What Is That New Monsterverse Titan? Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2, Episode 1 Ending Explained

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 unleashes a terrifying new Titan on the world, largely because of Monarch’s own technology. The kaiju were somewhat in the shadows for Monarch Season 1, largely because they had been kept in check by guardians such as Godzilla and Kong. Everything changed after G-Day, though, and Monarch was forced to step out of the shadows and reveal their existence to the entire world. Season 1 ended with Monarch successfully rescuing Cate, May, and Keiko from the Axis Mundi, the realm of the monsters, leaving Lee behind.

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They emerged on Skull Island, Kong’s home – two years later in the Monsterverse timeline. All this immediately signified a major change for Monarch Season 2. We’re no longer dealing with a world where the Monsterverse’s Titans are in the shadows; G-Day was just the beginning, and they’re now rampaging in open. Appropriately enough, the end of Season 2, episode 1 saw a new Titan emerge from the Axis Mundi, one that even Kong could not contain. Worse still, this one is Monarch’s fault.

Monarch Has Learned How To Access The Axis Mundi

Season 1 revealed the secret of traveling to the Axis Mundi; you had to tempt a kaiju with radiation, which would encourage it to create one of the mysterious vortices that are the only way in. It’s a dangerous strategy, because you need to remove the bait before it actually emerges, ensuring the Titan retreats back home. Skull Island gives Monarch the perfect site to experiment with these portals, though, simply because it’s so remote and no humans will be affected should things go wrong.

Monarch and Apex spent a year negotiating a treaty that allowed them to cooperate in an attempt to get Cate, May, and Lee back, unaware they’d actually wind up with Keiko Randa, who they believed had died decades ago but who had instead been trapped into the Axis Mundi. Lee sacrificed himself to let them through, but Cate was unwilling to accept that, returning to the Skull Island research base to open yet another portal. She was successful – but at a cost, because a new Titan did indeed come through.

Titan X Has Emerged On Earth

First teased in the Monarch Season 2 trailers, Titan X is the main monster-villain of this season. Flashbacks to 1957 reveal that Titan X has been on Earth before, worshiped as a god by tribes in Chile. It apparently vanished some 200 years ago, presumably dragged into the Axis Mundi by Godzilla. We don’t really see much of Titan X in Monarch episode 1, but it has vast sweeping tentacles and is – unfortunately for the world – aquatic. It moves through the forests of Skull Island too quickly for a sleep-disturbed Kong to get to it, and then swims away while Kong roars in defeat.

Titan X doesn’t really correspond with anything we’ve seen before in the Monsterverse, or indeed in Kong or Godzilla lore. Some have speculated it could be the Monsterverse’s version of Biollante, a kaiju first introduced in 1989’s Godzilla vs Biollante. If it is Biollante, then the origin story has been dramatically rewritten, given that creature was genetically engineered. More likely, Titan X is simply a never-before-seen monster that’s new to the franchise – an unknown quantity, if you will, explaining the “X” designation.

Monarch Season 2, episode 1 does drop an important clue, though, in the reveal that Titan X was last active roughly 200 years before the flashbacks. This fits well with myths of the kraken, a monstrous sea creature first described in a Norwegian glossary by Christen Jensøn in 1646. The first description of the kraken is usually associated with a Danish bishop in 1753, which would perfectly correspond with the timing of the flashbacks. If Titan X is indeed the kraken, then it has a reputation for using its tentacles to pull ships down beneath the waves.

One thing’s for sure; Titan X is not a creature Monarch wanted out there. It’s able to swim, which means it can escape Skull Island with ease and head out into the wider world. Most kaiju are drawn to radiation, but this one was active hundreds of years before the dawn of the atomic age, suggesting it has a different kind of modus operandi. It’s reasonable to assume the entire Monarch Season 2 arc will revolve around trying to put this horrific genie back in its bottle before it tears the human world apart.

Monarch Is the World’s Last Chance After Titan X’s Emergence

Monarch has changed a lot between seasons 1 and 2 (helped by a time jump courtesy of the heroes’ time in the Axis Mundi). They’re based on Outpost 18, a gigantic ship whose capabilities are clearly a point of pride for Tim, who tried to brag about them to May at one point in Monarch‘s Season 2 premiere. That’s clearly setup, because Monarch now has a mobile base of operations that can follow Titan X across the world, hunting it down. It all feels rather like the plot of Moby Dick, a nineteenth century novel published right around the time Titan X was apparently last active (a nice, humorous touch).

Unfortunately, Monarch suffers a devastating blow during Titan X’s emergence; one of its tentacles strikes Deputy Director Verdugo, sweeping her away into the air and presumably killing her instantly. This may well mean there’s about to be a power struggle at Monarch, one that forces the organization’s actual serving director to act himself. It’s clear Monarch will need all the allies they can get if Titan X is to be contained.

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