Mr Great
In the fourth episode of Moon Knight, Layla is desperate to wake up Steven, who has passed out in the sand following the whole Khonshu debacle last week. ..
With Khonsu trapped and placed inside the pyramid, Layla is pursued by a jeep sporting several gunmen. They eventually fire on her, causing her to light a flare and throw it at the vehicle. The gunmen then all explode, saving Layla from harm.
After waking up from his coma, Steven and his friend drive to the dig site where they find it abandoned. ..
Steven is warned by Marc that with no Khonshu, they are all in trouble. There is no more healing or fancy suits; Marc wants control.
Steven refuses to give his body up, but he does tell Layla that Marc was protecting her because Khonshu wanted to turn her into an avatar. Deciding that honesty is the best medicine, their chat soon turns to a seriously awkward kiss.
Steven geeks out upon seeing the Egyptian trinkets, before deciding to plummet further into the depths.
The pair of explorers descend into the labyrinth and realize that it is a symbol. The pattern is laid out as the Eye of Horus, which protects the afterlife. Now, they learn about our senses through exposition and deduce that the tongue is actually Ammit’s voice. ..
A sacrificial chamber is found in the woods, complete with “meaty bits” and blood. However, gunshots from afar cause the two explorers to hide. A body is brought into the chamber by a strange creature. ..
Steven and Layla are forced to run, with the latter needing to head across a narrow crevasse to the other side; the creature slowly gaining on her. Although she does make it to the other side, she’s pulled into the darkness and killed.
Layla is a main character with a lot of plot armour. She uses her flare to kill the creature and knock it down to the depths below.
Interestingly, Harrow happens to be watching from afar, and he tells Layla she’s handled it brilliantly. He also spews some narrative about her father which rattles her. Specifically, Arthur reveals that Layla’s father was murdered by mercenaries. And it would appear that Marc was part of them. ..
Meanwhile, Steven manages to stumble upon the tomb of Alexandra the Great. Pushing it open, he discovers a mummified corpse inside but no ushabti. ..
Steven finds a tooth inside his mouth. Alexandra was the voice of Ammit, so he assumes this is what happens when you die. However, there’s a problem: he can’t find the tooth again. ..
Steven tells Layla that he didn’t kill her father and that he was there when it happened. Layla is angry and demands to know what happened to her father. Marc takes control of Steven, promising that he won’t tell her anything. Marc was there though and saw what happened.
Marc’s partner got greedy and killed everyone at the dig site. Marc tried to save him but it was too late. In fact, his own partner shot him. Marc finally reveals that this is why they met originally-to stop the killings. ..
Harrow and his men appear with guns and surround Marc. Harrow shoots him in the chest with a pistol, causing him to fall to the ground. Steven slips into the water and is presumably dead. ..
Marc wakes up in a psych ward, bathed in white. He takes inspiration from Legion and Layla is there too and Harrow is the one in charge adopting different personas.
There are clues that all is not right of course, typified by the Egyptian architecture and trinkets around. Marc soon realizes what happened, as the memories start flooding back.
Marc heads off on a trip through the psych ward, freeing Steven from a sarcophagus inside one of the rooms. There’s another in an adjacent room too; someone inside pounding to get out. ..
The pair ignore this and instead find themselves face with face with one of the Gods, sporting a hippo face no less. This is Taweret, the ancient Egyptian goddess of childbirth and fertility. “Hi!” She says cheerfully.
The Episode Review
In this week’s episode, Moon Knight returns to the small town of West Egg, where he has been living for the past few years. He has been working as a security guard and is now looking for a new challenge. As he begins his new job, Moon Knight quickly realizes that he is not alone in his search. He meets a strange woman named Alice who tells him about a dark force that is stalking her. The more Moon Knight investigates, the more he realizes that this force is much older than him and has been following him for years. As Moon Knight gets closer to the source of this force, he realizes that it is actually an alien being known as The Beast. The Beast wants to consume all life on Earth and will do anything to stop Moon Knight from reaching it. If successful, The Beast will be unstoppable and will be able to conquer the world!
The Doom Patrol scene is nicely shot with some great cinematography. The problem is, it’s all been done before. It doesn’t even touch the weirdness of both Doom Patrol and Legion, which confront the ideas Moon Knight’s pedalling with far more panache.
The series feels very much like The Mummy, but dragged out across 6 episodes with the charisma of Oscar Isaac carrying this forward. ..
Steven is fantastic as both Marc and a third personality. The reveal of another sarcophagus rattling about seems to prove this. ..
The big reveal regarding the hippo at the end is such a great twist and the voice is perfect too. However, less funny is Layla’s way of using flares to get out of every situation, which feels a bit lazy on the writing front. ..
In the early stages of Moon Knight, it was a bit of a mixed bag. However, we’ll have to wait and see what the final 2 chapters have in store for us.
