As a pre-Halloween treat I looked over my review of the MCU’s 2022 release of Moon Knight. I realized I never gave an overview of the season’s Enneagram. I’m a completion freak, so obviously I need to do that. Also, I thought the review was pretty chaotic. I began by liking the show, became more disgruntled as I wrote the review, and liked it all even less when I read back over what I posted three years ago. I really want to look at the whole thing again and see if I now hate it. Heh.
Alrighty, then. Let’s make it a Halloween post. If all else fails, I can still recommend the soundtrack scored by Hesham Nazih.
ONE
Introduce Steven and his sleep ritual. Although he seems to know more about Egyptology than his boss at the museum, he works in the snack shop.
TWO
Steven wakes in an Alpine meadow and faces Arthur’s judging ritual. He’s chased, he swaps bodies with Mark (although we only see Steven’s perspective), and he’s demeaned by Khonshu’s voice, unidentified at this time.
He finds the scarab in Mark’s coat pocket.
Steven notices more inconsistencies: the goldfish is wrong, and he misses his steak date, which devastates him. The hidden phone leads him to discover Layla.
THREE
In the museum, Arthur confronts Steven. Your scales won’t settle, he says, because you’re more than one person. He wants the scarab.
When Arthur’s beast attacks, Steven willingly turns control of the body over to Mark. The Moon Knight costume is revealed.
FOUR
This section encompasses Episodes Two, Three, and Four.
After Steven is fired, he finds Mark’s apartment in the storage unit. The scarab is here. Mark, via reflection, identifies himself as Khonshu’s avatar. As Steven runs, he’s rescued in the street by Layla on a motorcycle.
In Steven’s apartment, Layla begins to understand that Steven is not Mark. She grabs the scarab.
Steven is taken to Arthur’s community. Arthur kindly explains to Steven about Khonshu. The scarab is a compass to Ammit’s tomb. Arthur, who was once Khonshu’s avatar, prefers Ammit because she judges souls before they commit evil. Khonshu only punishes souls after the fact.
Holding the scarab aloft, Layla comes to rescue Steven. Chased by Arthur’s beast, they run. Steven, for the first time, turns into his own version of the Moon Knight. Somehow, Layla loses the scarab during the battle. Arthur finds it.
In Egypt, Mark searches for clues to Arthur’s location. Khonshu arranges for the god avatars to meet inside the Pyramid of Giza. One of the avatars tells Mark he should search for the sarcophagus of the man who knew Ammit’s prison.
Something completely confusing happens next — Mogart’s location — but Steven solves a puzzle involving an ancient constellation configuration. The gods turn Khonshu into a tiny statue and lock him away.
Steven finds the tomb of Alexander the Great, Ammit’s former avatar, and discovers her little statue in the corpse’s throat. Entering, Arthur shoots Mark and leaves with the statue.
SWITCH
The fictional Steven Grant is revealed. Mark is in an asylum.
The hippo god, Taweret, arrives.
FIVE
This section is almost all Episode Five, with a little bit of Episode Six.
Steven and Mark, together in separate bodies for the first time, visit the afterlife with Taweret. She insists that they discuss their past and balance the scales.
In flashback we see Mark’s brother who dies and his mother’s horrible reaction. We see how Mark becomes Khonshu’s avatar when he’s prepared to commit suicide after his part in killing Layla’s father.
Steven realizes that Mark invented him. His mother is actually dead, and the asylum might be real. We see the moment when Mark relinquishes control for the first time to Steven at his mother’s wake.
At the Osiris gate, Taweret tells them that their hearts never balanced. Steven goes overboard and petrifies. Mark goes to the Field of Reeds.
Layla follows Arthur, prepared to kill him, but Taweret interrupts her and asks her to become her avatar. Meanwhile, Arthur smashes Ammit’s statue, releasing her. When Ammit notices that Arthur’s scales don’t balance, she doesn’t care. He’s more trustworthy because he’s not good.
SIX
Layla smashes the Khonshu statue and he returns. He can’t sense Mark in the world, so he needs Layla to become his avatar. Only an avatar can rebind Ammit. When Arthur sees Khonshu intervene in his mission, he knows there’s someone else in the Pyramid.
SEVEN
Taweret visits Mark in the Field of Reeds. There’s no Steven. Mark insists on going back, even if he can never return here.
EIGHT
Finding Steven, Mark places the marble heart in his hand. They petrify together until the Gates open and a golden light revives them. As they run through the gates, Mark in Alexander the Great’s tomb comes back to life.
Khonshu gives them back the Moon Knight suit, which they now share back and forth.
Layla accepts Taweret.
Arthur stands on the Pyramid. His disciples judge people and Ammit consumes their souls. Gods and avatar-heroes battle.
Arthur says the brother wouldn’t have died if Ammit were in charge. Mark would’ve been removed first. That’s a blow. Arthur has the advantage. Blink — and Mark has the advantage. Neither he nor Steven did it. Ammit disappears down Arthur’s throat, contained, and Khonshu tells Mark to finish it. Instead, Mark asks to be released. Khonshu leaves with the suit.
(Yeah, this is all a mushy mess. We understand that the god/avatar situation is resolved, which is an ending the series needed to produce, but how and why are muddled. Any time this show relied on stereotypical action sequences it failed.)
NINE
The Nine of the final episode is also the series Nine.
The asylum may or may not have been real. Now, though, Steven and Mark share the body.
Arthur, an asylum resident rather than a doctor, is killed by a third version of Mark, Jake. He works for Khonshu.
CRITICAL NOTES
First, let’s look at the series the way it’s presented. The Enneagram beats are dodgy. The Five is short while the Four is too long, and the Three/Six Mirror is absent.
The Two Troubles — the scarab, Steven’s lost time in his body, and the introduction of Layla — cover all the important story points. At the Eight, these plot lines are (mostly) resolved. The scarab, which becomes Ammit, is contained. Steven and Mark reach equilibrium with their shared body. Layla, who is still married to Mark but also attracted to Steven, is now Taweret’s avatar. However, her personal situation is ignored or postponed for another series.
The Seven, Mark’s decision to leave “heaven” in order to save Steven, is concise.
Structurally, we have some good moments. The dreck lies in the Four and Five, while the Three/Six Mirror doesn’t help at all. And the Nine, which is stuck trying to make sense of the asylum section, falls flat.
Okay, so here’s how I would fix this layout.
The existing Two is a good blueprint. Follow the scarab. It’s a cool visual, an interesting magical device, and a crucial plot arc. It’s a shame the showrunners decided to casually dump it in Arthur’s hands. I don’t believe that someone as methodical as Layla would lose the scarab. Instead of the wasted scene in Mogart’s — arena? — that has no logic, I wish they’d used the scarab. Could it change hands back and forth? Also, you have Ethan Hawke and Oscar Isaac in your cast. For crying out loud, put them together in as many scenes as possible.
As I mentioned in my initial review, everything to do with Steven was charming to me and Mark was boring. Why he invented Steven is his best plot arc. Mark’s fighting ability is the least interesting aspect, especially since the story has decided he’s not good enough at it. The showrunners introduce someone even more ruthless than Mark. If you have Jake, Mark has even less of a purpose. Mark is a wound. He’s broken, which is why Khonshu takes him.
Speaking of which, why did Layla ever marry him? We see her dedication without knowing why. She’s more compatible with Steven, the part of Mark he’s excised from his character. Did Mark pursue her and marry her because of guilt about her father? The relationship as depicted is squirmy. Instead of watching Mark performing stereotyped fight scenes, the show could’ve delved into more of his background with Layla. As it stands, they’ve given Layla a meet-cute with Steven, someone who isn’t her husband. What was Mark’s meet-cute?
Beyond the structure prepared in the Two, which, if followed closely, could’ve led to a more cohesive story, the show needed to decide about the asylum. You can confuse us — is it real? — but you, the showrunners, better know decisively the answer. I don’t believe they did.
And here’s another area I don’t think the showrunners definitively decided: what are the Rules of the Magic? For instance: what does Mark do when Steven has control of the body? Steven has it all day until he falls asleep, that’s established. Then, presumably, Mark takes over. That means that every evening begins for Mark in Steven’s apartment. Why does he need a storage unit? He doesn’t sleep. Actually, the body never sleeps, which is unsustainable. But Steven misses entire days. The goldfish, the steak date — Steven loses time. How does he maintain a job? What prompts Mark to keep the body or to return it?
Steven’s objective is clear from the opening: he wants to understand and control what happens to him in the night. We follow his mystery, wondering why he’s wearing an ankle chain and spreading sand around his bed. It’s a great way into the story. However, Mark must also have an objective. What is it? He wants to work Khonshu’s justice? Just because we love Steven best doesn’t mean Mark can be a blank. He wants to avoid his past, which Steven represents. He’s a split personality. That’s pretty complicated. With Khonshu’s help Mark eventually manifests a second body for Steven. (And a third for Jake?) We could’ve used a more developed Five beat that explained some of this and made Mark more well-rounded.
Even though this show can have some great moments, mostly centered around Steven, I don’t think I would watch it again or recommend it. The Egyptian lore felt fresh; getting us to suspend our disbelief is tricky, yet they often succeeded. The acting is superb. The Moon Knight costume is cool. Aw, I’m sad. The show didn’t nail down the Rules of the Magic, and that missing foundation led the plot into some scattered choices. It had the potential to be really good.