"Resonance"
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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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"Resonance" (共鳴 Kyōmei) is the 12th episode of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and the second episode of its second season. Directed by Lawrence Trilling and written by Dan Dworkin, it premiered on Apple TV on March 6, 2026.
Plot
2017: Kong chases Titan X away from Skull Island, then roars angrily at the helicopter transporting Lee Shaw, May Olowe-Hewitt, and Keiko, Hiroshi, and Cate Randa. Lee shrugs off his injuries, then asks Keiko if she also recognized it. They land on Outpost 18, but fail to notice a Scarab drop off the helicopter and scurry away.
Titan X overtakes a whale as it swims into the South China Sea. A shaken Tim, upon being told he's the highest-ranking Monarch agent on the ship with Deputy Director Natalia Verdugo dead, tries to contact Director Barris, but the electromagnetic field generated by the island's storm wall makes this impossible. It also prevents them from informing any governments about the new Titan. Keiko and Shaw step onto the bridge and Shaw quickly demands they chase after Titan X before it can cause another G-Day. Keiko is confused by the reference; he describes it as "Monarch's greatest failure." Tim explains to him that the ship is unarmed and he has no right to demand anything of the organization after taking over an outpost by force and endangering the world. Shaw responds that he at least had a plan as the other agents watch tensely; Tim relents, agreeing to follow Titan X at a distance. Meanwhile, the Scarab, crawling on the ceiling, slips inside a room just before the door closes.
Hiroshi agonizes over his calculations to figure out how the Suzuki device could have unleashed Titan X onto the surface. Cate hears him fume to Kentaro that they never should have pushed that button. She believes he blames her for what happened, then, when he tries to hold them all blameless and move on, retorts that moving on is his usual approach. He responds that she can blame him, both for Titan X and for keeping so much of his life secret from her. She storms off. A Monarch doctor bumps shoulders with her. Upon reaching his work station, he is ambushed and killed by the Scarab.
1957: Bill Randa continues inspecting the cave painting of Titan X and its Scarabs in Santa Soledad. On the dock, Shaw speculates that the village is simply hiding a rich fishing ground, while Keiko takes samples of the water to try and figure out why it's so rich. Billy walks onto the dock and announces that it's time for them to leave, as he's found a migratory route mapped onto the cave walls. He wants to return to Santiago for another check of the maritime archives. Keiko refuses to leave, given the length of their trip to Santa Soledad and her own promising research. He agrees that she should stay and continue collecting data. Shaw believes they should all stick together, given how hostile the villagers have been; nonetheless, Billy leaves and Keiko stays behind.
2017: Tim receives orders from Barris to pursue Titan X at all costs. Shaw congratulates him for making the right call, but Tim responds that it was Shaw's call. He feels ill-equipped to command the ship, though Shaw believes he'll rise to the occasion. Tim continues reading his orders to have Shaw arrested and interrogated, but crumples them up. May finds Cate and asks if she called her mother; Cate has not, and is still filled with guilt over unleashing Titan X. May responds that their whole group was responsible, not just Cate, and trying to save Shaw was still the right thing to do.
Keiko asks Shaw about the incidents Tim described, feeling they're not like him; he responds that he's still the same person he always was. He adds that though Monarch's technology has become more advanced, they're still a stodgy government agency. With Titan X increasing in speed, Shaw demands that Outpost 18 speed up in turn, despite the risk to its engines and Tim's objections. Keiko spots ships passing through the Strait of Malacca that are caught in the Titan’s path, and asks Tim what Monarch's mission is. When he responds, “Discovery and defense in a time of monsters,” she reminds him that Billy coined that phrase. After the H-bomb blast at Bikini Atoll failed to kill Godzilla, they decided that discovery was the only defense, no matter the cost. Voice breaking, she questions how much Monarch has changed since then. Tim relents and gives the order to increase speed.
1957: Billy departs Santa Soledad. Lucía pleads with another villager to let her try and talk to Keiko and Shaw again, but he responds that their fate is sealed. The two Monarch agents return to the cave. Shaw believes that Keiko is angry at Billy for wanting to take her away from his research to advance her own; she responds that he’s angry at herself for being angry at him. She tells Shaw about her husband, a good man despite their arranged marriage who died just after Hiroshi's birth, treating patients in Nagasaki after the atomic bomb attack. He never understood, however, that providing for her wasn’t enough. Billy, despite his flightiness, cares more about her and Shaw than anything, even Monarch, and allows her to be her own person. She suddenly hears Titan X’s call and the earth vibrating, though Shaw is oblivious to both.
2017: Shaw asks about the drone aboard Outpost 18. Upon learning that it possesses a sonar transducer, Keiko proposes using it to lure Titan X, who she and Shaw know to be sensitive to subsonic sound. Hiroshi offers to modify the transducer to mimic the Titan’s frequency. Keiko is awed by his technical prowess; Tim agrees to the plan. Titan X continues on its path, capsizing a rowboat.
1957: Keiko hopes to take some samples from deeper water, though Shaw is skeptical that any of the villagers will cooperate. Lucía and the other village arrive just then. She apologizes for disturbing the village; he apologizes in turn for not making them feel welcome in the name of superstition and invites them to the festival they’ll be holding tonight. Keiko overrules Shaw to accept.
2017: The Scarab crawls through Outpost 18, trailing human blood. Hiroshi and Keiko decide to have the transducer emit a variable range, as her vintage equipment was unable to capture the exact frequency Titan X emits. She chides him for biting his nails as though he’s still a child, surprising them both, and they sit together, heads touching, in content silence. Keiko tells Hiroshi that Billy would have loved the modern Monarch, but he hardens, responding that he was always more at home at work.
The drone takes off, Shaw explaining to an impressed Keiko that the invention is no substitute for experience and instinct. Cate, back in her room, hears the Scarab crawl by. She investigates, spotting blood on the walls and then the creature itself. She phones for help as it slowly advances towards her, then takes a fire extinguisher and prepares for a fight. The drone nears Titan X and Shaw asks for it to go lower as the sonic transducer fails to get its attention. He then seizes the controls himself, bringing the drone just above the creature, only for a stray tentacle to bat it out of the sky. Shaw, embarrassed, asks Tim if they have a second drone; they do not.
Cate struggles to pull the pin on the fire extinguisher, but before the Scarab to reach her, a flare lodges into it, fired by Kentaro. Cate bludgeons the Scarab with the extinguisher, but May drags her out of the way so Kentaro can fire again. The creature suddenly emits an intense shriek that forces them to cover their ears and generates a visible sound wave radiating from Outpost 18. Titan X immediately turns around to pursue the vessel.
1957: Lucía explains to Keiko and Shaw that the festival was to show humility to a sea god in order to ensure a bountiful catch. Now, she claims, it’s merely an excuse to drink and dance. Keiko and Shaw each accept a drink of what they’re told is wine, though its effects prove extremely potent, especially on Keiko. She quickly gets up to dance, Shaw following her. They find themselves face to face and stare at each other in dazed wonder―until another dancer causes Keiko to stumble forward and their lips to meet. She backs away in horror. Both notice a blood moon in the sky. Villagers carry a monstrous fish into the square and suspend it in the air with rope as the dancing stops. A villager dressed like Titan X slices into its stomach with a knife, then draws a mark onto Lucía’s forehead with its blood.
2017: Kentaro calls the bridge to report the Scarab. Shaw concludes that Titan X is trying to rescue it. Shaw asks Outpost 18 to maintain maximum speed for as long as it can while he and Tim bundle the struggling Scarab into a blanket and into an inflatable boat. Outpost 18's engines die just before Shaw launches the boat. Some water flows into the ship, reaching Cate, who briefly hears a sound May cannot. As they leave with Tim, two circular patterns emerge in the water. Keiko and Hiroshi run onto the deck to watch Shaw speed towards Titan X.
1957: As the other villagers disperse, Lucía declares to Shaw and Keiko that they stayed even though she tried to get them to leave, and Santa Soledad's secret will remain a secret. She apologizes and flees. Keiko feels the same vibration that she did in the cave, though Shaw still does not―until the ground starts to shake. The same circular pattern appears in a pool of blood on the altar as Scarabs burst from the cave, advancing like a tide towards the village. Keiko and Shaw run for the dock.
2017: Titan X chases after Shaw. When it pauses to roar at him, he grabs the Scarab and throws it overboard. A wave left in its wake seems to overtake him, but he emerges unscathed. The Scarab rejoins its many fellows clinging to Titan X’s back.
1957: Villagers refuse to let Keiko and Shaw inside their homes, but the advance Scarabs ignore them to crawl towards Titan X as it emerges from the sea. Shaw pushes Keiko out of the way as one of its tentacles demolishes a house and buries them in debris.
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 Assistant Professor Bill Randa
- Joe Tippett as Tim
- Wyatt Russell as young Captain Lee Shaw
- Kurt Russell as Colonel Lee Shaw
- Takehiro Hira as Hiroshi Randa
- Camilo Jiménez Varón as Titan X cultist
- Augusto Aguilera as Tomás
- Camila Ponte Alvarez as Lucía
- Jared Turner as Templeton
- Kate Jenkinson as Gwynn
- Kenji Shimada as drone operator
- Chris Bridgewater as Monarch medical tech
- Lucas Tambelli as musician (percussion)
- Nelson Mansilla as musician (guitar)
- Pamella Lopes Costa as musician (violin)
- Ricardo Bona as musician (accordion)
Appearances
Titans and superspeciesOther monsters
Characters
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Weapons, vehicles, races, and organizations
Locations
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Gallery
Promotional stills
Screenshots
Videos
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Trivia
- The Santa Soledad festival, in which participants dance with fish masks, is reminiscent of a scene from Godzilla vs. Hedorah where Yukio Keuchi hallucinates dancing bargoers as fish people.
- After Kentaro shoots the Scarab with a flare gun, May remarks, "Your aim's gotten better," referencing him missing the much larger Frost Vark with another flare gun in "Secrets and Lies."
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