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The penultimate episode of Moon Knight was harrowing (no pun intended) for the characters of Marc Spector and Steven Grant, and gave star Oscar Isaac a brilliant showcase that should get some attention from the people who hand out awards for acting on television (even though they traditionally ignore shows like this). The episode also blurred the lines between reality and fantasy, making us — and the main characters — question if anything we saw in the previous four episodes actually happened. Is Steven really a mild-mannered museum gift shop worker caught up in a fantastical situation? Is Marc Spector a mercenary/conduit for an Egyptian god? Are Layla and Marc actually married? Is Arthur Harrow a tomb raider or just a doctor? Is Moon Knight real? Who is the talking hippo?
So many questions to get answered in two episodes — next week is the finale — but the biggest question to get answered as the episode picks up right where the previous one ended is … yes, Marc Spector is dead, shot at the tomb of Ammit. So that means everything we’ve seen is real and everything happening in the asylum is part of Marc’s and Steven’s afterlife, according to the hippo who is the god Tawaret (although not seen in quite the traditional design, more human here below the neck). And they are actually on a barge sailing across the sands of time to the Field of Reeds, the Egyptian afterlife that is an idealized version of one’s life on Earth. There’s just one problem — in order to get to that idyllic afterlife one’s heart must balance a scale with a feather, and if that doesn’t happen the soul is dragged down into the sands by the hordes of lost souls who never made it to that idyllic place. Tawaret removes the hearts of Marc and Steven, and they find that their souls are out of balance so the race is on to bring them together. And that is where things get dicey.
Returning back to the inside of the barge, the asylum hallway, Marc and Steven pass doors and witness events we have seen, their memories of things that have happened, hoping that something along the way will bring them into balance. Steven, however, is the more impetuous of the two and recklessly rushes through a door that Marc is begging him not to enter. And every time something really traumatic occurs, Marc is snapped back to the office of Dr. Harrow where it appears he’s just having another momentary break with reality. It’s also interesting to note here that the characters of Marc and Steven are color-coded, Marc in white, Steve in black (which if you think of the concepts of good and bad, the colors should be reversed). While the show is rooted in the tenets and mythology of Egyptian culture, these color delineations also make one thing of the concept of yin and yang, with yin being the dark half (which relates to the moon) and yang the lighter half (representing the sun). The Egyptians also have a concept of duality, life and death, chaos and harmony. So knowing this is interesting in how Steven is the dark half of the equation when Marc has always been presented as ‘the bad guy’ in the simplest of terms.
So everything we thought we knew about Marc to this point is completely blown out of the water as Steven rushes into a memory that he doesn’t remember — Marc’s childhood, where he also discovers they had a little brother. Young Marc loved to take his brother Randall on adventures, and one day he took the boy to play in a cave. Steven followed the boys and realized that it had started to rain heavily, trying to make his way into the cave to warn the boys that it was going to flood. He was unable to reach them, and his next memory was a funeral (we also learn that the Spectors are Jewish as the family is sitting shiva for the boy). When Marc comes into the room, his mother Wendy demands that he leaves because this is all his fault. As he goes upstairs, Steven follows him against Marc’s wishes, and uncovers more memories, from lonely birthday parties that only his father Elias attended, to more berating from his mother holding him responsible for his brother’s death.
Running to his room, Steven again follows and sees Wendy enter, grabbing a belt. Marc drags Steven out of the room and tells him he is not meant to see this. Steven doesn’t understand and when he witnesses Wendy about to beat Marc with the belt, he sees Marc’s eyes glow white and suddenly the boy has a completely different demeanor and … and English accent. Steven is hit with the reality that he was created to deal with Marc’s trauma. He always believed he was the original and now he knows the truth that he’s just part of Marc’s dissociative identity disorder. Steven and Marc are also witness to another memory, the night Marc allegedly killed Layla’s father and everyone else at the camp. Steven still believes Marc did the deed, but Marc shows him what happened as he, badly wounded after refusing to follow his orders, dragged himself into the tomb where Khonshu spoke to him before he put a bullet in his brain. Steven realizes that Khonshu took advantage of a broken man, but the agreement he made with the god gave him new life and the persona of Moon Knight (I believe the first time the name is mentioned in the series). Steven was also able to see all of the people Marc had killed in service to Khonshu.
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But there is more trauma ahead as Marc has to once again deal with the death of his mother. Leaving home as a teenager against his father’s pleas, the adult Marc then travels back to his home but refuses to sit shiva for the woman, remaining outside the house for a moment, long enough for his father to see him through a window and attempt to wave him in. Marc refuses and walks away, but the trauma is too much for him and he once again reverts to Steven, who is now lost in an unfamiliar neighborhood, calling his mum on the phone to help him with directions. Steven then flashes back to Harrow’s office, and Harrow is surprised and pleased to be speaking with Steven again, fearing they would never talk again. It appears it was Steven who brought them to the asylum, and when Harrow brings up the death of his mother, Steven becomes very agitated, insisting that his mother is alive because he talks to her every day. Harrow apologizes and insists on calling her up on the phone so he can chat with her, but Steven asks him not to bother her. Harrow makes the call and hands Steven the phone, he flashes back to the memory of being lost and we can see the phone’s home screen is on and not in an actual phone call. Back in Harrow’s office, Steven holds the receiver of the phone and it’s just a dial tone, hit with the reality that his — their — mother is truly dead.
He flashes back to that day on the street and Steven confronts Marc, telling him that his brother’s death was not his fault. He was just a boy, and the things his mother did were awful but he was not to blame. The ground shakes and they are back on the barge. They had asked Tawaret to turn the barge around to head back to the gates of Osiris so they could figure out how to balance the scales before it was too late, but even after dealing with all the trauma of Marc’s life, they were still out of balance and there was nothing left for Tawaret to do. Their time was up and the lost souls of the desert were climbing aboard to barge to claim the souls of Marc and Steven. Marc, the fighter, told Steven to hide and he tried to fend off some of the zombie horde but as Marc is about to be dragged over the side, Steven realizes they are both the same person and he can save Marc using his cricket skills. Steven springs into action and takes down some of the horde. Celebrating a momentary victory, Steven sees Marc about to be pulled over the side again and he charges at the zombie, taking it and himself over into the desert sands. Marc calls out for him but the barge is traveling too fast and Steven’s feet have become like lead, making him unable to run and catch up to the barge. He falls to his knees as Marc calls out to him, and Steven turns into a figure of sand. Marc yells at Tawaret to stop the boat but suddenly … the scales balance and lock into place and Marc finds himself alone in the Field of Reeds.
But with one episode left, there must be some way that Marc is released from his afterlife. Perhaps he’s not dead after all, only wounded by the gunshot, discovered by Layla and taken to hospital. Perhaps somehow Khonshu intervened if someone was able to release him from his stone prison. And is Steven really gone? We’ll all find out how this chapter ends in seven days.
New episodes of Moon Knight stream Wednesdays on Disney+.
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