Moon Knight Episode 3 Has Us Scrambling Around Egypt For Yet Another MacGuffin
We're in Egypt! Ammit's tomb has got to be close, right? It's not if you're Marc/Steven, sadly. After losing the scarab MacGuffin, the avatar of Khonshu has to scramble around Cairo trying to find another MacGuffin to lead time to the tomb. This is a rambling episode — and an episode that also channels "Indiana Jones" and 1999's "The Mummy" hard. I have no problem with that! But I also can't wait to get the tomb, you know?
Even though things didn't move forward as much plot-wise, we did get to spend time with Marc and Layla and understand a bit of how they fell in love. And we also got to understand Khonshu a bit better in this episode. He's still a jerk, of course, but we also see just how tired he is and how much he's trying to do the right thing.
Let's dig further into the ups and downs of the third episode of "Moon Knight." Warning: major spoilers abound below.
Marc and Steven aren't alone
We see Layla talking to a woman (her mom, maybe?) and getting her fake passports in order. She's heading back to Egypt, her home, to follow Marc/Steven. During this conversation, we also find out she likes to dabble in black market antiquities and has had some trouble in the sketchy circles she used to run in.
Back in Egypt, we see Harrow in the desert with his scarab locator device honing in on a patch of sand. This is it! This is the spot of Ammit's tomb, and Marc still doesn't know where it is.
Marc is in Egypt at least, and we see him going after a group of Ammit's followers who just killed a man who could tell him where the aforementioned tomb might be. It results in a chase/fight scene with strong "Indiana Jones" vibes. Steven is there via reflections and keeps yelling at Marc not to kill anyone. Marc blacks out (and so do we, with the screen going dark), and wakes up on a cliff with all but one of the men dead.
Marc didn't do it, and neither did Steven, so there's clearly someone else sharing brain-space with them that neither of them knows about. Marc doesn't have time to worry about that, however, and with Khonshu's goading, he holds the surviving Ammit devotee over a cliff to get him to talk.
"He'll talk," Khonshu says. But oops! He doesn't, and chooses to fall to his death instead.
Let's make this an Ennead affair
After Marc's unintentional act of murder, we get a better sense of Khonshu and Marc's dynamic. Khonshu is a cantankerous god, yes, but he's also just trying to do what he thinks is right, even if it comes at great personal cost. Case in point — Khonshu decides to trigger a lunar eclipse to get the attention of the other gods and let them know that Harrow is planning to unleash Ammit on humanity.
It works, and the Ennead (remember that exposition from episode 1?) convenes, sending Marc through a portal. It's there that Marc meets the avatars for Hathor, Horus, Isis, Tefnut, and Osiris. Hathor and her avatar Yatzil seem to have a soft spot for Khonshu and Marc. The others, less so.
The tribunal doesn't go well. The gods summon Harrow who, like many successful cult leaders, is able to artfully turn the case around. Harrow says that Khonshu is abusing Marc, who is mentally unwell. The gods speak to Marc, and he agrees he is unwell. But he also points out that his mental health has nothing to do with what Harrow will do if he unleashes Ammit. The gods side with Harrow, however, and lets them all go.
Before a dejected Marc leaves, however, Yatzil/Hathor tells him that he can find Ammit's tomb through another MacGuffin — some maps on the sarcophagus of a man named Senfu.
Let's take a little detour to visit a guy named Mogart
This takes Marc (and us) on another chase. This time, however, Layla is with him — she caught up with him as he tried to find out who has Senfu's sarcophagus. She knows who has it, of course, and the two take a boat to a place owned by a guy named Mogart.
Marc and Layla have a bittersweet moment on the boat before they pull up to Mogart's, a lavish place with lots of people and a lot of guns. Mogart and Layla appear to have a rocky past, but he lets her and Marc view Senfu's final resting place. Marc needs Steven to figure out how to get the coordinates and the two argue via reflection before Marc picks up the pieces of papyrus in Senfu's sarcophagus.
Harrow then shows up, of course, and things get messy. The Ammit devotee blows up Senfu's sarcophagus while Marc (and Layla) kick some ass. Marc eventually summons the suit and kicks more butt, though Steven takes over briefly to stop Marc from killing. Layla and Marc ultimately get away with Senfu's coded map to Ammit's tomb. While they drive out to the desert, Marc is a jerk to Layla. I get he's trying to push her away because he doesn't want her to get hurt but I'm sorry Marc — Layla can more than take care of herself, and you're being more than a bit infantilizing here.
Relationship issues aside, however, the two camp out in the desert and Marc lets Steven take over so he can decipher Senfu's papyrus code. (Side note, the fact that these thousand-year-old pieces of papyrus can be folded into an origami star is delightfully ridiculous and also reminiscent of 1999's "The Mummy.")
Steven gets Senfu's constellation map together but there's a problem — the stars in the sky have moved since he died a few thousand years ago. Khonshu can change the sky back, however, though he'll need Marc's help. He also knows that doing so will get him entombed in stone by the other gods.
Khonshu angers the other gods. Again.
Poor Khonshu. Don't get me wrong — the god has been a complete jackass to Steven and even to Marc. But he knows what he's doing here will effectively result in his death (unless Marc saves him), and he's doing it for the greater good.
Khonshu and Steven undergo the effort to turn back the stars and Layla gets the right coordinates. Khonshu then disappears, with Steven's suit going with it. Steven collapses once it's done and we go back inside the pyramid of Giza, where the gods hang out. We see a tiny Khonshu figurine and know that he's trapped there.
Harrow is also there with Osiris. (Why is Harrow here? Is Osiris working with him?) Harrow holds the statue of Khonshu and confesses that he liked doling out pain in Khonshu's name when he was the moon god's avatar. "I'm going to do what you could not," Harrow tells the statue at the end of the episode. "I owe my victory to you."
Uh oh! That's a whole lot of setup to get us to Ammit's tomb next week. It was a roundabout journey, but we're finally there (at least I hope so). We'll have to wait until next week, however, to know for sure.
Before I say, 'lators gators!'
- It looks like there's at least one more personality who likes to murder. I wonder if this personality also likes to ask museum co-workers out to steak dinner? I'm having trouble seeing Marc doing this for Steven, and besides — wouldn't she have noticed the accent change?
- Lunar eclipses are known events, so having Khonshu just cause one unexpectedly must have freaked out a bunch of scientists, at the very least. In a post-blip world, however, they probably just chalked it up to superpowered folks doing superpowered things and carried on with their day. The whole sky changing, however, might have been a bit much, blip or no blip.
- Oscar Isaac acting as Marc being freaked out as Khonshu speaks through his body is yet another example that Isaac is (1) a very good actor, and (2) gave this show his all.