With this week’s episode, we’re now halfway done with the inaugural season of Marvel Studios’ latest Disney+ series “Moon Knight.” After tonight we’ve only got three more episodes to watch Steven Grant/Marc Spector (Oscar Isaac) and his nocturnal alter egos fight crime both contemporary and ancient Egyptian. Will Moon Knight vanquish the evil cultist Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke), who has an almost comically oversized lust for power (and very questionable Mandarin-speaking skills)? There are only a few more episodes for him to get the job done.
With this week’s episode, “Moon Knight” is inching towards a resolution, with the central narrative picking up steam and the scope expanding towards “Indiana Jones”-ian proportions.
But what really went down during this week’s episode? Read on for our full rundown.
Major spoilers for this week’s episode of “Moon Knight” follow, obviously.
The Third Man
The episode opens with Layla (May Calamawy), Marc’s (ex?) wife and Steven’s current partner, getting forged documents. She’s describing her current situation in between getting photos taken for her phony passport. “He’s probably going to get himself killed running around Cairo,” she says. The forger is an older woman. She asks if she’s worried about going “home.” Instead, Layla is “anxious.” It’s revealed that Layla steals relics. She returns them to their rightful owners and keeps some to sell on the black market (“to pay the bills”). The forger knew her father. “You think his dig sites were any place for a child?” The forger hands Layla her knew passport. “Have a good trip, love,” the forger says.
In Egypt, Harrow has the scarab, which we will recall is a compass of sorts to find the tomb of Ammit, an Egyptian deity whose brutal judgement will murder many, many people prematurely. (Think back to last week’s ghoulish baby killing speech.) He’s surrounded by his followers. The scarab is hovering above his hand. They walk on. The scarab closes its wings, pointing down. “We found Ammit, she is here,” Harrow says. There’s a bearded guy who looks very excited. Maybe he was a character that was almost completely edited out? Regardless, we appreciate his pluck and enthusiasm. Another one of his goons relays the bad news: “Marc Spector is in Cairo.” Harrow doesn’t seem too concerned.
Meanwhile, Marc is galloping across Egyptian rooftops, very much in charge of this body. He comes across some thugs murdering somebody. “You killed that guy? I’ve got to talk to him about a dig site,” Marc says. Marc starts to fight the thugs and you can feel Steven’s good influence is starting to take hold. He almost kills a guy and instead slaps him. Still, Marc holds a giant knife up to the throat of one of the thugs. Steven, now regulated to the B-personality, appears in a knife blade. “Don’t do it,” Steven pleads. He blacks out and wakes up in a cab, which could be an important clue (more on that in a minute).
“Where are you taking me?” Marc asks the cabbie. “The airport,” the cabbie responds. He sees the thugs from the rooftop and has the cabbie stop. He chases them into a marketplace. He catches up to one of the thugs and asks him where Harrow is. Marc sees Steven in the mirror again. “Marc, that’s enough,” Steven says. The thugs knock Marc unconscious. He blacks out again. When he wakes up, he is holding onto a knife buried in the gut of one of the thugs. Marc looks around. More bodies. He looks at the bloody knife. “Steven what did you do?” Marc asks. “It wasn’t me!” says Steven.
There are two ways we could explain this: one, that there is a third personality within Marc/Steven’s body. This is the theory that has gotten the internet most talking. Eagle-eyed viewers have pointed towards certain images of the character in various reflections. And in the comic book, there was a third personality associated with Moon Knight too: Jake Lockley, a taxicab driver. Will Lockley make an appearance before the end of the season? Or are there further hidden personalities within his fleshy walls? The other theory that seems likely is that Khonshu is just taking over Marc/Steven’s body completely and Marc and Steven don’t know anything about it.
But wait! There’s a survivor amongst the carnage. “Take him to the ledge,” Khonshu (the bird-skull-headed god voiced by 82-year-old Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham) commands. “He’ll talk.” Marc dangles him over a very steep ledge and asks the thug where Harrow is. “Praise Ammit,” the thug says and drops off the ledge. “Hmm, I thought he’d talk,” Khonshu said. Steven pleads with him again. Khonshu is just casually hanging out on a rusted VW bug. If they can’t find Harrow’s digging crew, they’ll have to locate him another way.
Marc asks Khonshu if the other gods are just going to stand around and let Harrow unleash Ammit. “To signal an audience with the gods is to risk their wrath,” Khonshu says. “Anger them enough and they’ll imprison me in stone.” Khonshu has a “bad” idea – he’ll “send the gods a signal they can’t ignore” by blocking out the sun. Egypt is blanketed in shadow. At the dig site Harrow looks up. “You’re getting desperate old bird,” Harrow croaks.
Marc heads to a meeting of the gods. Even though they’re scattered across the world, portals will present themselves so that they can all get together. A stone doorway opens up for Marc. “Last time I spoke to the gods, they banished me,” Khonshu says. “Your evidence must be indisputable.” Marc walks through the door and winds up inside the great pyramid! Steven is freaking out.
Gods Damn
Once inside the pyramid, Marc is joined by the other human avatars of the Egyptians gods. He’s first met by the avatar for Hathor, goddess of music and love, who insinuates that Hathor was Khonshu’s ex. (Horace, Osiris, Isis and more.) They are gathered “to hear the account of Khonshu.” One of them says that they hate his flashiness and that if he manipulates the sky again they will imprison him in stone.
Khonshu speaks through Marc now. “Avatars are not enough, we need the might of gods,” Khonshu-speaking-through-Marc says. Another avatar tells him that the avatars are “simply meant to observe.” Khonshu calls upon judgement of Arthur Harrow. Harrow is summoned. He saunters in with his glass-filled Birkenstocks. Harrow demurs and deflects. “Do not trust the word of a shamed god,” Harrow says. “His servant is unwell – this is a man who literally does not know his own name. I’ve seen him speak to himself. I have no idea how many personalities he must possess. The man is clearly insane.” Marc goes for Harrow but is stopped by one of the other avatars. “We will not tolerate violence in this chamber,” the avatar says. The avatars want to speak to Marc Spector. “Are you unwell?” one of the avatars asks. “I am,” Spector says.
They think Khonshu is taking advantage of Marc. They don’t take action against Harrow. Or Marc. They leave Marc, crumpled on the floor of the pyramid. Hathor tells him that there is another way. Ammit had a follower who had a map to the tomb. She tells him to find the follower’s sarcophagus, which was stolen and sold on the black market. “You might want to start there,” Hathor says.
Back at the market, Marc is trying to look incognito in a John Cusack-approved black baseball cap. He asks about the sarcophagus. Layla appears. “Come with me, I’ll help you find what you need,” Layla says. We cut to nighttime; they’re on a boat. “Just so we can get through tonight, let’s give our shit a rest,” Marc says. Marc apologizes to Layla. They’re on their way to see the collector of the sarcophagus, Anton Mogart (Gaspard Ulliel). Mogart is an important figure in the comic book as being the alter ego of Midnight Man, a Marvel Comics figure known for his nearly supernatural abilities as an art thief.
Layla says that she wishes that Marc had told her about Steven. (Calamawy is really amazing during this sequence, mixing steely resolve with open-wound vulnerability.) “I had it under control until very recently,” Marc says. “We could have handled it together,” Layla says.
They get off the boat and head through a night market. They see someone following them. More fun banter between Marc and Layla. They walk up to what appears to be two men jousting, in front of a glass pyramid like the Louvre. One of Mogart’s goons says to Layla, “After Madripoor, I’m sure you’ll have a lot to talk about.” Madripoor, of course, is the mythical country central to several Marvel stories, most notably “X-Men.” It was finally introduced into the MCU in an episode of “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” (that’s where Zemo did his little dance). And now here it is, referenced in “Moon Knight!”
Apparently they are in Mogart’s “backyard.” His collection of antiquities he sees as a “philanthropic effort.” Mogart asks Marc what his interests are; he bungles the answer. Layla pleads with him to let Steven out, since Steven is an amateur Egyptologist. Marc talks to Steven about unlocking the sarcophagus. Layla stalls for time. Mogart’s thugs make a go at Marc. Marc tells Mogart to take a look inside the sarcophagus. Harrow arrives, offering Mogart “something much more tangible.” Layla tells Mogart that Harrow is going to kill millions.
Harrow tells Layla that Marc has something to tell her. Harrow tells Mogart that he can offer proof that the lore surrounding the relics is real. Khonshu tells Marc to summon the suit. Harrow starts conjuring something; the jewels in his cane start to grow that creepy, “Agatha All Along” purple. His magic vapors swirl around the sarcophagus and then destroy it. Layla looks up. It’s Moon Knight on top of the glass pyramid!
Moon Knight and Layla leap into action. She asks him to buy them some time. “I can do that,” Moon Knight says. He does a lot of cool things with his cape and costume, which really is one of the more awesome superhero suit designs out there. Layla grabs stuff from the sarcophagus. While Marc is kicking ass (and some of it is pretty gruesome), Steven is pleading with him to get the body back. Finally, Moon Knight disappears and Mr. Knight appears. Steven is back, baby. “Time out!” Mr. Knight says, as he’s stabbed twice with spears. (Don’t worry, the suit has healing powers.) “Take the body back Marc,” Mr. Knight sheepishly says. Um, Moon Knight is back baby. Mogart comes for him on horseback; Moon Knight kills him too.
Starry Knight
In a car Marc is looking at his jacket, now very, very hole-y. “I really liked that jacket,” Marc says. “Oh well.” Layla asks him what Harrow was talking about when he said that she had a right to know. Marc plays dumb. One of Harrow’s guys is on their tail.
They stop and try to piece together the star map for the sarcophagus. It isn’t going well. Layla says that they need Steven. Khonshu is on the hood of the car. “I summon the gods, you summon the worm. He won’t return the body,” Khonshu says. He rips off the rearview mirror and gazes into it. “Alright, go ahead, you’re in,” Marc says. Steven returns. He tells her that the Egyptians invented modern navigation using the sun and the stars. He’s pieced the map together. There’s a constellation. But it won’t wory because the map was made 2,000 years ago and “stars drift.” “Unless we know what the sky looked like on that date, we’re buggered,” Steven says. “I remember that night,” Khonshu says. “I remember every night.”
Steven and Layla walk up to the top of a dune. “I can turn back the night sky,” Khonshu says. “It’ll come at a cost. And I cannot do it alone.” Steven turns into Mr. Knight. “When the gods imprison me, tell Marc to free me,” Khonshu says. Together they turn back the night sky. It’s absolutely gorgeous. Soon it becomes a kaleidescopic strobe of color and light. Harrow notices it. “This is the night,” Khonshu says.
Inside the pyramid, the avatars have joined together. They are building a stone statue to imprison Khonshu. The camera pans up; the peak of the pyramid is gone and the night sky glitters beyond. Layla finds the coordinates. The powers of both Marc and Khonshu are evaporating. Khonshu is gone. The statue is complete. Marc falls unconscious.
One of the other avatars is walking with Harrow. “You were right about Khonshu,” the avatar tells him. “And in the end, he left us no choice.” Harrow walks into the pyramid. Khonshu is now “tethered to this place, like many before him.” Harrow asks if Khonshu can hear him. Harrow walks up to the statue. “Can I tell you a secret? I enjoyed dealing out pain in your behalf. That is the greatest sin I carry,” Harrow says, and picks up the statue. “I’m going to do what you could not. Then, when it’s finished, I want you to remember one thing: your torment forced me. I owe my victory to you.” End scene.
Oh brother. How’s Marc/Steven going to get himself out of this one? And how will they thwart Harrow’s evil plan without the suit and the superpowers and the wisecracking Egyptian overlord? Guess we’ll have to come back next week to find out.