I’ve left this breakdown of Moon Knight, episode 3 as is. It’s fairly unreadable; it was a difficult watch to translate. I could cut it down to a quick summary at the Four and Five, but I want the flow (or lack thereof) to show. Jump down to the Critical Notes, if you prefer. I won’t blame you for skipping.
ONE
Video of Layla talking about Mark. Ah, she’s complaining to a woman who takes photos and builds a fake passport for her.
Layla, we’re told through this conversation with a friend, hasn’t been home to Egypt in ten years. She only steals artifacts that were previously stolen. She’s returning them! (Mostly.) As a child she accompanied her father to dig sites.
(Yes, this is an awkward exposition dump of a scene. But, if you ever wondered how to construct an illegal international document, you’re in luck!)
Roll credits.
TWO
Blowing sand. Pack mules and people.
The camera finds Arthur, the floating scarab resting on his palm. Like a mystic of olden times, he follows the compass, leading his cult through the desert.
Ooh, the scarab closes its wings like a pointer. “She’s here,” Arthur says, meaning the tomb of Ammit. The people cheer.
(There is no THREE.)
FOUR
Cut to an overhead shot of an alley. Mark runs through. He scales a wall and lands on a rooftop just as someone is stabbed in the gut. Mark wanted to talk to the guy, but now he’ll have to get answers from this threesome of thugs.
Fighting ensues. Thugs bring out knives. Eventually Mark has one pinned, knife at his throat. He freezes, though, when he catches his reflection in the blade. Steven (yay!) tells him to stop. Mark’s eyes roll up into his head. Time jumps and skitters.
Mark comes to consciousness in a cab. In Arabic he tells the driver to stop, surprising him. They’re on their way to the airport, but stepping out of the nearby building are the thugs. Mark exits the cab.
The thugs fear him, and Mark must say, “That wasn’t me!” (Did Steven scare them? Interesting.) The cab driver demands his money, which Mark ignores. He’s chasing the thugs.
Shaky-cam running through the market. Rolled rugs topple and baskets of vegetables go flying. Mark pins the same thug as before and beats on him. Peripherally, we see a mirror on the wall. Steven appears in the reflection and tells him, “That’s enough.” We see a thug come up behind Steven and bash his head. Swing around to Mark falling down unconscious.
Nope, there go the eye roll and time jump.
Mark wakes with blood on his face, in the middle of stabbing the thug. He looks around in shock. The other thug lays bleeding, too. “Steven, what did you do?” In the knife blade reflection, Steven says it wasn’t him.
The younger thug tries to crawl away. We hear Khonshu give orders. Mark obeys. As he holds the boy by his scarf over a ledge, the boy says, “Praise Ammit,” and slashes through the fabric. Down he goes, to Mark’s horror. Upset, he turns to the nearest reflective surface and accuses Steven. Steven again says, “It wasn’t me.”
Now that Mark has no way to find Arthur’s digging crew, he asks Khonshu about the other gods. Will they help? Khonshu replies that if the gods get annoyed, they’ll imprison him in stone. And if he goes, he takes the suit with him. However, he has an idea. “A bad one.” Whisk, and he disappears.
He causes an eclipse, a signal the gods can’t ignore. Show different parts of the world, including Arthur’s dig site, going dark. Close on him as he commands, “Keep digging.”
Khonshu, back with Mark, tells him to prepare. The gods are calling their avatars. A portal opens for Mark. Walking through, Mark enters a grand crypt. Steven, in the wall’s reflection, is amazed. They’re inside the Great Pyramid at Giza.
As Mark walks into the center, other human avatars arrive. He’s never done this before. With a body jerk and flash of silver eyes, the avatars are possessed by and speak for their gods.
Khonshu was banished once. The other gods have no patience for his eclipse and other theatrics. Mark is also possessed, wracked with intensity each time he speaks with Khonshu’s voice. He wants the gods’ help, but they no longer meddle, only observe. Finally, Khonshu mentions Arthur and his desire to summon Ammit. The gods call him.
Here comes Arthur into the central chamber. He calmly and smoothly defends himself, blaming Khonshu for this craziness. And then (finally) he reveals that Mark is not one man. Mark moves to attack Arthur, and the other gods restrain him. Claiming that Khonshu abused Arthur as he now abuses his avatar, Arthur presents a convincing case. The gods demand to speak to Mark.
Yes, Mark says, I’m unwell and need help. But Arthur is still . . . Mark can’t finish speaking.
(One of the gods tells him it’s a safe space, and that he shouldn’t be afraid to talk.)
Mark explodes again, accusing Arthur. The gods see no evidence, though. Case closed. The gods leave the avatar bodies. Arthur walks out.
SWITCH
The Safe Space avatar pulls Mark aside and explains there’s another way to do this. One man knew Ammit’s imprisonment location. Find his sarcophagus, and you’ll find the answer. It was stolen and sold on the black market. (Mark nods knowingly, and I immediately think of Layla.)
FIVE
Cut to a street scene. It’s the market again. From a window someone watches Mark walk through the plaza. He openly asks a vendor for information about the sarcophagus. The man fades away as Layla appears. Mark, seeing Khonshu hovering on the nearest roof, wants Layla out.
City scene at night. On the river, Mark and Layla ride in a party boat. Layla chastises Mark about their personal relationship, and he apologizes. They’re heading to Mogart, an antiquities dealer. They still talk personally, though. (It’s hard to remember that they’re married.) Layla wishes Mark had told her about Steven. Until recently, Mark says, I had it under control.
And then they arrive. Mogart is just finishing an arena lesson in horseriding and staff fighting (or something, lol). He knows and recognizes Layla, inviting her in. However, he seems suspicious of Mark. He wants to know what Mark’s interest is in the sarcophagus. Mark tries to bluff. As he and Layla approach the relic, Layla tells him to let Steven out. Mark refuses, while Layla tries to decipher the writing. From a glass reflection, Steven tells them the information must be decoded. Mark winces and argues; finally Steven advises him how to read the clue.
As he’s folding pieces of cloth (I think?) Mark is interrupted by a guard. In one motion, Mark reacts, disarming the guard. Guns are trained on Layla, though, and he must submit. During the tension, Arthur arrives. On his palm floats the golden scarab.
He mesmerizes them all with his honesty: Layla worries about the pain of her father’s death; she can’t move forward, though, because Mark holds a secret about it. And Mogart, here is the magical cane glowing with the power resonating from this sarcophagus. While Khonshu yells at Mark to summon the suit, Arthur chants at Mogart. Purple smoke rises from the sarcophagus. During the distraction, Mark becomes the Moon Knight.
Battle ensues.
Arthur is already gone. Layla runs to the sarcophagus and pockets the cloth pieces that Steven knew how to fold. As Mark breaks bones, we hear Steven say, “Stop it.” Mark begins choking someone.
“Give me the body, Mark!” Time flutter, and it’s now Steven’s Moon Knight suit. He apologizes and releases the choking guy. To the arena, Steven calls for a time out. Spears are hurled into his torso. “Take the body, Mark!” They swap.
Although Mark fights back, he’s pinned by multiple spears. Meanwhile, Layla has been fighting with the guard. Seeing Mark restrained, Layla reaches up to her golden neckpiece and unlocks it. (Oh, it’s double daggers that were disguised as jewelry.) She escapes the guard and grabs a gun.
But she’s downed in the middle of the arena. On one side is Mogart on horseback; opposite is Mark. He breaks free of the spears and runs for her. Rolling her aside, Mark throws one of his crescent moon stars at Mogart. Khonshu watches as Mark and Layla leave the arena.
A city scene as Layla drives them. Layla asks Mark what Arthur meant about her father. Mark dissembles. (And lies, gaslighting her.)
Their truck drives in the desert. In the middle of nowhere, they stop and assemble the cloth pieces. It’s not working, and Mark is frustrated.
Layla asks for Steven. Push in on Mark as he considers this. From on top of the truck, Khonshu warns him against it: The worm won’t return the body. Mark rips off the side mirror, gathers the cloth pieces, and walks away from the truck. He gives the body to Steven, who says, “Cheers, thanks.” (Yay!)
Kneeling down with the cloth and tape, Steven immediately starts to piece the puzzle together. Curious, Layla approaches. “Steven?” After a beat of just looking at her, Steven begins a nerdy riff on Egyptian lore. “And, voila.” He’s solved it. Layla smiles, amazed, but also exceedingly uncomfortable. (Is or isn’t this her husband? It’s a charming and interesting moment.)
(There is no SIX.)
SEVEN
The puzzle is a 2000 year old map based on a constellation. It won’t help them now, because stars drift. Khonshu, though, volunteers that he remembers every night throughout history.
They trudge through the desert to an overlook. Khonshu can turn back the night sky, but it comes at a cost. “Steven,” Khonshu says, “when the gods imprison me, tell Mark to free me.”
EIGHT
Steven summons the suit and mimics Khonshu’s movements. We see the sky twirl as Steven swipes with his arm. Layla, kneeling beside him, can see it. Everyone can see it. Arthur sees it. The sky has gone crazy.
At the appointed night sky, Steven holds the twirl still while Layla records the image on her digital tablet.
Cut to the Great Pyramid, where the avatars chant a ritual. In the center of their circle is a stone. Khonshu, in the desert, falls to his knees. The stone carves itself into Khonshu’s likeness while Steven still tries to hold the sky. Layla has the location’s triangulation. Steven collapses. Khonshu breaks apart as the stone completes its mold.
NINE
Layla, cradling Steven, tries to wake him — or Mark.
Arthur joins the avatars and sees the stone icon of Khonshu. As he’s left alone, Arthur approaches the little statue and speaks the truth. He liked dealing out Khonshu’s pain. Taking the statue in his hand, Arthur admits (and threatens), “Your torment forged me. I owe my victory to you.”
Roll credits.
CRITICAL NOTES
Okay, this episode is a mess. I’ve taken notes for my usual breakdown, but they hardly hang together. The beats are a jumble.
Arthur and his discovery of Ammit’s tomb is the Two. Nominally, the rest of the episode reacts to this Trouble. Mark wants to know where Arthur is digging. This is why he punches thugs.
Therefore, the Eight is twirling the sky — Mark/Steven and Layla find Arthur’s dig location via this method. It’s the direct answer to the Two Trouble. That makes Khonshu’s decision to work his magic the Seven.
Everything that comes before the Seven is Five stuff, though, just as everything that comes after the Two is Four stuff. No Six, no Three. No mirror, no pause.
Steven taking control of the body is a possible Six, if the beats were reworked. His intervention into Mark’s world would make a pretty good Three/Six. That’s not how this episode is written, and I personally would prefer much more of Steven than just those two beats, but it is a legitimate, workable choice. The fact that we don’t see Steven at the Switch, at the negotiation with the Egyptian gods, was also a disappointment to me. Steven is a cursory presence for most of this episode, a terrible decision.
It was hard for me to understand the thrust of the plot with so much faffle overlaid, but here we go: Arthur digs for Ammit; Mark and Khonshu want to stop him. First, they must learn where Arthur digs. Eventually they seek help from the gods by causing an eclipse. Rules of the Magic about avatars are introduced. The gods won’t help, though, except for the one who advises Mark. With Layla’s help, Mark’s pursues the clue in the sarcophagus. In order to use the clue, Khonshu must move the sky, leading to his imprisonment in stone.
That’s it. That’s the summary of the episode. Everything else is how the showrunners constructed the episode around these necessities. I find the choices to be chaotic, haphazard, and uninteresting. Mark runs about like an action hero who only has stale tropes to hit. The antiquities dealer Mogart — where did he come from? — is so strange I don’t understand why his world is necessary. Horseback training in an arena? It distracts from the purpose.
Two valuable things happen: the Egyptian gods spend time with Mark (but, regretfully, not Steven), and Layla spends time with Steven (after Mark lied to her). These are the only intentions I want to see developed while the story plays out. Everything else — chase scenes, violence, murky night locations — is unnecessary. The fresh humor of Steven, the enticing Egyptian lore, the complexity of a woman now married to two men — this is the gold. The episode minimized all the topics I found worth investigating.