Khonshu’s rewound the sky, Steven’s deciphered the clues, and Marc and Layla have punched nearly everyone who’s gotten in their way. There’s only one thing left to do: race through the final resting place of the goddess of Ammit to find the statue holding her prisoner. That’s right — it’s a tomb raiding episode. Pack your grappling hooks.
Armaan Babu: It’s a waning gibbous moon tonight — more and more truth is being brought into the light, and we’re this close to having all the answers we need. Speaking of things that are needed, I require a co-writer this week to help me explore the catacombs of this, the fourth episode of Moon Knight. Are there any who will join me?
Austin Gorton: Oh, right, here, I’m here! Sorry, I was shoulder deep down the gullet of the greatest conqueror the world has ever known, so you probably didn’t see me raising my hand there, did you? Anyways, now that that’s been taken care of, what say we dive into the episode?
Flare-Ups Galore
Armaan: This episode starts with our heroes at a pretty big disadvantage — they’ve only just found out where Ammit’s tomb is, giving Harrow and company a pretty big headstart. More importantly, Khonshu’s been imprisoned in a stone figurine, along with a number of other Egyptian gods who apparently stepped out of line. Worse, Steven’s currently in charge of the body, meaning it’s pretty much up to Layla to save them both from the cultists on their trail.
As an aside, I just want to say, I love the idea that the reason why there aren’t as many gods interacting with humanity as there used to be in myth is that the more discreet gods just turned the unruly ones into stone. What if this isn’t just an Egyptian thing? I like to imagine that somewhere, in MCU’s India, there’s a buried temple that houses thousands and thousands of meddling Hindu deities.
And that Kingo from the Eternals knows exactly where it is.
Austin: I am a huge sucker for “the gods of myth are still around but you don’t realize it for reason X” kind of plot beats, so I totally dig this reveal. I love the idea of, say, Dionysus being locked away somewhere because he just…couldn’t…stop…partying.
But back in the mortal realm, we see Layla pretty efficiently save Steven from the cultists, and her sheer dominance in the first half of the episode really got me thinking about whether or not this whole series is just a stealth vehicle for setting her up as Moon Knight. I’m not someone who needs every MCU thing to just be a bridge to the next one, and the best MCU things are the ones which manage to do that while also telling an entertaining, reasonably-complete story. Layla still needs Steven’s vast knowledge of egyptology to make it through this adventure, but given how much she doesn’t really seem to need much of what Marc brings to the table (especially if she were to be imbued with Khonshu’s gifts), I could very easily see her just cutting Marc out of the picture entirely and operating as Moon Knight on her own. And that would be pretty great.
Armaan: I had a similar thought — the MCU does a lot of this. Introduce a female secondary character who is so compelling, and so competent, you wonder why the show or movie just isn’t about her instead. It’s not a problem, exactly, but it does make it frustrating how few female-led Marvel stuff is out there.
I gotta say, Layla gets a hell of a lot of mileage out of those flares. Are flares a thing? Is there a Flare-Woman hidden deep in the cracks of Marvel history? Can it be a thing? It makes as much sense as crescent blades!
Austin: Using the flare to blow up the ammo was smart. Using the flare against the mummy priest was satisfying.
Armaan: I’m also enjoying the running love…triangle? Love echo? Love mobius strip? The romantic complication brewing up between Steven, Marc, and Layla. I have a running theory that Steven was created to be the kind of guy that Marc wished he could have been for Layla: kind, gentle, knowledgeable, honest, and head over heels in love with her. Because while it feels like Marc and Layla have a lot of history together, their romantic chemistry feels…weak. Meanwhile, Steven can’t stop looking at her like she’s the sun he revolves around.
It feels, at first, like Layla’s developing feelings for Steven, too. She initiates a kiss with him, after all, there’s heat in that lean-in. But when it’s Steven who initiates the kiss…the heat is gone. She responds, but it’s almost…polite. It reads to me like she wants a kinder, more honest Marc, yes, but at the end of the day, she still very much wants Marc.
Am I reading too much into this, or did you see something similar too? Either way, I’m invested in this romance, and you gotta admire a show that can manage that.
Austin: There is definitely chemistry between the leads (in one form or another) and that goes a long way. I’m not sure I entirely buy Layla developing feelings for Steven, but I like your reading of it as her simply responding to the traits in Steven she wishes Marc would exhibit. Wwhereas I absolutely buy Steven developing feelings for Layla, because she’s pretty awesome, especially in this episode.
Tomb Raiding – The Great, and the Not So Great
Armaan: I had a lot of fun with exploring the tomb, here. Maybe because I’m just coming off of having played through the entire modern Tomb Raider trilogy, but in another world, the serialized adventures of Marc, Steven, Khonshu and Layla hunting ancient artifacts from one ruin to another would make a great show.
As is, we get all the hallmarks of a great tomb raidin’ game: solving puzzles, hiding from undead priests, sections of rock walls you can traverse that are textured differently from the rest of the rock wall, ledges that crumble just after you’ve passed them — it’s classic.
We also get a splash of horror here, too, with that aforementioned undead priest. Are you a big horror fan, Austin? How well did this scene work for you?
Austin: I’m not a big horror guy per se, but this entire sequence played very much like the creators letting their Indiana Jones and Brendan Fraser’s The Mummy flags fly, both of which have elements of horror to them. All the bits you cited are equally at home in those movies, and really, for as creepy as the click-click-clicking of the indeed priest was, the shot of Layla turning to find Harrow stoically gazing at her from across the chasm was the most jump-scare worthy. Something about his preternatural calm and patience in the midst of this tomb filled with working mummies, crumbling ledges and vast, bottomless pits was…unsettling.
Harrow proceeds to give us a bit of an info deep, revealing to Layla (and us) that Marc was present at the death of her father (Harrow, of course, presents it less as “being there” and more “responsible for”). This in turn leads to a confrontation between Marc and Layla, in which we get our first snippets of the “traditional” Moon Knight origin from the comics, of the mercenary left for dead, resurrected by Khonshu in exchange for his service. How did this hit you, Armaan, and what do you think of this connection between Marc and the death of Layla’s father?
Armaan: Once again, I appreciate that the show could have immediately made this confrontation entirely antagonistic, but they chose to make it a little more complicated than that. Marc didn’t kill her father — and I don’t think she blames him for being a part of the mercenary crew that led to her father’s death. If that had been it, they would have dealt with it in time, I’m sure.
The kicker, though, is that Marc held that secret back the entire time they knew each other. He met Layla only because of his guilt about having been involved with her father’s death. He met her, got to know her, married her, and shared ridiculous supernatural relic-hunting adventures with her, all while holding a pretty major secret to himself. Layla is very justifiably upset — but of course, she doesn’t have time to process any of this, because Harrow and his people come storming into the tomb. Layla just about manages to escape, but Marc? Marc’s shot right through the chest, and everything fades to…white?
And the Oscars Go To…
Armaan: So this was a pretty stark shift in gears, huh? From crumbling tomb walls and undead priests in the shadows to bright white clinics, soft pajamas and compassionate bindings of the mentally asylums. We’re being Normal Agained for a bit here, as the show takes a bit out of Jeff Lemire and Greg Smallwood’s run on Moon Knight, as Marc Spector is being forced to question whether or not his spectacular life is a mental delusion.
It’s not overt, but I’m glad that the show doesn’t go too hard on this. I never get the sense that they’re trying to convince the audience that Marc may have been making anything up, because nobody would believe that. The important thing here is that this is being used to hurt Marc, and the big question is not whether or not Moon Knight is real — but who is forcing Marc to question his own reality like this?
Austin: I love that Buffy was the immediate reference point for both of us on this (that show went to the “all the outlandish stuff you’ve experienced is just happening in your head” well more than once)! Though I also agree that this was presented less as a “oh, maybe Marc/Steven have just been in an asylum the whole time?” mystery and more as an “okay, what is making them experience this?” kind of thing. Even as they did stuff like the cheap Indiana Jones pastiche VHS movie and the callback to Steven’s sleepwalking chains from episode 1, too much of the asylum was presented in a hyper-stylized manner to really sell it as a legitimate place, even before people started popping out of sarcophaguses and the hippo-headed Tawaret shows up.
Armaan: My favorite touch was the crumbling columns in the back of “Doctor Harrow’s” office. Beautiful, and surreal. Marc’s not falling for it one bit, though, and halfway through his session with mindscape-Harrow he escapes his restraints, shakes off the sedatives, and makes a run for it, finding Steven locked up in a sarcophagus…and a teased third persona in another unopened sarcophagus, desperate to get out.
I am fascinated by the growing relationship between Steven and Marc. It would be so easy – and not unreasonable – for them to be antagonistic towards each other. Instead, we’ve consistently seen them growing to trust each other. Earlier in the episode, when Marc realizes Steven’s not giving up the body, Marc stops being mad; he offers Steven his support. “You’re not alone.” He is, of course, understandably pissed that Steven kissed Layla, but when the two see each other in this strange asylum, the hug they give each other is so very heartwarming.
Austin: It’s really kind of amazing: not only is Oscar Isaacs continuing to do a bang up job of depicting Marc and Steven as two different people (despite them both being, uh, him), but the show is actually depicting them as two similar but distinct characters, each with their own wants, desires, and character journey. It’s not so much that Marc and Steven are two people sharing one body, but that they’re two people who happen to look alike, something this end sequence is able to literally depict after the rest of the episode spends a lot of time developing their relationship with each other.
Armaan: Nowhere is that highlighted better than in the fact that they even scream differently. Perfect way to end the episode. No notes. Chef’s kiss. Brilliant.
Spector Specifics
- Both of us are, I believe, upset that the big “reveal” of whose tomb this was turned out to be Alexander the Great, and not Marvel’s most famous pharaoh, Rama-Tut…also known as the time-traveling Kang (we get it, they couldn’t very well have Steven reach his hand inside Kang’s gullet, but still…).
- Alexander’s tomb had a lot of natural lighting for something that’s supposedly buried deep.
- That said, this is another episode conducive to being watched at night…with the lights off…in a basement…for away from any windows.
- Tawaret, the Hippo-headed being who appeared at the end of the episode, was also the inspiration for the infamous “four-toed statue” on Lost.
- Still amused that instead of doing any proper investigative work they REWOUND THE SKY by 2000 years to find the tomb
Austin Gorton also reviews older issues of X-Men at the Real Gentlemen of Leisure website, co-hosts the A Very Special episode podcast, and likes Star Wars. He lives outside Minneapolis, where sometimes, it is not cold. Follow him on Twitter @AustinGorton
