Moon Knight Episode 2 Review
Warning: The following review of Moon Knight‘s second episode contains full spoilers.
You can check out our spoiler-free review of last week’s Moon Knight premiere, “The Goldfish Problem,” here.
The second episode of Moon Knight fully introduced May Calamawy’s Layla, sprinkled in some important intel, raised the stakes somewhat, and gave us a fresh-pressed look at this story’s take on “Mr. Knight,” the three-pieced suit variant of the “Fist of Khonshu.” Oscar Isaac continued to dazzle as a brought-to-the-brink Steven, who found himself more at war with his Marc personality than ever, while Ethan Hawke delivered more of his softly sinister Arthur Harrow (including a better idea of his plan). The show is still gifting us with pronounced scenes between the two, but it was also here in the second episode that the Steven bewilderment element started to wear thin.
Steven Grant’s confusion, living a half-life while also unknowingly serving as a vessel for an Egyptian God, helped last week’s premiere episode crackle with slapstick mystery. Now, as the puzzle pieces begin to fall into place more, his utter delirium’s feeling like an anchor holding this show back. Granted, we still aren’t being given the entire mosaic, since Marc never feels like clearly explaining everything to Steven, but questions are building up at an alarming rate and Episode 2 only let a little air out of the balloon, answer-wise. Even at only six episodes a show can dawdle when it should dash.
Moonstruck
Okay, here’s what we know-know. Marc Spector serves as an avatar for Khonshu, a deity that saved Marc’s life out in the Egyptian desert. Marc doesn’t like this role (at least he doesn’t recently). Khonshu’s a massive jerk (Harrow, Khonshu’s former mark, even says as much) and now has eyes to turn Layla into his next vengeance-dealing servant. So the two heroic goals here are: to stop Harrow from unleashing Ammit and her lethal pre-crime wrath on the world and to protect Layla from Khonshu.
Ultimately, Ammit and Harrow aside, is the true adversary here… Moon Knight? Khonshu’s avatar itself? If so (and let’s say the Harrow stuff sort of gets sorted out in the next episode or two, leaving us with a different endgame), then this might be the first problematic superpower in the MCU since The Hulk — meaning, the superhero who causes its alter-ego nothing but grief and turmoil. It may be good in a fight, but a living hell to endure otherwise. Anyone who gets powers develops a more complicated life, obviously, but Moon Knight seems to be doing no one any good. Heck, the main villain so far is the former Moon Knight.
And yes, you do have to wonder about who these Gods are. Are they actually Gods or aliens? This, among other things, makes Moon Knight: The Series feel even more disconnected from the MCU. It’s easy enough to not mention any Avengers or The Blip but to also fly in the face of everything Thor taught us with Asgard — or even what Eternals just told us about myths and gods in various ancient cultures — seems like a lot. How are Ammit and Khonshu possible? Granted, this was never quite an issue in the comics, so maybe that’s the mental route to take here.
The Man in the Moon
By the end of Episode 2, Marc the Merc’s in control, but he also tells Steven that once he’s done with this mission he’s more than happy to vanish. Can Marc do that? We assume he’s the dominant personality, right? One would have to be in order to actually become a mercenary and get married and do fully rounded life things. Of course, Marc could just be lying in order to get the job done, but that doesn’t change the fact that we still don’t know much about the Steven/Marc situation except that Steven was part of the package, so much so that Marc had previously assured Khonshu that Steven wouldn’t get in the way.
Some things to wonder about, if you so choose:
- How did Marc and Steven normally switch places before this? At the end of this episode, we saw Steven experience his first time in the mind prison. It’s sort of mentioned this week that what’s happening now is unprecedented for them on a DID scale, but how much of this set up was an accident and how much was on purpose?
- It would appear Marc chose to purposefully hide out inside Steven. He set him up with a whole (partial) life, buying him new goldfish when needed, always making sure he made it back to his bed (and ankle strap), and asking out coworkers on Steven’s behalf (which is still odd given that Marc is married and it would undoubtedly lead to an awkward moment for Steven). How much of a life has Steven had? Who is his mother? Layla mentions Marc being on the outs with his mom, but is Steven leaving messages for the same mom?
- How much of Steven’s life is curated? Original Moon Knight character Crawley appears on this show as a living statue whom Steven confides in. Is this just an Easter egg or is this guy a hired actor for Steven’s benefit? Steven yells at Marc in this episode for “eating away” parts of his…
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