This episode of Moon Knight begins with a recap, followed by the credit roll. Let’s go!
ONE
The sound of screaming while a stream runs in a dark place. A woman, looking directly at the camera, tears up and forcefully says, “It’s all your fault!”
Cut to the hippo, Steven, and Mark, startling each other and screaming.
Cut to Mark screaming in Dr. Arthur’s office. His nose looks broken. Again, we hear Arthur speaking reason while Mark looks at the Egyptian artifacts placed around the office. He’s in a facility in Chicago and everything else is a fantasy he’s created. Mark says, “You’re not a doctor.”
Arthur seems briefly offended, and then defers to the patient. “Alright, retrace your steps. How did you come to be here?” (A question we would also like answered!) He mentions Mark’s last words about meeting a hippo. “Is that sense, or nonsense?” Mark looks shaken.
We see a large marble Ammit statue in the background while Arthur speaks like a psychiatrist. He’s encouraged by this new animal creature, the hippo. It might help break down the barriers between Mark and Steven. “You were talking about a boy. Do you remember?”
A pause, and then Mark grabs a pointy paperweight and gushes that he feels great. Arthur pushes the alarm button under his desk. Attendants rush in, restrain Mark, and inject him. In seeming sincerity, Arthur begs the nurses to be gentle with him.
Cut to Steven and Mark screaming at the hippo. The scene finally continues.
Hippo ducks through the doorway. She has a very gentle voice, her little ears twitching with emotion, as she engages with Steven. “Are you twins?” When Mark mentions that a moment ago he was shot to death, Hippo says, “Oh, you’re quite dead.” The men look at each other, and Steven says he thinks that’s right.
Hippo, who seems like an administrator dealing with a difficult case, unrolls a scroll. Welcome, she announces, to the realm of the Egyptian underworld. (She’s beautifully designed and the CG is excellent.) Steven now recognizes her: Taweret, goddess of Women and Children, guide to the afterlife. (Steven is excited; Mark is overwhelmed.) Looking around at the white asylum walls, Mark scoffs that this is the afterlife.
Not “the”, Taweret answers, “a”. She flips through her scroll sheets for the proper card in this situation. Because the afterlife is inexplicable to the human mind, the dead will often picture a familiar place. “Why would we imagine a psych hospital?” Steven asks, confused. “Because we’re insane,” Mark answers.
Mark starts believing that “Dr. Harrow” is right. A hippo, Steven outside his body, the hospital — it’s all crazy. Through these doors, he says, we’ll see the patients. Steven tries to stop him, but Mark throws open the doors, revealing, instead, a fantastical afterlife. The sky is a perpetual, clouded sunset, and a ship sails over the dunes toward them. Haha, Mark is so excited. “I’m not crazy, I’m dead!”
TWO
Okay, here come the rules: if your hearts balanced in life, you will spend eternity in paradise, the Field of Reeds. Taweret reaches into their chests and pulls out marble hearts. Steven explains to Mark that she will put their hearts on the scales of justice. If it balances against a feather by the end of the journey, they’re good to go.
If they don’t balance, they’re thrown overboard and the dead will drag them down into the sand forever.
They both look over the boat’s side at the swiftly passing dunes. I’m not going there or the Field of Reeds, Mark says to Steven. Meanwhile, the scales are shifting wildly, something even Taweret doesn’t understand. The hearts are incomplete. This boat will replay all of life’s memories, so go inside and “show each other the truth”.
Reverse angle as the men walk into the boat, which is the asylum hallway. In the distance we see the afterlife. Steven asks if Layla’s going to be okay. Mark wants to “take down the hippo” and steer the boat. Through the glass on the doors lining the hallway they see strange scenes.
THREE
Behind one door, though, is Mark standing beside a car on a street. Wait a minute, Steven says, you remember this? Yes, but he obviously doesn’t want to discuss it. A childlike scream turns their attention. Steven runs through another door and Mark follows him.
FOUR
Inside this new room, dead people sit at cafeteria tables with cat urns on them. This is your room, Steven says. Mark recognizes the faces and remembers where and when he killed them. Meanwhile, Steven approaches the scales that weigh their hearts as it rocks on a side table. As Mark confesses his regret, the scales slow. At the back of the room stands a child, which worries Steven. He waves and calls out as Mark tries to stop him. Steven follows the child into a room and locks Mark out.
It’s an urban backyard with a woman at the barbeque. Steven says, “Mom?” Two boys sit at a picnic table. “Mark,” Mom says, “be nice to your little brother.” Steven is surprised; he didn’t know he (or Mark) had a brother. Running out past a father building a playhouse, Boy Mark says, “Laters, gators.” It’s a happy family. Steven follows the boys while Mark paces the hallway.
The boys speak in fake English accents and pretend to be Russell and Dr. Grant. Rain starts to fall. Steven steps on a broken Khonshu figurine (I think), then follows the boys. It’s a dark cave; at his feet runs a stream fed by the rain. Steven starts to worry. As he calls for them, the water rises to calf-height. Intercut Steven’s anxiety with Mark running up and down the hallway, trying doors. Behind the glass of one of the doors is an accusing face of his mom. (It’s the same woman from the opening.) As Steven keeps trying to help the boys, Mark hyperventilates in the hall. Now the glass window shows a wake. Mark enters.
Mom, devastated, stares off into space. Steven, dripping wet, is also in the room staring at his mom. Boy Mark comes down the stairs. Mom, glaring, accuses him of not keeping his little brother safe. Mark tries to coax Steven to leave. And Steven, hearing all of this for the first time, tears up. Mom, pointing at the boy, screams as she did before: “This is all your fault!” The boy runs upstairs and Steven follows while Mark tries to stop him.
It’s another memory. Boy Mark sits in front of a birthday cake while Dad calls for Mom. She won’t come down. Steven runs up the stairs, only to encounter another memory of a birthday without Mom. No, wait, here she comes. Drinking. She’s vicious, and Boy Mark runs upstairs with Steven — “Mom, what are you doing?” — following. As Steven opens the boy’s door, Mark grabs him and pulls him away. They tussle in the street, Steven demanding to know what Mark is hiding and why he would remember Mom like that.
They’re interrupted by another memory. An older Mark walks away from his father who says that Mom will get help. He has a bag and is leaving home. At Steven tries to listen and watch, Mark tackles him. They land in the afterlife sand. No, no, it’s a regular desert. This is going to be Layla’s father’s death. Dead bodies lie around.
Mark explains that he tried to get these people away, but it all went bad. Steven asks, “What happened to you?” As choir music begins, Mark points. Memory Mark, bloody, crawls into the nearby archeological site, a monument to Khonshu. At the base of the statue, Memory Mark puts a gun under his chin. Before he can pull the trigger, Khonshu begins to talk to him. Steven and Mark watch the negotiation. As Memory Mark accepts the bargain, Steven notices the scales in a corner. They’re slow.
SWITCH
Then Memory Mark rises, his eyes glowing like the moon. Khonshu walks beside him as the suit envelops his body. A commotion outside sends Steven running.
FIVE
It’s Taweret, upset that souls are being judged and condemned before their time. This is Arthur’s work. Steven asks to be sent back, but she says he’d still be a dead body with a bullet. Send word to Layla, then, and let us rescue Khonshu. Even Mark comes on board. Taweret, mentioning that Osiris won’t like them using his gate, turns the rudder anyway. The dune-sailing ship makes a sharp turn. She sends them back inside to balance the scales. Hurry.
Steven wants to go back in Boy Mark’s bedroom. Mark just wants to talk, but not go in. It’s not worth it, he says. That sets Steven off. Layla isn’t worth it? All those people dying isn’t worth it? Mark is tormented. Caught up in the moment, Steven says if they don’t go back, “It’s all your fault.” Mark loses it. Screaming, refusing, Mark slaps his own face repeatedly until the scene shifts. Dr. Arthur grabs his hands and calms him down.
Mark’s nose is unbroken. The attendant stands near the door as Arthur pours a glass of water and praises Mark for being so brave. They’ve been working for hours to remember these traumatic moments. Holding the glass, Mark can look into the water and see his reflection. Arthur asks if Mark created Steven to hide or if Steven created Mark to punish the world. Mark remains silent. In his gentle psychiatrist voice, Arthur encourages Mark to open up to Steven. It’s the only way to make progress. Mark gazes down at the reflection.
Cut to Boy Mark throwing toys of Russell and Dr. Grant off his desk. Mark and Steven are both in the room, watching the boy pant with despair. Mark dreads this place. Steven only remembers some of the decor. Knocking, and Mom saying, “Open this door!” Steven watches Boy Mark chant, “It’s not my mom.” A screech of violins, and the Boy starts talking in an English accent. He starts cleaning up, before mom “sees the state of this place”. Steven, frowning, looks at the “Tomb Buster” poster on the wall. “You made me up,” he says.
Mom bursts through the door and takes a belt from the closet. “You disgust me.” Mark pushes Steven backwards. I want to see, he says. Mark won’t let him. They end up in the asylum hallway. “You’re not meant to see that. That’s the whole point of you.” Steven punches him.
(This is the moment. It’s heartbreaking as Steven realizes he’s the copy.)
Now that Mark has let out the truth, he brings it all. Steven got the mother that loved him, that didn’t beat him, and that . . . is still alive. Steven panics, refusing to accept it.
He wakes with Dr. Arthur in the office. Reflexively, he tosses the water glass in Arthur’s face, then apologizes. It’s only as he’s helping dry Arthur’s face that he realizes to whom he’s talking. “Is this some kind of test?” Looking around at the office’s artifacts, Steven is skeptical of it all. The ever-calm psychiatrist, Arthur is glad to speak again with Steven.
(Here’s another heartbreaker. Steven begins to understand that the asylum might actually be reality.)
Steven must learn that he brought them to the clinic “after his mother passed”. That phrase (that reality?) sets him off. Dr. Arthur says they can call her. While Steven begs him to stop, Arthur places the call and hands the phone over. “She’d like to speak with you.” Taking the receiver, Steven weeps and admits that (realizes that?) his mom is dead.
SIX
A memory of her funeral wake takes over. Inside the apartment, the dad looks out the window. On the street standing by a car is Mark; it’s the scene Steven glimpsed earlier through the door. Mark drinks from a flask and shakes his head when his dad motions him to come in. He walks away, mumbling and weeping, as Steven stands in the street and watches.
SEVEN
Completely breaking down, Mark kneels in the street. Crouched close, Steven clearly sees Mark’s eyes roll up as he swaps personalities. Steven watches Steven, who has no idea why he’s in this street. Memory Steven takes his phone and calls his mum, laughing and confessing he’s totally lost again. Mark and Steven watch Memory Steven wander away, still chatting.
Ah. Mark says this event happened two months ago. It’s the moment their lives started “bleeding into each other”. (Meanwhile, Memory Steven seems to discover he’s in America all of a sudden. It’s kind of a hilarious background bit.)
Steven tries to counsel Mark, as Mark finally faces the pain of losing his brother. “It wasn’t your fault.” Complete honesty has been reached. The ground quakes. They’ve arrived at the Gates of Osiris.
EIGHT
They run along the street, which becomes the deck of the ship. Ahead is a large edifice. Steven asks how to open the gates, and Taweret apologizes, delivering a shocker: Their scales never balanced.
Mummy hands reach up and grab the ship. The dead, holding knives, climb over the side. Mark, telling Steven to hide, fights them. He’s losing, though, and the dead press him against the edge. Grabbing the rudder, Steven turns the ship, sending Mark back onto the deck. The dead knock him unconscious and drag him back. Steven, realizing he’s also Mark, fights to free him. As they celebrate, a mummy pulls Mark over the lip. Diving, Steven knocks the mummy off, freeing Mark and going overboard himself. Mark, screaming his name, watches Steven land in the sand.
Steven runs to catch up with the ship, but the dunes weighs him down. He petrifies, turning into hardened sand, eyes glassed over. Close on what appears to be the end of Steven.
Mark screams for the boat to stop. At that moment, the scales balance.
NINE
When the camera returns to Mark, he’s in the Field of Reeds and day dawns. A Mexican funeral song, “Beyond the Sun”, plays. Roll credits.
CRITICAL NOTES
Oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy! Look at that Three/Six! I’m ecstatic.
Look at that Seven! Those are some consequential decisions.
And the Two/Eight progression. The scales must balance or the dead will take you down. Established at the Two, brought to fruition at the Eight.
My God, this is good stuff!
In the meantime, the story unfolds. We learn everything as Steven discovers his origin. The One is a little long, but, shh. We’ll let it slide this time. This much character detail combined with Isaac’s acting chops is pure pleasure. And what a Nine! Next episode, please.