'Moon Knight' Episode 5: "Asylum" Recap and Review
A stroll down memory lane turns into a nightmare as we delve into the fractured mind of our hero
WARNING: Contains Spoilers
This is how you do backstory. “Asylum” is a cleverly built episode where the narrative is wrapped around the reveal of backstory to make it essential to delve deeper into our main character’s history. There is real tension built by each memory reveal and conflict escalation in between that has a satisfying and heartbreaking resolution. The difference between this episode and the previous context episode is character development. The first outing consisted of the character being taken from place to place while getting things explained to him, in the end he was still the same person just with a tad bit more knowledge. Compare that to this episode where the truth divides the characters only to reconcile their relationship upon the mutual understanding of the pain that their shared history has caused. The growth of the characters plays into the tragic ending to conclude one of the best examples on how to reveal context that Marvel has produced.
The episode begins with a shriek, but not the one you’d expect, we see a glimpse of Marc Spector’s (Oscar Isaac) past as his mother scolds him. The scene is quickly changed to Dr. Arthur Harrow’s (Ethan Hawke) office where he is trying to calm Marc whose own screams are disrupting their meeting. Harrow continues to push the narrative that Marc is a patient at the Asylum and everything else is in his head. Marc rejects this notion and panics again causing the orderlies to restrain him and inject him in the neck with some drug. Marc returns to the hallway with Steven where two meet the Hippo Goddess Tawaret (Antonia Salib). The two learn that they are in fact dead and in the Duat, which is the Egyptian Underworld. She is ushering them to the Field of Reeds, provided their hearts are balanced on the Scales of Justice against the Feather of Truth. Tawaret weighs their hearts but the scales do not balance, and they must do so before the Duat claims their souls. They must reveal the truth to each other to balance the scales Steven seems up to the challenge but Marc is hesitant. Following a child’s cry for help, Steven finds a room filled with all the people that Marc has killed in the name of Khonshu. There is someone else in the room, a child. Steven follows the child and locks Marc out of the memory. Steven learns that the child was his little brother, he follows the memory as young Marc and his brother explore a cave during a rain storm. Steven recognizes the danger and tries to warn them but it is too late. The boys cry for help but there is nothing Steven can do. Trying to find a way back to Steven, Marc finds the memory of his brother’s memorial. His mother is distraught, and openly blames Marc for what happened. Steven joins Marc in the memory and watches as his mother (Fernanda Andrade) screams at young Marc. Steven follows the young Marc up the stairs where he enters a new memory, Marc’s birthday that his mother refuses to attend. Steven goes up another floor as Marc chases after him and finds another birthday, this time Marc’s mother is drunk and accuses Marc of getting his brother killed on purpose. Young Marc runs upstairs and Steven follows but just before he enters the room, Marc pulls him into a different memory. Whatever was in that room Marc does not want Steven to see. Instead, this memory is of Marc leaving his family behind. Steven gets away from Marc, who tries to grab him again but they fall into another memory. They land in the desert, surrounded by bodies, They find the body of Layla’s father, Marc explains he tried to save them but his partner shot them all. Marc leads him to the place where Marc would come to the brink of death only to be saved by Khonshu and reborn as the Moon Knight.
A noise draws Marc and Steven back to Tawaret where they find that souls are being judged unfairly and banished to Duat. This is Ammit’s doing and Marc and Steven offer to help if they can be reunited with Khonshu, Tawaret agrees and steers them to Osiris’ Gate, but the scales need to be balanced first. Steven wants to go to the room that Marc tried keep him away from but Marc tries to avoid it. Steven insists and Marc breaks down violently only to find himself back in Harrow’s office. Harrow poses the question of who created who, which personality was first Marc or Steven. Marc doesn’t answer, but he decides he must show Steven what happened in the room. Marc takes Steven there, and together they witness Marc’s mother breaking in to abuse him, and young Marc creating Steven to cope. Steven is devastated by this truth, that he was a coping mechanism and that she had been dead for months. Steven breaks down this time and finds himself in Harrow’s office. Steven begins to panic when Harrow mentions his mother’s death so Harrow decides to call her. Steven is hit with the reality that she is in fact dead and is taken to another memory, of his mother’s memorial. Steven watches as Marc can’t bring himself to attend and drunkenly breaks down emotionally causing Steven to emerge. Marc joins him and Steven finally understands the trauma Marc endured, and comforts him. Suddenly they feel the vessel stop and the two return to Tawaret, Their scales never balanced, and their journey has ended. The souls of the Duat board the ship and attack, Marc is able to fight them off but only for so long, they overpower him. Steven decides to get involved and saves Marc from the wayward souls. Marc gets attacked from behind and is teetering over the edge when Steven saves him, but falls overboard himself. Marc cries out to him as Steven is taken by the Duat. Suddenly his scales are balanced, and Marc finds himself in the Field of Reeds.
With one episode left, Steven Grant has been taken by the wasteland of the Duat and Marc Spector is in the afterlife. The set up for the finale is intriguing but how we got there was emotional and heartbreaking. We learned that Marc created Steven to cope with his mother’s abuse and hatred towards him for his brother’s death. This answers the question of who was the original and what led Steven’s life to bleed into Marc’s. The reveal of his backstory is heart wrenching but it serves to inform Steven as to why Marc is the way he is. the two seem to understand each other and it’s clear by the end that they care about each other as well. This episode also highlights just how good Oscar Isaac is in the role, he handles emotion and body language from the two personalities brilliantly. He creates two very distinct people that are easily recognizable by their facial emotes, posture, and their voice of course. Not to be outdone was Fernanda Andrade’s role as Wendy Spector. She was haunting, sympathetic and deranged in her moments on screen creating a complex and deep character in less time than thought possible. Antonia Salib’s Tawaret was another delightful change of pace, far and away from the normal, Reaper-esk escorts to the afterlife. She also drops an interesting tidbit about the afterlife, that there were several different spiritual planes that exist, namedropping the Ancestral Plane from Black Panther, this opens numerous possibilities and existences beyond the physical realm that aren’t different dimensions or alien planets. But the fact that this is an actual afterlife makes Marc’s predicament that much more interesting, how does he return from the eternal paradise and how will he rescue Steven from the grim finality of the Duat?
Penultimate episodes of previous Marvel series have built to a big fight, big reveal, or a big fight and a big reveal. Not exactly boring but not exactly unpredictable either. At the end of each second to last episode we know what to expect from the finale. This time around there is no predictable path forward. Between the character’s final predicament and Oscar Isaac’s uncertain return, the future of Moon Knight is up in the air, from our perspective at least. This is the bases for a great finale, place impossible to overcome odds against the hero and create intrigue as to how they overcome those odds. What makes it even more interesting is when the hero’s failure is just as likely as their success. While the nature of the finale is shrouded in mystery it has had the best set up of any Marvel series to date.