Episode 4 had a lot to answer for! Welcome to episode 5 of ‘Moon Knight’!
Marc is shown a woman claiming something is “all his fault” and he’s shot back to the asylum. Spector knows something isn’t right now. But he goes along with the Arthur Harrow look alike.
The Doctor brings up that Marc was talking about a boy. He’s knocked out by the guard and brought back to Taweret. The god informs Marc and Steven they are, in fact, dead. Still wonderfully joyful as she goes through her motions welcoming them to the Underworld, she explains that this is Marc’s specific afterlife and that others also exist.
Because the afterlife cannot be perceived by humans, they all look familiar, so it can be understood by mortal eyes. Marc finally says “we’re crazy” before opening a door and revealing the actual Egyptian afterlife. Rolling sands, howls of the dead, and a scale with a feather, as Taweret takes their hearts, seen as two rocks.
If Marc & Steven’s combined hearts weigh less than the feather, they’re going to the afterlife. If it’s heavier, it’s off the boat and left for the dead. Marc tells Steven that they should kill the hippo and steal the boat, but the scale is going crazy. Taweret claims Marc & Steven’s hearts aren’t full. She tells them to go back into their afterlife and tell each other the truth.
Marc informs Steven that his memories are a mess. “Mine too” the latter responds, as they begin to go through them. They stop at a door to which Steven asks Marc if they remember something. It’s a street, with a man in front of a red car. Then they are stopped by a scream, Marc and Steven then enter a cafe with dead bodies. It’s revealed they are all people killed by Moon Knight, sentenced to death by Khonshu. This causes the scale to slow, as Steven spots a child in the room.
He chases after him and locks the door behind Marc. He’s in a backyard, and with what appears to be his family, and him and his brother. Steven chases the kids into the woods, and into a cave, stepping on the skeletal body of a bird in the process. Steven calls to the kids, telling them to get out as rainwater is filling the cave and will most likely drown them. This appears to be a memory, as Marc is exploring the white hallways seeing others through the doors.
This new memory he stumbles on is a funeral. It’s revealed his mother blames him for the death of his brother, and basically starts to avoid Marc, ignoring his birthday party. We’re shown that as a teenager, Marc left home thinking that his mother would never get better. Marc throws Steven out of the memory and into another one of his own, at the Egyptian tomb where he met Khonshu.
He tells Steven how he became a mercenary, and shows him dying, crawling towards the god’s statue. As Marc is about to pull the trigger and kill himself, Khonshu begins to speak to him, offering him to become his eyes, his hands, and his warrior.
They are called outside and realize Arthur is closer to his goal back on Earth. Taweret agrees to help them get back and have Layla help rescue Khonshu. Steven claims they need to go into the bedroom Marc didn’t want them in during the funeral memory he saw earlier. The two argue, and the former breaks down. Now he’s back with Doctor Harrow.
Harrow asked Marc if he created Steven to hide, or if Steven created him to get revenge. He tells Marc that he must open up to Steven, so they can understand each other. Marc shows Steven the room, and how his mother would threaten to beat him. We’re shown his first shift to Steven, and how his alter is based off an Indiana Jones-type movie poster. All the way down to his full name as Steven Grant.
It’s finally revealed that Steven was made to forget that their mother abused them, and he’s told that their mother is actually dead. Now it’s Steven’s turn to meet Doctor Harrow and the man nearly takes it as a joke. Doctor Harrow tells Steven he brought him and Marc to the psyche hospital when he found out his mother died.
Harrow offers to call her, and Steven begs him not to do that. He gets emotional, and it’s obvious what Marc had told him had an impact. He’s visually emotional and finally tells the doctor “my mother is dead.” We’re shown another funeral, and it’s revealed the earlier memory was Marc outside of that funeral. In an emotional outburst he switches back to Steven, who calls his mother like she’s still alive.
Steven tells Marc everything that happened wasn’t his fault. The ground shakes, and they realize the scales never balanced. Meaning the undead souls of everyone Marc had killed are coming after them. Marc attempts to fight back and is dragged to the ledge.
Steven pilots the boat, attempting to help, and Marc is knocked out, once again taken to the ledge. Steven instantly starts fighting back and saves Marc. He takes out another zombie, and it’s shown that even he has some latent violence.
Marc is once again grabbed, and Steven throws the zombie over the ledge, sending himself with it. He tries to chase after the boat but is captured by the sands and turned to stone. As Marc asks for the boat to stop, the scales balance themselves. The setting changes to a wheat field, with music playing in the background. This is paradise, at least Marc’s version of it. Then the credits roll.
The cool aspect of this episode is the way the show has interpreted real Egyptian myth so far. Contrary to popular belief, Khonshu is not a god Marvel just made up for the comics. He was real, and the Ancient Egyptians worshipped him as a benevolent, helpful deity, and as the show mentions, protecting travelers in the night. It is incredible fascinating to see Marvel take so heavily from actual myth for a character like this, adding real, researchable history to a story.
We have one more episode left in Moon Knight, and let’s hope the show ends as it’s been going so far; loud!
See you all next week!
