Apple TV’s 82% RT Monsterverse Show Is Hiding a Massive Twist in Plain Sight

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is making a Kaiju-sized splash in its second season. The proof lies in its ratings, as it’s scored a solid 82% on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing, and in the number of Titans that appear on-screen. In addition to MonsterVerse icons like Godzilla and King Kong, Monarch must contend with the mysterious “Titan X”: an amphibious creaturetrapped in the realm known as Axis Mundi. Titan X doesn’t waste any time establishing itself as a threat, as it engages in battle and kills Monarch’s deputy director Natalia Verdugo (Mirelly Taylor) in the Season 2 premiere “Cause and Effect. This battle sets up a massive plot point that is sure to come into play later in the season: the split between Monarch and Apex Cybernetics.

Apex is fated to play an antagonistic role in the MonsterVerse, since it’ll eventually build MechaGodzilla in Godzilla VS. Kong. Season 1 started to hint at Apex’s future destiny, with May Olowe-Hewitt (Kiersey Clemons) learning that the company had appropriated code she’d written. Apex also tried to blackmail May into spying on Monarch, which eventually led to a stalemate of sorts between the two organizations. Verdugo’s death has set the stage for the rift between Monarch and Apex to reopen, especially with Monarch’s shift in leadership.

‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ Is Keeping a Key Character Hidden

Though Verdugo’s death is shocking, it does raise the question of who’s really in charge of Monarch. After all, she was only the deputy director, which must mean that there’s an acting director. Said director, Barris, was finally name-dropped in the Season 2 episode “Resonance”, Tim (Joe Tippett) tries to contact a “Director Barris.” While Tim has now become head of operations at Outpost 18 following Verdugo’s death, his attempts to contact Barris reveal that Monarch has evolved far past the organization that Lee Shaw (Wyatt Russell), Keiko Miura (Mari Yamamoto), and Bill Randa (Anders Holm) formed back in 1954.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters also revealed in its Season 1 finale that Tim is working with Apex, which means that Barris might be a double agent looking to utilize Monarch’s resources for nefarious ends. Apex’s main goal is to create weapons capable of taking down Titans; while it eventually succeeds with MechaGodzilla, it hasn’t been clear how it obtained the resources to do so. Monarch could reveal how that happened. If Barris is an Apex double agent, it could also explain some events in Monarch Season 1, particularly the operation to kill Godzilla with nuclear bombs in 1954. That sounds exactly like something Apex would do.

The Monarch-Apex War Could Shape The Future of ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’

If Monarch: Legacy of Monsters ends Season 2 by creating the rift between Monarch and Apex, it could set up a conflict that shapes future seasons. That conflict might also affect an upcoming Monarch spinoff, which is set to delve deeper into Lee Shaw’s life. Wyatt Russell previously teased the spinoff by telling Collider’s Steve Weintraub that it would take Shaw’s story to some unexpected places:

“I think people are going to expect one thing and be like, ‘Holy shit, this is not what I expected.’ It’ll go deeper into Lee’s experience after he came up, and being sort of put on ice, in 1982, and then what happens after that, and why he’s needed and the mission he goes on…Having it come together the way it’s come together, I’m very excited and excited about exploring more of what this character becomes as you’ve seen him, an older version, that you see these experiences that he’s had that inform much more of what you’re going to continually be seeing in Monarch.”

If this spinoff is going to show more of Shaw’s life during the Cold War era, it should absolutely touch on the conflict between Monarch and Apex. That would make for an interesting story and show how far both sides are willing to go to pursue their goals. While most viewers are coming to Monarch: Legacy of Monsters for the Titan battles, the real conflict has been staring them in the face.