"Cause and Effect"
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SPOILER WARNING: This article may contain major plot and/or ending details. Proceed at your own discretion. |
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"Cause and Effect" (因果関係 Inga Kenkei) is the season 2 premiere of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and the 11th episode overall. Directed by Lawrence Trilling and written by Chris Black, it premiered on Apple TV on February 27, 2026.
Plot
2017: The Randas, May Olowe-Hewitt, and Tim flee the Apex Cybernetics facility on Skull Island as Kong goes on the warpath. The ape Titan flings a piece of rubble into the clearing, slams his fists into the ground, and begins crushing individual personnel. The six of them manage to evacuate via helicopter, though Kong turns to glare at them and roar.
Keiko Randa awakens in a Monarch medical room under close observation. Disoriented and asking where her family has gone, she quickly runs for an exit. Hiroshi catches up to her as she realizes they're aboard a massive ship: Outpost 18. Tim updates Deputy Director Natalia Verdugo on casualties on the bridge. They view drone footage of the devastation, only for a Leafwing to disable the aircraft. Tim observes that all the superspecies on the island are agitated, not just Kong. Verdugo asks Brenda Holland to explain what exactly Apex did to provoke them; she coldly responds that they got Monarch's people back and have no idea why Kong became enraged. Verdugo then turns on Tim, who as Monarch's liaison to Apex was meant to ensure they followed all necessary protocols; he too pleads innocence. Their conversation is cut short when May angrily pounds on the glass of a holding room above them. She and Cate berate Verdugo for locking them up as she enters while Keiko flashes back to Lee Shaw telling her to let him go as they escaped Axis Mundi. Verdugo introduces herself to Keiko and explains that her dizziness is the result of her time in Axis Mundi. Keiko asks when they will return to the realm to rescue Shaw, but Verdugo fears provoking another Kong attack. Keiko is insistent, saying that Shaw would never leave any of them behind.
1957: Keiko, Shaw, and Billy, passengers on a boat to the Chilean town of Santa Soledad, try to recall the name of a monsters whose existence they were never able to confirm. Billy finally remembers: Pulgasari, a creature from Korean mythology. Shaw muses that their current mission is to prove that sea serpents exist. Billy cites archival records in Santiago describing violent whirlpools and massive marine organisms in this area for the past 200 years. Once they reach shore, Billy pays the captain, who hastily departs without a word. A massive flock of birds suddenly takes flight above them. Heading into town, they find residents who stare at them silently and a small altar soaked in blood. Billy optimistically theorizes it's where they clean the fish they catch. They venture into a bar whose patrons view them with equal wariness; oblivious, Billy strides in and tries to ask them about an unusual shelled sea creature pinned to a crossbeam. When he raises his camera, one of the patrons, Tomás, throws him to the ground, and when Shaw steps between them, Tomás draws a knife. The bartender, Lucía, and another patron manage to defuse the situation. As Shaw chides Billy for not being able to read a room, he looks back longingly at the creature.
2017: Kentaro informs Cate that Monarch plans to bring her to Tokyo, conduct some more tests and debriefings, and let her return to her normal life. She asks if Monarch is his new normal; he demurs, saying he was focused on bring her back. She reminds him that Shaw is still trapped in Axis Mundi and they owe him a debt for reuniting them with Hiroshi. Kentaro is skeptical that he could survive a fall of over 100 feet, but Cate refuses to give up hope.
With branches breaking his fall, Shaw lands on the forest floor of Axis Mundi, staring sorrowfully up at the rift as the Operation Hourglass pod vanishes.
Cate finds Hiroshi singing to Keiko as she sleeps. He likens her need for sedation to a deep-sea diver coming to the surface too quickly. Cate announces that she's returning to Skull Island for Shaw. when Hiroshi clarifies that Monarch has shut down their rescue operation, she asks when he's ever followed their rules. After a reminder that he let both of his families think he was dead for a year, he agrees to come with her. Meanwhile, Brenda pays May a visit, claiming that Apex is on the verge of achieving coexistence with the Titans. She offers May her job back. May tells Cate about their conversation after Brenda departs on a helicopter, reassuring her that she has no interest in returning to Apex. Cate, however, thinks that being providing some clue of what to do next would be a comfort. May reminds Cate that she did find the answers she was looking for, though Cate is less than satisfied with the man her father turned out to be. She asks May for help in rescuing Shaw. The hacker sidles onto the bridge, stalling Tim with questions about Outpost 18's capabilities while Cate, Kentaro, and Hiroshi make their way to an inflatable boat. May catches up with them just before they leave.
Kentaro charts a path through the storm surrounding the island. Two Mantleclaws watch them as they approach the shore. Kentaro estimates they have six hours before the storm wall closes. As they hike through the jungle, Cate asks May why she rushed into danger with them, a conversation she is not ready to have. Flying creatures pass overhead and they all scramble for cover. A Leafwing lands nearby, only to be electrocuted by a Psychovulture, who swoops down and snaps its neck. The creature lands nearby, but ignores them in favor of plucking an enormous grub out of the ground, then flies away.
1957: Billy, Keiko, and Shaw debate over dinner whether the Scarab is a proper monster or simply a fossil or unknown species. Billy sketches another bar patron's tattoo of a tentacled monster attacking a ship, citing it as further proof of local Titan activity, though Shaw points out that as a former sailor himself, he's surprised Billy doesn't have a tattoo just like it. Keiko dryly confirms he does not, leaving Shaw sullen. His attention returns to the unfriendly stares of the other patrons. Lucía suddenly approaches Billy and asks him to dance, Keiko allowing him to be led away. After commenting that there's no harm in dancing, she asks Shaw about his own romantic prospects, though he denies seeing anyone. She's surprised that he no longer seems to want an idyllic suburban life; he replies that he was taught as a soldier "no battle plan survives the first shot." She asks why he's likening love to a battle. Holding her gaze, he answers that anything worth having always is.
2017: May and the Randas come across Kong sleeping in a clearing and try to creep past him. May accidentally steps on a twig, prompting the Titan to roll over. Cate pushes May out of the way of his descending hand, but is seemingly crushed herself. When the smoke clears, however, she finds herself between two of Kong's fingers. Aboard Outpost 18, Tim finds Keiko, still weak, overlooking the bridge. After they formally introduce each other, he brings her up to date on satellite technology. She seems skeptical that she can be useful to Monarch in such an age, but he replies that she's everything the organization has been missing. Keiko reasons that the satellite data on Kong could be used to avoid him, but Verdugo refuses to risk any more lives on the island. She plays footage of Kong's attack, and Keiko quickly notices a Scarab scuttling past the personnel as they flee, identifying it as the cause of the Titan's aggression.
1957: Lucía asks Billy why he wants to know about the Scarab and its connection to the village, and he tells her of the Ion Dragon's attack on the USS Lawton, which led him to dedicate his life to better understanding monsters. She tells Billy that the village worships a monster that ensures good fishing and will do whatever is necessary to keep it secret from the rest of the world.
2017: May and the Randas reach the ruins of the Apex facility and approach the Operation Hourglass pod. Aboard Outpost 18, Tim questions why Kong would be bothered by a tiny Scarab, but Keiko explains that the creatures don't act alone. When Monarch finally notices the absence of Cate and the rest of her rescue party, Verdugo asks Keiko to tell her everything she knows about the Scarab. That rescue party finds the device Apex used to generate a rift drained of batteries. Kentaro and May enter the facility to restart the backup generators, Hiroshi cautioning them that any number of creatures could have be waiting for them with the perimeter fence smashed. Outside, Cate bluntly asks Hiroshi if she and her mother weren't good enough for him. He admits that he wasn't thinking, then elaborates that Emiko, as a fellow Monarch employee, shared his world and could relate to him on a level that Caroline could not. Cate questions how he could love two people at the same time; he only says it's not something you decide to do.
1957: Keiko, Billy, and Shaw observe a blood moon over the village. Shaw, in the midst of complaining about how hostile the villagers are, is startled by Lucía's arrival. At her warnings of danger, he's even more persuaded to leave, though Billy takes it as reason to keep investigating. When Keiko presses her, Lucía offers to show them what the village is hiding if they depart immediately afterwards.
2017: Kentaro starts the backup generator, but he and May then realize a Vinerat is lurking nearby. He throws his flashlight to distract it as they run. When it pursues them, closing in on May, he climbs into a forklift and rams the creature, spearing it against a wall and killing it. Shaken, he remarks that Shaw had better be alive. In Axis Mundi, Shaw finds himself face-to-face with the Brambleboar, Keiko's arrow still lodged in its eye. He extends a knife as it prepares to charge. Keiko, Tim, and Verdugo fly through Skull Island's storm system via helicopter, arriving just as Hiroshi is ready to restart the device. He cautions Cate that they spent a year testing in far more favorable conditions than they have now, but she remains determined to give Shaw the same chance at life her father gave her.
1957: Lucía leads Keiko, Billy, and Shaw to a cave filled with fossils and paintings of the Scarabs, as well as an immense tentacled creature.
2017: Verdugo tries to persuade Lee's rescue party to cut their losses before the storm wall closes, with Cate the only holdout. Keiko warns her she doesn't know what she could unleash, and doesn't want to lose any more family members. Recalling how Shaw risked his life to rescue her in Kazakhstan, however, Cate starts up the device. It promptly generates a rift, pulling in the Operation Houseglass pod, but the resulting shockwave instantly rouses Kong. In Axis Mundi, the Brambleboar suddenly flees. Shaw notices the pod fall out of the portal and rushes to see where it landed: directly beneath a mountain glowing blue and rapidly crumbling. Scarabs rush past him, several tackling him in the process, as he runs towards the pod. As he climbs inside, the towering Titan X—the same monster he saw on a cave wall in 1957—emerges from the mountain. He straps himself in and starts up the pod as it's sucked back towards the rift. Titan X also passes through, quickly emerging on Skull Island.
No sooner has Shaw breathed a sigh of relief that a Scarab who crept into the pod leaps at him. Grappling it, he manages to stab it in the eye with his knife; it retaliates by biting his arm, then outflanks him to chomp onto his shoulder. Outside, one of Titan X's swinging tentacles whips into Verdugo, killing her instantly. The sea monster emerges fully from the rift. Shaw manages to pin the Scarab under his foot, then rotates his seat to a tool pouch, grabs another blade, and stabs the creature's side, finally killing it. The pod makes it through the rift, and he opens the hatch just in time to see Kong stomping towards him. Kong quickly deduces that the device is creating the rift and smashes it, then races towards Titan X. Everyone evacuates on the two Monarch helicopters, a stunned Tim telling the pilot that Verdugo is gone. Shaw tells Keiko she probably should have left him, but she shakes her head and holds his arm. Kong spares them all a glare before chasing Titan X into the sea. Unable to pursue it further, he beats his chest furiously and roars at them.
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 Assistant Professor Bill Randa
- Joe Tippett as Tim
- Wyatt Russell as young Lee Shaw
- Kurt Russell as Colonel Lee Shaw
- Takehiro Hira as Hiroshi Randa
- Mirelly Taylor as Deputy Director Natalia Verdugo
- Dominique Tipper as Brenda Holland
- Camilo Jiménez Varón as bar patron
- Augusto Aguilera as Tomás
- Camila Ponte Alvarez as Lucía
- Winnie Mzembe as Monarch operative
- Curtis Clarke as Monarch helicopter pilot
- Sam Sidhu as Monarch doctor
- Lucas Tambelli as musician (percussion)
- Nelson Mansilla as musician (guitar)
- Pamella Lopes Costa as musician (violin)
- Ricardo Bona as musician (accordion)
Appearances
Titans and superspecies
Other monsters
Characters
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Weapons, vehicles, and organizations
Locations
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Gallery
Promotional stills
Screenshots
Trivia
- This episode, the premiere of its show's second season, aired on the same day as the season 2 finale of another Godzilla show, Godziburst.
- At 54 minutes, this episode has the longest runtime of any in the series, as well as the most unique monster appearances.
- Billy, Shaw, and Keiko talk about the Pulgasari from Korean mythology. The creature was the subject of two kaiju films in 1962 and 1985, the latter co-produced by Toho Eizo.
- This episode marks the live-action debut of the Psychovulture, which has otherwise only appeared in comics and a video game.
- Shaw gives Keiko a contemplative eye after she comments, "There's no harm in dancing," a nod to their ballroom dance in "Terrifying Miracles."
- While flying to Skull Island, Tim tells Keiko he "had a bad experience in a helicopter once," referencing Godzilla's crashing of his helicopter in "Terrifying Miracles."
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