Santa Soledad
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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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Santa Soledad is a fictional island that appears in the second season of the 2023 Apple TV Monsterverse series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. It is located in a remote area along the coasts of southern Chile.
Name
Santa Soledad's name comes from the Spanish words santa, meaning "holy", and soledad, which means "solitude".
History
- Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (TV 2026) [episodes 11–18, 20; photos in 16, mentioned in 17–18, 20]
Monsterverse
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
Prior to 1957, Titan X and its Scarabs would frequent the area around what would be Santa Soledad, as part of the Titan's migration route. "Resonance" Sometime after people settled on the island, they witnessed this migration, during which Titan X would inadvertently bring the people the "bounty of the sea", and they began to worship the Titan as a deity.
In 1957, Bill and Keiko Randa and Lee Shaw investigated Santa Soledad. Upon the Monarch members' arrival in the village, the residents were standoffish towards the visitors; one man silently slipped into his house and watched them from his window, and a woman sat outside her doorstep glaring at them. The three noticed an altar in the center of the village covered with carvings of various sea life, before walking into a bar. Inside, Bill attempted to get a picture of a Scarab mounted up, which angered a local man, Tomás, who took Bill's camera from his hands and threw him to the ground. Lee attempted to smooth over the situation, but Tomás remained hostile, pulling a knife out at the three Monarch members. Eventually a local woman, Lucía, and another local man calmed Tomás down. The other local man gave Bill back his camera, and the three Monarch members left the bar. That night, the three returned to the bar. Bill danced with Lucía, during which―in reference to the Scarab that Bill tried to photograph earlier―she told him of the villagers' religion surrounding Titan X. Soon after, the three exited the bar. Bill wanted to stay and continue investigating the village while Lee wanted to leave. Lucía joined them soon after, agreeing with Lee and offering to help them leave. After Keiko inferred that the villagers were hiding something, Lucía agreed to show the three Monarch members what was happening in the village if they left, taking them to a cave lined with fossils of the Scarabs. At the end of the cave was a painting depicting Titan X with its Scarabs, where Lucía revealed to them the reason for the villagers' worship of the Titan. "Cause and Effect" The next day, after studying the cave paintings further, Bill found that they indicated a migratory path that Titan X traveled, and left for Santiago to confirm his idea; meanwhile, Keiko, who had found abundant nutrients in the water around the village, chose to remain in the village to continue investigating it, and Lee stayed with her. Lee and Keiko returned to the cave with equipment, and Keiko felt a vibration from the ground below. Shortly after, Lucía and the local man from the bar invited Lee and Keiko to attend the Santa Soledad festival that night. Before the festival, Keiko and Lee drank with Lucía and the bar patron. As the festival began, the village people danced around the altar to music playing, and Keiko and Lee found themselves joining the crowd. The two danced together, eliciting romantic feelings for each other. Then, a procession of Titan X cultists brought a large fish up to the altar, before Tomás―adorned with headwear modeled after Titan X—gutted the fish, spilling its blood onto the altar. Lucía told Lee and Keiko that she tried to get them to leave, before she and the other village residents left Keiko and Lee in the village center for dead. A large group of Scarabs, drawn to the gutted fish, emerged in the cave and sped into the center of town. Lee and Keiko tried fruitlessly to get into the village buildings for cover, before deciding to get to a boat. However, their escape was complicated as Titan X arrived in the waters around the village and attacked them. "Resonance" A swat from one of Titan X's tentacles caused a hut to partially collapse on Keiko and Lee, but the two survived. Meanwhile, the Scarabs took to the waters around Santa Soledad and followed Titan X into the open ocean, which Keiko and Lee observed. When Titan X and the Scarabs left, the villagers came out from their huts. Keiko and Lee to attempt to escape the village, when they were stopped by Tomás and a group of villagers to their front, and another group with Lucía and the bar patron arrived from the rear. Tomás and the bar patron attempted to coerce Keiko and Lee into handing over Bill's camera, but Lucía tried to persuade the two men to let them go, saying that people outside the village would just think Lee and Keiko were crazy. Tomás tried to take the camera by force, pulling out his knife and slashing Keiko on the arm. Lee then got into an altercation with Tomás, in which Tomás stabbed Lee in the stomach, but Lee quickly overpowered Tomás and took the cultist's knife, holding it to Tomás' neck to ward against retaliation from the villagers. Lee and Keiko walked towards an opening in the crowd, before Lee released Tomás and the two monarch members fled into the woodlands around the village, with the villagers in pursuit. When Lee and Keiko got some distance from the villagers, Lee removed the film from Bill's camera and set the camera on the ground to divert the villagers, before the two took cover behind a boulder. Much to Lee's plan, the villagers took the camera and moved on in search of the two Monarch members, but Keiko's foot slipped and caused leaflitter to rustle, alerting Lucía. The local woman went to investigate, discovering their hiding place, but chose to let them go and rejoined the other villagers. When the villagers were far enough away, Keiko and Lee continued onwards until it began to rain, and they took shelter in a cabin. There, Lee tended to Keiko's wound, and the two agreed to put aside the feelings they experienced during their dance at the festival. Keiko rested for a moment, before awakening. Noticing Lee's wound, Keiko tried to tend to it, but Lee did not let her. The two argued briefly, before Lee admitted his feelings for Keiko, and they engaged in a romantic embrace. The next morning, Keiko and Lee continued across the island, before Bill met up with them in a boat, and the three left the island. "Secrets"
By 1958, Monarch arrived on Santa Soledad and established Outpost 27 on the island. "Requiem" Uncomfortable with Monarch's increased presence, the villagers vacated Santa Soledad. Outpost 27 was maintained until 1968, after which it too was abandoned. "Furusato" Between 1962 and 1964, Bill mapped Titan X's migration route, making a trip to Santa Soledad in the process.
In 2017, Lee Shaw, Keiko, Hiroshi, and Kentaro Randa found Bill's map―which Apex Cybernetics secretly obtained in 2015―in Apex Cybernetics' headquarters in Pensacola, Florida. Based on the map, Keiko inferred that Titan X would next be passing Santa Soledad. "Trespass" Having already known this, Brenda Holland and Apex Cybernetics traveled to Santa Soledad and set up camp near the abandoned village, waiting for Titan X to arrive so that they could carry out their plan to control the Titan with a neural implant, with May Olowe-Hewitt's help. Shortly after, the Randas―Cate, Kentaro, Hiroshi, and Keiko―and Lee arrived on the island and traveled through the woodlands to the outskirts of the village, where they spotted Apex Cybernetics' camp, and Lee decided that they should make contact with Monarch and avoid Apex's detection, before the group pressed on; meanwhile, Apex's security found the Zodiac boat that Lee and the Randas arrived on the island in, and Brenda ordered for them to do whatever it took to stop the group from interfering with Apex's plans. Lee and the Randas came across Outpost 27, and Lee, Keiko, and Hiroshi went to investigate it while Cate and Kentaro remained outside to keep watch. Inside, Lee and Keiko found evidence that Bill had been there in the form of a drawing by Hiroshi. Hiroshi stepped outside the outpost, and Keiko went out with him, and the two made up over Keiko's letter to Lee―which Hiroshi found among Bill's belongings shortly before the group departed for Santa Soledad―and admitted their past mistakes. As night settled on the island, Apex Cybernetics scrambled in preparation for Titan X's imminent arrival while Lee and the Randas hid in the bar in the abandoned village, and Lee planned how they were going to stop the drone carrying the neural implant from launching. May noticed the group in the bar and went inside; upon the group's confronting her about siding with Apex, May revealed she felt their work could prevent another G-Day. After arguing with the group, May told them not to get in Apex's way, and went back to an Apex tent. Then, the Scarabs emerged in the cave, just as they did in 1957; meanwhile, Lee and the Randas went to try and stop the drone from launching. However, the drone successfully launched, and the Scarabs reached the abandoned village. The Randas got to the bar in time, but Lee was stuck outside, and was trampled by the swarm of Scarabs as he attempted to flee. After the Scarabs took to the ocean, Lee was wounded, and Hiroshi and Kentaro carried him into the bar. Cate, drawn by Titan X, wandered to the pier. While Keiko and Kentaro tended to Lee, Hiroshi, realizing Cate was not with them, ran out of the bar to get her. Meanwhile, the drone hovered around Titan X, before firing the neural implant into one of Titan X's tentacles. The Titan was pained by electric currents administered by the device as it uploaded a synaptic link, which Cate felt as well. However, the synaptic link failed to upload due to the sheer quantity of nerves in Titan X's body, and the Scarabs traveled to the tentacle with the neural implant, chewing off a portion of the tentacle with the device. Hiroshi rushed Cate away from Titan X as the Titan, now enraged, attacked various structures on the island, and a stray sweep of Titan X's tentacle caught them. With their operation having failed, Apex Cybernetics evacuated their campsite, taking as much equipment as they could. Cate, having been thrown off her feet, rushed over to her father, who was fatally wounded. Cate had Kentaro find help, while Keiko helped Cate to try and stop the bleeding. Keiko and Hiroshi sang "Furusato" together as life slipped from Hiroshi. Meanwhile, Outpost 18, which had been following Titan X, arrived on Santa Soledad; Tim ordered Monarch personnel to secure all the equipment they could and keep track of all people. Kentaro reached Tim for help, and Tim called for a medic while Kentaro joined his family and Lee; however, when he and the Monarch medics reached Hiroshi, he had already passed away. "Furusato"
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