Shaw continues his crusade to seal the gamma hot spots, while the Randas, May, and Tim attempt to get ahead of him.
Tropes:
- Bad Boss: Lieutenant Hatch, who was put in charge of Monarch when Lee Shaw missed his promotion, makes no secret of his utter contempt for the organization, which he intends to shut down so he can appropriate their funding to fight a real threat to national security: Soviet spies infiltrating American society. He's especially scummy towards Dr. Keiko Miura, sneering that he has no idea how a Japanese woman, and a former member of the Imperial Japanese Navy no less, could get such high-ranking clearance in the American government. He then reveals he had the FBI investigate Keiko and threatens to reveal her dirty secrets to everyone, revelling in her despair and outrage... until Bill Randa leaps across his desk and punches him in the face.
- Bigger on the Inside: Bill outright describes the Hollow Earth which the Titans are using to move around the world unseen as such following his "Eureka!" Moment.
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends with May, Cate, and Shaw falling into the portal, along with the Endopede, moments before Shaw's explosives bring the whole place down.
- Determinator: Puckett comments that Shaw doesn't give up when the latter approaches him trying to convince him not to take Hatch's scathing report on Monarch at face value.
- Disappointed in You: After reading Hatch's biased report, Puckett reminds Lee of the high hopes he previously had for him and outright tells him that he's disappointed in him.
- Easily-Overheard Conversation: Young Shaw overhears Bill all but confessing his love to Keiko from just around the bend of the door into Bill's office.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Bill cannot figure out how the Titans are moving about unnoticed, until he sees an ant slip through a tear in his map and realizes they're travelling beneath the Earth.
- Godzilla Threshold: Pun intended. In order to maintain Monarch's funding and get rid of Hatch, Lee breaks his and his friends' oath to keep Godzilla's survival secret from the military, informing Puckett in private that Castle Bravo didn't kill Godzilla.
- Held Gaze: Shaw and Cate hold each-other's gazes when arguing.
- Holding Hands: Bill and Keiko hold hands after Bill discovers the truth about Hiroshi and admits his feelings to Keiko.
- Ignored Expert: In an ironic role reversal given Lee's past with them, Monarch become the ignored experts to Lee when Cate warns Lee that Monarch's analysis indicates his sealing off the Hollow Earth portals is causing the gamma radiation from the others to proportionately increase. Lee refuses to heed it, rationalizing that Monarch are just making excuses to keep burying their heads in the sand pretending that the status quo is fine, as he feels they already did in the 33 years leading up to G-Day.
- Internal Reveal: In the 1950s story, Shaw reveals to Puckett that Godzilla survived the nuke so he'll maintain Monarch's funding, as well as Bill and Keiko's place in it.
- Mexican Standoff: Monarch's forces and Shaw's including Duvall stand off with guns over the Hollow Earth portal in the Kazakhstan abandoned power plant.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: Monarch's task team initially intend to go in pointing guns if it means stopping Shaw, to which Cate protests.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Shaw thinks sealing the Hollow Earth portals will prevent another G-Day, but each one he seals causes the radiation to intensify at the remaining sites, suggesting the exact opposite would happen should he manage to seal enough of them.
- Our Hero Is Dead: The episode ends on a cliffhanger with May, Cate and Lee all falling into the same (very deep) hole where Keiko apparently fell to her death, while the Kazakh power plant collapses on top of Kentaro, Tim and Duvall.
- Punch a Wall: Bill punches a wall after accosting Hatch for speaking ill of Keiko. Fifty years later the hole is still there, the office now having become Tim's.
- Reclaimed by Nature: Downplayed, but in the 2015 time frame, ferns and overgrowth have grown around the reactor hole in Kazakhstan since we last saw it in 1959, possibly due to seeds seeping up from the hole's portal to Axis Mundi.
- Red Scare: Lieutenant Hatch is a firm believer in the anti-Communist propaganda of the 1950s, and intends to appropriate Monarch's funding for use in combatting Soviet spies infiltrating American society.
- The Reveal:
- Shaw's plan is to completely seal off Hollow Earth to prevent the Titans from emerging, and he believes Godzilla seeks the same outcome.
- Hiroshi is revealed to be Keiko's son with her first husband, who died serving in World War II. When she worries about what could happen to her hard-fought reputation if Hatch reveals she's a single mother on top of being Japanese and a woman, Bill Randa effectively proposes to her.
- Say My Name: May screams Cate's name in distressed concern when the power plant starts collapsing, as does Kentaro when Cate falls into the Vile Vortex.
- Take My Hand!: Shaw tries to grab Cate's hand as she's falling into the power plant's Vile Vortex, in an echo of what happened between him and Keiko in that same place in 1959. Unlike with Keiko, this time Lee succeeds in catching Cate's hand in time.
- Tranquil Fury: General Puckett doesn't raise his voice in the slightest, but it's clear by his tone and word-choice that he's disappointed by Shaw flaking on that meeting about his promotion, and he's pissed after he took Lieutenant Hatch's damning report on Project Monarch at face value. That changes once Shaw tells him that Godzilla is alive and convinces him that Hatch is responsible for keeping this secret.
- Troubled Backstory Flashback: When asked what he expects to find in the abandoned Kazakhstan plant, Shaw flashes back to Keiko's fall.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Puckett at first, when Shaw approaches him at the White House attempting to convince him to give Monarch one more chance: "Jesus Christ, you do not give up!"
