After over two months of mega monster madness, Apple TV‘s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters has wrapped up for Season 2 with Episode 10, “Where We Belong.” And in the closing moments of the episode — spoilers past this point — love did lift us up to where we belong, which is on top of a volcano with Rodan. Yuh-oh!
Given that classic Titan appearance at the end, you might have questions about the ending explained, and whether we’ll see a Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 3 at all. We’ll get to all that, but first, some precap before the recap.
As usual, we’re balancing several timelines on the show, with Keiko Miura (Mari Yamamoto) and Bill Randa (Anders Holm) getting married, and then later Bill mourning his lost love (she was at the time trapped in the between-worlds of Axis Mundi) before scientist Suzuki (Leo Ashizawa) told him to man up and grow a pair. But, you know, nicer.
That’s the past. In the present, which is still 2017, aka two years before Godzilla: King of the Monsters (check out our Titan Timeline for more on that), the main conflict is what to do about a problem like Titan X, a Godzilla/Kong level threat who is actually sort of nice. Our Monarch team has realized they need to get it home, so they’ve travelled back to Skull Island to open a portal to Axis Mundi.
Only problem? Apex Cybernetics has captured Titan X, now led by the ambitious Isabel Simmons (Amber Midthunder). She’s managed to convince Kentaro Randa (Ren Watabe) to join her, and late in the episode he reveals to his half-sister Cate Randa (Anna Sawai) just why he’s on the side of the baddies: he thinks he can bring their father Hiroshi (Takehiro Hira) back to life.
With everyone on Skull Island, Titan X about to go nuts thanks to Apex’s tampering and take on Kong, how will this all wrap up? Well, I’ll tell you.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2, Episode 10 “Where We Belong” Recap:
Things kick off on Skull Island with Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell) and Keiko trying to bring Tim (Joe Tippett) and his team up to speed, though they’re currently indisposed. Keiko, meanwhile, is disturbed because the duo just found a bunch of love letters left by Bill on Skull Island, sent through rifts before he died.
Anyway, that’s put on hold because a bunch of roly poly giant centipede bugs start rolling everywhere, ignoring our heroes as they run away from the upcoming battle royale. Not running away? Kong.
Titan X, meanwhile, is powering up on the beach while Kentaro explains that he thinks due to the time dilation in Axis Mundi, he can save his dad. Cate won’t be turned to the Dark Side and gets thrown in a janitor’s closet with, uh, lots of stuff she can use to escape.
Keiko and Lee see that Apex is using the Titan X’s calls to draw it to where they want it — something they already did effectively by capturing its egg. And across the island, Tim takes his folks to a Monarch facility that was abandoned in the ’90s due to an incident involving Skullcrawlers and their attraction to sunscreen. When an Apex vehicle approaches May Olowe-Hewitt (Kiersey Clemons) hatches a genius plan playing on their one weakness: guns. They take the car and leave the Apex stooges behind.
Continuing on this week’s episode of Jungle Wanderers, Keiko and Lee wander through the jungle and talk about how Cate is connected to Titan X and can hear the Titan — and that Titans have a language. Lee also catches Keiko up to the moment a few episodes back, that he talked to himself back in time in Axis Mundi. That also makes Keiko realize that Lee decided to leave her in the Hollow Earth-adjacent realm to keep time on track instead of saving her from the prison. She’s big mad.
They meet up with Tim and company, who do more catch-up about the Titan voice recording, the rift, the fact that Titan X is there… Anyway, all the stuff we’ve been told multiple times on this episode already.
You’re not going to believe what happens next: Cate escapes using the stuff in the janitor’s office, setting a fire, opening an air duct vent and getting out. As she escapes, Isabel powers up Titan X to take on Kong. Little oopsie, though: Cate escapes in a hatch that is right next to Titan X. Making matters worse, Kong shows up, and now she’s stuck in a fight between two Titans. Yoiks!
Keiko heads off to save her granddaughter, while everyone else does… other things. Look, who cares, Kong and Titan X battle on Skull Island, and it rocks. This is, after all, what we tune into this show for, right? Not “character development.” Keiko drives a jeep around, Cate gets stamped on a few times (and survives somehow), while Kong and Titan X kick the s**t out of each other. It’s just cool, man.
Anyway, cool stuff over. Isabel’s plan, it turns out, is to take out Kong so they can use the rifts on the island to do, er, something probably evil, and Kentaro is too on board, amping up Titan X’s implants to a dangerous level. Everyone else invades, Apex runs, and May tries to shut down the synaptic link with Titan X, but it’s too late.
Or is it? The link overloads, and Titan X gets enough brain back to grab its egg. Kong, seeing the egg, stops fighting and lets her go… Except she walks off the wrong way because her brain is scrambled. Oh dear!
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 Ending Explained:
Lee pulls up in the helicopter with the Titan vocal projector, while Cate heads off to try and stop Kenatro… Who reveals their father didn’t abandon them, he went into a rift to try and travel back in time; and instead lost multiple years of his life like a f**king idiot. So Kentaro thinks they can still find him in Axis Mundi, since time is wackadoo there. In a riff on the classic Darth Vader/Luke scene from Empire Strikes Back Cate says a very calm “it’s impossible,” and Kentaro leaves with Isabel.
Cate heads back to the group, who are all in the helicopter getting Titan X to play follow the leader. And it works, until they blow out the radio. Lee makes sure Cate is in the sightline of Titan X, and works as a beacon herself. And that works… Cate is able to lure the Titan after them. And sure enough, Titan X approaches, opening a rift to Axis Mundi. Titan X says goodbye to Cate, reaching out a tentacle so she can pet it. This, of course, flips the dynamic of how she felt about Godzilla in Season 1 which is that she didn’t like him. See? Character development.
“Welcome to the family business,” says Lee, when he sees a strange glow in the rift… It’s younger Lee (Wyatt Russell). Keiko goes to see him, but can’t hear him. “I’m saying… Goodbye,” older Lee says. The Lees give each other a little salute, while Cate and Keiko embrace.
Kong does his little chest bump thing, and then we cut to six weeks later.
Keiko and Cate are at a Monarch memorial, where Hiroshi has been, you know, memorialized, and the head of Monarch points out Keiko’s memorial, if she wants it (though they can’t put her name on there because she’s been technically dead for decades). This is all a set up for the new, uh, set up. May and Tim have an office for “Monarch 2.0.” Keiko and Cate will be running the more nimble office alongside the other two, while Shaw is out doing whatever it is he does. Their assignment? Track down Kentaro.
Then it’s off to see Shaw doing whatever he does. He’s in Thailand (probably, they are speaking Thai) talking to some shady dudes. He gives over a fat wad of cash, and it turns out he’s tracking Kentaro and Isabel, as well. They’re looking for something, and the man explains that the thing they’re looking for is “the key.”
Once again, it’s time for Jungle Wanderers, but this time in a Thai jungle. Lee’s guides won’t go with him, and show of their burned arms. Lee heads off alone towards a smoking volcano. “There you are,” Lee says, revealing it’s Rodan on the mountain.
Rodan roars, and Lee says, “I’ll see you soon.”
Okay, real simply: this is confusing. And it’s confusing because in 2019, two years after this episode, in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Rodan has been lying dormant near Monarch Outpost 56 in Isla de Mara, Mexico, since 1991. So how is Rodan non-dormant in Thailand? Likely it has to do with more rifts, and perhaps Volcano rifts or something. Or could there be two Rodans? Identical twin cousin Rodans??
Whatever it is, we’ll find out in Season 3.
Will Monarch Return For Season 3? Has Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Been Renewed Or Canceled?
As of this writing, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters has not been renewed for Season 3 on Apple TV. That doesn’t mean it’s canceled, by the way. The Season 2 renewal came about three months after the finale of Season 1, so we could hear some news some time in August or September.
Working in the favor of Monarch Season 3 is that there is another MonsterVerse movie coming next year, and the franchise in general seems to still be a big deal. Legendary is a good company to work with, and Apple would likely want to stay in that business.
Working against a renewal, perhaps, is that the age of franchise spinoffs like Monarch has been a mixed bag. If this was on Netflix or Hulu, things might be iffier. Apple tends to go its own way, so if the budget works and the viewers were there, then even with that headwind we might see Lee Shaw the elder (and perhaps not the younger, if we take that “goodbye” speech literally) sometime in the future… Though given the expense and time of making a show like this, if it is renewed for Season 3, don’t expect it to pop up until 2028.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
New episodes of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 technically premiere Fridays on Apple TV, though given time zones in the United States new episodes will hit the service at 9pm ET / 6pm PT on Thursdays. We’ve listed the Friday dates below, just for posterity.
Here’s what we expect from the full list of episodes in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2, with premiere dates.
- Friday, February 27, 2026: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Season 2, Episode 1, “Cause and Effect”
- Friday, March 6, 2026: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Season 2, Episode 2, “Resonance”
- Friday, March 13, 2026: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Season 2, Episode 3, “Secrets”
- Friday, March 20, 2026: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Season 2, Episode 4, “Trespass”
- Friday, March 27, 2026: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Season 2, Episode 5, “Fursato”
- Friday, April 3, 2026: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Season 2, Episode 6, “Requiem”
- Friday, April 10, 2026: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Season 2, Episode 7, “String Theory”
- Friday, April 17, 2026: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Season 2, Episode 8, “Seperate Ways”
- Friday, April 24, 2026: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Season 2, Episode 9, “Ends of the Earth”
- Friday, May 1, 2026: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Season 2, Episode 10, “Where We Belong” *Season Finale*
Where To Watch Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters Season 2
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