After several action-packed and dramatic episodes of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, episode 4 of this Apple TV Plus sci-fi show chills out; literally and metaphorically, with a slow-paced Alaska-set episode.
Our story follows two siblings, who've only just found out that the other exists, as they hunt for their missing father who worked for mysterious monster-hunting agency Monarch. So far they've followed the trail to Alaska, picking up two allies on the way.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters episode 4 is the first in the series to do away with the time-jumping narrative, ditching the 1950s exploits of Monarch's founders and focusing fully on our 'modern-day' (2014) characters. That's not to say that there are no flashbacks now, as Legacy of Monsters LOVES its flashbacks.
This Monarch: Legacy of Monsters episode 4 recap will remind you of all the key beats in the fourth episode, 'Parallels and Interiors'.
Spoilers for Monarch: Legacy of Monsters episode 4 follow.
Out of the (cold) frying pan
The episode begins with a woman sitting by a camper van listening to music. She's distracted by a noise; in her camper van, amongst loads of computer screens, an archaic piece of kit is making weird noises. She calls up someone, to say she's getting weird readings.
Then we pick up where we left off after episode 3: Lee (Kurt Russell), Cate (Anna Sawai), Kentaro (Ren Watabe) and May (Kiersey Clemons) are being chased by an arctic ice monster. Kentaro finds a flare gun and shoots it to distract the monster, while the four hide in an icy cave. The monster eventually departs, but not before May falls into cold water and soaks her legs.
Now we flashback to Tokyo, a year prior. Kentaro is preparing for his first art exhibition, and his mother is there, with his father set to arrive soon. Outside he bumps into May, then a stranger, and he decides to show up late to his own show so that he can take her for a drink.
Back in the present, they're wandering about, and Kentaro mentions the building he saw from the sky. May is acting stroppy, despite everyone telling her to preserve her energy, and so we jump into another flashback. It's to Kentaro and May's first date, when he takes her to a fancy whiskey joint owned by his friend. Later, he takes her home.
Back to the present, and they get to the top of a strangely non-windy mountain. There's a blue glow in the distance, and Lee, Cate and May decide to follow it. Kentaro wants to continue on to find the building he saw, so they split up.
(Not) beating the heat
Now we jump to Monarch HQ, where the lady from the opening is calling her boss (whom we met briefing Joe and Elisa in the last episode), to say that the readings she's discovered match up with the ones that preceded Godzilla showing up in San Francisco.
In Alaska, Kentaro doesn't get far before he gets stuck in a storm and decides to simply lie down in the cold. Lee, May and Cate have descended the mountain, only to find themselves straight back where they began, at Hiroshi's camp.
Straight back to the past: Kentaro and May sleep together, and the former then goes to his art show. The latter doesn't want to, so they exchange numbers and he leaves. Then she receives a call from someone called Lyra, though she lies and says she's still traveling.
Lee, May and Cate have set up camp in Hiroshi's old tent (well, they sit in it but keep the flap wide open, which probably isn't great for heat conservation). They have a fire going to heat up May, and the woman tells Cate that if anything happens to her, she has to contact Lyra: her sister.
Just then the ice monster shows up; the trio runs but witnesses the monster sucking up their campfire. They work out that the monster is drawn to heat, and decide to make a massive fire to distract it with all the aviation fuel from the crashed planes.
Getting to the chopper
In Monarch HQ, the boss woman is giving a briefing to lots of other people about the readings that they've been getting, which turn out to be from Alaska. Joe joins the conference call to give a speech about why people should believe him that monsters exist, which is slightly confusing as that's the whole point of the organization.
Kentaro eventually decides to get up, and hallucinates his father. He follows this figure and eventually finds an old installation, which he hallucinates to be his art gallery. He has a hallucinated conversation with his father, from which we learn that the dad never went to the show — that was the day he disappeared. Then Kentaro sobers up to where he is, and finds pencil shavings, the sign that his father was there. There's also a phone making odd noises.
Lee makes a massive fire, but before he's finished the monster shows up anyway. Cate and May run, and a helicopter conveniently appears right then, but the latter trips and the monster uses its power to absorb her heat. The woman raises her bag which the creature freezes instead of her.
Lee sets the blaze and the explosion flings him away, but he gets up and manages to run to the helicopter too. Somehow, Kentaro is in it. They fly off just in time to avoid the monster which leaps at them. As they fly away, we see that the glow is from a giant gap in the ice with radiation coming out of it.
On the flight away, Lee discovers that the monster froze the laptop which, if you'll remember, is where all the Monarch files are stored after they threw away the physical copies. Then the chopper lands, and the door opens to reveal Joe.
