Moon Knight Episode 4 Recap: Taking a Cue From Legion?

Moon Knight episode 4 — out now on Disney+ and Disney+ Hotstar — was yet one more humdrum episode of a TV present that is made a behavior of them, however by the top of it, I used to be left extra intrigued than I’ve been up to now with the Oscar Isaac-led Marvel Cinematic Universe collection. Of course, I’m additionally cautiously optimistic owing to a number of components. For one, simply two episodes are left in Moon Knight‘s run. Dealing with a significant distraction whereas additionally determining its endgame shall be rather a lot to do in two episodes, moreso for a collection that has routinely given us episodes during which barely something occurs for 50 minutes. Moon Knight hasn’t instilled any confidence in its skills but, but it surely may nonetheless abruptly produce one thing wholly sensible and pathbreaking.

It’s not as if what Moon Knight may be doing is that distinctive to start with. Moon Knight episode 4 ends by suggesting that Marc Spector (Isaac) has been basically dreaming all the pieces up to now. He’s only a affected person at a psychiatric hospital, the place he bought the thought of the Steven Grant persona from an ‘80s film taking part in on TV, and everybody else we have come to know is only a fellow affected person or a member of the employees. To me, this seems like Marvel Studios riffing on Legion’s collection premiere — Noah Hawley’s visually creative FX superhero collection that started off in a mind-boggling vogue — besides with the script flipped in a manner. Or is it? We’ll solely know as soon as we see subsequent week’s Moon Knight episode 5.

I actually hope Moon Knight creator Jeremy Slater is aware of what he is doing, as a result of in any other case Moon Knight goes to finish up on the backside of the MCU Disney+ pile the place it already belongs.

Moon Knight episode 4 — directed by Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson, and written by Michael Kastelein — opens the place we left off, contained in the Great Pyramid of Giza. Osiris’s Avatar Selim (Khalid Abdalla) locations the stone Khonshu, trapped in what’s referred to as a ushabti, close to an earthen lamp. As Selim walks away and the digital camera pulls again, we see what number of different gods have seemingly been imprisoned in stone over time.

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Following the title card, Moon Knight episode 4 jumps again to Steven and Layla El-Faouly (May Calamawy) within the desert the place the earlier episode ended. While Steven continues to be unconscious, somebody begins firing at them. I’m guessing it is Arthur’s males? Layla leaves the passed-out Steven, heads to their pick-up truck, and hides inside. It really works — the attackers discover Steven’s physique and assume he is useless. Just then, Layla re-emerges with a crimson flare to draw consideration, after which geese behind the truck once more, however when the henchmen observe it, they uncover she’s not there. Layla makes use of the distraction to throw one other flare to explode the ammunition that is on the car.

Hearing the commotion, Steven wakes up bewildered in Moon Knight episode 4. On the highway in direction of Ammit’s tomb within the morning, Marc — by way of the truck’s facet mirrors — tells Steven to provide the physique again. But Steven notes that they’d a deal: when Marc was completed with the Khonshu enterprise, he would disappear. Well, Khonshu is gone now, so in a manner, he is executed. Layla, sitting subsequent to Steven, factors out that she ought to have been instructed about that deal, since Marc was a part of her life too. However, she admits, extra to herself, that Marc would have “wanted to lone wolf the whole thing” anyway. She’s actually rising on Steven, if you have not been following the clues.

As Steven and Layla attain Ammit’s tomb in Moon Knight episode 4, they uncover an intensive quantity of labor has already been executed by Arthur’s males. They might want to discover one other method to attain the tomb earlier than them. As they search for provides, Marc tells Steven he must be scared. Now that there is not any extra Khonshu, it additionally means no armour, no safety, and no therapeutic. It’s why he wants to provide management to Marc, who’s higher outfitted as a fighter, however Steven factors out it is the identical physique, so he thinks he can determine it out with muscle reminiscence. That’s a dumb argument, however okay. Plus, he has Layla, Steven provides. Yeah, that undoubtedly counts for extra.

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While Layla rigs Steven for the drop contained in the tomb, she tells him that he smells like Marc, and out of nowhere she goes in for a kiss as Moon Knight episode 4 continues. Wow, Marvel dropped two tiny clues, after which simply went for this? I’m sorry, it doesn’t really feel justified to me. And earlier than the kiss can occur, Steven blurts out that Marc is attempting to guard her from Khonshu. Oh lord, somebody save this man from himself. As a perplexed Layla appears to be like on, Steven explains Marc is doing it as a result of Khonshu desires her as his subsequent Avatar. Which is okay, besides that Khonshu is imprisoned in stone proper now, in order that’s a little bit of a moot level. Layla, now irritated at each Marc and Steven, says she wants honesty not safety.

Down within the tomb within the subsequent scene of Moon Knight episode 4, Steven and Layla uncover there are six paths. Thanks to his data of historical Egypt, Steven realises the entire construction relies on a logo: the attention of Horus. Six paths for six senses; Steven explains. Together, they decipher that the Avatar can be Ammit’s voice — in order that they head in direction of the route that results in the tongue. On their manner, they discover bullets and what appear like chunks of meat, which is ominous to say the least.

As Steven climbs half a ground to search for a distinct exit, they hear somebody approaching and do their greatest to cover. A creature is available in with a human physique, locations it on a desk with the blood and meaty bits, and begins poking into it. However, the creature quickly discovers Steven and Layla, forcing them to run in several instructions in Moon Knight episode 4. Steven drops one thing from above and thinks he has squashed the creature, however its voice will be heard quickly after, implying that it is alive or that there are extra of them.

Moon Knight episode 4 then follows Layla who arrives at a hole place that has an enormous drop into nothing. As she sticks her again to the wall and tries to sidle her manner by, she’s grabbed by a creature and pulled into darkness. Surprisingly, Layla appears considerably unscathed, rapidly utilizing a flare to impale the creature within the eye, and throwing it into the large pit. She nearly falls herself, however recovers simply in time. As Layla climbs again up, she spots Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke) throughout from her within the distance.

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Oscar Isaac as Steven Grant in Moon Knight episode 4
Photo Credit: Csaba Aknay/Marvel Studios

Cut to Steven whose different exit has landed him in an internal chamber. There, he spots Macedonian symbols subsequent to a sarcophagus, that are apparently unfamiliar to somebody as educated as Steven. Talking to himself and the viewers in Moon Knight episode 4, Steven notes that “he” insisted on being referred to as Egyptian. There was just one pharaoh who was Macedonian, Steven factors out, which suggests he has discovered the long-lost chamber of Alexander the Great. Ah tremendous, the Egypt cliché prepare continues. First Giza, now Alexander. What’s subsequent, a chase down the river Nile?

Anyway, Moon Knight episode 4 then takes us again to Layla and Arthur who’re chatting about her archaeologist father now. He can be thrilled to know that Egyptian gods stroll amongst us, Arthur says, earlier than pivoting to Marc once more. “Your husband is in more pain than anyone could bear, but he still hasn’t told you the truth.” An irritated Layla shoots again: “You’re obviously dying to, so why don’t you go ahead, the floor is yours.”

Before that may occur although, Moon Knight episode 4 switches to Steven who’s now panicking along with his nice discovery. “Everything inside me is screaming not to open this thing,” he says, with Marc replying by way of a mirrored image: “You want Harrow to get to Ammit first?” That convinces Stephen, and he opens the sarcophagus. And since Alexander was the voice of Ammit — going by their earlier deduction — he tears up his throat and face to get to the ushabti.

Back to Layla and Arthur once more. “Your father was murdered by mercenaries,” Arthur tells her in Moon Knight episode 4, and Layla responds with the apparent: “You’re saying Marc was one of them?” Arthur claims Marc remembers everybody from that day, however one particularly, a person sporting a fuchsia scarf with scarab particulars. The particulars are sufficient to carry Layla to tears, and he or she rhetorically calls for to know whether or not Arthur is completed, earlier than strolling away. Arthur shouts at her to get up — simply as his minions arrive to inform him they’ve discovered one other method to Ammit’s tomb.

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Layla arrives in the identical room as Steven, who’s rejoicing, having discovered the ushabti. But Layla is in a distinct mindspace now, in Moon Knight episode 4, nonetheless reeling from her dialog with Arthur. She desires to speak to Marc, and wonders if he can hear her. Before Steven can get in a phrase or two, Layla shouts: “I need to talk to you, Marc,” which brings him out over Steven. Oh wow, that is a neat trick. Layla desires to know if Marc killed her father. “Of course not,” Marc forcefully says. But Layla realises that he was there when it occurred. Marc explains that his accomplice bought grasping and executed everybody on the dig web site, together with him, however he did not die though he ought to have. It’s implied that Khonshu saved him. “That’s the reason that we met; you just had a guilty conscience,” Layla hits back, flabbergasted.

But before their conversation can go any further, they are interrupted by the imminent arrival of Arthur’s men. Marc tells Layla to scoot while he holds them off — with Alexander’s axe. Sorry, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud; he’s literally brought a knife to a gunfight. As Arthur walks in behind his gun-toting men in Moon Knight episode 4, he realises it’s just Marc. Khonshu is gone. “You’re a free man, and with that freedom comes choice,” Arthur tells Marc, as he stretches his hand out for the ushabti. “Right now, you have a very important decision to make.” But of course, Marc does the foolhardy thing and takes on two of Arthur’s approaching men. In response, Arthur shoots him through the heart. As the second bullet goes through, Marc falls backwards, into the tiny pond behind him.

Moon Knight goes into a different space then. Marc’s body sinks into the water even though there isn’t that kind of depth, before disappearing into the darkness below. And what emerges from that is an adventure movie with a 4:3 aspect ratio featuring a middle-aged guy and a teenager called Rosser, who come across a dead body. Rosser wonders if this means the treasure is gone, but in the distance, the man spots a statue of Coyolxauhqui, calling it the lunar god of the Aztecs. (Khonshu is the Egyptian lunar god, by the way.) Rosser says he doesn’t know anything, “but you’re Dr. Steven Grant”. Wait, what? Excuse me? Is Steven’s personality based on a movie?

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It seems so, as the camera zooms out on a very different Moon Knight episode 4, revealing it’s a movie being watched by patients in a psychiatric hospital. “Donna” (Lucy Thackeray), Steven’s boss from the museum, is also here. There’s the guy who played Anton Mogart’s bodyguard Bek (Loic Mabanza), alongside a woman who’s drawing something that looks a bit like Khonshu. Even one of Arthur’s right-hand men (David Ganly) who pretended to be a cop in episode 2, is here, attending to our protagonist who’s a patient. Layla is also a nurse here. And Moon Knight is just an action figure in his hand. He calls himself Steven as he stares at his reflection — he still has ankle bracelets and now they keep him tied to his wheelchair — but he’s called Marc by the attendant.

Sorry, has Steven/Marc been making everything up? Did we just go Legion season 1 here? Soon after, in Moon Knight episode 4, Arthur — his doctor here — is speaking to him – though he’s really speaking to us, the audience, in an attempt to explain what’s going on. He notes that Marc has a “great bit of difficulty separating what’s real from what’s not.” Marc, the wheelchair guy, has associated himself with a movie called Tomb Buster — which might sound like Tomb Raider, but it’s written in an ‘80s movie title style like Indiana Jones — and everything that Marc says apparently stems from that movie. Be it his Steven persona, or that he works for a lunar god.

With the heavily sedated Marc unable to respond, Arthur continues on Moon Knight episode 4: “We don’t live in a material world, we live in a psychic world.” Take the pen for an example, it can be a writing utensil or a chew toy, depending on whose hands it’s in. Marc thinks he’s being played — after all, everything in Arthur’s office is Egyptian themed. Has the cultist Arthur put Marc in a weird metaphysical space, or has Marc always been in an asylum like Legion’s David Haller?

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Marc tries to get away from Arthur and runs out the door. The lights on the ceiling are moving — suggesting something is off — before Marc hides in an empty room as Moon Knight episode 4 reaches its conclusion. Except there’s a sarcophagus there, and his lookalike emerges from it. Marc and Steven are in different bodies now, which definitely seems to support the “weird metaphysical space” theory. As Marc and Steven move through the hospital, they spot a shaking sarcophagus in another room, but ignore it and move on. As they continue tip-toeing, a hippopotamus in clothes befitting wealthy ancient Egyptians steps through of a swinging door and cutely says hi, which makes both Marc and Steven scream. What is going on? We’ll find out next week in Moon Knight episode 5.

(For those wondering, the end credits song on Moon Knight episode 4 is Egyptian trap artist Wegz’s 2019 single دورك جي. That loosely translates to “Your Turn Is Here”. It’s available on Apple Music and Spotify.)

Moon Knight episode 4 is now streaming on Disney+ and Disney+ Hotstar. New episodes launch each Wednesday round 12:30pm IST/ 12am PT.