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Best Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Episodes, Ranked

All 18 episodes of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters scored and sorted — from the 9.1/10 high of S2E5 to the 8.1/10 of S1E2.

By Mira Vance · Editor & Lead Reviewer

Our rating: 8.65/10 average across 18 episode reviews (best 9.1, lowest 8.1).

Here’s the shape of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters in one line: it spends a whole season warming up, then catches fire in the back half of season two and won’t let go. Season one is steady, never spectacular — ten episodes parked in the mid-8s, the kind of consistency that reads as the show finding its footing rather than soaring. The low point is right up front: S1E2, “A Hunt for Dragons Finds a Ghost Ship” (8.1), where the dual-timeline structure is still being explained more than felt, and S1E4, “A Titan Hunts Heat in Alaska” (8.3), runs into the same problem — monster set-piece carrying thinner human stakes.

Then season two does something the first never quite managed. The middle stretch is the real reason to be here. S2E5, “Santa Soledad Closes the Family Wound” (9.1), and S2E7, “Two Lee Shaws on One Radio” (9.1), sit at the top, with E6 and E8 a hair behind at 9.0 — four straight episodes that finally pay off the generational ache the Shaw family has been carrying since the pilot.

The one frustration: the finale, “A Finale That Trades Vengeance for a Love Letter in the Rift” (8.4), can’t match the run it follows. After that 9.0-plus peak, a quieter, more sentimental close lands softer than the table-setting deserved. Skip nothing in season two; season one rewards patience.

Season 1: 8.5Season 2: 8.8
678910S1E1: 8.6/10S1E2: 8.1/10S1E3: 8.5/10S1E4: 8.3/10S1E5: 8.7/10S1E6: 8.7/10S1E7: 8.6/10S1E8: 8.7/10S1E9: 8.6/10S1E10: 8.6/10S2E2: 8.4/10S2E3: 8.7/10S2E4: 8.6/10S2E5: 9.1/10S2E6: 9.0/10S2E7: 9.1/10S2E8: 9.0/10S2E9: 8.4/10
Every episode scored on tension, payoff, and rewatch value. Hover a point for the episode.
RankEpEpisodeScore
T-1S2E5Santa Soledad Closes the Family Wound9.1
T-1S2E7Two Lee Shaws on One Radio9.1
T-3S2E6A Funeral, a Father, and the Birth of an Old Lie9.0
T-3S2E8The Beach, the Egg, and a Mother Who Will Not Move9.0
T-5S1E5The Way Out Is Always Through8.7
T-5S1E6Suzuki Calls Godzilla, And The Bomb Fails8.7
T-5S1E8Legacy of Monsters S1E08 Review: Kazakhstan, the Portal, and the Bigger-on-the-Inside Theory8.7
T-5S2E3The Titan Phone and a Letter That Settles It8.7
T-9S1E1Legacy of Monsters S1E1 Review: Aftermath Opens the MonsterVerse's Human Wing8.6
T-9S1E7Legacy of Monsters S1E7 Review: May Becomes Corah and the Curtain Comes Down8.6
T-9S1E9Operation Hourglass and the Cost of Going Under8.6
T-9S1E10The Way Out Costs One More Shaw8.6
T-9S2E4A Heist, A Whale, And A Map Drawn In 19578.6
14S1E3Legacy of Monsters S1E3 Review: Castle Bravo and the Family Curse8.5
T-15S2E2A Sound Below Hearing Turns the Hunt8.4
T-15S2E9A Finale That Trades Vengeance for a Love Letter in the Rift8.4
17S1E4Legacy of Monsters S1E4 Review: A Titan Hunts Heat in Alaska8.3
18S1E2A Hunt for Dragons Finds a Ghost Ship8.1

Scores reflect our episode reviews. Tap any episode to read the full review, or browse the whole Monarch: Legacy of Monsters season recap from the top.