The MCU’s favorite multiple-heroes-in-one continue pursuing the wicked Arthur Harrow in order to prevent him from raising Ammit and bringing forth genocidal judgement on the world. “Moon Knight” does violate the MCU’s most important rule, which is that everything important happens in New York City, London, or Hong Kong, but I guess we will let him get away with it since it is literally inspired by Egyptian mythology. Last time someone wanted to wipe out large portions of the population, it took an entire Avengers squad to stop him, but right now we’ve just got one very confused Moon Knight and his less-than-reliable god.
Analysis:
Marc Spector is in Egypt trying to stop Arthur Harrow from finding and raising Ammit. Harrow has the magic scarab and appears to be one step ahead, but Marc is pursuing leads through Cairo, parkouring over rooftops and punching people who get in his way. The trouble is that pesky Steven Grant, who keeps letting people go whenever he has the body. Unable to get any information from human leads, Marc and Khonshu decide to convene a meeting of the gods via their avatars. The other gods berate Khonshu for continuing to interfere in human affairs, since they have decided to simply observe humanity from a distance. Arthur Harrow, summoned to the meeting to answer Khonshu’s accusations, lies and deflects. He tells the gods about Marc’s multiple personalities and accuses Khonshu of taking advantage of a troubled man to stir up trouble. The gods dismiss the charges against Harrow and warn Khonshu that he is on thin ice.
Marc learns from a friendly avatar that the sarcophagus of Senfu may help him find Ammit’s tomb. Unfortunately for Marc, nobody wants to give him information about Senfu, since the sarcophagus is on the black market. Only a native Egyptian with ties to the black market can help him, which is exactly when Layla finds him. Together they meet up with Anton Mogart, a wealthy elite with Senfu’s sarcophagus in his possession. When they try to uncover the puzzle of the star chart hidden in the tomb, Mogart’s men attack and the situation is complicated when Harrow himself arrives. Naturally things devolve into killing, despite Steven Grant’s best efforts. Marc/Steven and Layla get what they need from the sarcophagus, and Khonshu manipulates the night sky to show them what it looked like on the night the star chart was made so they can use the constellations on the chart to guide them to Ammit’s tomb. Khonshu’s defiance of the other gods in his manipulation of the night sky, however, warrants punishment. He is turned to stone, unable to respond as Harrow gloats that everything he is doing now is only because of what Khonshu made him.
Analysis:
Episode three follows some of the threads from the previous episode, but adds deeper complications. Marc and Steven continue their back-and-forth over just how violent things need to get. But at a couple of points the violence goes beyond what even Marc is comfortable with, and both personalities accuse the other of committing needless slaughter. I’m not a Moon Knight expert, but some quick Googling confirms that there is a third personality lurking somewhere in this body, a more violent one named Jake Lockley. As things get more desperate, it is possible that Lockley gets even more violent and the other two may find themselves having to work together to keep Lockley under wraps. Or perhaps all three will have to find a way to share the responsibilities of being Khonshu’s avatar.
There is also more going on with Layla than we understand at this point. A quick scene of her getting a fake passport made at the beginning of the episode tells us that her father was an archeologist and something tragic seems to have happened to him. When Harrow confronts Marc and Layla at Mogart’s estate, he taunts them with knowledge about the situation. Afterward, Marc clearly lies to Layla about it, evidently consumed by guilt and shame. There is no way this all unfolds without Marc having to come clean and address whatever happened in his past with Layla.
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