In the “Moon Knight” recap, Steven and Layla race to beat Harrow to find Ammit’s tomb and then a truly bizarre twist unfolds…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
If you thought “WandaVision” was a complete mindf**k, just wait until you see the latest episode of “Moon Knight.”
Credit to Marvel Studios for taking so many big swings with these series on Disney+ because in many ways since these shows launched, uber executive Kevin Feige has given the green light to a lot of ideas that are way out of the comfort zone when compared to film counterparts like “Iron Man” or any “Captain America” movie.
Spending half a season locked in a virtual sitcom universe created by a woman grieving the loss of the love of her life earned “WandaVision” a whole bunch of award nominations and it’s hard to say if “Moon Knight” will get the same consideration — truth be told the series hasn’t been as strong through the first four episodes — but the twist at the end of the latest installment will certainly turn a few heads from what’s been happening so far.
Last week saw Marc Spector largely in charge of his own body as he sought to find the location of Ammit’s tomb so he could stop her loyal servant Arthur Harrow from freeing the vengeful god and unleashing a judgment on the world like nothing that’s ever been seen before. The race to get there required so much help that Khonshu had to sacrifice himself to give Marc the ability to find the location, but in the process the moon god found himself being imprisoned by the other Egyptian gods.
Now as “Moon Knight” picks up this week, Marc — well actually it’s Steven — and Layla are trying to get into the tomb and retrieve the ushabti that’s locked Ammit away for centuries before Harrow has a chance to retrieve it and free his god from her prison.
And then everything gets turned on its head after Marc Spector gets killed — and that’s not even close to the most jaw-dropping thing that happens in this one!
With that said, let’s get to our recap of “Moon Knight” episode 4 titled “The Tomb”…
Where Is My Mind?
“The Tomb” picks up directly where the last episode ended with Khonshu being imprisoned by his fellow gods with Horus’ avatar placing him on a shelf next to the rest of the ushabtis — the little stone statues like the one containing Khonshu — collected inside the Great Pyramid of Giza. With Khonshu locked away, Marc Spector no longer has his powers, which means there’s no more Moon Knight suit to save him from considerable harm.
Just after Khonshu disappears, Marc/Steven pass out with only Layla there to protect him just as armed gunmen come tearing through the desert. Thankfully, Layla is nothing if not resourceful on her own because she sets a trap and ends up blowing the gunmen’s truck to smithereens before escaping with her wayward husband in another vehicle.
Along the road, Layla suggests that Marc take back over the body but Steven refuses while telling her that they made a deal — once Khonshu was gone, Marc would abandon any control he had over their shared body.
Of course, Layla wonders about her consideration in all of this because she is Marc’s wife after all but then again, he had already left her and filed divorce papers so he was sort of gone already.
When they arrive at the site of Ammit’s tomb, Steven and Layla discover Arthur Harrow and his followers have already made their way inside, which means this new dynamic duo will have to find another path into the tomb to stop this cult worshipper from retrieving the ushabti containing his genocidal god.
After getting the information needed — and failing to notice blood splatters all along the campsite — Marc calls out to Steven to let him take over because this mission is far too dangerous for him. Steven refuses now that he’s in control and Marc begins to realize that his counterpart is starting to fall for Layla.
As they prepare to enter the tomb, Layla reciprocates those feelings by nearly kissing Steven but he pulls back to tell her the reason why Marc shut her out — it’s because Khonshu wanted her as his next avatar and he refused to hand her over. Marc pushed Layla away to protect her.
Still, Layla can’t help but find herself attracted to this sweet, goofy ancient Egyptian encyclopedia who also happens to look just like the man she loved. So Layla and Steven end up kissing anyways, much to Marc’s chagrin.
After spelunking down into the tomb, Steven and Layla start searching for Ammit’s ushabti but this cave is nothing but a maze of tunnels. Steven is able to configure the layout after realizing that the caves are essentially mapped out by the Eye of Horus, which leads them down the right path.
As they make their way through the caves, Steven and Layla discover a group of Heka priests — guardians left in the underworld to protect the pharaoh buried in this cave. That’s when they figure out that Ammit’s original avatar was an Egyptian pharaoh.
There’s only one problem — the room leading them towards Ammit’s last resting place is covered in fresh blood including Canopic jars filled with human organs. As Steven looks for an exit, Layla gets trapped downstairs when a now living Heka priest arrives with one of Harrow’s men and the creature begins performing a mummification while the goon is still very much alive.
To ensure they survive, Layla ends up distracting the Heka priest so the undead security guard will follow her while Steven continues deeper into the caves to find Ammit’s tomb.
While it’s a harrowing battle along a ledge that leads down to a very deep cavern, Layla is able to send the Heka priest to the bottom before she starts navigating down a very narrow path to get to the other side. Meanwhile, Steven lands in the pharaoh’s tomb and that’s when he realizes that he’s standing face-to-face with the burial ground for Alexander the Great.
It also doesn’t take Steven long to figure out that Ammit’s ushabti is probably inside the sarcophagus — more specifically down the throat of Alexander the Great’s mummified body. As gross as it might be to dig through a rotted corpse, Steven finds Ammit’s ushabti and he’s one step closer to stopping Arthur Harrow from freeing her.
Back at the giant cavern, Layla is trying to escape when Harrow appears on the other side of the opening to congratulate her on vanquishing the Heka priest.
With a captive audience, Harrow then begins to reveal more information that he discovered from his brief interaction with Steven/Marc back in the desert. When he tried to read Steven with the cane that possesses a bit of Ammit’s power, Harrow was unable to judge him because there was so much chaos inside his head from the multiple personalities.
But one thing that Harrow was able to figure out was the agony that’s been torturing Marc Spector for many years — his involvement as a mercenary in the death of a prominent archeologist named Abdallah El-Faouly, who also happens to be Layla’s father.
Harrow danced around this information previously but he finally reveals it all to Layla and she’s understandably stunned to learn that her husband may have had a hand in her father’s death. A death that has haunted Layla every single day since her father was gone.
Layla is speechless as Harrow taunts her that he hopes she finds peace now that she knows the truth. She turns and leaves to find Steven/Marc as Harrow shouts to his followers that he’s found another way into Ammit’s tomb.
When Layla finally gets to the tomb, she confronts her husband about the death of her father, which prompts Steven to hand over his body to Marc again. Marc tries to get Layla to flee with him, especially considering he managed to retrieve the ushabti containing Ammit but she wants answers first.
Marc finally comes clean that he was part of a mercenary team at a dig site in Egypt and that his partner — in the comics his name was Raul Bushman but it remains to be seen if that will actually be a character in the series — got greedy and started killing all of the archeologists working with them. Marc tried to stop him but the man killed Layla’s father before turning the gun on him as well.
Marc got shot and left for dead, which is when Khonshu appeared and offered to save his life in exchange for becoming his avatar. Layla realizes that Marc’s connection to her father’s death is why he sought her out, why they eventually met and then fell in love.
There’s no apology that could make up for that kind of lie but they don’t get a chance to speak any further because Harrow’s men start drawing nearer to the tomb. Marc tells Layla to run and find another exit while he holds off Harrow and his followers so she can escape.
When Harrow arrives, his men have guns drawn and the only thing Marc has as a weapon is an axe he pulled from Alexander’s tomb. He’s able to fight off a few men but Harrow finally grows tired of watching this fight so he pulls out his own gun and shoots Marc in the chest.
A second bullet rips through Marc’s body and he falls into a watery grave next to Alexander the Great’s tomb. Marc sinks deeper and deeper until the light above him disappears.
When a light reappears, it’s an old 1980’s adventure movie called “Tomb Buster” — a really poorly made “Indiana Jones” knockoff but the lead character’s name just happens to be Dr. Steven Grant.
Pulling back from the TV with the movie on it, we find ourselves in a psychiatric ward where patients are all around and the caregivers are handing out pills for dinner. One of the patients is the woman who was Steven’s boss at the gift shop in the museum and Layla is also there — and then there’s Marc, strapped to a wheel chair, his leg bound to it just like how he used to wake up every morning at his flat in England.
Marc is doped up and barely cognizant of what’s happening around him but he’s soon taken into a doctor’s office for a session. There he’s reunited with Arthur Harrow except this version isn’t a faithful worshipper of Ammit but rather the psychologist caring for a very sick Marc Spector, who is struggling to recognize what’s false and what’s reality.
As Marc looks around the room, he finds objects that have been permeating his mind throughout the “Moon Knight” series including Canopic jars and other Egyptian artifacts. Marc is also clutching onto a children’s toy that looks just like the Moon Knight suit that he wears.
Harrow even explains how the adventures of Dr. Steven Grant in this movie “Tomb Buster” involves a mysterious moon good — the same one that Marc seems to believe lives inside his body.
As Harrow continues to diagnose Marc’s mania, he’s finally started to wake up from whatever drug induced state has numbed him to the point of the drool phase as he breaks free from the chair, takes out a couple of orderlies and tries to run away.
Marc eventually finds his way into a room where he discovers a sarcophagus and somebody is locked inside, pounding on the lid trying to get out. When Marc moves the lid, he’s reunited with Steven, who has been locked inside this holding cell.
The two of them embrace before running together to try and escape this place.
They run into another sarcophagus — and there’s somebody inside this one as well, pounding away trying to break free. It seems likely that this is the third personality that’s been rattling around Marc’s head, who killed Harrow’s followers back in episode 3.
In the comics, Marc Spector has several different personalities but the most prominent one that hasn’t been introduced yet is Jake Lockley. Now that one is a cab driver in New York City but in this version of the story, Jake might just be a cold-blooded mercenary willing to kill to get what he wants.
Either way, Marc and Steven decide not to open that door but instead seek to run away until they meet a giant hippo who greets them with a hello before they both shriek in fear. And that’s where the episode ends.
Now it’s impossible to fully explain what happened with that wild ending but this does mirror a “Moon Knight” comic book story written by Jeff Lemire, except that version of Marc Spector waking up in a hospital unsure if his experiences were real or just part of the psychosis he’s suffering from actually happen at the very beginning of the story.
This time around in “Moon Knight,” the hospital is introduced towards the second half of the series as Marc attempts to figure out what’s real and what’s false. What has he really been doing and what’s been happening inside his own head?
Has everything we’ve witnessed up to this point just part of Marc’s psychosis as he continues to deal with dissociative identity disorder or is this just his mind and all the different personalities finally working in congress to save his life?
We’ll know more next week but the hippo character has been identified as Taweret — an Egyptian god known as a protector of mother and children. Taweret is also known as “she who removes water” and “mistress of pure water,” which could explain her appearance since Marc seemingly fell dead into a pool of water in Alexander the Great’s tomb.
Whatever the case, “Moon Knight” just took a major turn from everything else that’s been happening so far but with only two episodes left, the answers should be coming in rapid-fire form.
The next episode of “Moon Knight” will debut next Wednesday on Disney+.
