Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
Season 1 Episode 8
Episode Title: Birthright
Original release date: December 29, 2023
Episode plot summary: In the Monsterverse’s “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters,” the Hollow Earth theory is more than a narrative tool; it’s a world beneath our own where giant monsters reside. The series highlights the tension between the theory’s absurdity and the seriousness with which it’s treated, particularly in a prequel series focused on scientists proving its existence. Billy’s breakthrough, a realization of a world beneath ours hinted by an ant crawling through a hole in a map, seems monumental but is undermined by the audience’s prior knowledge from later films in the franchise. The discovery, while a significant moment within the show, struggles to have an impact due to its pre-established nature in the MonsterVerse.
Meanwhile, personal dramas unfold: Billy and Keiko, working closely together, grow closer, while Lee accepts his place outside their budding relationship. In a significant twist, it’s revealed that Keiko has a son from a previous marriage, adding depth to her character and her relationship with Billy. The series also hints at future complexities with revelations about Billy’s later life and his theories, as well as escalating global tensions and threats. The narrative culminates in a tense moment where a Titan emerges from a portal, dragging characters into the mysterious world below, leaving viewers anticipating the next developments in this intricate universe.
* * *
[Billy chuckles]
[Keiko] Stop.
You’re just mad because he takes after me.
Of course I am. It’s not fair.
Oh, look, he’s obviously got your brains.
Yeah, obviously.
And he’ll be blessed with my gravity-defying breaking curveball.
Oh, my God.
Not the curveball again.
Yes, the curveball.
I mean, look, your brains, my arm. It’s the best of both worlds.
Kid’s gonna be a god.
[chuckles]
[breathes heavily]
I just miss him.
This is hard.
Yeah, I know.
I miss him too.
Do you think we’ll be home before Hiroshi’s birthday?
Lee?
Lee?
[Duvall] Colonel.
Colonel?
Yeah, what?
Point of no return.
We having second thoughts?
Not at all. But what I’m saying is, there are other targets.
True.
More easily accessible.
No, Michelle.
This is the target today.
This is the one.
There’s gonna be a turn up here, a little bit ahead.
[sighs] I have to confess.
This is more than I could have imagined.
Thank you. [chuckles]
We’ve recently had some very promising results with our gamma ray simulation techniques.
It would appear so.
My hat’s off to you, Captain.
We aim to please.
You’ve managed to take a pile of blurry photos, campfire stories, unreliable witnesses and so much scientific gibberish it might as well be Chinese algebra…
Hey, hold on–
…and used it to siphon off resources
that ought to be used to safeguard this great nation.
We are trying to safeguard the world.
We don’t wear these uniforms to protect the world.
So you think that Godzilla respects national boundaries?
Our nuclear superiority proved more than a match for Godzilla and I’m confident it will again, should the need arise.
Which, in the two years since Castle Bravo, you have provided not a shred of evidence to suggest that possibility.
I have one question.
[exhales sharply]
Where are all these monsters?
You have shoveled Uncle Sam’s money into a self-perpetuating bureaucratic sinkhole while ignoring the clear and present threat to this country: infiltration and subversion by hostile foreign agents.
That’s not exactly our department.
[Hatch] Well, maybe it should be.
I see one of your breakthroughs is based on technology developed by a former officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy.
“Former.”
And how Doctor Miura here ever qualified for top secret clearance is beyond me.
Hey, you’re out of line, Hatch.
Especially given the juicy tidbits the FBI turned up in her background check.
You son of a bitch. [groans]
[grunting]
Welcome to Monarch.
[stammers]
[sighs]
Sorry. [chuckles]
This is what our grandparents built?
[chuckles]
Ah… [sighs] …well, yeah.
They keep saying we’re gonna move into a bigger space but, uh, I’ll believe it when I see it.
Come on, we’re late.
I don’t see any Randas up here.
I thought we were Monarch royalty.
[Tim] Uh, well, your family has kind of a complicated legacy here.
After your grandmother died, your grandfather became obsessed.
Started pushing all these theories about teleportation and wormholes.
Real tinfoil hat type of stuff.
Is that why we’re here, to get fitted for our tinfoil hats?
Let your freak flag fly, bro.
[May] Oh.
This is your legacy.
This is more like it.
[Tim] Monarch has outposts all over the world.
Right now, they are picking up gamma ray bursts just like we saw before G-Day.
Alaska, North Africa, places we know your father has been.
So what? Is he causing it? Is that what you’re saying?
No, I’m not.
But these are all points on the map that you saw in his office.
Is he predicting them or is he following them?
Good questions.
We do questions really well around here.
But what we need right now are some answers.
Shaw and his people just detonated a large explosion near the site we picked you up at in Alaska.
The gamma ray emissions coming from that area dropped to zero.
Well, that sounds good.
But then immediately increased at a dozen other sites.
That sounds bad.
Right now, they’re hovering at levels just below what we saw on G-Day.
We don’t know exactly what Shaw is trying to accomplish here.
But if he sets off another blast, it could push it over the line.
So that means another G-Day?
I’d rather not find out. That’s why you’re here.
What can we do?
[Tim] We know that Colonel Shaw wanted your father’s map because he’s following some pattern that Hiroshi laid out.
We need to know where Shaw’s heading to next so we can stop him before it’s too late.
Sorry. He dumped us in the desert, stole the map and took off with your partner.
I’m not sure how much we can help.
You saw Hiroshi’s map.
It led you to Africa.
It led you to Godzilla.
Tim seems to think that your bloodline gives you some unique insight into this situation.
Like, I don’t see how, but I am running out of options.
So I need you to think about your father, about this map that he made and about where it’s leading Shaw.
Well, I love what they’ve done to the place.
[sighs]
They don’t want anyone getting in.
No, I think this is their feeble attempt to prevent anything from getting out.
What exactly do you think we’ll find in there?
[sighs]
Reach! Kei!
[screams]
It won’t be for the faint of heart. I can tell you that.
I founded this place
and that fascist tin-pot thinks he can bury me in the basement.
Well, it was everything I could do to keep you from getting thrown out onto the street. So–
And I can’t believe that crap he said about you.
Juicy tidbits?
What a load of racist horseshit. [groans]
[chuckles]
[groans]
[chuckles] How’s your hand feel?
[Billy] Not great.
Well… [scoffs] …you did me a favor.
If I’d gone at him like that, I’d be in the stockade right now.
You’re welcome.
He’s gonna write a report that makes us look like con artists.
Yeah. Yeah.
You know General Puckett. Can’t you do something?
Well, he wants to know where the monsters are.
So the obvious solution is to find him one.
Easier said than done.
Godzilla saved our asses last time–
No.
If we tell them that the biggest H-bomb we’ve ever tested didn’t kill it–
They’ll build a bigger one.
Which they’re gonna do anyway, Kei.
Didn’t you hear Hatch? I mean, the Reds are the problem now.
We made a pact.
[sighs]
We only share what they need to know.
You don’t think this qualifies?
[sighs]
[breathes heavily]
[sighs]
I need you guys to start making a map.
A map?
He wants to know where the Titans are hiding, let’s draw him a goddamn map.
[inhales sharply] Build me a case for Monarch.
All those field notes and the journals and the diaries that you’ve been keeping.
You know, everything that you’ve scribbled down since the Lawton sank out from underneath you.
What we know about the Titans. Where they-Where they sleep.
What they eat. Spawn. Mate.
The whole shooting match.
Right. Uh, we don’t actually know any of that.
[scoffs] How can I convince Puckett this place should exist if we don’t know why it should?
You have three days before the budgetary meeting.
You have three days.
Take your life’s work and string something together.
[sighs] Whew.
Going a little stir-crazy in here or…
I inherited that from someone with a temper.
I keep filling out a maintenance request. But welcome to government work.
[sighs]
What is the point of this?
Travel vouchers, requisition for office supplies–
Uh, here’s an invoice for an exterminator.
Did you ever throw anything away?
[Tim] No. And thank God I didn’t.
There is a connection here.
A direct line from the foundation that your grandparents laid through your father’s map straight to the readings that we’re getting now.
Ju-Just-[sighs] We just got to find it.
“July 7th, 2008.”
Does that mean anything?
It was my 18th birthday.
And my dad was here doing the software update on the Geosynchronous Titan Anomaly Sensing System.
G-TASS. Yeah, that was tough. That was a busy day.
[clears throat, stammers]
I’m sorry that Hiroshi was not Dad of the Year, but this is not the time for that.
Verdugo and her team, they are up there collecting data and crunching numbers with every source that we have.
But Shaw… [breathes heavily] …he’s old school.
The oldest of schools.
[Tim] Exactly.
He would not let this go. This was his mission.
It was-[stammers] It was his life.
We’re not gonna find him with some multi-spectrum satellite sweep.
Wait.
[sighs]
Did you find something?
“Operative lost during field assignment in performance of duties.
Missing presumed killed.
Randa, Keiko.”
[sighs]
So Monarch cost us our father and both our grandparents.
[Tim] Huh.
“I request her death benefits be issued to her surviving spouse, Randa, William.
Signed, Leland L. Shaw, Major, United States Army.”
Where did she die?
Kazakhstan.
It was on Hiroshi’s map.
[stammers] It is one of the places we’re seeing a spike in gamma ray emissions.
Yes, one of.
It’s where he lost her.
Does Shaw seem like the sentimental type to you?
Yes, he does.
I mean, when we were in the desert, the way he talked about our grandmother, I thought he was gonna tell me he was our grandfather.
Shaw is trying to rewrite the past.
To do that, he needs to go back to the place where everything went to hell for him.
We’re not allowed to operate inside those borders.
[sighs]
It’ll have to be a small team.
We’ll go.
[scoffs] We will?
I am not sending a bunch of untrained amateurs after Lee Shaw.
You sent a bunch of trained professionals last time.
How did that work out for you?
Shaw practically begged us to go with him. He wanted us to finish this together.
I’ll go with them.
[sighs]
Sure. Why not?
I always thought Goonies deserved a sequel.
I didn’t mean to volunteer you back there.
You did.
Sorry, but we have to do something.
[sighs] Why do we have to do something?
Our father worked for these people. He made that map.
And we took it to Shaw.
If it hadn’t been for us, Uncle Lee would still be in his old folks’ home playing boccie with Stan.
[sighs]
Look, I get what you mean.
I mean, that was me, right? Screw Dad. He screwed us.
I understand if you need to leave.
I’m not leaving.
But I’m not cleaning up his mess.
[elevator chimes]
I’m not doing this for him.
[May] Should we hold it?
Okay?
Okay.
Coming. [panting]
Hatch almost busted me but I managed to get all the f–
Oh, good.
Files. What the–
It’s not the best work light but the place needed something.
It did. I like it.
Good.
[sighs]
What’s this?
So… [grunts] …I was going through your field notes and there’s too much unsubstantiated data.
There is second, third, fourth hand accounts with no corroborating evidence.
You sound like Hatch.
Would you like to lose the other hand?
No. Okay.
Mmm.
So, Lee said that we need to draw a map that clearly charts our mission for Hatch and Puckett, right?
Yeah, so? That’s what I did.
No.
This is more like a blueprint of a house that’s designed by a hundred different architects.
[chuckles]
Ninety-nine of whom might be insane.
[scoffs]
You got stairways going nowhere, rooms with no doors, and you end up with a house that’s bigger on the inside, but on the outside–
[scoffs] And can you please clean up after yourself?
Yeah. [stammers, sighs]
[stammers] How did you manage to get ants four stories underground?
We can’t just exclude anything that seems crazy when the whole damn thing is crazy.
Hmm.
Remember…
Beyond logic lies the truth.
Lies the truth.
Yes, it’s catchy.
Okay.
Yeah.
But Hatch and Puckett can’t see the possibilities in the impossible the way you do.
The way we do.
[sighs]
[inhales deeply]
Billy, I’m-[sighs]
Thank you… for what you did up there, defending me.
It was stupid.
[clicks tongue]
[chuckles]
But thank you.
[sighs] Look, the nerve of that guy coming at you like that.
Yeah. But what Hatch said, it wasn’t–
The truth is, there are things in my life, in my past, that I haven’t shared with you.
I-I don’t care. I don’t care. [sighs]
From the day that I met you, when you wouldn’t leave me on the wreck of the Lawton, I knew.
[clicks tongue] I knew that I–
I knew I, uh– That I… could trust you… no matter what.
So… [inhales shakily, sighs]
So, um, I guess the job here is to make it simple enough to understand so that even a Neanderthal could understand it.
[chuckles] Yes.
Right.
So we eliminate what we don’t have direct evidence of.
Right.
Hmm.
So we know that Godzilla was in Bikini and Hateruma.
Yeah.
Confirmed sightings.
Right. And then the-the Lawton dragon is here off Hawaii.
And here in the Philippines.
Yeah.
And, uh… [sighs] …we can eliminate the Siberian reports.
Excuse me? I had three independent sources.
Two drunk, one blind.
[stammers]
Next.
Okay. Uh, Yucatán.
Blurry photos.
But photos.
Okay. Mark them possible but unconfirmed.
That is…
This is how it’s done.
…not okay.
No.
It’s science.
Okay.
Mm-hmm.
Wow, color coded and everything.
[Keiko] Mm-hmm.
So we can take it out later if we need to, you know?
[Billy] Yeah. I don’t know. Um–
[Keiko speaking indistinctly]
My team will go in first, assess the situation.
We’ll bring you in once we feel the area is secure.
[May] Body armor?
This isn’t gonna work.
This needs to go by the numbers.
We don’t know what we’re gonna find in there.
We’re gonna find Shaw, okay?
And if the first thing he sees is your team pointing guns at him, this isn’t gonna turn out the way we want.
You said you weren’t the bad guys.
That you’re just a bunch of monster nerds trying to save the world.
I don’t think I ever used the words “monster nerds.”
[chuckles] I definitely did.
Shaw escalated this.
Yeah, and he’s gonna do it again if he sees you.
He’ll at least talk to us.
What makes you think he’ll listen?
[Kentaro] Because he wants us here.
He wants someone to take over the family business and he thinks we’re the only family he has left.
He’s not gonna shoot us.
Okay, well, I’m not gonna be the only one.
[Tim] Looks like you were right.
[pants] He’s already here.
[Kentaro] Over there.
[Konaté] Looks like they blasted their way in.
[sighs]
[exhales sharply]
Y’all sure you want to do this?
Guess so.
[Tim] What kind of exposure are we looking at?
[buzzing]
About two-tenths of a millisievert.
Is that bad?
[Tim] Bad a-adjacent.
It’s not much more than a chest X-ray, per hour.
After the meltdown, this place was supposed to be uninhabitable for a thousand years.
Something’s absorbing the radiation.
Something?
Yeah. Well–
You know.
Yeah.
What the–
[groans] Don’t move.
What is it? What is it?
[shushes]
[grunts] I’m not moving. Just tell me what it–
[grunting]
[breathes deeply] No, no, no, that’s-It’s a shell.
What?
[sighs] Yeah, it’s empty.
You’re fine. [sighs]
What?
[Kentaro] They all are.
It’s an exoskeleton.
Like when an insect molts.
Oh, my God.
[crunching]
God. Jesus.
[mumbles, breathes deeply]
You are the Monarch guy, right?
Shut up.
You do know why some animals molt, right?
Yeah, they grew out of their skin.
[sighs]
Fantastic.
This should lead to the reactor, or what’s left of it.
[Konaté] We’re at six millisieverts now.
This is where they lost Keiko.
Then this is where he’ll be.
[Konaté] Fan out. Stay alert.
[Kentaro] Holy–
[Tim shushes]
[sighs]
[wind whistling]
You think they had a meltdown?
It’s a portal.
It’s an entry point.
[May] To where?
Tinfoil hat land.
Is Shaw’s plan really that crazy?
To try and close it?
[Konaté] Tim.
Charges. Set all around the perimeter.
Looks like enough to bring this whole place down on top of us.
[Tim] Can you defuse them?
I can try.
Looks like they’re rigged to a radio detonator.
Step away from that.
[operatives clamoring]
Hey! W-Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
And put your gun down.
[operative] Do it.
Shouldn’t be here, Tim. You’re not cut out for fieldwork.
You sure about that? Maybe I learned a thing or two from you.
Look around, sweetie pie. Clearly not enough.
I said gun down.
Okay, okay, okay.
Hey, just–
Okay. Okay.
Hey.
Are you gonna shoot me, Michelle?
I don’t want to, Timothy, so don’t make me.
We can’t let you stop this.
Everyone stop.
No one is shooting anyone.
Where is Shaw?
Well, you finally made it.
I assume this means you wanna talk.
Let’s talk.
Cate. Just you.
Stairs to nowhere.
Rooms without doors.
What the hell are we missing?
[sighs]
Bigger on the inside.
Keiko!
Keiko!
Hey, Keiko, you in there?
I’m coming around back.
[knocking]
[sighs]
Keiko!
Oh. It’s the ants. [chuckles]
What are you doing here?
The ants. I’m sorry.
I know how you are about your privacy.
You can’t be here.
Yeah. Okay. Ooh.
Billy. [breathes shakily]
I tried to call but, uh, it was busy.
[shushes]
[stammers, sighs] Keep your voice down.
[sighs] Can you keep your–
[coughs]
[whispering] keep your voice down.
So–
I had it off the hook.
Why?
Well, just…
It doesn’t matter.
[breathes deeply] The ants showed me it’s bigger on the inside.
What are you talking about?
What if they live underground?
The Titans.
If that’s how they move around the world without being seen.
Like ants.
Yes. Sort of.
Uh, what if their underground isn’t just underground?
What if it’s another realm, not just beneath the earth, but…
Inside of it.
Yes. Inside, but also-also alongside, existing together.
Bigger on the inside.
Mm-hmm.
That sounds…
[sighs] Crazy.
Yes.
Oh.
But brilliant.
Yeah?
[chuckles]
Okay. [chuckles]
Yeah.
[child] Mama.
[speaking Japanese]
[child groans]
[speaking Japanese]
[chuckles]
[in English] This is my son Hiroshi.
[chuckles]
Hi.
[speaks Japanese]
[speaks Japanese]
[sighs]
[chuckles]
[in English] So, it’s why I applied to do my postgraduate work at Berkeley.
After the war I-[sighs] I wanted Hiroshi to have other opportunities.
And then I couldn’t bring him in the beginning,
so my mother’s been looking after him.
I just didn’t realize how long it was gonna take for me to bring him.
[inhales sharply] I was finally able to save up enough money, thanks to the job at Monarch.
Yeah.
And their visas came through about six months ago.
So, he’s what Hatch was talking about?
Your juicy tidbit?
What did you think it was? [chuckling]
Nothing.
[chuckling]
I wanted to tell you and Lee.
I-I really did.
No. No, it’s-Don’t.
And I almost did so many times.
But, uh, you see how I’m treated.
A woman. A Japanese.
[stammers] It’s hard enough to get an ounce of respect. [sighs]
What do you think they’d do if they found out I was a widow trying to raise a child alone? [sighs]
Then don’t do it alone.
You know, um, I-I got your back.
We, Monarch, we got your back.
Why just me?
You know why.
You looked into his eyes.
He’s not just a mindless, destructive force.
He knows what he’s doing.
And what’s that?
[sighs]
There’s a world down there, Cate.
And it’s not ours.
There’s a world down there?
Oh, yeah. I know because I’ve been to it.
It exists, Cate.
Billy and Keiko were right.
Please.
Please believe me.
I want to believe you.
[chuckles] Well, that puts you one up on Monarch.
And your dad, too, by the way. At first.
[grunts]
[sighs]
What did you see?
[breathes shakily] Tell me what they couldn’t believe.
[scoffs, chuckles]
I’m afraid that’s just simply incomprehensible.
But what I learned from it was why Keiko was trying to tell everybody at Bikini Atoll why they were wrong to try to destroy Godzilla.
He-He’s not here to hurt us.
He’s just keeping his kind in their world and us in ours.
So that’s why you wanna seal off their world.
I am sealing off their world.
Every portal.
But what if you’re making things worse?
We went to Monarch, and we saw the gamma ray readings.
The same type they were getting right before G-Day.
Come on, Cate.
Monarch can cherry-pick any piece of data they want to justify continually sitting on their hands, which is what they do.
They study their data and then they study it again.
What makes you so sure that your data, whatever that might be, is so right?
It’s not about the data, Cate.
It’s all about belief.
And to some small degree atonement.
A nun and a priest are walking along.
Now, they get into a sandstorm.
General.
General.
No idea–
[clears throat] A moment of your time, sir?
Well, you had your moment, son. It passed you by.
I’m due before the vice president in about two minutes and sadly–
[stammers] Give us a minute.
Sadly, there’s nothing in Lieutenant Hatch’s illuminating report to justify the continued funding of Project Monarch.
I am disappointed in you, Leland.
I understand, sir.
That’s why I wanted to give you this as a token of my appreciation for all that you’ve done for me.
And what’s this?
It’s a map, sir.
A map?
A comprehensive projection of all the potential Titan threats currently under assessment by Project Monarch.
Jesus Christ, you do not give up.
Well, thank you for your generous offer, but Lieutenant Hatch has given me all the information that I need.
Sir, I believe that you’ll find Lieutenant Hatch’s report has omitted certain facts to justify shifting funding from Monarch to his own priorities.
Facts? Such as?
Such as Godzilla, sir.
Well, it’s highly classified.
Why would he have that in his file?
We didn’t kill it.
What did you say?
It was sighted during the operation at Hateruma Island, sir.
This is confirmed?
Sighted by me, sir.
It’s all in here.
You playing games with me?
No. No, sir.
I just feel compelled to point out that this was not provided by Lieutenant Hatch, but through the sole dedication, diligence and loyalty of doctors Miura and Randa.
Noted.
[grunts]
I do hope that doctors Miura and Randa’s position as sole authority over Project Monarch’s scientific operations will remain unchallenged.
Why wouldn’t they?
Sir.
[clears throat] He is ready for you, General.
Good luck, sir.
You too.
[Tim] He’s lost it, Michelle.
Shaw. He doesn’t know what he’s doing.
[Duvall] He knows exactly what he’s doing.
And at least he’s not sitting around, Tim, waiting to see what happens next.
Whose city will be destroyed?
Whose family will die?
This could destroy everything.
This could destroy the whole world.
Or it could save us.
Do you think this is what she would have wanted?
Keiko?
[chuckling] She was the first one to jump in, against my better judgment.
My mission was to protect her.
My job.
I know this is where you lost her.
I read the file.
Sounds like she was a force of nature.
And then some.
Talk all you want about stopping monsters and saving the world.
This is to make up for losing her, isn’t it?
Well, of course it is.
But that’s not really possible now, is it?
But I can still honor the work that Billy and Keiko were trying to do.
I understand what you’re saying, but–
No time for indecision, Cate.
Especially when you’ve already seen what indecision can cost you.
Clear the space.
[operative] Copy that.
Let’s go.
[beeping]
Come on.
[rumbling]
The hell was that?
Something’s coming.
[operatives clamoring]
Oh, shit.
Get out! Everybody out!
Cate!
May, get back!
Hey! Whoa, whoa, whoa!
[grunts, groans]
[Tim] May!
Hang on! [gasps, panting]
[screams]
[Tim] No, no, no!
[screaming]
[Kentaro] May!
[breathes heavily]
[roaring]
[gasps, whimpers]
[groans, screams]
[growling]
[screaming]
[screaming, whimpering]
[Lee grunts]
I got you!
Don’t let go of me!
[screams]
[Kentaro] Cate!
[growling]
[beeping]
