"Birthright"
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"Birthright" (生得権 Seitokuken) is the eighth episode of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. Directed by Hiromi Kamata and written by Al Letson, it premiered on Apple TV+ on December 29, 2023.
Plot
2015: On the road with his rogue Monarch detachment, Lee Shaw thinks back to his drive through Kazakhstan with Keiko and Bill Randa in 1959; they talked about what a wonderful son Hiroshi was going to be and hoped to get back to him soon. Michelle Duvall interrupts his reminiscing, pointing out that there are easier targets than their destination. He is resolute, however, in returning to the nuclear power plant in Kazakhstan, and they are well on their way.
1955: Lieutenant Hatch dryly dismisses Monarch's findings as insubstantial and a waste of national resources. Asking Shaw, Miura, and Randa where all the monsters they claim exist could possibly be hiding, he suggests that they should be concerned more with subversive efforts by foreign agents. He wonders aloud how Miura could have gotten a security clearance after what the FBI found during its background check, prompting Randa to lunge at him.
2015: Tim leads May Olowe-Hewitt and Cate and Kentaro Randa through Monarch's cluttered hallways. Cate wonders why there are no portraits of the Randas on the walls, to which Tim replies that their family's legacy is complicated. Bill's theories became increasingly strange after Keiko's death, focusing on teleportation and wormholes. He brings them to the control room, where agents are receiving reports of gamma ray bursts from outposts all around the world. The locations of those bursts match the points on the map in Hiroshi's office. Deputy Director Natalia Verdugo arrives with news that Shaw's forces set off an explosion in Alaska, stopping the gamma ray emissions in that area, only for them to increase in a dozen other locations. She fears another G-Day if Shaw succeeds in his next attempt. As Shaw is using Hiroshi's map, they hope the trio knows where he's going. Kentaro is skeptical they can help, but Verdugo urges them to try and think, as she has few other options. Meanwhile, Shaw and Duvall observe a new structure built around the power plant's remains, which he describes as an attempt to prevent something from getting out.
1955: Shaw manages to keep Bill from being fired, but he is exiled to a basement office. Thinking about what Hatch said about Keiko, he punches the wall in fury. To counter the scathing report Hatch is sure to write about Monarch, Shaw proposes finding a monster for General Puckett as quickly as they can. Keiko is against sharing proof of Godzilla's survival, fearing the U.S. will just try to build a more powerful H-bomb to try and kill him again and reminding Shaw of their pact to limit Puckett's knowledge of their research to the essentials. Staring at the maps on Bill's walls, Shaw proposes that he go through his notes and synthesize them into a single clear document over the next three days.
2015: May takes note of the hole Bill left in the Monarch office which now belongs to Tim. Combing through files, Kentaro notes with dismay that Hiroshi was working on a software update for a "Geosynchronous Titan Anomaly Sensing System" on his 18th birthday. Cate finds a document on Keiko's death written by Shaw, prompting May to ask where she died. Tim answers Kazakhstan. They go to Verdugo with their findings, with Cate remarking that Shaw talked about Keiko in such a way that she thought he would reveal he was their grandfather, not Bill. Verdugo grants them a small team, as the country is outside Monarch's jurisdiction. May proposes that she, Cate, and Kentaro go, as Shaw seemed to already want them there. Tim offers to join them. Though exasperated, Verdugo agrees.
1955: Bill returns to his office and is startled to find Keiko hanging up lanterns. Having gone through his notes, she finds many of his sources unconvincing, likening the results to a house that's somehow bigger on the inside. She also chides him for not cleaning up, which has resulted in ants crawling around his desk. Bill reminds her that monsters sound inherently unconvincing, but "beyond logic lies truth"; they both see the world in ways their superiors in the military can't. She thanks him for coming to her defense with Hatch, but admits that she hasn't told him everything about her past. He replies that he doesn't care, but stops short of telling her his real feelings, saying instead that he's known he could trust her since the day they first met. Returning to their work, Keiko encourages Bill to focus only on solidly confirmed Titan sightings. Shaw, having been eavesdropping, walks away with a scowl at their increasing closeness.
2015: Konate, head of the Monarch team accompanying Cate, May, Kentaro, and Tim, plans to enter the nuclear power plant with guns blazing, but the Randas convince them to let them take the lead, as they are the closest thing to family Shaw has left and he expects them to carry on his work. They enter through a hole Shaw's team left in the plant wall. Radiation levels are higher than typical but extremely low for a site that was supposed to be uninhabitable following its meltdown, indicating that something is absorbing the radiation. Tim steps on the discarded exoskeleton of an Endoswarmer, startling them all, and they soon notice many more. They enter the reactor room and peer into the swirling vortex below. Kentaro questions if Shaw closing it would be so terrible. Konate spots charges already in place throughout the room, enough to level the building. Shaw's forces, including Duvall, surround them at gunpoint. Cate asks to see Shaw, and he promptly emerges, agreeing to only speak with her.
1955: An exhausted Bill ponders his map of Titan sightings. As ants crawl on it, inspiration strikes. He flips it over, recalling Keiko's "bigger on the inside" observation, and rushes to her house. She's taken aback by his presence, but he's too excited to notice, and shares his theory: the Titans live underground, allowing them to move from one place on the surface to another without being seen in between. Intertwining their hands, he suggests this place is not just underground but another realm, existing alongside the surface. After Keiko describes the theory as "crazy but brilliant," they are interrupted by a boy's call—Hiroshi. She introduces Bill to him. Later that night, she explains that while she moved to the U.S. to give Hiroshi more opportunities, she was only able to bring him and her mother overseas six months. She confirms that he was the secret Hatch alluded to, as she did not want to be widely known as a widow raising a child alone when her superiors already looked down on her for being a Japanese woman. Bill offers to help her, then hastily corrects himself to say Monarch will help her; this time, she is the one to take his hand.
2015: Shaw tells Cate, who's had the rare privilege of looking into Godzilla's eyes, that the monster is not a mindless destructive force, but working with purpose. He adds that there is indeed a world beneath their feet, and knows this because he's been there, though Monarch didn't believe him. He struggles to describe it, but says it crystalized Godzilla's purpose: keeping the other Titans in their world and humanity in theirs. She tries to tell him that the gamma ray readings are only getting worse, but he believes they're cherry-picking whatever data will let them continue sitting idly by. He describes what he's doing as driven by both belief and atonement.
1955: Shaw brings a folder with Bill's findings to Puckett. Having already read Hatch's report, he's prepared to defund Monarch until Shaw quietly divulges that Godzilla is still alive, personally observed by himself during the Hateruma Island operation. Taken aback, Puckett accepts the folder and agrees to leave Bill and Keiko in charge of Monarch's future direction.
2015: Tim and Duvall argue over the righteousness of Shaw's plan; she doesn't budge. Cate asks Shaw if destroying the portal would be what Keiko wanted. He believes, even if doing so can't make up for losing her, it would be honoring her and Bill's work. He starts the countdown for the charges. At the same time, the earth shakes. May, running to find Cate, stumbles and falls into the portal—and a massive Endopede emerges from it. The creature advances on Cate, but rubble lands on its back, sending it plummeting back down. Cate and Shaw, attempting to rescue her, both join it as another tremor strikes the area. The charges then detonate, sealing the portal.
Cast
Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.
- Anna Sawai as Cate Randa
- Kiersey Clemons as May Olowe-Hewitt
- Ren Watabe as Kentaro Randa
- Mari Yamamoto as Dr. Keiko Randa
- Anders Holm as young Bill Randa
- Joe Tippett as Tim
- Wyatt Russell as young Captain Lee Shaw
- Kurt Russell as Colonel Lee Shaw
- Mirelly Taylor as Deputy Director Natalia Verdugo
- Christopher Heyerdahl as General Puckett
- Matthew MacCaull as Lieutenant Hatch
- Hiro Fodi-Nestman as Hiroshi Randa (3 years old)
- Brittany Palmer as Konate
Appearances
Titans
Characters
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Weapons, vehicles, and organizationsLocations
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Gallery
Promotional stills
Screenshots
Trivia
- At the time of its script's submission to Writers Guild of America West in June 2023, this episode was titled "All…Black".[1]
- In determining what Titan sightings to include in their report to General Puckett, Keiko Randa advises they "eliminate the Siberian reports" due to unreliable eyewitnesses. The official Monarch timeline issued following the release of Kong: Skull Island mentioned an outpost built in Siberia prior to 1959; that outpost later appeared in Godzilla: Aftershock, having been long abandoned by 2014. Neither source, nor any since, has explained what Monarch was originally studying there.
References
This is a list of references for Birthright. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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