"Laters Gators" Moon Knight Recaps: "Asylum" & "Gods and Monsters"

 Moon Knight

It's time to wrap up "Moon Knight." I was really sad to see this series end. And I'm hopeful that we get to see a season two at some point, because I feel like there are still stories to tell here. Let's get to it.

"Asylum"

Steven Grant: "Taweret, what's happening?"

Taweret: "I've never seen the gates to the world above so close."
Marc Spector: "How do we open them?"

Taweret: "I'm so sorry. Your scales never balanced. Our journey's come to an end. I cannot stop the inevitable. I was really rooting for you guys, but the unbalanced souls of the Duat now must claim yours."

The giant hippo is actually Taweret, the Egyptian Goddess of Women and Children. She's there to usher souls to the Field of Reeds. But, in order, to do that the scales need to be balanced and Marc and Steven's aren't balancing. Steven and Marc go on a tour of Marc's memories to try to get the scales balanced but even after uncovering Marc's deep seeded trauma, will it be enough?

Doctor/patient confidentiality.

This is definitely the best episode of "Moon Knight." The penultimate episode gives us all the answers that we've been looking for and is a showcase for Oscar Isaac. 

The episode begins with Marc having a one on one psych appointment with Dr. Harrow. It's great to see Ethan Hawke get to play a different facet of Harrow and his chemistry with Isaac is so good. I love how the episode is still kind of trying to give off the vibe that this is the real world but we all know that it isn't. It's fun.

We quickly learn that the humanoid hippo is Taweret, the goddess of women and children. She happily tells Steven and Marc that they are in fact dead and she is here to take them to the Egyptian underworld, the Field of Reeds. I did love that Taweret mentions that there are other underworlds out there and that this isn't the only one. She mentions the Ancestral Plane which is a nice indirect reference to Wakanda. "Moon Knight" has been pretty separate from the larger MCU, which I've loved, but I do like that these little moments that remind you that you are still in the MCU. 

This episode is intense. Marc and Steven have to search through their memories to try to get their scales to balance. I like how the different rooms in the asylum lead to a different memory. We see Moon Knight beating on the jackal monster from the pilot in the museum bathroom. The boy walk through another door that is filled with the corpses of the people that Marc has killed in service to Khonshu. It's sometimes easy to forget that Marc has done this so I like that the show is reminding us and that it still hangs heavy on Marc. He remembers the name of every person that he is ever killed. Which leads us to the first major revelation of the episode.

Steven finds out that Marc had a little brother named Randall. They used to play and pretend they were Dr Steven Grant and his assistant and explore a nearby cave. They go to the cave when it's raining even though their mother, Wendy, told them not to and Randall ends up drowning. This starts a domino effect with his mother. She blames him for Randall's death and Marc's father, Elias, doesn't do enough to insulate Marc from this. It's really heartbreaking to watch this and the scene where Marc's mother beats him with a belt made me sick to my stomach.

You have to really give it up for Oscar Isaac. He kills these scenes. The desperation of Marc as he tries to keep Steven out of his bedroom. The scene where Steven is talking to Harrow about his mother not being dead and Harrow calls her on the phone. I am a big fan of face acting and Isaac takes us on a whole journey throughout that entire scene. 

The action scene on the boat is a little perfunctory. It's nice to see Steven embrace the side of him that is Marc, but it's all just a way to get him off the boat. With Steven gone, the scales balance and Marc finds himself in the Field of Reeds.

Grade: A-

"Gods and Monsters"

Arthur Harrow: "Why am I bleeding?"

Steven Grant: "Yeah, I don't, I don't think you know as much as you think you do."

Marc Spector: "And while it is tempting to accept your diagnosis, Doc..."

Steven Grant: "We'd rather go save the world. Laters, gators."

Layla witnesses Harrow take Ammit's ushbati and follows him and his followers to the temple. On the way there, Taweret contacts her and tells her to free Khonshu. She does, but not before Harrow frees Ammit and she makes him her avatar even though he's not balanced. Marc returns, fully integrated with Steven and they make a deal with Khonshu to stop being his avatar once Ammit is dealth with. With some help from Lalya who has become Taweret's temporary avatar, can they stop Harrow and Ammit?

Moonlight fighting.

We go over this pretty much every time, but it does feel like these MCU Disney+ shows follow a pattern. The second to last episode seems to be like the really good episode, with the revelations and the dramatics and the capital A acting and then the last episode is just an action free for all. And "Moon Knight" doesn't buck that trend. 

This is one of the shortest episodes of the series six episode run and it's basically wall to wall action. It would probably annoy me more, if there had been more action throughout the rest of the series, but there really wasn't a ton. 

If I had one gripe about this series overall is that I really needed more Moon Knight, and this episode definitely gives it to you. I love the action here, whether it's Moon Knight flying through the air and fighting with Harrow with a full moon as the backdrop. We also get Layla as an updated version of the Scarlet Scarab and her costume is really cool. I love the golden wings. My biggest issue is when Moon Knight blacks out, just as Harrow seems to have the upper hand on Moon Knight and Layla and when he wakes up, Moon Knight has seemingly gone super fucking hard on all of them. It just feels like a cop out. It's the final episode of the series. We could have seen this and I don't think it would have impacted the post credits reveal.

Like I said, this episode is fine, but it's mainly just a long action scene. The scene where Taweret is reanimating corpses to talk to Layla is adorable. And I love Layla channeling Taweret when they are in the pyramid and she's agreeing to be her temporary avatar. I've said it a million times and I'll say it one last time here, May Calamawy was joy to watch in this series and I really hope we get to see Layla again. I didn't see her coming and she really was a delight.

The rest of the episode is just the big battle and it's fine. It's cool. It's visually stunning. We get the giant forms of Khonshu and Ammit fighting over the pyramids. The fight choreography is on point. It just makes for kind of a slight episode which is pretty on trend for the finales of these Marvel Disney+ series so far. 

The big thing in this episode is the after credits reveal. We think that Marc is done with Khonshu, but at the end we see a man wheeling Arthur Harrow out of the facility he's being held in. They get in to the back of a limo and Khonshu is there. Who is driving? Why, it's Jake Lockley, a third personality that Marc has been hiding and doesn't know about. Jake is clearly still working with Khonshu unbeknownst to both Steven and Marc and kills Harrow. If you're a fan of Moon Knight, this wasn't a huge shock. You probably knew about it the first time Marc blacked out. But it was still nice to have that confirmation.

Overall, I really enjoyed "Moon Knight." I know there aren't any plans currently to bring it back for a second season, but I really hope this isn't the last time we see these characters in the MCU.

Grade: B

Next up, Doctor Strange checks in with the Scarlet Witch and takes a mind bending trip through the multiverse in "Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness."

What do you all think? Are you getting kind of tired of the Disney+ series formula of the final episode just being a prolonged battle? Do you want more Moon Knight? Let me know in the comments.