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It’s hard to believe, but with this week’s episode we are now halfway through the first (only?) season of Marvel’s Moon Knight, a bittersweet episode as French actor Gaspard Ulliel makes his first appearance. Sadly, Ulliel died at the age of 37 in January 2022 following a skiing accident and Moon Knight was his next to last production. The episode is dedicated to him.
So … the action picks up in Egypt. Layla has managed to acquire a fake passport so she can return to the country under the radar, and Arthur Harrow and company have the scarab in their possession, and it seems to have led them to their destination: the tomb of Ammit. Meanwhile, Marc gets into a fight with Harrow’s henchmen, about to slit the throat of one of them before Steven’s reflection in the knife intervenes. Marc blacks out and awakens in a cab on the way to the airport. Still Marc, he sees more of Harrow’s men and jumps out of the cab to accost them to find out where Harrow is. As he pummels the men, Steven again begs him to stop the violence, causing Marc to black out again and when he comes to he’s pulling a knife out of the belly of one of the men. The youngest of them is still alive, Steven says he didn’t kill the others, and Khonshu tells Marc to take the kid to the edge of the rooftop they were fighting on, dangle him over the side to make him talk. Holding the kid by a scarf, he demands to know where the tomb is and the kid says ‘Praise Ammit’ then cuts the scarf, falling to his death. Marc blames Steven and Steven tells Marc to stop listening to that ‘stupid pigeon’ (Khonshu), and Marc asks Khonshu to summon the gods to stop the release of Ammit. Unfortunately, Khonshu is not on the best of terms with his brethren, and if he incurs their wrath (again) they will imprison him in stone. He has no good ideas … but he has a bad one, and he vanishes. As Harrow and his men continue their dig at what they believe is the tomb of Ammit, Khonshu manipulates the heavens, causing an eclipse to summon the gods.
Khonshu’s bad idea works and a portal opens that allows Marc to have an audience with the gods, or rather their avatars. Steven is beside himself to be inside the Great Tomb at Giza. Marc is met by Yatzil, avatar of Hathor, goddess of music and love. The other avatars gather and channel their respective gods — Horus, Isis, Tefnut, Osiris — while Marc goes in and out as himself and Khonshu. They warn him not to manipulate the sky again or he will be imprisoned in stone, reminding him he has been banished once before. He fires back that he was banished for not abandoning humanity like they did, but they gods say it was humanity that abandoned them, and that is why they now work through avatars without calling attention to themselves. Khonshu says if they don’t return they will lose this realm to Ammit, but they remind him that the avatar’s job is to simply observe because they decided long ago to not meddle in the affairs of men. Khonshu calls for judgment on Harrow for conspiring to release Ammit, and he appears but he turns the whole situation around on Marc, claiming he doesn’t even know his own name, talks to himself and is clearly insane, then claims it is Khonshu who has been conspiring to release Ammit. Harrow claims he was simply visiting the desert. The gods ask to speak to Marc and ask if he in unwell. Marc says he is, but that doesn’t change the fact that Harrow is on a path to destruction. The gods say Harrow has committed no offense and conclude the matter. Everyone leaves and Marc feels defeated but Yatzil comes to him and says there is another way to stop Harrow. No one, not even the gods, knows where Ammit is buried — a safety precaution — except for a medjay (a sort of guardian) named Senfu. He was tasked with recording the location of the tomb in case the gods ever decided to show Ammit mercy, and if Marc can find Senfu’s sarcophagus he will find the location of the tomb. One catch … the sarcophagus was stolen and sold on the Black Market, so he will have to start there. Marc makes an attempt but scares off a merchant in the process. Luckily, Layla arrives and tells him he’s drawing a little too much attention to himself but she may be able to help him.
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Layla takes Marc to meet Anton Mogart who, it is said, has the sarcophagus. Mogart also has a lot of friends with guns. Mogart knows Layla, and Marc is posing as Rufino Estrada, her new husband, fresh back from their honeymoon in the Maldives. Mogart is curious about their interest in Senfu, but he wants to hear directly from Rufino who asks if he can just take a look at the sarcophagus. While examining the sarcophagus, Layla suggests to Marc that he needs to let Steven take over before he blows up this whole thing. Studying some text, Layla says it is just instructions to guide the dead, but there is no location of the tomb indicated. Steven talks to Marc and tells him the information is coded and to fold over pieces of the cloth laying atop the mummy. Lining things up will show … before Steven can finish, Mogart grow suspicious of Rufino and directs him to get on his knees. He tells Mogart to look inside the sarcophagus to see something big, but Harrow shows up to make an offer, attempting to manipulate Layla, Mogart and Marc with his words (he is a master at that). Khonshu tells mark to summon the suit and give them what they deserve, while Harrow chants, causing the sarcophagus to slam shut. Marc summons the suit and begins the slaughter of Harrow’s men. Disturbed by the violence, Steve asks Marc again to stop and switch places, which he does as seen when the suit changes to Steven’s version of a three-piecer. Steven calls for a time out and asks everyone to ‘chill the F out’ … but he just ends up with a spear in his chest. He tells Marc he can have the body back. Layla uses her necklace to stab her attacker, and while Marc is being held in place by the spear, Mogart rides in and knocks Layla to the ground. Marc’s mask and hood vanish for a moment when he sees Layla fall — a sign of his weakness for her? — but they reappear and he kills the men holding him down. Marc/Moon Knight throws one of his crescents from his chestpiece at Mogart and knocks him off his horse. Layla has the artifact from the sarcophagus and they need to get going, with Khonshu saying ‘tick tock, Marc Spector, tick tock’.
Once they get to safety, Layla is obviously disturbed by Harrow’s attempt at manipulation earlier, suggesting that it was Marc who murdered her father. Marc assures her that he did not and that Harrow is just trying to divide them. They get deep into the desert and fold the pieces of cloth together, forming a constellation, but it’s hard to tell which one because they are only getting bits and pieces from the tattered cloth. Layla tells Marc they need Steven to figure this out, and Khonshu tells him that Steven won’t give the body back if he allows him to take over again. Marc rips the mirror off of the car and tells Steven he’s in, and in a matter of moments he has the pieces put together and can see a constellation. Layla tries to scan it to determine the location of the tomb but Steven reminds her that they need to know what the night sky looked like 2,000 years ago when this code was created. The stars drift over time and where they’re looking now could put them off by miles. Khonshu says he remembers that night and that he can turn back the sky, at a cost, but he cannot do it alone. The suit appears and Khonshu asks Steven/Marc to free him after the gods imprison him, and he proceeds to turn the heavens back 2,000 years … which everyone including Harrow are witnessing, watching the stars spin wildly above them. The gods know what Khonshu is up to and have gathered their avatars once again, now chanting as the spinning stars come to a stop. Layla locks in the coordinates — 29 degrees north, 25 east — and Steven begins losing his powers as Moon Knight. The chanting of the gods has indeed imprisoned Khonshu in a small stone statue, now tethered to the temple like so many before him, a wall full of small stone statues. One of the avatars brings Harrow to Khonshu. He tells the imprisoned god that he will do what Khonshu could not, that his torment was forged by Khonshu and that Harrow now owes his victory to him.
With Khonshu imprisoned and Moon Knight effectively powerless, will Marc/Steven and Layla be able to stop Harrow from unleashing Ammit?
New episodes of Moon Knight stream Wednesdays on Disney+.
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