"The Way Out"
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"The Way Out" (出口 Deguchi) is the fifth episode of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. Directed by Mairzee Almas and written by Amanda Overton, it premiered on Apple TV+ on December 8, 2023.
Plot
2015: Cate Randa, Lee Shaw, Kentaro Randa, and May Olowe-Hewitt are detained in separate cells at Monarch's Alaskan command post. Cate is quietly defiant, while Kentaro rages at his captors. Duvall visits a bedridden May, asking what her group was doing in the Alaskan mountains and if she has a backup of the Monarch files that were on her laptop. Duvall divulges that the Titan May encountered is not one previously known to Monarch. She mockingly asks if May would like it to be named after her, though she's not sure whether to call it Titanus May Hewitt or Lyra Mateo. May is silent as Duvall takes out the passport that uses her real name, then leaves a card by her bed should she decide to help Monarch.
Duvall shares with Tim and Deputy Director Natalia Verdugo that Cate and Hiroshi know nothing of Monarch. Tim is incredulous, citing their heritage. May, however, is clearly hiding from someone, although Duvall doesn't know who. Tim wants to recruit the Randas, viewing Monarch as their legacy, but Duvall is skeptical of legacy as a virtue, gesturing towards the video feed of Lee's cell as proof. Duvall suggests letting the Randas and May continue to search for answers pertaining to Hiroshi Randa while keeping an eye on them. Verdugo wants Shaw to remain at the command post, however, describing him as "her problem now."
Tim drops Cate, Kentaro, and May off at Nome Airport, hands them new passports and other travel essentials. He apologizes for their ordeal; they all scoff at him. Using reverse psychology, he then sternly warns them to return to their old lives, as he won't be able to help if they endanger themselves again. When he climbs back into the van, Duvall congratulates him on his work. May is ready to return to Tokyo, but Kentaro points out she accused him of destroying her life there. Cate wants to search Hiroshi's office in San Francisco. She correctly guesses that May has a copy of the Monarch files saved in the cloud, and tells her they're all in too much danger to split up now.
Footage of Lee with Bill Randa and Keiko Miura in the 1950s plays on a wall behind him. He watches them wistfully. Verdugo enters and unlocks Lee's handcuffs. He declares the modern Monarch's specialty to be doing nothing, with the Randas and May having already survived more Titan encounters than most of the organization's field agents. She suggests that they've revealed information to Monarch, but he laughs the threat off, saying he made sure they don't know much. She changes tactics, asking whether Hiroshi really intended for his kids to follow in his footsteps at Monarch; Lee has the same question, and plans to ask him when he sees him next. She's unwilling to let him leave, but he deduces that she's reached a dead end, with a sly reminder that she's still Monarch's second in command. Watching them, Duvall asks how Shaw could look as young as he does when he was one of Monarch's first members. Tim offers rumors of a mission that went wrong, although the details are classified.
Cate, Kentaro, and May arrive at Oakland International Airport, with nearby San Francisco still lying in ruins. The trio watches an ad for underground luxury homes with skepticism. May checks in on Kentaro, who is apprehensive about visiting the U.S. for the first time, and points out that Cate must have felt the same way at his apartment in Tokyo. They are picked up in a large van by James, a work friend of Cate's mother Caroline who she is less than pleased to see. He takes them to FEMA housing in Alameda Point, confirming along the way that there used to be tours of the devastation in San Francisco before the military cordoned the city off. Cate and May both find the idea exploitative, but Kentaro mentions that his mother tried joining one so she could search for Hiroshi. Once there, May and Kentaro attempt to go on a walk so Cate can ease Caroline into her discoveries about Hiroshi, but soon find themselves face-to-face with her. Cate quickly blurts out Kentaro's full name; Caroline is rattled but attempts to be hospitable. She explains that she and James work to recover clients' personal items from San Francisco. When her facade starts to crack, Cate ushers May and Kentaro into her room. She expresses surprise at how casually Caroline handled the news, encouraging her to show her emotions. Caroline says that she suspected there was someone else in Hiroshi's life when she found the lease, as he was never completely present in their lives, leaving Cate angry that her mother sent her instead of going herself. Caroline replies that she felt she had no choice, with Cate having barely left her room since surviving her encounter with Godzilla; she felt Cate was slowly killing herself with grief. Cate grimly acknowledges that she succeeded in giving her something to live for - and asks to be smuggled into San Francisco.
That night, Caroline pays off a guard to avoid having the inside of the truck inspected. She and James let Cate, May, and Kentaro out in a secluded area. Witnessing the Golden Gate Bride, still missing the section that Godzilla crashed through, Kentaro asks how anyone could believe G-Day was a hoax. Cate responds that for some people, it's easier than accepting it could happen to them too. James hands out flashlights to the trio; Caroline warns them not to get caught, as they'll be assumed to be looters, and instructs them to be back at the truck by 8:00 AM.
In Alaska, Verdugo agrees with Shaw that Monarch treated him poorly after his years of service, although he counters that she did nothing to change his situation. Pressed to explain why he made his first escape attempt in decades, he answers that Monarch had 60 years to prepare for Titans appearing in a populated area, but had nothing to offer besides advice to "let them fight." If the MUTOs had defeated Godzilla, what then? Verdugo suggests she'll have him killed if he isn't more straightforward about the contents of Bill Randa's files, but he dismisses the interrogation as a waste of time that neither of them can afford. Turning to the camera in the room, he states bluntly that the organization has been misguided for years, which Duvall focusing on his words intently.
Kentaro grabs a bag of chips from a market; moments later, part of the store collapses. Cate warns her comrades that even intact buildings can be dangerous due to damage to their foundations. Cate acknowledges that they're walking through the neighborhood where she used to live, pointing out a coffee shop where she would grade papers.
2014, two days before G-Day: Cate meets her girlfriend Dani, a fellow teacher at Girard Middle School, at the same coffee shop, and they share a kiss. Cate describes leaving for the shop early to dodge her landlady. Dani offers to let her move in, under the auspices of saving money. Cate asks if she hasn't learned her lesson; Dani returns the question and gives her a key to her apartment. Cate accepts it with a smile. The next day, Cate mulls the key over before entering her classroom; she's surprised to find it mostly empty. Most of the students are crowded around a phone, through which they show her news footage of Godzilla battling the male MUTO in Honolulu. Cate assumes the video is a hoax until a passing administrator makes clear that the threat is real. One of her students asks if the monsters are coming to San Francisco next.
2015: A scrambling feral cat jostles Cate back to the present. They pass the school next, where she sees a bicycle she remembers a student dropping on G-Day. A military patrol forces them to them to hide behind a car, and Cate again flashes back.
2014, G-Day: As fighter jets fly overhead, Cate and Dani usher students into a bus. Dani tells Cate she'll be staying with a group of students in the gym until their parents can pick them up. The administrator offers to chaperone the bus so Cate can stay with Dani; Cate hesitates to answer.
2015: Kentaro throws the bag of chips to lure more feral cats. The soldiers notice and, believing they heard the cats from the start, move on. He notices Cate's distress, but she shrugs him off. They finally spy the Transamerica Pyramid, the location of Hiroshi's office; though it's a long walk, Cate is determined to reach it. At Kentaro's urging, the Randas sing some of the Japanese ad jingles their dad would tease them both with and reminisce. Another patrol spots them and chases them into a BART station. Cate imagines the ground crumbling, flashing back to Godzilla destroying the Golden Gate Bridge, and May and Kentaro lead her out of sight with them. The soldiers instead discover people living in the subway and leave to pursue them. They continue journeying underground until they reach a dead end; when Cate starts to panic, she confuses Kentaro with Hiroshi, lost in the memory of the last time she saw her father. He looks for an exit by himself as May gently soothes Cate with controlled breathing.
2014, one day before G-Day: Cate wakes up in bed with another woman and checks her phone to find confused messages from her mother and Dani. The woman notices a cardboard box near her bed and asks if she's moving. Hours later, across from Dani, Cate decides to leave with the bus. Before she goes, Dani tells her that they were good together, but Cate "doesn't want good."
2015: Crying, Cate asks why anyone would ever help her when all she does is let them down. She feels no better than her father. May reminds her of the way she helped her in Alaska. Kentaro returns with a way to the surface, having followed the feral cats. They ascend the Transamerica Pyramid and reach Hiroshi's office. Kentaro rips the map off the wall, sending dozens of thumbtacks falling to the floor, but this time there's no safe behind it. Looking at the map itself, Cate realizes the lines drawn on it aren't the sine waves of satellite paths, but something else. Browsing Bill's files on May's tablet, she finds a similar map. Drawing on the theme of projected images from his first art installation, Kentaro copies the points on Bill's map to a piece of paper, then pokes holes in it and holds it up against the rising sun. The resulting dots of light all fall on the lines on Hiroshi's map. Cate identifies dots aligning with Alaska and San Francisco. May finds another in Africa: their next destination if they are to follow the path Hiroshi took. Almost out of time, they leave with the map and return to the van.
Outside Caroline's house, Cate asks if she and James are in a relationship; she responds that he's waiting for her to be ready. Cate encourages her to move on from Hiroshi. Caroline admits that she could have done more to discover his double life, preferring to not always have him around, but apologizes for putting Cate in the same situation. Cate shares that Hiroshi is still alive and worked for a secret monster-hunting organization, shocking her. Nearby, Kentaro tells May that he's feeling more optimistic than he has in a long time. When he calls home, May leaves to make a call of her own: to Duvall, asking what she needs to do to go home. Duvall promises to tell her soon and watches two guards lead Lee out of his cell.
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 Miura
- Anders Holm as young Assistant Professor Bill Randa
- Joe Tippett as Tim
- Wyatt Russell as young Lee Shaw
- Kurt Russell as Colonel Lee Shaw
- Elisa Lasowski as Michelle Duvall
- Takehiro Hira as Hiroshi Randa
- Mirelly Taylor as Deputy Director Natalia Verdugo
- Tamlyn Tomita as Caroline Randa
- Charlie Hewson as James
- Courtney Dietz as Dani
- Barbara Patrick as ticketing agent
- Jasmine Lukuku as Meg
- Marika Siewert as gate attendant Carla
- Breanne Williamson as Evin
- Jacquelyn Baillie as Elena
- Valencia Budijanto as Kayla
- Billy Christos Jr. as Chad
- Treymont Levy as sergeant
- Matthew Caza as guardsman
Appearances
Titans
Characters
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Weapons, vehicles, and organizationsLocations
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Gallery
Promotional stills
Screenshots
Trivia
- Cate Randa and Dani share the first same-sex kiss in live-action Godzilla media.
- Lee Shaw mocks Dr. Ishiro Serizawa's "let them fight" line from Godzilla (2014), arguably the most famous quotation from the Monsterverse.
- Perhaps coincidentally, this episode, which displays the on-screen text "G-Day Minus One" for its second flashback, premiered the week after Godzilla Minus One opened in North American theaters.
- When discussing Japanese ad jingles, Kentaro mentions "the Arnold ones," in possible reference to the commercials Arnold Schwarzenegger filmed in the country during the 1980s.[1]
- Silhouettes of Godzilla's DougheGoji design can be seen on the television in the San Francisco airport.
- This is the only episode of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters not to feature any original monster footage; consequently, it is the only episode lacking a "Titan Sightings" clip on Apple TV's YouTube channel.
References
This is a list of references for The Way Out. 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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