Recap: ‘Moon Knight’ Episode 4
A wild trip from the deep of a tomb to the heights of the afterlife.
Hope you’re all ready for more action, because episode 4 of ‘Moon Knight’ is here!
We open on one of the avatars carrying Khonshu’s statue to a pedestal that holds many other gods, like a prison. We see Layla trying to wake up Marc while also being shot at. Arthur’s men are looking for survivors, only to be stopped by Layla who distracts them and sets the truck off and destroys it. It’s revealed Steven is alive, and they head to the tomb.
On the way, Layla tells Steven they need Marc. He explains that the two of them made a pact; when Khonshu was gone, Steven got the body. An argument breaks out between Steven and Layla and they move to foot, finding the cult (who are already inside) the tomb.
As they ransack the camp, Marc and Steven have more of a conversation. They talk about how Marc can’t really go away and have one more argument before splitting up. Steven meets up with Layla and finally explains why Marc was so nervous, how Khonshu wanted her for his avatar, and how Marc wanted to protect her.
She explains she doesn’t need protection and Steven kisses her (once again, odd) and the two zip down, but not before Marc punches Steven in the face. Layla brings up her father again and the two descend into the cave.
They descend further only to find bullets in the sand. Something is out there. Steven discovers the tomb is a maze and finds where the inner tomb is, and that the Pharaoh was Ammit’s avatar. They find an alter for human sacrifice, covered in blood and viscera. Steven goes to the ceiling to find an exit and they are stopped by gunfire.
It’s revealed the creature being shot at was a literal mummy, disemboweling people in the old ways. ‘Moon Knight’, in the span of a week, has gone from superhero action to flat out horror.
The monster spots Steven, who separates from Layla, the latter crossing a deadly cavern. Another mummy tries to grab her, and she barely escapes, and a literal horror movie fight ensues. Layla throws it off the cliff and barely climbs back up.
Across the way, she spots Arthur. Steven finds the tomb, excited out of his mind only for Marc to confront him about kissing his wife and telling her the truth. Steven cuts him off, going through the tomb and realizing they might have found Alexander the Great.
“Why must men like you have to be so condescending.” Layla insults Arthur before the man tries to get in her head, talking about her Father and the fact he believed that the gods were real.
We cut to Steven and Marc opening the tomb to try and find the artifact. He believes since Alexander was the mouth of Ammit, there’s only one place where it could be. Arthur continues to test Layla, claiming Marc was the one who killed her father.
Marc finds the statue of Ammit, and Layla finds him. It seems like Arthur has gotten in her head, and she forces Marc to tell her what happened. He’s adamant that he didn’t kill her father but admits he was there. Layla asks how he died, and Marc says his partner killed everyone at the site.
This isn’t good enough for Layla, and he reveals his partner also shot him, which led to Khonshu. This is how Layla and Marc met. Arthur’s men invade the room. Marc kills the cult members, only for Arthur to shoot Marc square in the chest twice. Killing him.
Okay, things are getting weird. We’re shown what looks like a late 80s/early 90s 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' type movie featuring a character named Steven Grant! A white room is revealed, it’s an insane asylum and we see a woman drawing a bird with Khonshu’s head, as well as Marc, looking totally out of it.
The woman is Layla, and she offers to help him, though it’s “not really her.” Could this be a weird afterlife maybe? Marc tries to get up and falls, revealing a little Moon Knight action figure by his side.
It cuts to Steven talking to who we can assume is a therapist, and it’s Arthur! (Looking shockingly like Ethan Hawke’s character in ‘The Black Phone’.) Explaining how Marc is indeed unwell and needs their help.
The room looks familiar. Pillars of an old tomb, organ jars, God statues. It’s like a personal hell. Marc escapes and fights off the people trying to sedate him. It’s clear something isn’t right.
Marc runs and locks himself in a room with a coffin that has someone locked in it screaming, only for it to be Steven. The two reunite and hug. Marc asks him what he remembers, and the two realize they haven’t gone crazy.
They pass another coffin, staring at it, and suspiciously walk by. The door is open to a large, anthropologic Hippo who greets them … warmly and kindly? The episode then ends.
So, a lot just happened. First, let’s cover the two name drops in the episode. In the comics, Marc’s partner is Raul Bushman. It’s right to assume that was the man who killed Layla’s father and set everything with Khonshu into motion. Layla’s father on the other hand, in the show, is the equivalent of Peter Alraune, who is Marlene’s father in the comics (Marc’s girlfriend).
Now for the two major characters we have hinted at in the final scenes. We have a good idea who’s in that third coffin, and it's most likely Jake Lockley. Another one of Marc’s alters, Jake is a cab driver and a more “boots on the ground” type of guy. We’ve already seen hints of him in episode 3, and it would be weird for the show to only include Steven and not Jake.
Finally, the Hippo goddess at the end. Her name is Taweret, and in Egyptian myth she was a benevolent god of protection, specifically in fertility and childbirth. But outside of that, she was always the goddess who protected souls as they took the ferry to the afterlife. Which confirms to us where Marc and Steven could be...
Episode 4 was an insane trip, and we’ll see where that it takes us in the last two episodes of the series! See you all next week!