It’s easy to put off the things that really matter in life, “Monarch” seems to say. Our work, our trauma, and at times, our own self-loathing all work to keep us away from the relationships that make life worth living. Lee returns from his first Axis Mundi venture and finds the world has passed him by. Out of guilt for losing Keiko and shame for missing Bill’s death, he believes he deserves the imprisonment Monarch sentences.

Meanwhile, Hiroshi has every opportunity to be present for his families and tell them the truth, but he avoids doing so. Perhaps he thinks himself unworthy of forgiveness, or of a happy life. As we’re told in one of the flashback scenes of Episode 9, “Lonely, scared people in pain can do terrible things.” It’s a fact that’s shown repeatedly over the course of “Monarch” Season 1.

When Keiko realizes that she, too, has lost so much time, she grieves the life she might have lived. She grieves her son’s childhood and young adulthood, the death of Bill, and the many others she knew who lived and died in the 57 days she’s been in Axis Mundi. For her, the choice would have been easy. Given the chance, she would have given up all her scientific ventures if it just meant being there with Hiroshi as he grew up. As Lee tells her, the world has changed, but not so dramatically. People are still the same, and it’s the people who actually matter.