Now, folks, if you’re here for Godzilla or the Titans, hold your horses. This episode switches gears, showing us only brief flashbacks of our colossal friends. Instead, the spotlight’s on Cate and Kentaro as they rummage through their father’s office in the rubble-strewn San Francisco, searching for clues. It’s a different vibe, but hey, sometimes the heart of the story lies in the human journey, right?

This is Monarch: Legacy of Monsters season 1, episode 5, “The Way Out.”

Four Runaways in a Concrete Cell

In a surprising twist, we start off in Alaska at the Monarch command post. Tim and his team have our four runaways in custody, interrogating them individually. It’s pretty intense. Each character responds differently to their confinement. Cate’s unshakable. Kentaro’s all fire and fury. And May, well, she’s still shaking from the Alaskan fiasco.

She gets an intriguing offer, however, from Monarch’s employee, Duvall. Yeah, Tim’s partner. She’s doing her best La Femme Nikita impression. That’s the original French cinema version, not the USA TV show from the early 2000s. She asks May how she should refer to her. “Should we call you May Olowe-Hewitt, or Corah Mateo?” Then she leaves her with a business card. I get the gag, but it’s an odd visual, considering she’s in a stretcher in what amounts to a concrete cell.

But I think we’re missing the big questions here. Who’s this Verdugo character?

“How’s it going, Lee?”

“Deputy Director Verdugo. I should have known.”

She’s itching to grill Colonel Lee Shaw, while Tim decides our trio doesn’t know much and sets them free, passports and plane tickets in hand.

Backup Family, Backup Office

Cate, however, isn’t ready to head home. She’s determined to uncover the truth about her father, Hiroshi, and convinces Kentaro and May to join her back in the US.

“I already searched his office.”

“Not the one in San Francisco. Backup family, backup office. Worth a shot, right?”

Back in the US, Cate visits her mom, Caroline, played by Tamlyn Tomita, and drops a bombshell. Hiroshi had a second family in Japan. The revelation sparks a heated exchange between Cate and Caroline, uncovering the real reason why Cate was sent to Tokyo. It seems in the aftermath of the events of G-Day, she turned inward and never left her room. Her mother was concerned she might be slowly slipping away. So the trip to Tokyo was to help get her out and motivated.

Why the sudden melancholy? Oh, sure. A giant monster destroys her city, and her students perished in a school bus that fell from the wrecked Golden Gate Bridge. All very traumatic experiences. She did come face to face with Godzilla, which in hindsight would be enough on its face to put her clearly within the PTSD line.

What We Used to Call Character Development

But now we’re given more intimate looks into Cate’s life. Instead of time jumps to the ’50s, much like the last episode, where we focused on the character of Kentaro, this episode we get Cate’s backstory.

Don’t worry, kids. This is what we in the entertainment industry used to call character development. Before shows were just six or eight episodes long, and a roller coaster that had to keep you entertained like the next TikTok video, swinging pretty colors in the latest Backrooms episode, you had episodes like this one. In the context of this episode and the last, we’re getting actual character development that will inform later scenes and events.

In this episode we meet Cate’s girlfriend and love interest, played by Courtney Dietz. It’s a compelling moment, where you get to see our Cate vulnerable as her girlfriend offers her the key to her house. It’s literally, like, T minus two days from G-Day.

Not long after, we learn that Cate actually sabotaged her relationship by cheating on her. It’s a moment that brings into stark relief an uncomfortable comparison between her and her father. How’s that for nurture versus nature? It’s all about facing truths and dealing with the aftermath of G-Day’s trauma.

Into the Red Zone

In a daring move, the group sneaks into the restricted red zone in San Francisco with the help of Cate’s mom and her mom’s work friend, James. Dodging guards and confronting painful memories, Cate’s personal struggles come to the forefront, revealing the complexities of her relationships and decisions.

As the episode wraps up, the trio finds some intriguing clues in Hiroshi’s office, leading to more questions about his mysterious activities. The gang has a new mission, unbeknownst to them, under Monarch’s watchful eye.

But then the episode ends with a twist. May is ready to negotiate her way out. She calls Duvall.

“I want to go home. Tell me what I need to do.”

Guess business cards work after all.

The Verdict

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Episode 5 lands at a solid 7.5 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index. It’s a shift from the usual monster chaos, but it packs an emotional punch that adds depth to the series.

Tell me what you thought of the episode. Are you hankering for more kaiju hijinks? Did you see May’s double cross coming? The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.