In the closing minutes of season one, episode 10 of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Col. Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell) sacrifices himself by falling into the Axis Mundi so that Cate (Anna Sawai), May (Kiersey Clemons), and the newly rescued Keiko (Mari Yamamoto) can escape. While the promos for season two tell us that the elder version of Shaw will still feature, it wasn’t clear if, how, or how long it would take for our heroes to rescue him. The premiere of season two gave us an answer to at least some of these.
What Happened to Lee Shaw in Monarch Season 2 Premiere?
Well, as we know, time in Axis Mundi—the middle-dimension between the Earth surface and the Hollow Earth realm—moves differently. A single week in Axis Mundi for young Lee Shaw equated to 20 years on Earth. A few hours for Cate and May amounted to two years up top. It’s a wild discrepancy. Back in the dark yet kaleidoscopic forest of Axis Mundi, Shaw quickly has to contend with various nasty critters and it seems like it could be rough going for him.
But it’s not, at least not really. Much of the present day storyline in episode one follows Cate’s dogged insistence that Monarch return to Skull Island, despite Kong’s recent devastating attack, in order to reopen a rift and rescue Shaw. I think it’s reasonable to assume they’ve been at it for a day, perhaps two, before actually returning to the island and opening the rift, despite the risks.
So, by time the rift reopens and the pod finds its way to Shaw’s vicinity, he’s probably only been alone in Axis Mundi for like 30 minutes max. Hardly enough time to do more than pull a knife on a giant trilobite-looking thing. In fact, the return to the proper Earth is what really causes problems for our heroes, and the consternation of Kong. (Sidebar: perhaps the next movie should be called The Consternation of Kong.)
The reopening rift lures a massive cephalopodic titan (whom we can probably assume is Titan X, and I’m guessing it’s the same Titan the locals worship in the 1950s timeline). That, it turns out, is why Kong was so dead-set on destroying Monarch’s equipment no matter the cost. Cate’s recklessness and fervent disregard for safety in trying to rescue Shaw led to the death of Monarch’s deputy director Verdugo (Mirelly Taylor) and the unleashing of a new threat on Earth. We have to agree with Shaw when he quips, “you probably shouldn’t have rescued me.”
We’ll see what fresh hell awaits everyone when Monarch: Legacy of Monsters continues every Friday on Apple TV.
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Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.
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