'Moon Knight' Episode 4: "The Tomb" Recap and Review
An adventurous episode that begins by evoking memories of classic Mummy movies then dives head first into the surreal for the most interesting episode yet
WARNING: Contains Spoilers
Moon Knight seems to be hitting it’s stride. This week had Marc and his Merry Mental Men work their way through a Tomb and explore history and mythology in a way that immediately evokes Indiana Jones and 1999 classic The Mummy. The Steven persona took the lead during this adventure which allowed us to see him in his element and not a neurotic mess on the brink of total meltdown, which is nice. But the real highlight is the time spent with May Calamawy’s Layla El-Faouly. Normally in these adventure stories the female lead is often relegated to the damsel in distress role. Here, Layla uses her time to prove that she can handle her own and is just as worthy to be Khonshu’s Avatar as Marc or Steven.
The Episode begins with Khonsu’s stone prison being placed among the other banished gods. Then immediately we join Layla and an unconscious Steven (Oscar Isaac) in the middle of the desert after finding the location of Ammit’s tomb. Layla is forced to protect Steven’s body from Harrow’s men. After some quick thinking she manages to dispatch of the men just as Steven wakes. The two drive across the desert together. Marc wants to take over the body but Steven refuses and he and Layla hike to the Harrow’s dig site, finding it abandoned. As Steven and Layla get ready to explore the Tomb they share a moment together, and a kiss. Their exploration of the tomb takes them to a room with six pathways. Steven deduces the right path that leads to room with evidence of a fresh mummification. Suddenly they are not alone, a resurrection mummy drags a victim into the room and starts his ritualistic killing. They try to keep out of sight but the Mummy spots them. Layla distracts it while Steven moves forward. After a struggle, Layla fights off the Mummy and sends it down a chasm. yet she is still not alone. Arthur Harrow stands in the doorway at the other side of the chasm. Steven reaches the tomb and discovers that this is the lost tomb of Alexander the Great. Harrow wastes no time in evoking Layla’s father’s name, now with her attention he reveals to her that Marc had a hand in her father’s death. In the Tomb, Steven finds the statue that imprisoned Ammit and Layla joins him. Layla forces Marc to take over then confronts him about her father’s murder. Marc admits he was there but it was his partner who shot her father, and him. Harrow’s men finally catch up with them Layla gets away, but Marc gets two bullets to the chest courtesy of Harrow (Ethan Hawke) himself. Marc is transported mentally to what looks like a psychiatric hospital but something isn’t quite right. Layla is there but she is just another patient. Marc tries to talk to Steven but no one is there. Steven finds himself in the doctor’s office but the doctor is Harrow. Marc wills himself to reject the scenario and he breaks free from the Doctor and his orderlies. Marc runs through the building until he finds a sarcophagus with someone trapped inside, he opens it and Steven pops out. Ignoring the impossibility of the situation they continue to try and escape, along the way they pass another sarcophagus with someone trapped but leave it behind. Together they reach the door but on the other side is a walking talking hippopotamus dressed as an Egyptian goddess.
The truth has finally reared its ugly head. Marc finally admitted to Layla that he was involved in her father’s death. He explains that it was his partner who got greedy and shot all the hostages, this partner is of course the Bushman from the comics. Early on it was decided by the showrunners that Bushman was too similar to Eric Killmonger from Black Panther and decided to re-invent Arthur Harrow as the series’ main villain. The reveal had the potential to fall flat due to Layla being the literal last person to figure out but May Calamawy’s performance in the moment kept the scene emotional and engaging. The ending of the episode is jarring and confusing but that is by design. Thus far, Moon Knight has kept the story relatively straight forward in reality, about as much as you can while dealing with multiple personalities and Egyptian gods, but the ending finds Marc in what is assumed to be a mental construct of a psych ward. He finds and is able to interact with Steven which leads to that space being metaphysical but also we see another hint at Marc’s third, more violent personality Jake Lockley. The Ward itself is an impressive example of set design, creating a mix between the Tomb, Marc’s hisrtory and ‘friends’, and a sterile and medical facility. While this area feels like a construct but then appears the giant anamorphic Hippopotamus. This is the Goddess Tawaret played by Antonia Salib. She is the goddess of childbirth and fertility, this could be how Marc returns to the land of the living as he could use a rebirth at the moment.
The series is going somewhere quick. There are multiple moments that the series is building towards that are all being handled quite well. Jake Lockley, Ammit’s emergence, Layla triumph; the creators are weaving the story into a thick rope of intrigue that has successfully overshadowed the lack of horrific violence but that seems to be another strand ready to be cut at any moment. With two episodes left the series is building a weight to it that has more momentum than any series before hand except arguably Loki but it’s at the end where Marvel has dropped the ball before so while the build-up is exciting it also brings with it a twinge of nervousness. Nerves aside, the next episode is a must watch to see how Marvel addresses the giant Hippopotamus in the room.