It’s Wednesday morning, so that means it’s time for another review / theory discussion of Moon Knight!
Before we get into the meat of things however, I just wanted to point out that if you’re wanting to catch up with any of my previous episode reviews, you can just click the Moon Knight Unwrapped tag, and it should list them all as they’re posted.
Also I’ve been reviewing Moon Knight comics intermittently. The latest one was Warren Ellis’s Moon Knight Vol 1: From the Dead. I had a great time researching some history for this one, trying to reconcile Khonshu’s epithet of “The One Who Lives on Hearts”, with his nature as a healer in the Bentresh Stella.
Finally, if you’re like me, the coolest draw of this show is the ways in which it interacts with Egyptian history and myth. There’s all kinds of other books, movies and shows that do this as well, and so if you’re just into Ancient Egyptian stuff like me, please check out my Ancient Egypt tag (right now a lot Moon Knight stuff will be floating to the top, but I’m thinking of making it separate).
Ok, onto the review . . .
— Spoilers from here on —
Of course, another great episode. We learned so much, both about our characters, and about our setting. It was so great to be able to see a modern Cairo in this episode. I’ve been wanting to travel there for quite some time, and this just reinforces that desire.
I have a few favorite parts of the episode, but I think the most interesting part was certainly the ‘trial’ inside the Pyramid of Giza. Now, as Roxane Bicker explains in her post, „Moon Knight“ – Die altägyptischen Hintergründe erklärt, Teil 5 (god bless google translate), Khufu’s pyramid does not have such a massive room inside it. But given just how cool this scene is, and how amazing the room looks, I’m willing to more than overlook it because . . .
FINALLY we get to meet some other Ancient Egyptian Gods! We meet Hathor, Tefnut, Horus, Osiris, and Isis. That is exactly zero of the gods I hoped/predicted we’d see, but we’ve only met five of the possible nine that make up the Ennead so perhaps there is hope yet (none of the others I predicted are in the historical Ennead, but the show seems to be taking liberties with that as well).
I have hope, based on the statuary that we do find in the tomb, that we’ll meet Sobek, and Thoth at least, and possibly Sekhmet (because Hathor).
My next favorite scene was definitely when Mark and Layla go to visit Mogart. I had never heard of the El-Mermah games before so that was definitely an interesting glimpse into Arabian culture. I’m definitely interested in learning more about this when I get the chance. Also, makes for a pretty awesome and violent fight scene.
I think those were the main scenes that stood out to me. Obviously, Khonshu causing an eclipse and moving the night sky back 2,000 years were amazing bits of special effects, and possibly have huge implications for the show and MCU, but I still enjoyed some of these ‘less epic’ scenes a little more.
Anyway, that’s all I have for reviewing, let’s move on to the theories!
Theories . . .
Marc is already dead and journeying through the underworld?
One theory that I saw online, is that Marc is already dead, and that we are watching Marc’s journey through the Ancient Egyptian Underworld. I do kind of like this theory, as it makes a very good arc for the six episodes. Ammit (who is the big bad of the series), is a very prominent figure at the Weighing of the Heart, when an Ancient Egyptian’s soul was thought to be judged by the Court of Gods. It kind of has a certain sense to it.
However, that judgement is just one aspect of the Ancient Egyptian journey through the underworld, known as the Duat. A little research reveals the Duat to be a complete terrain, with lakes (of fire), mountains, fields etc. Also, the journey requires one to cross Twelve Underworld Gates guarded by Gate Deities. This seems like a task that would take more than six episodes (unless we’re flying through two gates an episode) and considering we’re only just starting to see all the players on the board, I don’t think this theory is gonna pan out.
Khonshu just took Earth back 2,000 years?
This theory was put forth in the New Rockstar’s Moon Knight Episode 3 Easter Egg Breakdown, and then expanded on in the How Khonshu Moved the Sky episode. This would effectively retcon the entire MCU AGAIN! For like the third or forth time in Phase 4 alone. Personally, it doesn’t seem to make much sense. Why would Marvel/Disney would want to do this as it invalidates like 23+ movies and shows? They want you to HAVE TO WATCH all of them to understand what’s happening next so retconning them doesn’t really make sense, even if they have written themselves into plot corners (which I haven’t really felt like they have).
But I also have another reason for thinking this theory is false. Upon second watching of the episode, I noticed that Steven is complaining about how painful turning time back is, and he encourages Layla to hurry up and take the pictures with her tablet because he isn’t sure how much longer he can hold it. This makes me think that yes, they turned back time to the night the star chart was made, but that it is kind of like winding up a spring, eventually it unwinds (when Khonshu gets turned into a tiny statue), and I believe they go back to the present, even though we are not shown the sky while this is happening (Steven is too busy fainting).
Just my theory
That’s all folks!
And that’s all I’ve got this time around. Thank you all for reading. I enjoyed this episode just as much as the last two, and I’m really looking forward to watching the 4th episode later tonight.
How did you enjoy the episode? What was your favorite part? Have any theories? Did Khonshu retcon the MCU? Is Marc already dead?
Leave your thoughts in the comments. I’m excited to talk about this one!
alligators and aneurysms! 