Moon Knight continues to dazzle in with its intricate storytelling, unique characters, and clever visual flourishes. This week’s penultimate episode, titled “The Asylum,” makes good on its name and spends its entire runtime within the creepy hospital Marc/Steven found themselves in last week. Will Marc/Steven make it out alive? Let’s make like an Egyptian hippo and do this!
Very quickly, I think it’s important to point out how different this show has been from the four other Marvel series in that it’s the first not driven by familiar tropes — cameos, action, and comedy. Yet, all five boil down to fascinating character studies. WandaVision dealt with Wanda’s grief over losing Vision, Loki followed our favorite villain in his quest to break his cyclical nature, Falcon allowed Sam to come to terms with his new role as Captain America (and gave Bucky time to forgive himself for past crimes), and Hawkeye provided an opportunity for Clint to put his past demons away for good. Whether any of these shows actually accomplished their objective in a satisfying manner is a completely different discussion.
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In its fifth episode, Moon Knight trumps them all by quite literally transforming into a full-on psychiatric evaluation. In this case, we’re stuck in Marc/Steven’s mind as he tries to reconcile his tragic past and understand the wild journey that ultimately led to his transformation to Moon Knight. It’s riveting, nerve-racking and unlike anything I’ve seen before from the Marvel studio, which is probably why I love the show so much.
Marc
“The Asylum” kicks off with an eerie shot of some water while a young voice cries out for help. We get a brief shot of a woman staring directly into the camera shouting, “This is all your fault!” followed by a smash cut to that Hippo creature we saw right before the end of the last episode. Then, we’re back in Dr. Harrow’s office with Marc where we’re told his mind is “violently vacillating between sense and nonsense.” His life is a fantasy, you see? Or, at least, that’s what the good doctor (played by Ethan Hawke) wants him to believe.
“The struggling mind will often build places to seek shelter for different aspects of the self from our most traumatic memories,” Harrow explains.
Like, “a psych ward,” Marc shoots back.
Touché.
Harrow then mentions a boy, presumably the voice we heard at the beginning of the episode, and this sets Marc off. The orderlies come in and sedate him and we cut back to Marc and Steven screaming at the hippo Taweret (voiced by Antonia Salib). “Wow, these meds are really amazing,” Marc says.
“So, are you two, like, twins,” Taweret asks (though it should be noted that the episode subtitles merely refer to her as Hippo).
“Well, yes, sort of,” Steven says and I’m immediately angry that they didn’t resort to a Forrest Gump-esque, “No, ma’am, we are not relations.”
Taweret, the goddess of women and children, explains that Marc is dead and stuck in the realm of the Duat, the Egyptian underworld. Her job is to guide Marc/Steven to the afterlife following their fatal bullet wound sustained during an encounter with antagonist Arthur Harrow. Taweret explains that this is only an afterlife and notes there are many intersectional planes of untethered consciousness. This is the content I’m here for.
I dig this hippo. Nay, I dig the way the episode uses the hippo. At first, I was afraid she was going to be a jokey punchline. Thankfully, following her initial introduction, Taweret plays it fairly straight and is mostly a dolled-up bit of walking exposition that works remarkably well.
Another fun note is the various way Marc and Steven react to Taweret’s notes. Marc, always so intense, paces angrily, while Steven stands fixated on the creature. “Why would we picture the afterlife as a psychiatric hospital,” the latter asks.
“Because we’re insane,” Marc deadpans. He’s not really wrong. Though, as we learn throughout the episode, Marc is most definitely not insane, just broken — both literally and figuratively. We’ll get to that.
Anyways, Marc goes on a tangent and angrily kicks open some doors and discovers the real truth — he is indeed dead and they are traveling over the sands of Egypt on a large Khufu ship headed to the underworld. More specifically, A’Aru, or The Field of Reeds. All of this info is stored inside Marc’s brain, but only manifests itself through Steven.
Taweret proceeds to reach into Marc and Steven’s chest and removes their (bloodless) hearts and happily notes she did not blow their chests wide open. Was that an actual thing that would happen? The goddess weighs their hearts on the Scales of Justice to determine if they’ll travel to paradise or get tossed overboard to their doom. We get a shot of the gloomy desert sands containing bodies that have been frozen for all time — shout out to the production team for the terrific visuals.
After weighing the hearts, Taweret explains neither organ is full. Both men have some unfinished business they need to solve or risk losing their souls to Duat. Conveniently, the ship houses all their memories, leading to an Inception-like journey to the past where we learn, well, everything.
(Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios.)
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Psych Ward
Back inside, Steven is the first to ask about Layla. Marc notes that she’ll likely go on a suicide mission to stop Arthur, but they need to focus on the task at hand: balancing the scales.
There’s a great bit where they peer through windows and see Marc’s memories — some of which Steven doesn’t recognize. They hear the voice of the young boy from the beginning of the episode and hop through a door where they encounter a room comprised of Marc’s victims — or those he killed for Khonshu.
“You remember them all,” Steven asks. “You try killing someone,” Marc shoots back.
A young boy appears in the room and Steven gives chase, happening upon a young Marc and his brother Randall (as well as his mother and JJ Abrams). The two young boys hop into a Stephen King-styled cave, replete with bird bones at the entrance, which is all well and good except its raining and causing the local to flood.
In one helluva dark scene, Steven watches helplessly as Randall, aka RoRo, drowns.
Back with Marc, he enters another room containing Randall’s wake where Marc-as-a-child endures his mother’s wrath — the scene from the beginning of the episode with the screaming woman. “This is all your fault,” the distraught woman cries. “You were supposed to keep him safe!”
This is all news to Steven, which is our first clue that he’s not the main operator of this body. We see other sad events — a series of horrible birthdays during which Marc’s mother behaved horribly. “Why do you remember her like that,” Steven cries. “She wasn’t like that!”
Then, the big one.
We see Marc’s death, incurred during his days as a mercenary. Bloodied and dying, Marc stumbles into a tomb surrounded by corpses, including Layla’s dad, and encounters Khonshu for the first time. “I am the god Khonshu in search of a warrior.”
This is a pretty hardcore origin story.
“That sneaky old vulture,” Steven says, “he was manipulating you from the start.”
Marc agrees to Khonshu’s terms and we get a great shot of the dying man rising as Moon Knight. Epic, but also deeply tragic.
Taweret
Back atop the ship, souls are dropping into the desert-like flies. Apparently, Arthur is judging and condemning souls before their time. Taweret agrees to turn the ship around in order to help Marc/Steven stop Arthur.
Dr. Harrow
Marc freaks out again and wakes up in Dr. Harrow’s office, still trying to determine how much of the episode is in his mind. The good doctor asks the fundamental question: “Do you think you created Steven to hide from all the awful things you feel you’ve done in your life, or do you think Steven created Marc to punish the world for what your mother did to you?”
Cue mysterious music.
Marc/Steven
We see young Marc huddled in his room, a memory Steven doesn’t recollect even if he remembers the location. A pounding at the door interrupts the silence — it’s mother, and she’s not happy. Young Marc’s eyes roll back and he transforms into … Steven Grant, a character he subconsciously creates based on a hero from the film Tomb Buster (the poster hangs on his wall). So, this is the answer to all the riddles … Steven is Marc’s creation. Not the other way around.
“You made me up,” Steven asks and Marc can only look on in despair as his (mostly) imaginary friend learns the truth. Mother breaks through the door and proceeds to beat the young child. “You’re not meant to see that, that’s the whole point of you,” Marc explains to Steven. “You got to live a life … believing that your mother loved you … that she’s still alive!”
Whoa. The old lady is dead. Steven has been talking to a ghost, living a fake (albeit happy) life.
As a side, I love the camera work in this scene. We seamlessly pan back and forth to Oscar Isaac talking to himself and are never taken out of the moment. Exceptional work.
Steven
Back in Dr. Harrow’s office, Steven assumes control. We’ve gone full A Beautiful Mind now and witness a full-on conversation between Steven and the good doctor. This is such a strangely engrossing scene. Everyone involved absolutely sells the moment. The bit where Steven tries to speak to his mother but tearfully admits, “My mum is dead,” is extremely heartbreaking.
We cut to mother’s funeral and see Marc bitterly lingering outside. He breaks down and then suddenly transforms into Steven, who happily calls his (imaginary) mum and tells her he’s lost. (Is she the third personality? The one murdering everyone?) Present-day Steven sees this whole moment play out and quickly realizes the truth. He consoles Marc (who appears quite literally out of thin air) and tells him, “None of this is your fault.” So seamless are the effects and so believable is Isaac that it’s hard to forget we’re watching one actor.
Taweret
The ship suddenly stops. Taweret explains she can’t help anymore but admits she was really rooting for them.
We get a brief action sequence between Marc/Steven and the unbalanced souls seeking their soul. The sandy baddies crawl into the ship and Marc attempts to ward them off. Eventually, Steven realizes he has Marc’s power because he is indeed Marc and plays the hero role remarkably well.
Unfortunately, he leaps overboard trying to save Marc and ends up frozen in the underworld. The scales balance and Marc finds himself standing in that wheat field next to Maximus amidst a beautiful sunrise. Cut to credits.
Other Notes
- Good hell, there was a lot to digest here. Honestly, following the previous Marvel shows I didn’t have super high hopes for this one, but am pleasantly surprised. Even blown away. Quiet character dramas are my jam. That’s why I loved Severance, Better Call Saul, the first five seasons of Game of Thrones, and the like — shows that usurp cheesy action in favor of quiet character interactions and big ideas. Now, I understand the negative reactions from viewers. The ads promised a Batman-esque action series adorned in Marvel’s signature rambunctious style. Instead, Moon Knight has veered wildly from the norm and delivered a psychological drama devoid of any connection to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I understand the disappointment from those expecting traditional high adventure, even if I’m digging the results.
- I love Ethan Hawke’s performance as Dr. Harrow. He’s just a nice, unassuming man doing his job. He’s a watered-down version of Arthur but boasts the same pragmatic sensibilities.
- A third personality exists, right? Or am I making that up? I’m starting to think it’s Marc’s mother who occasionally takes control and dishes out violent justice on Khonshu’s behalf. Perhaps that’s the part of Marc/Steven that appealed to the cantankerous god. It also makes sense that he would select Layla as Marc’s successor, assuming he has a thing for violent women.
- Where is all of this going? After the tremendous buildup, you can’t end this series on a typical action beat. There has to be so much more to come in the final episode. To quote Jessie Spano: “I’m so excited and so … scared.” Come on Marvel, don’t botch the landing!
- After this episode, I sincerely hope the creators don’t take the simple route and kill off Marc. The character has grown so much over these last few episodes, I think it would be more fascinating to see how he deals with life moving forward than tying his story up with a convenient, Hollywood-sized bow.
- No joke, this is the first MCU series I’m eager to go back and watch again. I can’t say enough about Oscar Isaac’s performance, the directing, and the production design. The handling of Marc’s dissociative identity disorder is also tastefully done, and never exploited for a cheap laugh or thrill. Kudos to all involved.
- Steven can’t be dead, can he? On the one hand, there’s no way that character could go on living in his mostly fictitious world … on the other, now that he knows the truth, it does make sense that he would take over Marc’s body completely (hopefully, with Layla) and let his world-weary counterpart enjoy a well-earned rest following his final adventure.
- I still think Layla takes over the suit, for what it’s worth. Steven won’t want to be a servant of Khonshu and Marc is just too tired to continue the endeavor. I think Layla strikes some sort of agreement with the moon god that allows her to possess his power without succumbing to his wrath or control. We’ll see.
- I was kind of right that Steven would sacrifice himself to save Marc … or maybe I had it the other way around. However, I certainly didn’t expect it this early.
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