So far, Kentaro’s old flame, the genius techie May Hewitt, stuck out like a sore thumb amidst all the Randa-Shaw Titan shenanigans in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, an issue that was promptly rectified in the seventh episode of the series. Along with a due exploration of May’s past the seventh episode highlighted a rather shocking turn of events, which will make viewers re-assess Shaw and his team of Monarch rebels in a new light.
In the previous episode, the past timeline revealed a unique gamma-ray mimicking device created by Dr. Suzuki, which was used to lure Godzilla into Hateruma, aka ‘Monster Island’—allowing Bill, Keiko, and Shaw another chance to have a close encounter with the king of the monsters. However, Shaw’s growing feelings for Keiko resulted in him temporarily abandoning his post in Monarch, which resulted in a change in leadership as the military of the United States took over the organization in his absence. In the present timeline, May has betrayed the team by working as Duvall’s informant. It is also revealed that Duvall is the late Sandra Brody’s sister, and as a victim of Titan’s emergence, she has become disenchanted with Monarch’s apparent ineffectiveness regarding Titan’s situation. As a result, she turns her back on the organization and breaks Shaw free, who has his own agenda to fulfill as he convinces the Randa siblings to join them in the search for Hiroshi. The group is able to find Hiroshi, who is seen using the same gamma-ray device to lure Godzilla, whose emergence causes a ruckus, destroying the tailing Monarch chopper with Tim inside of it. Differing motivations cause Shaw to part ways with the Randa kids, and eventually, a remorseful May confesses about her betrayal of Cate and Kentaro. As the series comes closer to the finale, even more Monsterverse connections are explored through the characters involved, striking a perfect balance in the human-monster narrative progression.
Spoilers Ahead
What Do Viewers Learn About May’s Past?
As the beginning of the episode takes viewers to the Algerian desert where Monarch’s chopper crash landed, it is revealed that Tim was the sole survivor. The scene moves to Tindouf airport, where Cate, Kentaro, and May are preparing to return. The revelation of May’s betrayal has affected the Randa siblings, and in their own way, they have coped with the news. While Cate is concerned with learning Hiroshi’s modus operandi, Kentaro has become jaded and blames their father for abandoning them. In the meantime, May gets abducted by a couple of shady-looking agents, who fly her out of the country.
There were indications provided in the course of the last six episodes that May might have been involved in a situation that not only threatened her own life but also endangered her family. That was the reason she was forced to leave her home and eventually made a deal with Duvall to rat on the Randa siblings’ whereabouts. It turns out that May had been hiding from some influential people, and in doing so, she covered up her identity. The episode takes us three years back in Seattle, where master programmer Corah Mateo (May’s real name) gets roped into a lucrative job offered by Applied Experimental Technologies (AET) chief Brenda Holland. More than the exorbitant amount of salary, Brenda’s promise—that joining their company will allow her to help physically challenged people—piques Corah’s interest, and she agrees to take up the job.
Months later, Corah is dissatisfied by the seemingly docile nature of her job, as Brenda’s promise of providing her a chance for greater good seems to be a misdirection. To add to her confusion, her programming skills have also been used in a certain cybernetic neural enhancement without her knowing the details or reasons involved, which makes her suspicious about Brenda’s motive. When her efforts to have an honest conversation about all this get shot down by Brenda, Corah takes it upon herself to venture into the rabbit hole and discovers the horrifying truth behind the AET. She finds out that the cybernetic enhancements, which became operational due to the codes she wrote, were being used as contraptions on captive animals who were being tortured. A crestfallen Corah decides to sabotage AET’s database and eventually becomes their target. This was the reason she left her home, changed her identity, and settled in Japan—until fate—or specifically, monarch-related affairs brought her under AET’s radar once again and she was abducted by them.
Were Cate And Kentaro Able To Rescue May?
As the realization dawns upon Cate and Kentaro that May’s life might be in grave danger, they find a battered-up Tim, who somehow made his way to the airport from the desert. Initially, Cate suspects Monarch’s involvement in May’s abduction, but Tim dismisses her accusation and defends Monarch’s position as a peacekeeping organization, contrary to her assumptions that it is a secretive government group plotting against the rest of the world. Their conversation with Tim further reveals Hiroshi’s curiosity surrounding the majestic creatures and humility to accept humanity’s insignificant place in the vastness of nature inspired Tim a lot.traits that were inculcated in him by Bill and Keiko. As for Hiroshi’s motive, Tim assumes that he is trying to stop another Titan emergence and, hence, tracking Godzilla across the globe.
The conversation eases Cate’s frustration a bit, and she asks Tim’s help in finding May in exchange for Shaw’s whereabouts, whom Monarch is trying to track down desperately. After a chat with Verdugo, Tim agrees to help the duo and also shares secrets about May’s true identity with them. After all, it was already revealed that Monarch was aware of May’s past, which is why Duvall was able to make a deal with her in the first place. Cate and co. arrive in Seattle at May’s household, and her family seems totally oblivious to her current situation—everyone except her sister, Lyra. A conversation with her reveals AET to be the culprit, and before reaching their HQ, Tim uses a city-wide Titan alert system to cause momentary panic among the masses, which allows the team to infiltrate with ease.
The chief of AET, Brenda, reveals that she is aware of May’s recent globetrotting adventures involving Titans, and seeing her friends come to rescue her, she gets excited as the company’s large-scale plan involves using the cybernetic neural enhancement on a creature like Titan. She plans to allow May to go scot-free, but in reality, she will use her as an informant, detailing all the Titan-related findings she can learn from the Randa siblings. Already repentant for her past actions, May refuses to act as someone else’s puppet any longer, and as Cate, Kentaro, and Tim arrive to rescue her, May promptly sends them away. In the meantime, irritated by Tim’s Titan Alert stunt, Verdugo arrives in Seattle and takes the team along with her, only to be coerced by Cate to make a deal with AET to gain May’s freedom in exchange for information involving Shaw. By now, Shaw’s influence on Monarch’s renegade team and Duvall has started to shape up in a disastrous way, about which we will discuss later. Anyway, Verdugo accepts Cate’s proposal and convinces Brenda to allow May to gain her old life back. What follows is an emotional reunion, as May returns to her family after a long period of time and later re-joins Cate and Kentaro out of gratitude.
Adhering to Tim’s suggestion, Verdugo decides to make Monarch’s existence public and, through a sincere speech, delineates the organization’s role in the context of human-Titan relations. However, secretly, Verdugo’s bargain with Brenda involved providing information regarding Titans, and it is revealed that AET’s secretive division is Apex Cybernetics, which was responsible for creating Mechagodzilla in Godzilla vs. Kong.
Did Shaw Just Kill A Titan?
On the other hand, emboldened by Duvall’s team of renegade members of Monarch, Shaw sets a destructive plan in motion. Shaw takes control of Monarch’s outpost in Alaska, and Agent Barnes, who manages to flee from the outpost in the nick of time, informs Verdugo regarding the situation. The reason to seize the particular outpost is revealed when Shaw gathers a significant amount of explosives stashed in the facility and takes it close to the mysterious rift that he had noticed while escaping from the Frost Vark, along with the Randa siblings. The glowing, radiating rift seems to be a pathway or sinkhole that leads to Hollow Earth, and Shaw commands his troops to set charges around it. Using the Titan’s heat-seeking ability, Shaw manages to lure out the Frost Vark, and as it comes to the rift’s close proximity, the explosive charges initially cause massive destruction.
As a result, a tumultuous situation arises as the rift implodes into a singularity-type phenomenon and, almost like a vortex, starts to pull everything close inside it. After a fiery explosion, the surrounding area, the chopper that lured the Titan, and the Frost Vark are nowhere to be found—apparently destroyed in the severe impact—and Shaw lets out a triumphant, almost maniacal laugh in response. This villainous turn by Shaw definitely caught us off guard, but then again, there were indications scattered throughout the series’ past timeline. Bill and Keiko’s sense of admiration for the unknown was absent in him, but at least Shaw appeared to be more understanding than the likes of General Puckett. It seems that Keiko’s death during the Titan investigation might have corrupted his mindset, and this explains why both Tim and Verdugo were apprehensive of him from the get-go. Shaw has managed to kill a Titan, something no other nefarious human character in Monsterverse hasn’t been able to do, and the way he proceeded with certainty, it seems his intentions with Godzilla are far from noble. The remaining three episodes are going to be really intriguing, as the series continues to surprise viewers with compelling storytelling throughout.
