Asylum
Episode 5 of Moon Knight starts with Steven (as Marc) sitting in the psych ward office, unsure what’s happening. It turns out the hippo god was all a hallucination. The reality, according to the good doctor, is that he’s a patient at Putnam Medical Facility. As Marc starts to spiral, Arthur has him injected with a sedative. In doing so, Marc is whisked back to the inside of the asylum with the Hippo god, Taweret. She’s the Egyptian Goddess of women and children. Taweret confirms that they’re dead, after having been shot in the tomb. Her goal is to guide them through the afterlife. Or, the Duat, as she calls it. Now, this trippy asylum is actually on a boat, which is sailing to A’aru. This is the Field of the Reeds; an eternity of paradise. Before they get there though, Taweret takes out their hearts to weigh on the Scales of Justice. On the other side is the Feather of Truth. Legend goes that if the scales balance then your soul will pass into the Fields. If it doesn’t? Well, they’ll be thrown down into the Underworld. No pressure. The scales continue to sway up and down. It appears that their hearts are incomplete so the only way to settle this is to discover more of their life and become “complete”, uncovering whatever secrets they may be hiding. What ensues from here is a journey through the dark recesses of Marc and Steven’s mind. In the cafeteria, all the people Marc has killed happen to be sitting at different tables. As Marc confronts his past, the scales start to slow down. Steven notices a little boy and follows him through a doorway… to the past. This happens to be Marc’s past, where he leads his brother through the forest with Dr Grant, the pet name he’s given to his sibling. Steven follows the kids into a cave, where the water continues to rise. Now, Marc’s brother drowned in this cave and he’s blamed for his death by his grief-stricken mother, Wendy. She begins to resent Marc, not showing up to his birthday and eventually isolating herself. As Marc and Steven tumble through different doorways, they find themselves standing during the fateful night where Marc worked for his old CO Bushman. He was tasked with raiding an Egyptian tomb. Bushman changed the plan and called for no witnesses but Marc couldn’t live with that and he tried to take everyone away… but it didn’t work. For Marc, he was badly injured and crawled inside the tomb. As one final act of mercy, under the statue of Khonshu, he looks set to shoot himself… until Khonshu speaks up. The God manipulates him and encourages Marc to choose life and serve as his candidate. These flashbacks continue, diving back to see Marc and Steven both sharing each other’s mind. A big reveal then ensues as we find out that Steven Grant isn’t the true occupier of this body – it’s Marc. Steven was made up as a way of combatting the abuse he succumbed to from his mother. His simple life was all a façade, and even believed that his mother was still alive. She’s not, as it turns out, leading Steven to begin spiraling out of control. Steven ends up with Dr Grant in his office again, and he even phones home to show the harsh truth that Wendy is dead. The truth is, this all happened a while back and Marc never attended her funeral. Instead, he stood outside and eventually walked away. Choked by grief, anger and a whole cocktail of different emotions, Marc regressed back to Steven as a way of dealing with his emotions. Steven speaks plainly to Marc, telling him it’s not his fault and he shouldn’t blame himself for what happened to his brother. As they finally make it back to the boat, given it’s come close to the Gates of Osiris. Taweret apologizes to Marc and Steven. The unbalanced souls of the Duat are coming for them now. As the souls begin coming aboard, a big scuffle ensues before Steven tumbles off the boat in a bid to save Marc. Unfortunately, he turns to stone and is lost. In doing so, Marc’s soul is balanced and he finds himself in the Field of Reeds.
The Episode Review
A great episode of Moon Knight rounds out the penultimate episode of Disney’s latest series, managing to blend trippy visuals and important backstory to understand more about what’s happened with Steven and Marc. There’s definitely some inspiration drawn from Legion here, given the psych ward and the various doorways leading to different parts of Marc’s life, but there’s the usual MCU gloss on this, adding light touches of humour (like Tawaret flicking the notes all over the floor) alongside some exposition dumps too. Those looking for a lot of action are certainly going to be disappointed, and at times the show has meandered through its plot. Moon Knight hasn’t always been the smoothest of rides but this has definitely been the best episode of the show so far; a dazzling, visual spectacle that finally gives some much-needed answers about Steven/Marc’s past.
