywhere the monsters have been. He wants everything they know on paper. They have three days before the budget meeting. They have to take their life's work and string something together.

2015

May points out the hole in Tim's wall. Tim insists he inherited it from someone with a temper. Kentaro complains about Tim's hoarding of paperwork. Tim is thrilled at the idea of everything connecting somehow through the files in that room. Kentaro finds a file from his eighteenth birthday, which Hiroshi didn't spend with him. He was updating the G-TASS system instead. Tim is sorry that Hiroshi wasn't the dad of the year, but they don't have time to think about that right now. Cate finds the file about their grandmother going missing on a field job. Tim looks at a map and remembers Kazakhstan was one of the places on Hiroshi's map. It's also where one of the spikes is happening. Cate thinks Lee is sentimental and is in love with Keiko. Verdugo isn't allowed to operate within those borders so she'll have to send a team. Cate volunteers to go because Shaw wants them to finish it together. Verdugo isn't sure about it, so Tim volunteers to go along. Verdugo finally agrees.

Cate talks to Kentaro in the hall. He doesn't understand why they have to get involved. She feels responsible for getting Shaw involved. She gets if he has to leave. Kentaro isn't doing this for their father anymore. The two head to the elevator.

1955

Billy returns to his office which Keiko has hung paper lanterns inside. She points out the gaps in his work. They have to draw a map instead of a blueprint like Billy has. She wishes he would clean up after himself, sweeping away crumbs and ants. He reminds her of their mission statement - beyond logic lies the truth - which she knows might be catchy but isn't illuminating the way they need. Billy thinks they both see the impossible. She thanks him for defending her up there. It might have been stupid but she appreciates it. There are things in her past that she hasn't shared with him. He doesn't care. From the moment he met her in the jungle, he knew that he could trust her. Their job now is to simplify things so Neanderthal's can understand him. They start making a map of confirmed sightings. They work together unaware that Lee is listening from the door.

Kazakhstan

2015

Cate argues with the Monarch operatives as she believes their attack-first approach isn't going to work. Kentaro thinks Lee will listen because he wants them here. He thinks Lee wants them to take over the family business. Konaté agrees to try it their way.

They arrive at the power plant and notice Lee's vehicles are already there. May asks Cate and Kentaro if they're sure about this, and they are. Once inside, Tim asks about the exposure risk, which is bad adjacent. After the meltdown, it's supposed to be uninhabitable for a thousand years, but something is absorbing the radiation. Tim steps on a creature and panics until May determines it's just a shell. Cate realizes they are all exoskeletons because they molt. This creeps Tim out. The group continues to the reactor which is where they lost Keiko decades earlier. They find fauna growing from the hole where the reactor used to be. Tim reveals it's a portal, an entry point. Kentaro wonders if Shaw is really that crazy to try and close it. Konaté calls Tim away to look at the charges around the perimeter. They're rigged to a radio detonator. Duvall and her team ambush as she demands Konaté put her gun down. She can't let them stop this. Cate tells them all to stop. She refuses to let anyone get shot. She wants to see Shaw, and he emerges a few moments later, ready to talk with just Cate.

1955

Billy stares at the map, visibly stumped by it. He can't figure out what they're missing. He watches the ant run across a paper and disappear through a hole. This is his lightbulb moment.

Billy goes searching for Keiko at her house. She tries to stop him from coming inside but he doesn't stop. He thinks the Titans live underground and that's how they stop from being seen. Their underground might be a realm beneath the earth, inside of it, or alongside it. She thinks it sounds crazy but brilliant. A child calls for Keiko from the other room. He follows her and Keiko introduces Billy to her son, Hiroshi.

Keiko explains that she came to Berkeley so Hiroshi could have a better life. It took her a long time to bring Hiroshi over. Her son is what Hatch meant in his office. She wanted to tell him and Lee so many times, but the way she's treated doesn't bring much respect. She doesn't want to add widow and single mother to the list. Billy has her back, Monarch too, so she doesn't have to do it alone.

2015

Cate follows Shaw into a room. Shaw chose Cate to come alone because she looked into Godzilla's eyes and knew he was not just a mindless force. There's a world down the portal that isn't theirs. He's been to it before. Billy and Keiko were right the whole time. Cate wants to believe him. She asks what he saw down there. He's afraid that's incomprehensible. But what he learned from this is why Keiko tried to tell everyone at Bikini Atoll they were wrong to destroy Godzilla. He's trying to keep the species in their worlds. He wants to seal off every portal. She worries they're making things worse and not better. Shaw brushes it off as just Monarch cherry-picking data. It's not about the data, any way, it's about belief. It's also about atonement.

1955

Lee goes to the budget meeting and finds General Puckett. He insists for a moment of Puckett's time. Puckett is disappointed in Lee and believes Hatch's report that Monarch shouldn't be funded any further. Lee presents Puckett with the map of potential Titan threats currently under assessment. He reveals Hatch has omitted certain facts from his report - such as Godzilla not being dead. Lee saw him at Hateruma Island, and it's all on the map. Lee leverages the map to keep Keiko and Billy's positions in Monarch secure.

2015

Tim tries to tell Duvall that Shaw has lost his mind. Duvall is happy that he's not sitting around like Monarch.

Cate asks Lee if this is what Keiko would have wanted. His mission was to protect her. Cate knows this is where Lee lost her. She sounds like a force of nature. Cate knows this is to make up for losing Keiko. He plans to honor the work Billy and Keiko were trying to do. He's not making any time for indecision. He starts the countdown of the detonators.

Everyone flees the building except May, who goes after Cate. She trips crossing the threshold as the building splinters from the bombs. She hits her head and falls into the portal. Endopedes erupt from the portal and attack everyone. One grabs Cate and drags her to the portal entrance. Lee grabs hold of her hand, telling her to not let go. The Endopede's weight causes the ground to break away. Cate and Shaw fall into the portal. Kentaro shouts for Cate seconds before the charges detonate. The entire building collapses as the portal sucks the debris inside.

Cast

Starring

Guest starring

Co-starring

Appearances

Monsters

Trivia

Gallery