Moon Knight Episode 3

In the newest episode of Marvel's Moon Knight, the new superhero series hits its stride as it rebels against the formula of a traditional hero story.

And it’s in that universe that Marc and Steven, two alters living in the same body, must learn to cooperate. Part of the appeal of Marc’s story is its distance from the rest of the MCU, away from superheroes and multiverses, and towards something much more ancient, much more grounded, even if it is magic after all. We meet the avatars of five other gods: Hathor, Horus, Tefnut, Osiris, and Isis, and the theatrics of their proceedings as they question Marc (and by extension, Khonshu) bring to mind 1999’s The Mummy, with all the opulence and mysticism and none of the orientalism or fetishization.

'Moon Knight' hits its halfway point with a trip to Egypt that reshuffles relationships and raises stakes.

While Osiris reasserts that their avatars are merely meant to observe and that the gods want nothing to do with humanity, Khonshu believes they have a responsibility to use their avatars to help guide the humans—though his violent methods and ideologies don’t feel all that far removed from those of Ammit’s. Khonshu’s mention of the Overvoid feels significant as well, as the interdimensional realm plays an important role in Jeff Lemire and Greg Smallwood’s 2016 Moon Knight run, which continues to be the series’ biggest comics-based source of inspiration. The whole sequence feels almost procedural in its attempt to move the plot along, and Khonshu and Marc are also frustratingly unprepared to lay out their case against Harrow. (Harrow’s Mandarin might leave a lot to be desired, but the guy would apparently make for a decent lawyer in light of the quick work he makes of Khonshu and Marc.) Out of options and out of time, Khonshu convenes a meeting with the Ennead, the group of deities whom Steven was geeking out over in the premiere. While the returns have been somewhat mixed overall through the first half of Moon Knight, especially in terms of its action, the continued strength of Oscar Isaac’s dual performances and the promise of the show’s focus on ancient Egypt bodes well for the remainder of the season. As Khonshu answers to his angry contemporaries and calls upon Harrow to answer for his conspiracy to free Ammit, the gods themselves are presented as their human avatars, undercutting the excitement and allure of featuring the gods in the first place. As for Mogart, he puts his expensive, private El-Mermah lessons to use as he fights Moon Knight and Layla by horseback before taking a crescent dart to the back and fleeing the scene. As Moon Knight enters the back half of its first and (as far as we know) only season, Marc/Steven will have to face Harrow—and whatever else awaits them in Ammit’s tomb— without the near-invincible protection of Khonshu. It isn’t clear if the source of the missing gaps of violence is somehow linked to Khonshu, who shows little remorse for any loss of life on his behalf, or another potential alter sharing Marc’s body, such as Jake Lockley, a New York City cab driver in the comics. But with Marc in control of much of this week’s episode, “The Friendly Type,” the gaps in our new protagonist’s memories are attributable not to Steven, but to the presence of another alter ego in Marc and Steven’s body. By introducing the audience to a lesser-known Marvel superhero through the lens of a reimagined version of one of his alter egos, who knows nothing of his crime-fighting persona, Moon Knight is taking an unconventional approach to an origin story—a wise decision given how many of them Marvel Studios has produced in the past decade. During the first two episodes of the series, much of the story stuck to Steven’s perspective, with gaps in his memory suggesting that Marc had taken over their body to deliver Khonshu’s violent justice. The third episode of Marvel’s Disney+ series finds the mercenary turned superhero in Cairo trying to hunt down Arthur Harrow and locate Ammit’s tomb, all while vying for control of his and Steven’s shared body.