Viewer Log: Moon Knight ep 6

Gods collide. 

Last time on Moon Knight, the boys died. They woke up on a ship sailing across the desert that is the Egyptian afterlife, the Duat. They meet Taweret, the hippo headed goddess of women and children, who tells them they have until the reach the end of their voyage to get their hearts to balance or they’ll be dragged into the Duat. Steven learns about Marc’s history, that his brother drowned when he was young, and that Steven was created to protect Marc’s mind from his abusive mother. He also learns how Marc met Khonshu, the god manipulating Marc to agree to serve. While this information helped their hearts, they were still unbalanced. Steven ultimately sacrificed himself to save Marc, getting dragged into the Duat. Their hearts balance and Steven is allowed into the Field of Reeds as the credits roll. Enough recap let’s get to it.

 

Episode 6: Gods and Monsters

 

Evil Upgrade.

We open on marc’s corpse floating in the little fountain after he was shot. Harrow’s men pull him out of the water and reclaim Ammit’s statue. Harrow leaves the Scarab on his chest, saying that he’s sorry to all the men in Marc’s head. Layla, still watching, takes out one of the guards and continues to observe for the moment. Harrow transforms his staff into an axe with the new infusion of power and he and his people walk off. Layla goes to check on Marc, finds he’s still dead. She grabs the scarab and uses it to lock onto Harrow. The chase begins.  

 

Harrow and his men return to civilization, slipping through an Egyptian military checkpoint by using Ammit’s power to judge all the people at a distance. All but one of the guards drop and I guess he’s recruited into the cause? Kay. They clear out the checkpoint as a disguised Layla pulls a knife and prepares to kill Harrow. The corpses starts talking to her, revealed to be Taweret speaking through it. They give her the general idea of the situation, that Harrow is too powerful to stop, that she’ll need Marc, and to get him, Marc and Steven need her to break Khonshu’s statue so they can get their powers back. She also offers to make Layla her avatar, but Layla isn’t interested. The cult moves out, Layla hiding amongst them again as they drive. I guess no one did a head count and realized they have an extra person. Huh.

 

How have they not noticed her yet?

We skip to Harrow and his cult using Ammit’s power to open the secret entrance to the Ennead’s secret lair. These *Avatars of gods* are so out of it that one actually asks “why” someone would try to free Ammit. Dumb Avatars. They try to hold them off, but in the end, they’re judges against a warrior. With the Avatars dead, Harrow breaks the statue, freeing Ammit. Meanwhile, Layla finds Khonshu’s statue. Ammit upon her freedom points out to Harrow that his own scales lack balance, and he explains that’s okay, that he had hoped freeing her would give him balance, but he’s fine with judgement if that’s not the case. Ammit likes his attitude and gives him a reprieve so he can work for her. I guess that, while Alexander the Great’s scale’s balanced perfectly, that balance led him to imprisoning her for millennia. I feel like that should tell Ammit something about the morality of her plans moving forward, but what ya going to do? As he’s officially made her avatar, Layla frees Khonshu. He immediately tries to recruit her, but she’s not into it. She sees his gaslighting for what it is, and tells him they’ll work together but she won’t enslave herself to him. He tells her that they need to bind Ammit again, and only an Avatar can do it. She tells him no again and he teleports away. Ammit leads her cult to try to begin cleansing Cairo. Khonshu swoops in to block their path. Ammit says time hasn’t been kind to him, to which he agrees but says he can’t let her pass. Harrow orders his people to find who released Khonshu.

 

In the Field of Reeds, Marc stands and basks as Taweret tells him his journey is over. It’s the piece he wanted but never had. He asks about Steven, Taweret telling him that the Duat has him and he should just enjoy his peace. He must go back for Steven, but Taweret tells him you don’t get to just go back. Marc can’t accept leaving his other side to the sad forever, so he leaves the Field and finds Steven’s body among the sand.

 

Ammit and Khonshu argue, the bird head obviously buying time.

 

Marc finds Steven, who is now basically a sandcastle. He thanks Steven for saving him, for protecting him when he needed it. He starts to turn to sand as well. He thanks Steven for not abandoning him and he’s not going to abandon Steven for paradise either. He says Steven was his only real superpower. He hands Steven his heart as he begins to solidify. The doors to Osiris’ gate open and the two are restored, absorbing their hearts. They hug.

 

And he's back, baby.

Ammit and Khonshu begin to battle, Ammit clearly being stronger but Khonshu being faster. Marc and Steven run for the gate as a sandstorm starts rolling in. They almost get hit, but Taweret blocks it with her boat, telling them to get through the gate. She also implies the thing only opened because Osiris is a big softie. How sweet. They sprint through and come back to life, sensing their return, Khonshu teleports to them. Marc remembers all he has done as Moon Knight and his last revival before throwing up the bullets and donning his armor. He returns to the surface to find Khonshu waiting. Khonshu tries to get them to agree to be his Avatar again, with the two personalities swapping as they play hardball with the God of the Moon. Khonshu agrees to release them when this is over. When Steven asks how they’re going to get there, Khonshu answers that they forget that he is the God of the knight sky. The sun sets and Steven swaps back to Marc and they fly up.

 

Osiris Avatar is still alive, Layla grabs him and pulls him into a back tunnel. He asks hot to stop Ammit. He tells her they need to imprison Ammit in a mortal form. He tells her they need more Avatars than they have left to do it, and promptly dies. Layla calls out to Taweret, willing to make a deal. Taweret, who is just so jazzed at the thought of having an Avatar again shouts Layla’s name in glee, saying they’ll have so much fun together, and unfortunately revealing her location. Harrow uses the cane to blast the wall and try to crush her in the collapsing cave. Layla agrees to be Taweret’s temporary Avatar, Taweret telling her that her father will be so proud. She’d met him when she took him to the Field of Reeds. She says she has a fabulous costume for Layla.

 

We must giant Kaiju Kung Fu fight.

Harrow climbs to the top of the Pyramid and calls out in ancient Egyptian, causing the area to pulse with purple light. This impowers Ammit’s followers with Harrow’s judgment power and they start judging everyone they can grab, killing those foud wanting. The souls are devoured by Ammit who grows to colossal size.

 

Nice to meet you Scarlet Scarab!

Layla frees herself, now in a gold and white costume with collapsible red wings. This is her new Avatar/Hero persona, the Scarlet Scarab. Neat. Moon Knight flies in as Ammit gets Kaiju sized. He and Harrow fight as Khonshu manifests to fight Ammit. The giant gods battle as their Avatars do. Marc throws Harrow to the ground, causing massive damage to the street but they both survive. Ammit does the whole “we’re not so different” line, Khonshu says they are because he waits to punish until the choice has been made, and she wrestles him to the ground. On the ground, Harrow knocks Moon Knight to the ground, but Scarlet Scarab flies in to save him. She reflects a blasts from Harrow knocking him back. Marc and then Steven congratulates her on the new look as the fighting begins again. Moon Knight and Scarlet Scarab take out cultists left and right as the gods battle above. Marc and Steven occasionally swapping to use their different tools and skills. Layla keeps him from using his staff and they crack it to disrupt his powers. Harrow blasts a van and Layla dives around it to save a kid from being crushed. The girl asks if Layla is an Egyptian superhero, to which she confirms. She takes out more guards as Marc battles Harrow. Harrow throws Marc off and starts blasting him, claiming that in Ammit’s world, Randall would have lived, and his family would have been happy, as she would have removed the one weed from the garden, Marc. He blasts Marc hard, Layla gets pinned by her wing, and we see Ammit stab Khonshu with his staff. Harrow slams his staff on Harrow, causing him to be hit with energy as Layla gets attacked. Marc seizes up and suddenly Harrow is on the ground, cane to his head. The boys confirm neither of them did that, but can’t discuss it long. Ammit has Khonshu down. Layla tells him to grab Harrow. They go to the chamber and together use their Avatar power to bind Ammit into Harrow’s body. She’s disintegrated and forced into his body. Ammit claims that she’ll never be contained.

 

Khonshu tells Marc to finish Harrow. He pulls his blade to kill Harrow, but Layla tells him he’s free and can make a choice. Marc chooses to not kill Harrow and gets released. Khonshu flies off and their suit vanishes.

 

Steven wakes up in Dr. Harrow’s office. He asks if Harrow believes the Gods are real, and he says no. The boys begin shifting back and forth with each other, asking Harrow what happens if they disagree. Harrow says they’ll keep working. Marc notices Harrow leaving a trail of bloody footprints as he walks to his chair. They get up and they say they’d rather save the world than accept Harrow’s easy answer. They wake up in their flat. Marc asks if Steven if he’s there and he is. He gets up to start his day but wipes out when he forgets he’s bungeed to the bed.

 

He's like more violent Marc. Which is saying something.

In a post credit scene, we’re shown Harrow being checked out of the mental hospital he’d been ditched in. He’s brought out to a limo by a man in a flat hat. As they walk out, we see several knocked out or dead orderlies, implying this isn’t an official release. Inside, he sees Khonshu there. Harrow scoffs at seeing his old boss, thinking he’s safe as Khonshu is without an Avatar. Khonshu then drops some knowledge on Harrow. Namely, that Marc was operating on a faulty assumption when he thought Khonshu wanted Layla when their deal ended. He says, “Why would I ever need anybody else when he has no idea how troubled he truly is.” He reveals his new Avatar, Jake Lockley. He’s a Spanish speaking alt of Marc wearing a flat hat. He says that todays is the day Harrow loses and shoots him twice in the chest. Damn!

 

This finale was kind of mixed for me. Some moments were great. Layla as the Scarlet Scarab, Marc and Steven hitting a symbiosis that they can now freely and willingly shift between the two of them, Marc choosing to not kill Harrow, all of that is good. But there are some bad. Jake Lockley was a twist that probably should have come a bit earlier. Sure, he was in most episodes, but because they wanted to save him for that reveal at the end, we really didn’t get to process this third persona before the credits rolled. He was the alt in the mirror when Steven first heard Marc telling him to stop looking, he was everyone of their most violent outbursts, and there’s even some speculation he was briefly in control in Dr. Harrow’s office, being the one that tried to stab him with the paperweight. Saving him for the end seemed silly. And also robbed us of what looked like a kick ass finale since we weren’t show Jake in control of the body beating Harrow. Just odd. Once she was out, Ammit was a generic villainous with a plan for global conquest, a much less interesting villain than Harrow, and the Kaiju fight was pretty much just a shoving match. So yeah, those elements bring it down a little. I did like how we did end on Marc and Steven just faceplanting in the apartment. I can extrapolate that they found Layla and started to work things out, the face plant is just good comedy. So yeah, I liked this series a lot, I  hope we get to see more of Moon Knight in the future, be it a season 2 or as a Wong style “I’m in every movie now, bro!” thing. Have a good night everyone1

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