Monarch Season 2 Just Echoed The Most Jarring Jurassic World Movie Moment

This article contains spoilers for the "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" season 2 premiere episode, "Cause and Effect."

The MonsterVerse is back! "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" season 2 has premiered on Apple TV. We're largely just dipping our toes back into the world occupied by Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell/Wyatt Russell) and the rest of these characters, but the premiere episode, titled "Cause and Effect," very much sets the stage for what's to come. It also, for better or worse, echoes a particularly jarring moment from the "Jurassic World" trilogy.

Season 2 picks up in the aftermath of the largely satisfying "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" season 1 finale. Our human heroes (and villains) reunite on Skull Island, and following a deadly encounter with Kong, Cate Randa (Anna Sawai) and her rag-tag crew decide to go try and rescue Lee from Axis Mundi, the bizarre, time-dilated location between Earth and the Hollow Earth. Despite being told not to by Monarch, they steal a boat and set out anyway.

The episode builds to a finale that sees Cate, despite warnings from her father Hiroshi (Takehiro Hira) and everyone else with good sense, open the portal in an attempt to bring Lee home. She's successful, but also brings the mysterious Titan X to Earth, while seemingly getting Natalia (Mirelly Taylor) killed in the process. That's just for starters. A deadly new monster is now on the loose, and Cate's decision is seemingly going to cause a lot more loss.

"Monarch" season 2 fits into the MonsterVerse timeline squarely between "Godzilla" and "Godzilla: King of the Monsters," taking place roughly in 2017. So we know that Monarch manages to take care of Titan X, but what damage occurs along the way remains to be seen.

But about that "Jurassic" connection...

There is much to be said about the ending of "Cause and Effect." What Cate does is maddening. The final shot of Kong's face almost says, "Look what you've done." It's easy to understand his frustration. Lee was in danger, but they could have found a more opportune way to try and save him — or, sad as it may have been, attempted to honor his sacrifice and not endanger the world on his account.

This largely mirrors the ending of 2018's "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom," which helped tee up "Jurassic World 3," which we would come to know as 2022's "Jurassic World Dominion." "Fallen Kingdom" sees Isla Nublar, the site of the original Jurassic Park, wiped off the map by a volcano, with the remaining dinosaurs brought to the mainland to be sold at a seedy auction. This naturally goes awry with the hybrid Indoraptor getting loose, wreaking havoc on Lockwood Manor.

In the end, Maisie Lockwood, a clone who has a great deal of sympathy for the dinosaurs in an "I didn't ask to be born" sort of way, opens the cages and lets them all run loose on the mainland. Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) and Owen (Chris Pratt) largely just let this happen, even though the consequences to humanity are dire. (What could possibly go wrong if dinos mingle with humans on the mainland? Guess we'll see!)

Similarly, Cate's actions come from the right place, but are woefully misguided. "It's the thought that counts" doesn't fly as an excuse: There are real-world consequences here, despite the sentiment. "Monarch" season 2 seems to be setting up the ever-divisive "Godzilla: King of the Monsters," in some ways. The question is, can the show make the juice worth this wild squeeze?

Audiences shouldn't blindly excuse a decision as baffling as the one Cate makes in this episode, nor should what Maisie did in "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" be overlooked. That said, sometimes blockbuster storytelling needs a way to get from point A to point B. Sometimes, something asinine can lead to something worthwhile. It's all about the ultimate execution.

In the case of "Fallen Kingdom," the ends didn't justify the means. The entire movie was predicated on setting up a third "Jurassic World" that would finally deliver humans and dinosaurs interacting, no longer confined to a single island. Instead, "Jurassic World Dominion" left us asking, "What was the point of all this?" It focused on giant locusts and once again confining the dinosaurs rather than delivering on the idea of a global conflict. What Maisie did and the logic that allowed it to happen didn't pay off. For fans of that franchise, it remains difficult to explain.

With "Monarch," we still have nine more episodes to see if the powers that be behind this show can make it worth it. For what it's worth, I've only seen the premiere episode as of this writing. /Film's Jeremy Mathai called "Monarch" season 2 an "Godzilla/Kong-sized adventure" in his review, but one that was "bogged down by too much melodrama."

Naturally, every viewer is going to have their own read on the season as a whole. What we know for sure is that Titan X is on the loose and it's Cate's fault. Can she make up for it? And will the show justify this reckless decision? We'll find out in the coming weeks.

The "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" season 2 premiere is streaming now on Apple TV.