You’re going to have a weird day, Marc.Screenshot: Marvel Studios/Disney+
Yes, Moon Knight fans. That happened. You didn’t dream the last 10 minutes of the latest episode “The Tomb”. They were real and you’ll be glad to know it wasn’t just an accidental creation. The twist is heavily rooted in one of the most surprising and intriguing comic book stories of all time from Moon Knight, helmed by Jeff Lemire, Greg Smallwood and Jordie Bellaire in 2016, and we’re here to break it down.
On the show, Marc and Layla go grave hunting hoping to find Ammit before Harrow and his team do. You can read the full synopsis here, but eventually Harrow shoots Marc, Marc falls into a chasm and wakes up again… somewhere else. After almost four episodes dominated by the natural look of the UK and Egypt, directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead slam us with the cold white interior of a psychiatric facility. There are patients who play bingo and watch TV – and one of those patients, Marc Spector, is staring at a blackboard. Another patient who looks exactly like Layla takes his winning bingo card as Marc begins to regain consciousness. He tries to get up but falls out of his wheelchair, dropping a Moon Knight toy in the process. What the hell is going on here?
The scenario is almost exactly how Moon Knight #1, released in 2016, begins. Created by Jeff Lemire, Greg Smallwood and Jordie Bellaire, this comic begins as this episode ends with Marc waking up in a mental institution. However, it is a bit more straightforward there from the start. Marc said he was never a moon knight. There’s a Moon Knight, but he’s been pretending for years that it’s in his head.
A side of Moon Knight #1 that clearly has an influence here. Image: Marvel Comics/Greg Smallwood and Jordie Bellaire
Is that the truth on the show? It is unclear. After Marc falls out of his chair, he is sedated and taken to the head of the facility, who is revealed to be Ethan Hawkes Harrow. Alt-Harrow explains that a movie called Tomb Buster that Marc watches repeatedly makes “a meal” out of a moon god, much like his stories. This idea also comes from the comics, where Marc also watches great adventures on television. Could Marc just steal his ideas from the film?
The show then gets a little of the usual suspects moment that seemingly backs up Alt-Harrow’s claims. There are familiar looking statues. The painting on the wall looks like the city from the first episode. Even Harrow’s shoes have the same style. All of these visual indicators make it seem like nothing that happened was real. Marc made it all up because he’s mentally ill.
We don’t want to spoil what ultimately transpires over the course of 2016, but suffice it to say that nothing can be taken at face value – and, well, Marvel Studios did a Moon Knight show with Marc Spector, didn’t they? There’s a good chance that what we’ve been seeing for nearly four episodes actually happened.
Did you see a talking hippo or something? Screenshot: Marvel Studios/Disney+
But then you have to ask yourself, what does the end of the episode mean? Marc escapes Alt-Harrow’s office and runs. On the way he sees a sarcophagus in which someone is screaming and screaming. He opens it and finds… Steven. The two hug, confirming their confusion, and walk out. They peek briefly into a third sarcophagus, which they don’t open (which we can only assume means another personality is coming), and eventually come across a hippopotamus-shaped deity. She says “Hi”, they scream and the episode ends.
As noted in our synopsis, this is likely to be Taweret, goddess of fertility and childbirth, who may be another member of the Ennead. But if so, who caught them there? And will it be the same general explanation that happened in the comics? (Again, no spoilers, but here’s a quick synopsis.) We’d imagine that Moon Knight, similar to the show but not exactly, will end up with comics, but we’ll find out for sure very soon. There are only two weeks left of Moon Knight on Disney+.
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