Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
Season 1 Episode 10
Episode Title: Beyond Logic
Original release date: January 12, 2024
Episode plot summary: The Monarch team, led by the determined Dr. Ellen Hunter (Vera Farmiga), finds themselves plunged into Axis Mundi, a chaotic dimension defying the very laws of physics. Reality bends and fractures around them, gravity flips, and time ceases to have meaning. Escape seems impossible, and the team’s sanity slowly unravels as they confront the horrors within this twisted mirror of their world.
Forced to adapt to survive, the team’s bonds are tested like never before. Lt. Winston Yates (Darren Criss) grapples with the burden of leadership, while the stoic cryptozoologist Dr. Ren Serizawa (Hiroki Watanabe) delves into the arcane secrets of Axis Mundi. Meanwhile, the jaded ex-Monarch operative, Dr. Matthew Levi (Ikemura Takahisa), hatches his own desperate plan, one that puts him at odds with his former allies.
Amidst the chaos, the team stumbles upon the enigmatic Guardian, a colossal entity that seems to hold the key to both their imprisonment and liberation. However, the Guardian’s motives are shrouded in mystery. Is it a benevolent protector or a malevolent warden? As the team unravels the secrets of Axis Mundi, they must confront their own inner demons and make impossible choices to earn the Guardian’s favor.
In a surprising turn of events, the gruff Monarch operative Kentaro Mori (Joe Ando) and the skittish tech expert Tim Mallory (Alfie Allen) forge an unlikely bond. Thrust together by circumstance, they discover hidden depths within each other, forging a grudging respect that blossoms into a crucial partnership. Their contrasting personalities and skillsets become their greatest asset as they navigate the treacherous landscape of Axis Mundi.
Just as a glimmer of hope emerges, a shocking revelation throws everything into disarray. The true nature of Axis Mundi and the motives of the Guardian are unveiled, forcing the team to confront a horrifying truth. As the episode reaches its climax, a desperate gamble leaves the team’s fate hanging in the balance. The final moments of “Beyond Logic” are a nerve-wracking cliffhanger, setting the stage for an explosive second season.
* * *
[breathes heavily]
[Keiko, echoing] Hello.
[breathes heavily] Are you all right?
[stammers] I can’t really answer that right now.
Can you walk? [exhales sharply]
[breathing heavily] Yes. Thanks.
[grunts]
[breathes shakily]
[exhales sharply] Those creatures are very territorial, and we are in their territory now.
All right, let’s go. [breathes heavily]
[Cate] You’re really her.
[sighs]
You’re Keiko Randa. [breathes heavily]
Were you expecting someone else?
I wasn’t expecting to be alive. [breathes shakily]
I know the feeling.
We need to move. [exhales sharply]
Wait.
[breathes heavily]
[Keiko] Who are you? What’s your name?
I’m… I’m Cate. [breathes heavily]
Well, how did you get here?
[breathes heavily] We fell.
Oh, my God. May.
We have to find the people I came with.
Is Billy with you?
[breathes heavily] What?
Bill Randa?
Lee Shaw?
We… We have to go back.
We have to find them!
We will. Calm down.
[breathing heavily]
This way.
Now.
[Kentaro, in Japanese] What were you doing?
In Alaska, out in the desert…
Did you know Godzilla was there?
I didn’t know it would be Godzilla, but I needed to draw out a Titan.
Why?
To open a rift.
To prove the network exists.
There’s a gateway that leads to their world inside our own.
All this to prove your theory was right?
[sighs]
That my parents were right.
If they hadn’t been dismissed as lunatics, heretics, by Monarch… maybe G-Day would never have happened.
Maybe Cate would still be here.
[scoffs]
Cate’s not dead because of Monarch.
She’s dead because of us.
Because I believed in you.
But all you ever cared about was this!
That isn’t true.
I only wanted to protect you from this.
But you didn’t need my protection.
That was my mistake.
[speaks Japanese]
You want to spare others the pain we feel?
You want to find a way for the human species to survive?
Help me.
Work with me.
We can solve this.
Together.
Solve what?
The secret of co-existence.
All right.
If you can answer one question.
[sighs]
That’s what matters to you now?
With the fate of the world at stake?
[sighs]
The choice I made…
You think I haven’t tried to understand it myself?
Would you rather that I hadn’t fallen in love with your mother?
That our family never existed?
Our family doesn’t exist.
Not anymore.
[door opens]
[in English] If the rest of your rescue party follow my beacon, there’s only one place they can come out.
[roaring]
[Keiko sighs]
I knew once they find my signal they’d come.
I’m sorry.
Signal?
[panting]
What signal?
You’re not part of a rescue party, are you?
You didn’t expect to find me here.
You’re not Monarch.
Who are you?
[twigs snap]
[grunts, pants]
[gasps] Oh, my God.
[May mumbles]
[breathes heavily] May. [sighs]
[May sobs] Oh, my God. [breathing heavily]
[Keiko] Tell me who you are.
Holy shit.
[Lee] Keiko!
[gasps, breathes heavily]
[Lee] Keiko, is that really you?
Of course it is.
Who is this?
It’s me, Kei.
It’s Lee.
Lee?
Your voice sounds different. Come out where I can see you.
No… No, just s-s-stay… Stay there for a second.
There’s some things you need to understand first.
What things?
How long do you think you’ve been down here, Kei?
By my estimation, 57 days.
Why?
Why are you hiding from me?
I came down here too, Kei. After you fell.
I led a recon mission.
Wait, you were here?
How? When?
That mission was in 1962.
[chuckles] It’s 1959. You’re not making sense.
[Lee] I came down here in 1962.
I thought I was here for only a week or so, and then I was able to get right back up.
I escaped, but it was…
It was 1982.
No. [breathing shakily]
[Lee] And that… that was 33… Thirty-three years ago.
Yeah.
With all the gravitational distortion… some warping of space-time would make…
[sobs]
Is it true?
Is it 2015?
[Lee] You always were good with numbers, Kei.
[breathes shakily, whimpers]
Lee.
I can’t believe you’re alive. I…
[sighs, breathes shakily]
[sobs]
[both crying]
It’s you.
[breathes shakily] It is you.
Lee.
[Lee cries]
Billy…
N… No, Kei. He’s… [stammers] He’s gone.
He died a long time ago. [cries]
Oh, no. [crying] Oh, no, no.
No. No, no, no, no.
[Keiko sobbing]
[breathes shakily]
[breathes shakily] Hiroshi?
Hiroshi?
He’s fine.
He’s fine. He’s okay.
How do you know? How do you know? How do you know? How do you know?
Who are you?
I’m your granddaughter. [chuckles]
[whimpering]
How’s the leg?
It’s good. [sighs] Only hurts when I walk on it.
Get your ass in a seat then.
The gamma emissions seemed to have stabilized.
Still high, but not end-of-the-world high.
We called in every warm body we could.
Most of the outposts are back online… barely.
Any word from Duvall?
Were you expecting one?
Not really.
[sighs] What about the signal?
It is not our priority right now.
Some… Someone could be alive and that is not a priority?
With the whole planet still humming like a pressure cooker?
With every station on alert for a possible emergence? No, it’s not.
If someone survived down there, they might know what’s going on.
That feels like it might be a big deal.
In normal times it would be a huge deal, but we are looking at a wave of Titan events threatening the lives of seven billion people.
I’m not peeling off resources to save three.
Okay. What if the three could save the seven billion?
Someone is alive down there.
And they might have the answers we need, and they are calling us for help.
We cannot pretend that we don’t hear ’em!
Look at the map, Tim.
Look at the scale of what we are trying to stop.
My hands are tied.
Then untie them!
Otherwise Shaw was right about us.
He was definitely right about you.
I need you to think very carefully about the next words you’re gonna say.
Now, are you going to take your seat, do your job, and help us deal with this crisis?
Or do I need to extend your medical leave indefinitely?
[Lee chuckles] Oh, my God.
Unbelievable.
[breathes deeply]
I reconfigured the emitter tube to send out a directional gamma ray pulse to let you know where I was.
[chuckles]
So Monarch made it to 1962.
They’re around even today.
Dad was part of it.
Oh.
Tell me about him.
He’s a… a family man.
He followed in your footsteps.
And when Monarch wouldn’t let him, he did it on his own.
[chuckles] He never knew… Knows when to stop.
Is he happy?
[Lee] Why don’t you ask him that yourself?
Can you rewire this back to its original configuration?
Yes. I think so.
Hmm.
Well… [sighs] …in that case, I’m gonna take you home.
[in Japanese] I told you it wouldn’t take long.
I gave most everything away.
I still need to make a few more trips.
Where will you go?
San Francisco.
Just for a few days.
There are some things I need to do… for the divorce.
Emiko, from now on…
After the attack on San Francisco, we called everyone we could think of.
Hospitals. The Red Cross.
We searched the internet.
I never gave up hope that you would come home.
[breathes deeply]
We dreamed about this day.
No matter what you did to me, your son deserves a relationship with his father.
So please, when you find out where you’ll be staying, let Kentaro know.
[all breathing heavily, grunting]
[in English] You’re good. Just keep going.
[May] Can we go around?
[Keiko] This is the only way.
May, don’t get hooked up on the tree.
[Keiko] Steady, steady.
[Lee] Look out. Oh, damn it.
[Keiko groans] Got it.
Yeah. Let’s take five.
[Cate pants]
We’ve got all the time in the world.
Yeah. [grunts]
I don’t know about you guys, but I’d like to get back to a world with flying cars and robot butlers.
Yeah. And maybe nursing homes on the moon.
[chuckles]
Okay. I think we can all use a breather.
Works for me.
[Cate breathing heavily]
[Lee panting] Hold on, Keiko.
[exhales deeply]
Hey, seriously… don’t go far.
Don’t go far.
All right. You ready?
Yeah. Yep.
Two, three…
[Kentaro sighs]
[sighs]
You mind if I join you?
Wha… What are you doing here?
Your mother said I might find you here.
[inhales sharply]
[grunts]
[sighs]
How’s your leg?
It hurts when it rains.
Yours?
Makes a funny clicking sound.
Kanpai.
Wow.
I’m not, uh… not usually a big whiskey guy…
What are you doing here?
[inhales deeply]
The gamma ray bursts, we found a coherent signal.
A signal?
A message.
From who?
I don’t know, but it’s coming from inside the rifts.
What am I supposed to do with it? I don’t know what any of this means.
No, you don’t… but your father might.
[Keiko exhales sharply]
[Lee grunts, sniffles]
[breathes sharply]
[exhales sharply]
[sniffs] Thank you.
[sighs]
[sighs]
[groans]
Kei, I gotta tell you… [inhales sharply]
Hmm?
You look exactly as you’ve always looked in my mind’s eye.
All these years.
Exactly.
[sniffs]
I’ve been talking to you and Billy in my head the whole time I was here.
Yeah.
Who you were anyway.
[chuckles]
What happened to Billy?
I heard that… [sighs]
I guess he was leading an expedition to some island and, um, was trying to prove some of the theories about all this and, uh, he, uh… he never came back.
Oh.
But he did it, Kei.
He was the last man standing.
I mean, he went down swinging.
He saved Monarch.
He saved everything you and he built.
Everything the three of us built.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I’ve lost so much time, Lee.
[sobs]
[sobs]
[sighs]
What’s it like now?
2015.
[stammers] Even the words sound fantastic.
Yeah, cars are smaller and more efficient, nowhere near as cool.
But the, you know, TV sets are bigger, flat. Everybody’s got one.
I mean, they’re everywhere.
And, um, you know, gadgets.
You know, they got a phone that does everything and it’s, uh…
Oh, hey, we went to the moon.
Yeah.
[chuckles] Of course, I missed that one too because I was down here.
But, you know, it’s…
Same… Same old world.
Same people… conflicts, triumphs.
You know, moms, dads… kids.
Well, speaking of kids, I guess I should check in on ours, huh?
[chuckles]
I don’t know if this will get to you. I hope so.
Actually, I don’t, because it will probably mean I’m dead, which you may not feel too busted up about.
Sorry, I gotta keep this short.
You may never forgive me for what I took from you, and I can’t go back in time and fix all the mistakes that I made.
But maybe I could leave something for the future.
A legacy.
[knocking]
And you’ll realize it was all worth it.
[sighs]
[sighs] Hello, Hiroshi.
Tim.
What are you doing here?
May we come in?
[in Japanese] I thought you wanted my help?
[in English] Your father.
I always appreciated your fidelity to my parents’ memory, Tim, but, uh, I’m very busy.
And I have no interest in working with Monarch.
Well, that’s… that’s probably good because they wouldn’t touch you with a ten-foot pole. [chuckles]
Then what do you want?
Just show him.
Gamma ray bursts coming from inside the rifts.
I’m well aware of gamma emissions.
No. Not these.
They’re not the same as the ones we detected before G-Day.
There is a coherent signal in there.
Coherent?
How? By what?
By who.
He thinks Cate could be alive.
Why are you doing this?
Look, it sounds crazy, I know.
It’s impossible.
It’s not impossible. Shaw came back.
And the rest of the team didn’t.
[breathes deeply]
The variables are nearly infinite.
[in Japanese] You sound like you don’t want it to be true.
Of course I want it to be true!
But there’s a big difference between what you want to be and what could be.
[in English] This is cruel.
You said you wanted me to work with you.
To finish your journey.
Fine. I’m in.
But first, help me find my sister.
[sighs]
How? Monarch won’t help.
Not with something like this.
[Tim] No, they won’t.
And that’s why I quit.
Monarch isn’t the only game in town.
[Cate] So if we’re in the realm of the Titans or whatever, why does it look so much like Earth?
[Keiko] Because it is. Parts of it, anyway.
Different pieces of home.
Different pieces of their world.
All put together like a patchwork quilt.
[breathes heavily] I don’t think this is the realm of the Titans at all.
It’s a place between places.
I call it “Axis Mundi.”
The pole between heaven and earth.
You know.
Schoolteacher.
Oh.
[rumbling]
[May] Look, there it goes again.
[Keiko] Let’s put it down.
[sighs, breathes deeply]
How… How is light getting in when we’re underground?
[exhales deeply] How do you know we are underground?
[sighs]
‘Cause we fell down a hole.
Did we fall?
Yeah.
Or did we enter?
[sighs]
The rabbit hole.
[Lee] Welcome to it, Alice.
We’re almost there.
Let’s keep moving.
[breathes heavily]
Okay. Ready?
[sighs] All right.
Yeah.
[sighs]
[grunts]
Two, three. Up.
[all groaning]
[May] Okay.
[thunder rumbles]
[breathes heavily]
Well, there she is.
Right where I left her.
[Cate breathes heavily] What is that?
That… [sighs] …is our ride.
Come on, let’s go.
[breathes heavily]
[grunts]
[grunting]
Gotta be kidding me.
[chuckles] Oh, it’s amazing. This is amazing, isn’t it?
It is.
Fifty-three years and it’s still got juice.
It’s only been here a few weeks.
Thank you for reminding me, Dr. Randa.
All right, let’s get these things wired up and get the hell out of here. [grunts]
Give it a little slack, May.
[May sighs] Okay.
And now, Kei…
Yep.
Make sure you put the black line up top.
It allows us to control it…
I got it.
From inside the pod.
[roaring]
What?
That sounded close.
All right. Everybody in the pod. Let’s go.
[May grunts]
Kei. Kei, I got it.
Do not rush me.
I got it. I know how to finish it.
I’ve got this. I’ve got this.
Kei. Stop.
Kei, what is wrong with you?
I’m staying behind. [sighs]
What?
Billy’s gone.
And my boy grew up without me.
[inhales shakily] I am not going to ruin his life…
[inhales sharply] again by reappearing suddenly.
Whatever’s out there… it’s not my world.
Not anymore.
No.
These monsters… [breathes shakily] have taken everything from me.
No more.
This curse is broken.
You still have work to do up there.
And we need you.
Now let’s move our asses and get out of here.
She’s your granddaughter.
[sighs, mouthing] Funny.
All right, if everyone will fasten their seat belts, we’re first in line for takeoff.
[grunts]
I’m assuming this flight doesn’t have drink service.
Nope. But when we get back, first round’s on me. Yeah?
Ready?
Just waiting for you.
Kinda seems like old times, huh?
Speak for yourself.
[chuckles]
All right. [sighs]
Let’s go home.
Hey, copilot.
See that radar scope in front of you?
[Cate] Yeah.
[Lee] When that thing starts blipping, it means the device has lured a Titan that will open the rift and that’s our way home.
But how do we take off?
Just hang on. I think you’ll know it when you feel it.
Just holler when it hits 3,000 feet.
I’ll shut the device off. The Titan’s retreat will pull us in.
[grunts]
[roaring]
[Keiko] Lee, what is it? What do you see?
[Lee groans] Shit.
We lured a Titan that was already here.
[screeching]
Brace!
[alarm blaring]
[Cate] There’s something coming through the rift. 7,000 feet.
5,000 feet.
[Lee] Come on. Come on!
[Cate] 4,000.
Shaw! What do we do?
[Lee] We’re running out of time and we’re not gonna get another shot.
[May] Oh, my God.
[growling]
[Cate] It’s leaving. It’s going away from us.
Shit.
Wait, what are you doing?
My job.
[May] What are you doing? No! Stop!
[Keiko] Get back here!
[Keiko] Stop! Lee!
[roaring]
[Keiko] No! What are you doing?
[creature growls]
[grunts]
[grunts]
[groans] Oh, can’t anything ever be easy?
Lee, get back here!
[grunting]
[growling]
[Cate] No, no, no, no, no. We’re losing it.
[grunting]
Lee!
[grunting continues]
[roaring]
[Godzilla roaring]
Lee!
No, no!
[breathing deeply, gasping]
[growling]
[grunts]
[creature growling]
[roaring]
[roaring]
[roaring, growling]
[grunting]
Lee!
Lee!
Lee! Run! Lee!
[grunts]
[pants, grunts]
[groans]
Lee, hold my hand!
[grunting]
I got you! Don’t let go!
[Keiko screams]
[Lee screams, grunts]
[Keiko] No!
Come back!
Lee, no! I got you!
It’s too much weight, Kei!
[cries]
It’s all right, Kei.
No, I’m not letting go!
Thank you…
No.
For everything.
[Keiko] Don’t let…
[grunts]
No! Lee! Lee!
Lee!
No! No!
Kei, look at me. Strap in!
[groans]
[whirring]
[grunts]
[breathes heavily]
[Cate breathes sharply] Where are we?
[exhales sharply]
[breathes heavily, stammers] What is this place?
Who are you? [breathing heavily]
[Kentaro] Cate!
Cate.
Welcome back.
[exhales sharply]
You did all this?
Me? No.
I don’t understand most of it.
But we were lucky someone had already done a lot of the math.
Dad. [sobs]
Mama?
[sobbing]
[in Japanese] You got so big.
[crying]
I’m so sorry.
I’m so sorry.
[speaking Japanese]
[crying]
[in English] Kentaro, I’d like you to meet our grandmother.
This is my brother.
[footsteps approaching]
I hate to interrupt, but we’d like to get you into medical and debriefing.
It’s this way.
Brenda, what are you doing here?
Well, someone had to pay for all of this.
Are you working with her now?
It’s complicated.
A lot’s changed in the past two years.
Two years?
[security personnel shouting]
[alarm blaring]
Shall we go?
Come on. Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go. Go, go.
What the hell is going on?
Only everything I ever promised you.
[rumbling]
Come on. Come on.
[roaring]
