Let's Break Down All The Little Details From The Final Scene In Moon Knight Episode 4
This article contains major spoilers for episode 4 of "Moon Knight."
If you thought you knew where "Moon Knight" was going before this week's episode, guess again. Directors Benson and Moorhead steered us down a pretty wild (and at times gross) road that seemed to follow the previously established vibes of "The Mummy" and "Indiana Jones." However, things took a pretty sharp turn around the 36-minute mark. Suddenly, we were in some "Legion" or second season of "American Horror Story" territory when Oscar Isaac's Marc Spector was suddenly sedated and in a wheelchair at some kind of psychiatric facility after getting shot by Arthur Harrow in the tomb of Alexander the Great. To make things even more unsettling, he was surrounded by a number of familiar faces from throughout the series so far, but none of them were as they were when we last encountered them.
While it was certainly nice to see our two favorite boys come face to face and play nice for a change, it was a bit jarring to see a giant anthropomorphic hippo dressed in ancient Egyptian regalia. There is a lot to unpack in those final 10 minutes of this episode titled "The Tomb." So rather than tediously rewind and zoom in to all the little details, let us do that for you as we examine the plethora of references in the closing moments of this week's "Moon Knight."
I'm just a lad tying to do my best
After Marc gets shot and falls into an ominous void, we find ourselves in a jungle with an adventurer and his young companion. Just as we learn that this explorer goes by the name Dr. Steven Grant, the camera zooms out to reveal that this duo is in a movie that's playing on the television of the facility. You'll also notice a rubber ducky on the TV stand next to a stack of VHS tapes labeled with hieroglyphics. This duck looks as if they're wrapped in bandages, which could be a reference to Khonshu or his avatar Moon Knight or the various mummies we saw in this episode.
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When the camera pans to the right, an older gentleman with long white hair is pulling bingo balls out of his hat. If you think that he looks familiar, then you'd be absolutely correct. This man is the living robot that Steven talks to earlier on in the series. The hat he's holding looks like the one that the street performer used to collect tips in the "real world." (Or is this the "real world?" Who knows at this point?)
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As the camera continues to pan around the room, we see a patient trying to solve a Rubik's cube, similar to the one that Steven uses to stay awake at night. Next, an orderly is passing out what looks to be Jell-O and possibly medication to the other patients. This person is Bobbi, one of the police officers on Harrow's payroll. When we previously saw her, she and her partner were bringing Steven to their boss at one of their shelters in London.
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Bobbi brings some pills over to Donna, Steven's former boss at the museum gift shop. Donna is seen hugging a blue beetle and she's hoping that the bingo caller pulls out some Os. If you look behind Donna, you'll see a clock with one hand that resembles Khonshu's staff.
G15 Sweet Sixteen
Continuing around the room, we see another orderly with a sweets trolly brimming with cupcakes. If you recall, Marc and Steven found themselves in a chase through the mountains after crossing paths with Harrow in a quaint European village. During that chase, they drove a cupcake delivery truck. Although, instead of our hero at the wheel, the cart is being operated by Bek, Anton Mogart's bodyguard from episode 3.
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Bek brings a cupcake to a patient that's drawing. This patient is Lagaro, the woman that made the counterfeit passport for Layla so she could meet Marc in Cairo. And if you look closely at her drawings, you'll notice two things. First, the piece that Bek is holding appears to be a bird with Khonshu's face.
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Second, the one under that featured colorful oblongs. Could they be Infinity Stones? If they are, the red one would be the Reality Stone and the green one is the Time Stone. Could this be an indication that this place is somewhere outside of the regular time and place of the Sacred Timeline? It's a possibility.
We won!
Finally, we catch up with the show's leads. In the reflection of a window facing some trees, we see the reflection of Marc Spector in a wheelchair. He's parked in place by an orderly that you might recognize as Bobbi's partner, Billy. The large bearded man parks Marc in his "favorite spot" between Gus the fish (who looks to be less lively this time since he might be plastic or glass) and a magnetic bulletin board with artwork and postcards. The postcards look to be the ones from Steven's flat. And eagle-eyed True Believers may be able to see that one of the books under the fish bowl says "Royal Necropolis," which is a term related to the Black Panther. This isn't the first reference to the guardian of Wakanda in this show, but will there be another one that's more explicit before the season wraps up?
Showing signs of sedation, Marc is startled when Layla El-Faouly comes up from behind him. She says that she changed the movie on the TV because they've watched it five times this week. As she hangs a new picture on the board, Layla snacks on a Turkish Delight, a treat that she was snacking on in Lagaro's workshop.
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As Marc moans, Layla apologizes for startling him. In this shot, you can see a Band Aid on Layla's finger with a red scarab beetle on it. While they're not exactly the same, Layla's backstory seems to be inspired by Mehemet Faoul, the second character in Marvel Comics lore to take up the mantle of the Scarlet Scarab. He was an archeologist in search of an ancient artifact connected with his father's death. Sound familiar? This could be an allusion to the origins of the character or it could be a symbol foreshadowing a super-powered future for Layla.
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She scurries off after realizing that Marc has won bingo. That's when he notices his reflection in the window. Thinking that it's Steven, he calls out to his other personality in hopes that they can communicate. Instead, he falls out of his wheelchair, which he is cuffed to in a similar fashion to when Steven would cuff himself to his bed while sleeping in the hopes that he wouldn't "sleepwalk" anymore. Now on the floor and requiring Billy's help to get back up, Marc drops the action figure that he was holding. Upon closer examination, we see that it's a Moon Knight figure.
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For a minute, I thought it was the upcoming Marvel Legends figure for the character, but it's not. This one was definitely created specifically for the show.
The plot makes a real meal out of a lunar god
After the attempt to get out of his wheelchair, Marc ends up in a doctor's office. This doctor mentions borrowing Marc's movie featuring the famed explorer Dr. Steven Grant. Through Marc's blurred vision, we see that this doctor is actually Arthur Harrow, who is now sporting a moustache. He makes a bunch of observations about the villain of the Dr. Grant adventure and makes comments that are pretty meta to the audience watching at home.
Harrow goes on to say, "We don't live in a material world. We live in a psychic world. Right? We're only able to make indirect inferences about the nature of reality." To me, that might indicate that this is definitely all happening in Marc's mind. Could this be the place where he went before Khonshu saved his life? And now that Khonshu was imprisoned, who is going to save him this time?
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I'm sure that the hippo at the end of the episode will play into all that next week, but maybe it could be one of the other gods. Around Harrow's office is a plethora of ancient Egyptian paraphernalia. You might also spy a painting of the village from episode one where the cupcake truck chase took place, but the office is mostly filled with Egyptian artifacts.
From canopic jars to a realistic sculpture of Ammit's head (who Harrow has been trying to resurrect this whole time) to a stone sculpture on Harrow's desk that could be either Isis or Hathor (both of whom were part of the Ennead council we met earlier in the series), everything in the office is connected to Marc/Steven's whole mission up to this point. And when Harrow finally says, "I can't help you if you don't help yourself," Marc regains lucidity and escapes the office.
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Now that Marc has found his bearings, he runs out of the office and through the hospital, finds a sarcophagus that Steven happened to be entombed in, and set him free. They don't know how it's possible and neither do we. And just as they both try to make their way out of the facility, that's when we meet the hippo aka the deity known as Taweret. Previously, Steven was selling merch for this god in the gift shop and now he's face to face with them. Of course, we have no idea what this means right now, but this exciting new development is surely enough to make fans of "Moon Knight" excited for next week's penultimate episode of the season.
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