There’s was a sense from Moon Knight’s previous episode that the show is now utterly dedicated to throwing absolutely everything it can at every episode in order to provide an MCU viewing experience so weird and unpredictable, it makes the likes of the reality flipping WandaVision seem more like the blandest soap in all creation. While it rapidly hopped from spy movie to follow Marc Soector while he kicked some local ass in Cairo, it then switched to become some bizarre Egyptian fantasy film as the rest of Khonshu’s godly peers demanded that he explain his erratic and obsessive behavior. From there it was a trip to a more recognizable superhero path as Moon Knight devastated various heavies and then we edged into more Indiana Jones territory as both Steven Grant and Khonshu did some ethereal jiggery pokery to discover the location of a vital tomb.
I mean, that’s a lot, right? Well don’t let your guard down yet, because apparently we haven’t seen anything yet.
Ammit’s tomb has been found and after Kayla manages to secure transport, she and a recovering Steven Grant/Marc Spector head over their to stop cult leader Arthur Harrow from locating the statue that binds her and freeing the Egyptian God he’s thrown his lot in to violently save the world. However, once they reach the tomb, Layla and Marc (fully in Steven mode) find that some of Harrow’s followers have met an extremely sticky end by some ancient reanimated Egyptian priests who still roam the maze-like structure, so not only do our heroes have to channel their inner Brendan Fraiser and avoid these undead mummies, but they have to locate Ammit’s ushabti before Harrow and goons do.
But after Harrow reveals more about the death of Layla’s father to her and how Marc may have been involved, she demands that Steven vacate the body in order for her to have it out with his other personality. Unfortunately that gives Harrow the edge he needs to get the drop on them, take Ammit’s ushabti and fataly shoot Marc who collapses into a heap thanks to the fact that he no longer has the powers of the Moon Knight because Khonshu languishs in a prison of stone of his own.
So is this the end? Evidently not, as Marc seems to wake up in a psychiatric ward surrounded by patients and artifacts that strongly suggest that everything Marc has been through has actually been one big, grand figment of his imagination that his psychiatrist, Dr. Harrow, has been trying to penetrate. However, as is standard in the world of Moon Knight, things aren’t exactly what they seem and when Marc tries to escape, he manages to find a sarcophagus containing a equally bewildered Steven Grant. But as the two look for a way out, they are greeted by the more bizarre twist yet – that of a female, hippopotamus headed figure who seems rather enthused to see them. Marc and Steven don’t exactly share her cheery outlook…
With the return of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead to Moon Knight, you can rest assured that the whole reality bending vibe that they brought to the first two episodes comes back with a (fist of) vengence but before it does, it seems that the filmmakers wanted to lean fully into the fact that their characters are running around an Egyptian tomb. That means that the first half of the episode riffs heavily on every Mummy movie ever made, but it particularly channels the 1999 Stephen Sommers movie which sees both a whimpering Steven and a far more capable Layla play cat and mouse with undead priests. The sequence plays shadow, and angles to rarely allow a clear look at the creatures, but a lot of mileage is given to the gutteral clucking the priests make from the back of their throats and there’s even a cracking, immaculately shot jump scare as the MCU goes further into straight horror than it’s ever gone before. However, like a lot of Moon Knight, all this is merely a fun preamble to keep you off your game; you see, just when you think you’re watching a frisky, but ultimately frivolous hour if television, once again Moon Knight flips the script on you by having its villain murder out hero right in front of us. However, the real twist isn’t death of Marc Spector, the twist is that any other show would cut to black right there and then and let you stew on it for a whole week. What happens here is that after a clip of a cheap, VHS adventure movie that contains a English character named Steven Grant (uh oh) we simply cut to a pristine, all white psyche ward to find a heavily sedated Marc drooling in a wheelchair as we’re assaulted with imagery what strongly suggests that his mental health is in much more of a dissary that we were led to believe.
And yet, the episode still doesn’t end and instead of teasing us with another abrupt ending, we continue to forget into this jarring new status quo with no idea what’s actually going on. May Calamawy pops up as an inmate, Ethan Hawke is now a therapist, Oscar Issac is clutching a Moon Knight action figure and it truly feels like we’ve somehow accidently wandered into the parts of a TV show you’re not normally meant to see and it’s wonderfully confounding.
But wait, things get even weirder as a Marc who isn’t willing to accept this reality suddenly escapes to find this ward has a few features that you don’t normally find, namely an Egyptian sarcophagus containing Steven inside.
This proves to be something of an unexpected moving moment as the two separate personalities of Marc’s psyche not only actually share the screen for the first time thanks to some impressive split screen acting by Issac. However, when they embrace, you don’t get the feeling that they’re the split results of disassociated identity disorder and more like long lost brothers and after three episodes of them battling for dominance of their body, to see them on the same page (not to mention the same screen) feels like the start of a major breakthrough both of them deserve. Of course it comes with a hefty amount of MCU style foreshadowing, and anyone who knows their Moon Knight comics lore will probably correctly surmise what that other, rattling sarcophagus contains (more on that in another review), but the final surprise is the arrival of an eight foot tall being whose hippo features undoubtedly marks her out as one of the Egyptian gods, but it proves to be a perfect ending to a wildly unpredictable episode as both Marc and Steven both scream in unison at this new development.
While the previous episode tended to struggle a bit making the transition between whatever genre it was suddenly going to try next, Benson and Moorehead ensure that the switches here are not only smoother, but actually work in conjunction with each other to leave you utterly unprepared for the madness that’s on the horizon. After all, there’s nothing about our heroes fighting Mummys to even remotely suggest the amount of crackpot twists that are about to occur.
There’s no doubt a string of metaphysical and metaphorical therapy due to come alongside that perky hippo person, but it’s massively gratifying that the MCU can still afford to be so gleefully tricksy while their fifth official show refuses to rest on its laurels while presenting a character not many people have heard of.
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