Special thanks to Jeremy Williams for the submission!

*SPOILER WARNING*

In this episode, we catch back up with Shaw and the gang as they help him break out, followed by them going on the search to find out if their father is still alive. While back with the characters in the past we see some of the most vital moments within the history of the Monsterverse and Monarch take place.

Now it may be a bit repetitive as I’m sure I can get over the course of the series in my reviews, but I have to say that Kurt Russell just brings life to the current-day portion of the series. He has such natural charisma and presence that it honestly does help with any shortcomings of the present-day stuff when he is on screen. Not to say it’s awful or anything, but the writing for the trio of present-day characters just still isn’t as interesting to me as the stuff in the past. It’s not bad by any means so far. But it’s just such a shame that so much gets glossed over during the sequences in the past, which for the most part is where it’s a bit more intriguing for me narratively. One other plus for the present-day characters has to be the introduction to the fun but short-lived character of Du Ho played by Bruce Baek. Really wish he stuck around longer and didn’t die so soon. That was a big mistake to lose him so soon in my opinion.

While I continue to really enjoy the cast of characters in the past, it’s a shame that the writers and showrunners continue to have such a disregard for the continuity of the Monsterverse. To start off with as I mentioned in my review of episode 1, this series does deal with the formation of Monarch. The problem with that is the beginnings of the organization go back to 1946 as stated in previous entries in the Monsterverse, yet its foundation here is presented as being somewhere between 1952 and 1954. Shaw does state in dialogue that it was started in the late 40’s. But it differs from what we’re shown as Monarch in the past is seemingly headed by Randa and Keiko in the 50’s. We so far don’t get any other real characters that are a part of the organization in this time period so far, especially when they really should’ve added Serizawa’s Father to the cast of characters as he was featured in Godzilla Awakening.

But yeah we don’t get any real info on the organization back in the day and it’s probably one of the biggest missed opportunities of this series so far, as it should’ve been more of the focus. Many of these issues could’ve been fixed had some of the important stuff not been so glossed over in the past sequences. As we jump from 1952 to 1954. And we miss some great moments like them stumbling onto the existence of Godzilla. Would’ve been great to see those moments on screen and not just shown in photos or talked about in dialogue. Just them finding his footprint would’ve been a great moment.

Some other things that create continuity issues are that they changed aspects of the Castle Bravo test. The biggest being that Godzilla now gets right up close to the bomb featured in the 2014 credit sequence. That’s honestly a bit more minor to me, especially with that whole sequence being such an awesome sight in the episode. What does cause some issues for me is that we don’t see any destroyers in the water at all or any presence of the Navy. Just the soldiers and crew on the beach are shown. In my opinion with their proximity to the blast, I feel they should’ve been more affected by the shockwave of the bomb. Jumping back to Randa for a moment, I feel unless we see something that changes his personality then it’s another potential continuity issue, as he was seemingly on the side of Destroying the Titans/Monsters in Skull Island before changing his stance as the film went on. But here Keiko and him don’t want the bomb to be used on Godzilla. But maybe I misread his character in the film.

Back to the plot, though, we are introduced to the current head of Monarch played by Mirelly Taylor. As I mentioned previously the films don’t focus so much on the organization. But it’s an odd choice to introduce a new character that has such a vital role that has never been mentioned before this series. But that’s a bit more of a nitpick I’ll admit. We do, however, get introduced to a cool new monster. This one has to be the most interesting new one by far as it’s this cool looking mole like monster with the ability to freeze stuff. Really can’t wait to see more of it.

Now I hate to be the continuity stickler here, but it’s so annoying for this series to be a prequel/in-betweenquel and have so many continuity issues. Especially when it does bring down the series a bit for fans that care about that stuff. For me, it’s a huge issue whereas others may not be so bothered by it. But I will continue to point out the big ones that stand out to me. That said, while I may sound like I hate the episode, I dug this one. Truly has some great moments in the story and visuals department, especially as the visuals continue to be its strongest aspect.