Special thanks to Jeremy Williams for the submission!

*SPOILER WARNING*

We begin the episode by seeing that while they may have been saved from the Ice Mole, the group must now survive Monarch itself.

While that’s certainly a bit more ominous than what actually happens, as they are released fairly early on in the episode. All except for Shaw that is, as Monarch seemingly doesn’t want him out and about for reasons still not shown. Though while he is being questioned, we see doubt starting to form within some members of Monarch. While that is going on, we see the trio of Kentaro, Cate, and May head to California (more specifically the Bay Area where Cate is from). This is where the majority of this episode takes place, as the trio ventures into San Francisco to get into Hiroshi’s office in the hopes of discovering some new leads.

Just as last week’s episode was a character-focused one mainly about Kentaro, this week’s focuses on Cate and more of her backstory. Some details come out in dialogue as they are passing through her old neighborhood, others are shown to us via flashbacks to the events before and on G-Day. All of it leads up to her getting onto the school bus that would have its eventual run-in with Godzilla on the Bridge.

This episode is just better than the last in my opinion. Not only does Cate’s backstory provide us with a bit more info into her life before G-Day, her story itself is just far more interesting than what we were shown last week with Kentaro and May. Sure, plenty of that has to do with the fact that Kentaro and May don’t have all that much chemistry together, whereas I find Cate to be the more interesting of the three (not to mention she is the lead). I mean, she was the only one of them to be in the city during the events of the 2014 film and witness it first-hand. That fact alone makes her far more interesting as a character for me. We even get another look into how traumatic of an experience it was for her as she struggles with her PTSD in the city.

Another huge bonus for me was being treated to a rare opportunity in this franchise to revisit the aftermath of a battle between giant monsters. It’s certainly not something new for the franchise, but it’s not all that common to see either. Aside from that, we get some nice moments of Cate and Kentaro bonding as siblings for once. Honestly, I feel the trio have some good moments together here. It’s also probably the best episode of the series for them as a group overall, too. Heck, last week’s episode pays off somewhat here with how Kentaro helps out in Hiroshi’s office using his skills as an artist. That being said, May continues to be the weak link for me as she adds little to the story or show past the first episode.

It’s again a shame that we continue the trend from last week of not getting any moments with the trio of the past. And while I still prefer them, this was certainly the best episode of the present-day trio. Plus, as a huge fan of the 2014 film, I’m always down to see events of that film from other perspectives. And while it’s incredibly light on monsters this episode, I think the plot of the episode more than makes up for it this time around.