Mr Great
Episode 4 of Moon Knight starts with Layla desperate to wake up Steven, who has passed out in the sand following the whole Khonshu debacle last week. With Khonsu trapped and placed inside the pyramid, Layla is followed by a jeep sporting several goons who eventually fire on her. Layla lights a flare, throws it at the jeep, igniting the bullets which then all explode and save the day. With Steven now awake, the pair drive off in their own jeep and head to the dig site, where they find it completely abandoned. Marc warns Steven that with no Khonshu that’s bad news for them all. There’s no more healing or fancy suits; Marc wants control. Steven refuses to give his body up, but he does tell Layla that Marc was protecting her because Khonshu wanted to turn her into an avatar. Deciding that honesty is the best medicine, their chat soon turns to a seriously awkward kiss. Anyway, it doesn’t last long as they both head underground to the depths of the tomb. Steven completely geeks out, as one would expect upon seeing these Egyptian trinkets, before they both decide to plummet further into the depths. As they descend into this labyrinth, the pair realize that this whole structure is a symbol. A pattern laid out as the Eye of Horus, which protects the afterlife. Now, the Eye of Horus is also that of the six senses, and through some exposition we learn all about our senses (thanks Steven) as well as deducing that the tongue is actually Ammit’s voice. Leading off this is a sacrificial chamber, complete with “meaty bits” and blood. However, gunshots from afar cause them both to hide. A body is brought into the chamber by a strange creature. Both Steven and Layla are forced to run, with the latter needing to head across a narrow crevasse to the other side; the creature slowly gaining on her. Although she does make it to the other side, she’s pulled into the darkness and killed. Only killing, Layla is a main character and one with a good deal of plot armour too, so naturally she fights the creature off, using another flare to stav it through the eye and knock it down to the depths below. Interestingly, Harrow happens to be watching from afar, and he tells Layla she’s handled it brilliantly. He also spews some narrative about her father which rattles her. Specifically, Arthur reveals that Layla’s father was murdered by mercenaries. And it would appear that Marc was part of them. Meanwhile, Steven manages to stumble upon the tomb of Alexandra the Great. Pushing it open, (being sure to apologize to Mr Great in the process!) he discovers a mummified corpse inside but no ushabti. Given Alexandra was the voice of Ammit, he deduces that this happens to be inside his mouth. Steven does eventually finds it but there’s a problem. Layla shows up, angry, and demands to know what happened to her father. Marc takes control of Steven, promising that he didn’t kill her father. Marc was there though and saw what happened. Marc’s partner got greedy and killed everyone at the dig site. Marc tried to save him but it was too late. In fact, his own partner shot him. Marc finally reveals that this is why they met originally. Harrow and his men appear with guns and surround Marc. With no ability to use the Moon Knight costume, given it’s linked with Khonshu, he takes out a few guards before Harrow shoots him in the chest with a pistol. Steven slips into the water and is presumably dead. When Marc awakens, he finds himself in a psych ward, bathed in white. Taking clear inspiration from Legion. Layla is there too and Harrow is the one in charge adopting different personas. There are clues that all is not right of course, typified by the Egyptian architecture and trinkets around. Marc soon realizes what happened, as the memories start flooding back. Marc heads off on a trip through the psych ward, freeing Steven from a sarcophagus inside one of the rooms. There’s another in an adjacent room too; someone inside pounding to get out. The pair ignore this and instead find themselves face with face with one of the Gods, sporting a hippo face no less. This is Taweret, the ancient Egyptian goddess of childbirth and fertility. “Hi!” She says cheerfully.
The Episode Review
So Moon Knight returns this week with a trippy and surreal episode, one that almost feels like a lite-version of Legion. The whole psych ward scene is nicely shot with some great cinematography. The problem is, it’s all been done before. It doesn’t even touch the weirdness of both Doom Patrol or Legion, which confront the ideas Moon Knight’s pedalling with far more panache. Instead, this series feels very much like The Mummy, but dragged out across 6 episodes with the charisma of Oscar Isaac carrying this forward. His dual role as Marc and Steven is fantastic and if I’d wager a bet, I’d imagine there’s a third personality in there somewhere. That’s something we’ve had teased across the season but the reveal of another sarcophagus rattling about, seems to prove as much. Either way though, the big reveal regarding the hippo at the end is such a great wtf moment and the voice is perfect too. Less funny however, is Layla’s way of using flares to get out of every situation, which feels a bit lazy on the writing front. Moon Knight has been a bit of a mixed bag so far but we’ll have to wait and see what the final 2 chapters have in store for us.
