Arthur Harrow’s got the upper hand, and in that hand, the scarab. The release of the goddess Ammit, and the deaths of millions who will be judged unworthy for crimes they haven’t yet committed, is nigh. The minds that make up Moon Knight are running through Cairo, trying to track Harrow down, but his trail’s gone cold. When you’re out of options, it’s time to call upon higher powers — but that rarely comes without cost.
Armaan Babu: It’s a waxing gibbous moon tonight; the moon is almost full, and Ammit is nearly released, her destiny nearly fulfilled. Things are about as bad as they can get for Marc, Steven and Khonsu, but hey, we get a trip to Egypt out of the deal so as an audience, we’re aces. As an extra treat, I’m joined this week by Mariam Ibrahim to talk about this week’s episode. Welcome, Mariam! Before we talk about this particular episode though, tell me — how’ve you been enjoying the show so far?
Mariam Ibrahim: Hey Armaan! Thanks for having me. I haven’t heard about this superhero before, but I did enjoy everything MCU-related so I had to see what this is about. The first episode was a bit slow for me, had me asking a lot of questions but the second one answered some of those questions – and then had me asking some more! As an Egyptian though I am pretty excited to see what the third episode will bring!
Where Have All Our Good Guys Gone?
Armaan: So before we get to Cairo itself, we get a little background about Layla, which is great, because as far as I can tell she’s an entirely new character made just for the show, much to the frustration of google-users everywhere in the past few weeks.
It’s a lot of exposition, but charmingly delivered. It seems Layla was inducted into a life of blurred legal lines at a fairly young age. How’d you like this scene?
Mariam: Lots of ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ went on for me during that scene because I was also starting to wonder what exactly is Layla’s role other than yelling at poor Steven ( and also Marc). I agree the exposition was subtle but brings her life full circle ( well kinda). Looks like we have our very own Egyptian Tomb Raider!
Armaan: With Layla’s passport forged, we (and by we I mean the audience) are all packaged off to Cairo, where Arthur Harrow has managed to use the magic scarab to find the tomb of Ammit. Major The Mummy vibes here for me.
In the meantime, we get to spend some quality time with Marc, who up to this point has been mostly just a grumpy man in the mirror. In fact, with Marc in control of the body, we get a fun reversal of what’s been happening to Steven, with Marc periodically blacking out only to find himself in situations that are completely surprising to him.
Now that we’re getting to see Marc, my appreciation for him being able to embody a completely separate person is only heightened. Marc’s face is continually tired, he slips into violence with the ease of someone slipping on a jacket. The fight choreography shows off a lot of his personality too. He’s no fluid, graceful fighter. He’s a brawler. He’s fluent in fighting, yes, enough to make easy work of a three-on-one fight, but he does it with all the rawness of a predator. No energy expended except for when he has to, and he’d much rather intimidate than fight — but when it does come to that, he’s all in.
Mariam: I wouldn’t describe it as ‘Fun’ Armaan, Marc is suddenly finding himself in a car being taken to the airport, do you know how horrible Cairo traffic is? By the way, the whole “are we dancing now?” part literally made me giggle, because in Egyptian series this is EXACTLY how a fight is filmed – it’s very theatrical. There’s really not much finesse in the way Marc fights, just doing what needs to be done, although when has his suit on he definitely has more style.
Also fun fact, the kid who says “praise Ammit” is Ahmed Dash, so it’s really exciting to recognize an Egyptian face in a Marvel series.
Armaan: Even having seen the show’s unique kind of flashforwards before, Moon Knight manages to surprise me — my jaw dropped when I saw Marc wake up to his knife sticking out of some poor henchmen he’d been chasing, because murder is definitely not Steven’s MO. Marc himself has no idea what’s been happening, and Khonsu, as far as we know, isn’t strong enough to control a body on his own. So there’s a third personality we may be dealing with here — which, the comics tell us, might well be the street-savvy taxi driver, Jake Lockely.
Mariam: The look on Marc’s face as he held that knife looked very familiar – I wonder if he ever went “Oh this must’ve been what Steven felt like the other day?” – well probably not. Anyways, by now we do realize that something is indeed off, with Steven and Marc both questioning each other about the rising body count ( the pigeon does not have the answer unfortunately).
Where Are All the Gods?
Armaan: So despite Marc’s best attempts, he’s unable to get any information out of the Ammit devotees he’s been following. If it wasn’t for the cold dismissiveness Khonsu has for their lives, I’d have been deeply amused by how inept Marc really is. Getting information out of unwilling informants is Superhero (or Anti-Hero) 101, and he’s got nothing. Like, as an agent he’s so inept that the only other thing that he and Khonshu can think to do is create an eclipse and summon the gods because they’re just that quickly out of ideas.
Which brings us to the conference of Egyptian gods and their Avatars.
Mariam: Out of the things that made me say ‘well this escalated quickly’, the use of a full on solar eclipse was definitely up there. That trial did make me wonder though, if avatars are meant to observe, did nobody wonder why Harrow was in the middle of a dig site? Ya’ll can manipulate the sun but can’t keep tabs on your former avatars? Wasn’t anyone aware that he was building a cult of his own? SO MANY QUESTIONS. Also, as dismissive as Khonsu was, he did eventually sacrifice himself, so good guy Khonshu.
Armaan: Oh, man, you’re right, it is strange that no one aside from Khonshu himself seems to even know Ammit’s cult exists. The powers of the gods seem completely arbitrary here. Khonshu himself can change the skies above, but can’t do much else through his Avatars than blow a little wind around.
While their potency is murky, one thing is for sure — the rest of the Pantheon seems to prefer a hands off approach. If there’s been little evidence of the Egyptian gods’ existence through the ages, it’s because they seem to be repulsed by the idea of interacting with humanity in the first place. Which is why, when they do summon Harrow, he’s able to allay suspicion by simply denying that he’s done anything wrong, and turn the gods’ ire back on Khonshu.
I have to admit, I was a little disappointed that someone who believes in his cause as strongly as Harrow does resorts to petty lies and misdirects, but I can’t fault its effectiveness.
How familiar are you with Egyptian mythology? I know there are a lot more gods than the ones whose avatars we saw here, but do you think the show got a hold of the more important ones?
Mariam: I’m not really that familiar, but Horus, Isis and Osiris are the ones I do recognize, it’s a family affair now. As for Harrow, I don’t think he sees a point in fully revealing his plans until he has Ammit by his side? Or him at hers I’m assuming – he’s being smart about it. It’ll be kinda weird if he just admits his plan on the third episode, what will he do in the rest of them?!
Armaan: You’re right, it is the smart choice, but in fairness to me, it does not seem like earthly avatars are all that great at making smart choices to begin with.
Here’s Our Streetwise Layla, to Fight the Rising Odds
(The Adventures of Layla & Marc, working with Steven, Khonsu’s last stand)
Armaan: Marc and Khonshu are completely out of options, now. I’m amused that, even with a lead given to them by Khonshu’s former flame, Marc’s best bet is just, like…wandering the marketplace asking people for clues.
He’s so bad at this.
Fortunately for him, Layla isn’t, and despite the lies and his abandonment of her, she’s still willing to risk everything to help him out. Granted, the stakes are pretty high, but all the same, I think it’s pretty big of her.
I like the scene between the two of them, as they reminisce about their wedding, and plan their stories for a meet with one of Layla’s former flames (a lot of helpful exes in this episode, now that I think about it).
Mariam: I’ve noticed that too. Clearly they had the wedding in Egypt, I would love to see a show reel of that. My favorite scene is the 2 of them against Mogart’s men – I think the rawness you mentioned earlier disappears, and now he doesn’t really need to intimidate. He’s going in for the kill and he enjoys it – well until Steven interferes and ruins things. Also Layla is pretty badass with a gun, but the moment she snaps her own half crescent weapons – that’s the Layla I want to see more of.
Armaan: I have a lot of sympathy for Steven (though it probably helps that he was our point of view character for the first two episodes)! He may have an abysmal idea of what the stakes are, but I can get that he’s a man desperate for some sense of control over his life.
In fact, I’m still building off my theory that Steven is the man that Marc wishes he could have been for Layla. Someone less violent, someone who cares about the things she cares about, someone silly, and fun, and most importantly, someone who could love her in a way that he never could. Because, weirdly, despite the ease that Marc and Layla have with each other…it somehow feels like Steven and her have more chemistry. Steven, at least, is definitely falling for her, hard.
Mariam: Oh, 100%. Marc and Steven are literally on the opposite sides of the spectrum. I feel like there were moments where Layla would be thinking “why wasn’t it you instead?”. Steven could be the one for her in an ideal world, but could he protect her like Marc? It seems to me like they’ve been through alot of adventures but I can’t imagine asking Steven to be the one who has your back when things go south. If she could choose between them, who would she pick?
Armaan: Look, best of both worlds, who says she has to? Of course, there is the matter of that other known personality in Marc’s head, but that seems to have been taken care of. Team Moon Knight’s MO continues to be to go from zero to God Mode at the drop of a hat, so when they need to figure out the last clue needed to find Ammit’s tomb, Khonshu turns back the sky to reflect the night as it was, 2,000 years ago — a feat that causes enough interference to have the gods encase him in stone permanently.
Like Harrow, Khonshu may be willing to use people heartlessly towards his own ends, but he does truly believe in his cause. My heart goes out to him a little. I can’t imagine what its like to be a god and have no one believe in you — not your own pantheon, not even your own Avatar, but he keeps doing whatever is necessary to stop Ammit from apocalypsing everyone.
What does this mean for Moon Knight’s powers? Can they defeat Harrow, his cult, and whatever else Ammit has to throw at them without Khonshu’s aid? We’ve a week to find out!
Spector Specifics
- My mom was sitting with me (Mariam) as I was watching the third episode, and when that ‘sagat’ ( small metallic cymbals) and that ‘Batwanes Beek’ (by Warda) Marvel intro song hit, we literally just looked at each other’s eyes wide open! Kudos to Mohamed Diab for bringing out the 2 musical representations of Egypt.
- No hidden QR code this episode for free comics, but if you go back to previous episodes’ QR link you’ll find that another issue of Werewolf by Night has been added for your reading pleasure.
- Khonsu’s dramatic, slightly windswept aesthetic will be greatly missed. His manipulativeness and callous regard for mortal lives will be somewhat less missed.
- Layla’s ex, Anton Mogart, is known in the comics as Midnight Man — a sort of counterpart to Moon Knight himself. The actor who played him, Gaspard Ulliel, unfortunately passed away in a skiing accident last year.
A superspeed moon and starlight blurring its way across the sky looks a surprising amount like cheap strobe lights. I also imagine that it gave any werewolves in the area extreme headaches.
Armaan is obsessed with the way stories are told. From video games to theater, TTRPGs to comics, he has written for, and about, them all. He will not stop, actually; believe us, we've tried.
