Layla and Steven get close in episode 4.
Marvel Studios
Moon Knight felt very much like Indiana Jones or The Mummy with a dash of Alien on Wednesday, when episode 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe series hit Disney Plus and had its heroes run around an Egyptian tomb. With moon god Khonshu (F. Murray Abraham) imprisoned by his fellow gods, his human avatar Marc Spector (Oscar Isaac) is forced to battle cult leader Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke) without his Moon Knight skills.
Marc is still extremely bad and does not work alone. He teams up with his alternate personality, Egyptian mythology expert Steven Grant (Oscar Isaac with a London accent), and his estranged wife Layla El-Faouly (May Calamawy) to stop Harrow from releasing the imprisoned death goddess Ammit into the world.
Let’s party like we’re watching The Mummy in 1999 and explore some SPOILERS for Episode 4. This show takes place after the events of Avengers: Endgame.
Marc and Steven meet
After Marc fights with Harrow’s thugs, the villain shoots him and claims the ushabti (ancient Egyptian statuette) in which Ammit is locked up. Marc sinks into the darkness and we enter the super cheap Raiders of the Lost Ark parody “Tomb Buster” starring one Dr. Steven Grant. This was a movie Marc watched as a child and supposedly served as the basis for his charming alternative personality.
We find Marc in a mental institution populated by characters from the show (including Steven’s villainous museum owner and Harrow’s police officers), who have taken on the roles of patient and staff. This location is also dotted with Easter eggs from the show, such as cupcakes, a cuddly scarab, a Moon Knight action figure and a painting of a picturesque European town.
Steven makes a dangerous reconnaissance.
Marvel Studios
Harrow acts as Marc’s therapist (who looks a bit tighter in his mustache and sweater vest), but Marc ends up fleeing his honeyed words. He finds an ailing Steven trapped in a sarcophagus and the two come face to face (double Oscar Isaac, we should all rejoice!). They hug like brothers and both remember being shot by Harrow.
This is presumably all happening in Marc’s head, with various Easter eggs acting as fragments of his memories.
Who is that hippo?
The final moments see Marc and Steven encounter an anthropomorphic hippo in ancient Egyptian ceremonial garb.
“Hi!” she says sweetly, while Marc and Steven scream at the same time.
This is presumably Taweret (Antonia Salib), the ancient Egyptian goddess of childbirth and fertility who acts as protector of mothers and children. Unlike some of the other gods we’ve met on this show, she’s not directly inspired by a cartoon character – a rare MCU original.
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Her lack of an obvious comedic counterpart makes it harder to speculate about her role, but she could have helped unite Marc’s broken spirit and help him free Khonshu. Once the moon god is no longer trapped in a figurine, Marc will be able to access the suit’s healing abilities and repair those gunshot wounds.
Enlightening Layla
Layla dumped a lot of heavy information about her in this episode. Steven reveals that Marc pushed her away to prevent her from becoming Khonshu’s next avatar, and his honesty earns him a kiss from Layla (Marc then lets him punch himself in the face).
Layla gets closer to the heartbreaking truth.
Marvel Studios
This episode also confirms that Layla is the MCU version of Marlene Alraune, Marc’s wife and sometime partner of Moon Knight’s vigilante activities in the comics. Harrow gives Layla clues that Marc was part of the group of mercenaries who killed her father and his team of archaeologists.
“My partner got greedy and he… he executed everyone on the dig,” says Marc, who notes that he was fatally shot after trying to stop the killings. He doesn’t say so, but he was almost certainly saved by Khonshu in exchange for becoming the avatar of the moon god – a reflection of his origins in the comics.
Observations and Easter eggs
It’s possible that the guilt about hiding the truth from Layla is exacerbating Marc’s mental illness. who hasn’t been on the show yet. In the comics, he suffers from dissociative identity disorder as a result of childhood trauma. When Dr. Steven Grant, we hear a music cue that could be taken straight from John Williams’ Indiana Jones score. The terrifying monstrous guardian was supposedly in the tomb to prevent people from finding Ammit’s ushabti. Great job. The Mental Institutions series feels like Legion, an excellent Marvel show that ran from 2017 to 2019. It’s not part of the MCU, but is available on Hulu and could be a fun companion for Moon Knight’s exploration of mental illness. . After Marc rescues Steven from the sarcophagus, they run through another and it shakes violently. It’s likely this will feature another of Marc’s personalities – maybe it’s Jake Lockley, who almost certainly stabbed a bunch of Harrow’s goons in Episode 3.
Join us for more Easter eggs and observations this Wednesday, April 27, when Episode 5 of Moon Knight comes to Disney Plus.
Richard Knightwell of CNET contributed to this report.
This post ‘Moon Knight’ Episode 4 Recap: Marvel Meets The Mummy
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