There is a lot to accomplish in the last episode of this season of Moon Knight. Marc needs to reunite with Steven and come back to the land of the living. Khonshu needs to be released from his statue, and Ammit needs to be dealt with. Fortunately our dynamic duo (Marc and Steven, who are less of a duo now than two parts of a whole) are about to be joined by a secret weapon – a new avatar is entering the battle.
Recap:
Things don’t start out looking too great for our heroes. Marc is dead, Harrow has Ammit’s statue, and Layla is pursuing him by herself. Harrow uses Ammit’s power to judge his way to the Great Pyramid with Layla close behind. Taweret offers Layla the opportunity to become her avatar, but Layla is understandably suspicious of gods and their deals. Harrow kills the avatars of the other gods, releases Ammit, and accepts the fact that his own scales are not balanced. He believes he will face her judgment, but is instead offered a deal to become her avatar. I guess what I am saying is that it is avatars galore here
Meanwhile, Marc declines to hang out in the serenity of the Sea of Reeds. He returns to the land of the dead to release Steven, and together the pair go to Earth. Layla releases Khonshu and (after some negotiation) Marc/Steven accepts the role of Moon Knight again.
Now the race is on against Harrow and Ammit. Khonshu’s plan involves imprisoning Ammit in the body of Harrow, her avatar, and then killing Harrow in order to permanently defeat them both. In an effort to be as useful as possible, Layla accepts Taweret’s offer and agrees to become her avatar. In doing so, she adopts the powers and armor of the Scarlet Scarab.
What follows is your typical god-vs-god fight, as Khonshu and Ammit go head-to-head. Khonshu isn’t powerful enough to defeat Ammit on his own, but this fight is really just a distraction. Harrow’s followers are busy judging the people of Cairo, but Harrow finds himself fighting both Moon Knight and Scarlet Scarab. With Marc and Steven working with each other instead of against each other, they are able to defeat Harrow and imprison Ammit in the body of her avatar. Khonshu urges Marc to kill Harrow and Ammit, but he refuses and Khonshu is forced to release Marc and Steven from their servitude.
In the post-credits scene, Harrow is taken from a psychiatric facility to a car where he talks to Khonshu. The god reveals that Marc Spector is more damaged than he realizes and introduces Marc’s mysterious third personality, Jake Lockley, who promptly shoots Harrow.
Analysis
I enjoyed Moon Knight quite a bit, even if I found it predictable. Of course Marc and Steven would have to reconcile and work together, and of course Layla would find powers of her own. Still, it is refreshing to have a Marvel property that didn’t take place primarily in New York, London, or Hong Kong. The show stands well on its own, with a different feeling from “Loki”, “WandaVision”, or “Falcon and Winter Soldier”, all of which were tied to the events of the MCU. There is no reference to Thanos, The Snap, or much else in the MCU, although “Moon Knight” does represent one more widening of the pantheon of MCU deities. It would be cool to see some of the gods in Moon Knight appear in “Thor: Love and Thunder”, since that films villain is dedicated to killing gods and other celestial beings. It would be a cool opportunity to pull an MCU show into a big name movie, although I realize that comes with its own challenges and risks, not the least of which is scheduling all of the actors. Still, even as its own standalone property, “Moon Knight” is unique. Its storytelling style is different from a straightforward superhero origin and it gives us two (literal) sides to the hero in the forms of Marc and Steven.
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