Another week has come and gone, and while the march of time passes unrelenting, it does bring with it new episodes of Moon Knight. So, there’s some good with the bad. And if you’re like me, these Marvel shows on Disney+ are really all that brings me joy anymore. (But I truly hope not.)
But enough about my anhedonia. Let’s get into the new episode breakdown.
Also, a friendly reminder that the following is full of spoilers. So, if you’re not caught up, I recommend doing that first.
On To Egypt
The latest episode, “The Friendly Type,” begins with Layla (May Calamawy) getting a fake passport to follow Marc to Egypt. It’s an interesting scene as Layla clearly has a long history with the woman making the passport, which implies that Layla has been involved in the less-than-savory life for quite some time.
After the credits, we find Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke) in the middle of the desert. The scarab has led him to the tomb of Ammit, and he orders his followers to begin digging.
Marc Spector (Oscar Isaac), also in Cairo, tracks a lead to find Harrow. He catches up with the man only to find a group of street thugs had killed him. Marc tries to question the thugs, which turns into a fight. Just as Marc is about to kill one of them, Steven takes control of the body.
Marc wakes up in the back of a cab as disoriented as Steven was when he’d blacked out. He sees the thugs on the sidewalk, orders the cabbie to stop, and chases them through the city. When he catches up with one of them, he demands to know where Harrow is. He catches his reflection, and Steven begs him to stop. While he’s distracted, one of the other thugs hits him on the head. He goes down, and another identity takes over.
When Marc wakes up again, he’s just plunged a knife into one of the thugs’ chest. He looks at his reflection in the knife and asks Steven what he did, but Steven swears it wasn’t him. Spotting the last thug, Marc tries to get info on Harrow from him. Khonshu tells Marc to hold the kid over the edge of the cliff, but instead of talking, the kid allows himself to drop, a move that surprises even Khonshu.
With no leads to find Harrow, Marc wants Khonshu to call the gods for help. Khonshu is hesitant, afraid that the gods will imprison him in stone. But he does so, getting their attention by casting the world in moonlight.
Khonshu shows Marc to a portal to the meeting place, which happens to be inside the Great Pyramid of Giza (a tidbit delivered by a fanboying Steven Grant). The purpose of calling together the Ennead — the council of the gods, as we learned in the first episode — is to put Arthur Harrow on trial for trying to free Ammit. But as the trial gets underway, the gods are more suspicious of Khonshu given his history.
The trial goes badly when Harrow is called to testify. He claims that Khonshu is unhinged and that Marc is unwell. This sways the Ennead in his favor, and they rule against Khonshu.
Despite the loss, a woman named Yatzil, the avatar of Hathor, tells Marc of a way to find Ammit’s tomb: by finding the sarcophagus of Senfu, who charted a map of the location.
Layla catches up with Marc, and using her connections to the black market, finds the sarcophagus and takes Marc to it. After meeting Anton Mogart (played by Gaspard Ulliel, who, unfortunately, passed away shortly after filming), Marc and Layla investigate the sarcophagus and find a map. Layla tries to convince Marc to let Steven out, but he refuses.
As they investigate the map, Mogart gets concerned, and he sends his guards after them. With Marc and Layla held at gunpoint, Harrow shows up, offering Mogart treasure. Harrow shows off his power to Mogart, destroying Senfu’s sarcophagus and dashing Marc’s chance to find Ammit’s tomb.
At this point, Marc summons the suit, and a fight ensues. Mogart and his guards fight well, having Moon Knight on the ropes, but with Layla’s life in danger, Marc doubles down and beats them all.
Taking what’s left of the map, Marc and Layla go out into the desert to figure out where the tomb is. Marc allows Steven control, given his knowledge of Egyptian hieroglyphics. Steven realizes that the map shows the constellations at the time the map was made. But because stars drift over time, the constellations then are different from now.
So Khonshu, in all his power, rewinds the heavens, rearranging the constellations to the night that the map was made. It’s an awesome scene with some surreal imagery, and probably one of the most beautiful in any of the MCU shows to date.
However, Khonshu’s display of power angers the Ennead and they imprison him in stone, much to Harrow’s delight.
Final Thoughts…
So far, the strangest thing about Moon Knight is that we’ve barely gotten to know the main character. Moon Knight is the alter ego of Marc Spector, and all we know about Marc Spector is that he’s a mercenary who’s done something terrible in his past. Hell, it’s not even clear if Marc Spector is the main identity. After all, our first introduction was to Steven Grant.
This latest episode keeps up that trend by focusing more on Khonshu. Through the body of Marc/Steven, we see Khonshu interact with the other gods of the Ennead and learn how they feel about him. We find out that Khonshu has one godly ally while the rest are content to banish him. And given what we know about Khonshu, this makes sense.
The latest episode does give us a flash of another of Marc Spector’s alters, one that’s prevalent in the comics but has so far been missing from the show: Jake Lockley. Though it’s not clear that Lockley was the other alter Steven and Marc referred to when Marc killed the Egyptian thug, it does at least point to a third personality (or is it a fourth?). This certainly adds another level to Marc’s psychosis and makes things more difficult for him if he has to contend with an alter who isn’t afraid of killing.
Though it could also exonerate him from the terrible secret he’s been carrying; if one of Marc’s personalities is a ruthless killer and that personality was in the driver’s seat, that means Marc isn’t culpable… right? Clearly, I can’t answer that as it’s a conversation for a philosopher. I am not smart enough to tackle it.
Either way, I’m glad we seem to be beyond the slow-burn portion of the series and finally into the higher stakes. With Khonshu imprisoned, it will be interesting to see how it affects Marc/Steven. Do they retain the Moon Knight powers, or are they now forced to find a way to free Khonshu and stop Harrow?
