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So here we are, Episode 6 of Marvel’s Moon Knight. Everything leading up to this point has been thrilling and interesting and each episode left me wanting more. But this episode … felt rushed or just not as major as the others because there was really only one plot point to wrap up and that was stopping Ammit from walking the Earth once again and claiming the souls of those who may have some future evil in them (she’s sort of like the flesh and blood version of the bureau Tom Cruise worked for in Minority Report). Plus with all of the back and forth between the netherworld, the fantasy land asylum and the real world, there was just a lot going on that made it feel a bit convoluted.
The episode picks up from the end of Episode 3, actually, right after Arthur shot and killed Marc. With the stone representation of Ammit in hand, Arthur leaves the scarab GPS on Marc’s chest and from out of the shadows Layla retrieves it, determined to stop Arthur herself. But … Tawaret begins possessing dead bodies urging her to free Khonshu so that Marc may live again. Layla is determined to stop Arthur and avoid Khonshu, so she ignores the comically animated bodies. Witnessing Arthur take the souls of police officers blocking the highway (all but one who had a virtuous heart), Layla again tries to make a move but Tawaret again inhabits a dead body and tries to get her on board with freeing Khonshu to save Marc.
The gods sense a disturbance in the force, finally realizing that Arthur isn’t as trustworthy as they thought, hoping to stop him from releasing Ammit. But with his trusty staff in hand — emitting the same purple smoke that Agnes Harkness when casting a spell — Arthur takes out the avatars and releases Ammit. Again in the shadows, Layla fears there is no way to stop this ball from rolling so she finds Khonshu’s stone prison and releases him. He tells her he does not sense Marc Spector in this realm, and then tells her the only way he can stop Ammit is with an avatar. Layla refuses to be imprisoned by Khonshu and tells him to take care of this situation himself.
Meanwhile, Marc is reveling in the Field of Reeds but does not feel right being there without Steven. Tawaret tells him Steven is gone and he doesn’t need him anymore, but Marc can’t let go. If he does go back to the desert to find Steven, he won’t be able to return to the field. He’ll take his chances. For some reason he also keeps bouncing back to the asylum in Dr. Harrow’s office, struggling to find that balance between reality and fantasy, of life and death. But he does find Steven’s body and gives him an impassioned speech — you’d think these two were in love — and Marc also begins to feel the effects of the sands. Before he becomes completely rock solid, he places the stone heart in Steven’s hand with his own hand over it and … Steven is revived. And so is Marc! And the Gates of Osiris begin to open so they need to find their way out and back to the earthly plane.
As Marc awakens where he was left for dead, Khonshu immediately senses his presence and Marc is once again Khonshu’s avatar, embracing the Moon Knight persona on one condition … after they re-bind Ammit, Khonshu must set them free. Khonshu reluctantly agrees. Arthur is now in Cairo, climbing to the top of a pyramid in order to claim all of the souls that have evil in them. Harrow’s followers are told to judge everyone and they do with the scales tattoos on their arms determining who has a balanced heart and who does not. For the less fortunate, their souls are released from their bodies and consumed by Ammit, who begins to grow to gigantic proportions. With Moon Knight taking flight to stop Arthur, Layla somehow becomes the avatar for Tawaret, suddenly sporting an outfit that looks like a mash-up of an Amazonian warrior and Falcon with her nifty gold wings that retract and appear when needed.
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There is a lot of fighting going on. Moon Knight has knocked Arthur off the pyramid and heads back to assist Layla. Khonshu, who is also now the same size as Ammit, towering over the pyramid, begin their own battle royale and it looks like Ammit gets the upper hand and takes out Khonshu, dragging his body away. In the city, Moon Knight and Layla are fighting Arthur, but at one point Moon Knight loses control of one of his crescent blades and Arthur throws it at Layla, pinning her win to the bottom of a van that had been overturned in the melee. With Moon Knight down for the count, Arthur jams his magical staff into Moon Knight’s chest emblem and … crazy blackout moment occurs. Marc is up on his knees now and everyone but Layla is dead. She asks him what that was, and Steven asks if that was them but Marc says it wasn’t. But now they have Arthur’s body which is a safer way to contain Ammit than a stone statue.
Going back to the tomb, they place the body on a pedestal and begin reciting the incantation to bind Ammit to Arthur’s body. Once that is done, Khonshu demands that Marc kill Arthur so that Ammit will also die. It’s the only way to keep the world safe. Marc tells him he’s beginning to sounds like Ammit and tells Khonshu if he wants them dead he can do it himself. And with their end of the bargain finished, they demand Khonshu releases them from their servitude. Khonshu says so be it, releases them and flies off. Marc then wakes up in Steven’s apartment, the one-finned fish appears to be back to normal, and the two are going to live together in harmony even if it is in a rat trap apartment. There’s also that little matter of the foot being shackled to the bed which Marc finds out about the hard way. As he lay on the floor in a daze … the credits roll. So that was it?
Of course not! This is Marvel and there is a mid-credits scene. Now it’s Arthur is a patient in a psyche ward, but a mysterious man enters the room, face unseen, telling Arthur to sit tight as he wheels him out. Arthur is tossed into the back of a limo and sitting across from him is … Khonshu, who tells him how preposterous it was for Marc or Layla to think he wanted Layla as his avatar. He’s got another in the driver’s seat of the limo, and he introduces Arthur — and us — to Jake Lockley … who just happens to look exactly like Marc and Steven. (We are now to presume this personality is the one who did all the damage during Marc’s blackout in Cairo, and perhaps is the one who has been responsible for all the violence during the blackout moments.) Jake smiles at Arthur who sees he has a gun. Attempting to beg for his life, Jake wastes no time in plugging the man — and the god — twice. So Khonshu did get his wish after all.
So that was that. The Ammit story is complete, there is another personality (which seems to suggest there will be more Moon Knight to come in some way, shape or form), but there was no resolution for Layla. We don’t even know what ‘Egyptian superhero’ she became (a quick Google search reveals her superhero persona is Scarlet Scarab … although she had nothing red as part of her costume). So the Moon Knight finale, while rushed, wasn’t completely terrible but it also wasn’t as great as any of the five episodes that preceded it. I still hope that we’ll get to see more of Oscar Isaac bringing these character to life either on the small or big screen (is there any chance he may pop up in the new Doctor Strange movie?).
All episodess of Moon Knight are streaming on Disney+.
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