What’s up, my know-it-alls. It’s that time again. It’s time for the finale, the series or is it season finale, of Moon Knight, Episode 6.
For the past three episodes we’ve had to deal with the death, or what we thought was the death, of Marc Spector and Steven Grant. And that whole time they’ve been dropping little subtle hints. In this episode it all comes home to roost. That’s a funny expression. Whatever.
This entire episode is very action-packed. There’s a lot that happens in a short amount of time, and it’s all very satisfying. I believe very firmly they stuck the landing.
Harrow Gets His Life’s Work
The episode starts with Marc floating in the water. Two gunshots. Clearly we’re back in the quote-unquote real world. They turn the camera and you see Harrow and his people retrieve the ushabti of Ammit off of Marc’s body. Layla is there, and she’s keeping quiet. Harrow raises up his hands, he’s victorious, and everyone kneels down, because that’s what you do in the presence of the guy who brought back your goddess.
For a minute he lingers, looking at the statue. His life’s work, finally in the palm of his hand. Is that dramatic enough? Because that’s really how they paint the whole thing.
Then this purple energy comes to life and his staff transforms. It goes from being a cane to being a staff, and the head of it shifts. It was two gator heads facing each other. One of them flips over, and now it’s an axe with the head of a gator: the head is one side, the axe is the back of the head. It’s all purple, and he’s got all this power.
They leave to go finish everything (you find out later they’re going to the pyramid), and Layla comes out crying over Marc. It’s sad. Then she sees the scarab that Harrow put on Marc’s chest, and guess what. It still works. She opens her hand, the thing floats up in the air, and man, she gives it that death glare. Oh yeah. I’mma follow you. You think you get out? Heck no.
Harrow’s trucks beeline it through the desert until they hit the major road, which happens to be blocked by Egyptian police. Guns trained. Harrow gets out, takes his cool little staff and bangs it on the ground. A ring of purple energy shoots out, and everybody in that vicinity gets judged. It’s the fastest way to see who’s with you. Everybody else died, I didn’t, whoa, we’re good. I mean, what other options you got, bro?
Then one of the people with Harrow jumps out the back of a truck and pulls down a face mask. It’s Layla. I thought you had to have the scarab. What’s the point of the scarab if you’re just gonna hop in the truck? I don’t know. I feel like there’s a couple of scenes in there where they linger just a hair too long. It’s perfectly fine.
While she’s trying to get close to Harrow, one of the dead bodies wakes up and it’s like, oh, Layla. It’s Taweret, talking through him. Layla’s kind of taking it in stride. She’s seen some crazy stuff. And Taweret tells her, I need your help, Marc’s trying to make it back. She’s like, wait, what?
Ammit Chooses Her Avatar
We cut to the pyramid. Harrow has walked roughly halfway up. He hits the thing with his staff, purple energy shoots up the pyramid, and one of the walls begins to part.
Inside, you see Osiris’s avatar, Selim I believe his name was, and some of the other avatars. They’ve all been summoned. Someone’s trying to free Ammit, and dude’s like, it’s got to be Harrow. They all rush down into the main chamber as the walls open up, and Harrow just barges right in with his staff going purple and single-handedly takes out all the avatars. Super smart move on his part.
Layla goes down to the ushabti room, I guess you’d call it, and grabs Khonshu’s ushabti just as dude frees Ammit. And Ammit is this giant, gator-headed, hair-braided Egyptian monster goddess thing. Very cool looking, actually. It was pretty intense. I watched this and I was like, whoa.
Harrow kneels, and you find out his life is imbalanced. He does not balance. And he takes it in stride. I thought he was going to go the villain route and be like, I don’t care, I’ll somehow force her into my service. It turned out no, he was legit. He’s an actual zealot. He believes what he believes. He tells her, I’m willing to accept your punishment.
And she reveals that she once had a perfect avatar and ended up here, imprisoned. So she chooses him instead. He’s like, no, no, I have your disciples who are balanced and ready to serve you. Please choose one of them. They’re worthy. I’m not.
There’s always that classic concept that in doubting your worth, you display worthiness. I wouldn’t call it reverse psychology. It’s not a bad idea, and it works. It does work. He finally accepts, his eyes glow purple, and he has now become her avatar.
So what does Layla do? She’s in the back with the statue. She picks it up and smashes it. Smoke billows up, and there’s our boy Khonshu. And he’s like, Layla El-Faouly, do you promise to protect the travelers of the night and become my avatar? He’s basically quick to write off Marc, because he sucks. And Layla’s like, no. You can’t trap me. She realizes you have to voluntarily accept the role. So he says he’ll do what he can, and he goes out and faces Ammit on his own.
Marc Goes Back for Steven
Then we get our first glimpse of Marc in the Field of Reeds. He’s holding the heart, and it’s all full now. It doesn’t look transparent or anything. Taweret’s there with him, and he’s sort of at peace with it. Then he’s like, wait a minute. I’m here, and Steven’s there, and I don’t understand. She tells him, look, you don’t need him anymore. He’s going to stay in the Duat, in the big ocean of souls.
He’s not okay with that. She warns him: if you leave, you can’t come back. He does it anyway. As he turns around, all the reeds disappear, everything goes dark again, and he’s standing there in the desert of the Duat. Not far away is Steven’s sandy body.
We cut away briefly to Khonshu and Ammit talking. She’s like, you used to love me, why can’t we do this together? And he’s like, I don’t believe in your way.
Marc gets to Steven and tells him, I couldn’t leave you. I’m so sorry. You were there for me. I tried to protect you from all this stuff, but you were actually the one who helped me. It’s a very emotional moment. He begins to turn to sand, but not before he takes the hand he’s holding his heart in and puts it into Steven’s outstretched hand. Both their hands are together around the heart as they turn to stone.
At that point the door opens. The gate of Osiris, huge in the scene. And they begin to melt back from sand to person. Steven’s like, you came back for me.
This is the Marc Spector and Steven Grant personalities coming to peace with one another. Nobody’s going away. Marc’s holding on to him. But they have reconciled. It’s poignant, to say the least. I really like what they did with it.
Back in the main story, Ammit and Khonshu start to fight, and it’s a fight of god people. She flips him and throws him. They go back and forth, pretty evenly matched, but she tends to get the upper hand on him pretty often. Finally she throws him against a pillar and she’s stalking toward him.
Meanwhile, in the Duat, the sands are trying to consume Marc and Steven like a tidal wave as they run for the gate of Osiris. Just as the wave’s about to hit them, that’s right, good old Taweret in her boat comes across the front of the sands like a surfer and smashes through the middle, giving them enough time to get where they’re going. And you see Marc’s eyes open in the water. He spits up blood.
The minute that happens, just as Ammit’s about to attack him, Khonshu disappears in a big gust of smoke. Marc’s eyes light up, and you hear the same thing: do you promise to protect the travelers of the night and become my avatar? Arise, Marc Spector, my Moon Knight.
And you’re like, ah, so dope. Sure enough, eyes glowing, the wraps show back up, and he’s there all super heroic. You get to see the armor and the whole bit.
They, Not He
And they work together now. I say they. I guess you’re gonna have to use they, because it’s they at this point. Marc is the first one there in the Moon Knight gear, and then they switch back and forth between Marc Spector and Steven Grant seamlessly. When they do, it’s great, because you see the suit change too, from Mr. Knight to Moon Knight proper.
They strike a deal with Khonshu. We’re going to help you defeat Ammit, and when we’re finished, you’re going to release us. He’s like, you have my word. And I love F. Murray Abraham. He’s so great. It gets so funny, because he’s like, you’re gonna negotiate with me right now? And Steven’s like, well, we did learn from the best, didn’t we? Good job, Steven. Steven’s pretty awesome once they’ve reconciled. Pretty awesome.
But they’re far away now, someplace else. So Khonshu’s like, I still control the night skies. He makes it nighttime, the winds kick up, and Moon Knight leaps into the air, opens up that crescent moon cape, and is carried aloft by the wind. Moon Knight is flying, and it looks amazing.
Layla Gets Her Wings
Back at the pyramid, Layla’s looking around for what to do, and Osiris’s dude tells her exactly what has to happen. So now she knows the secret: it’s going to require avatars to trap Ammit inside Harrow. She agrees to be Taweret’s avatar, temporarily, and sure enough her eyes glow.
Then Harrow walks to the top of the pyramid. The Great Pyramid of Giza. I’m sorry, one of the other pyramids. I don’t think it’s the Great Pyramid. He’s overlooking the entire sort of Egypt city, Cairo place. Egypt City sounds like a band from the ’90s. Hello, Egypt City!
Anyway, his staff’s glowing, and he issues forth the go forth. All of a sudden the disciples of Ammit are grabbing hands and judging everyone, the same way Harrow was doing. They can all do it now. And there’s an awful lot of guilty people. All these purple souls fly into the sky and get consumed by Ammit. She’s the gateway for all of this, and while she’s absorbing their souls she begins to grow. You get this giant, half gator, half snake, female god Egyptian kaiju thing.
Inside the pyramid, the rubble from the explosions earlier moves, and out steps an awesome looking Layla. Layla’s so cool. She’s got this armor on, she reaches behind her, and she’s got these awesome red wings.
I believe this is a callback to the Scarlet Scarab. The Scarlet Scarab is a character. Layla’s father was also a kind of Egyptian superhero on his own, known as the Scarlet Scarab, and I think this is supposed to be a callback to that, because all the colors are red, the whole bit. I’m here for it. I think it’s awesome. It’s an easy way to get a nice, cool, gender-bent version of a character, and I’m down, especially because obviously he’s dead.
And then Taweret’s like, oh, your father would be so happy. You find out Taweret knows her father from when she took him to the Field of Reeds. So her father’s in heaven. It’s a nice little moment.
The Egyptian Kaiju Fight
Outside, boom, they have a fight. It’s Moon Knight against Harrow, and it mirrors the fighting between Khonshu and Ammit. What you end up with is this really awesome Egyptian kaiju fight.
It’s great because Marc is switching back and forth. It’s Marc and Steven, Marc and Steven, and it’s so cool. You see Marc doing his stuff with his Moon Knight things, then all of a sudden he switches to Steven, and Steven’s got his little staff guys and he’s fighting with them. And just as they’re about to get their butt handed to them, guess who flies in. Boom. Layla. She’s awesome. She’s got her wings, she’s blocking things. It’s a wonderful fight. It really is intense.
Then we get our first confirmation of something. The giant fight between Ammit and Khonshu is real. I couldn’t tell if it was fake or not, and by fake I mean happening in a spiritual realm. Then giant Khonshu’s staff falls on the ground, he summons it, and it slides across the ground knocking over a jeep and some light posts and the whole bit. This is two giant monsters fighting in the middle of Egypt. Legit.
Back in the main fight, Steven’s like, let me show you how we work together now, and he switches back and forth again, running around just fighting. As they’re beating up Harrow’s people you get this awesome shot straight down the alley: Moon Knight and Layla, Harrow at the end, all the disciples in between. That’s where you get that really cool moment where Moon Knight jumps over a car shooting the two little things. It’s one we’ve seen in the trailers.
The fight between the three of them is brutal. Harrow shoots a van, knocking it over, and Layla gets on the other side of it and stops it with her wings. And there’s this cool moment where a little Egyptian girl she rescued stops and looks on in amazement. It takes a beat, and the little girl says, plain and simple, “Are you an Egyptian superhero?” And she’s like, “I am.”
I was like, yes. That’s awesome. I love this kind of thing. I’m sure there’s lots of cultures that are like, I guess all the superheroes live in America, or something stupid like that. I’m hoping this kind of stuff opens the gateway for things like Captain Britain, the Captain Britain Corps, Excalibur. Give me some British heroes that we know are awesome, because I think it’d be so dope.
Then there’s this really cool moment where Harrow and Marc are going at each other. Harrow’s shooting the purple energy from his staff at Moon Knight, and just over his shoulder, as he knocks Moon Knight back, you see the giant kaiju fight happening in the background. It’s all Dutch angled, and Harrow’s stalking toward him.
“I Blacked Out”
That’s when Harrow slams his staff into dude’s chest. All of a sudden things go dark. And they wake up standing over Harrow’s downed body, like, what’s going on?
He switches to Steven, and by the way, they’ve got to be doing CGI suits at this point, because it’s happening so seamlessly. They’re on him constantly with no cuts, not even virtual cuts, and he switches between Marc and Steven like it’s nothing. Again, Oscar Isaac doing brilliant work. Really, really wonderful work.
Layla’s off to the side looking confused. “What was that?” And he goes, “I don’t know. I blacked out.”
They take Harrow back to the pyramid, touch hands and do the thing. The energy from this special spell goes through the statues of the other Egyptian gods, and the statues’ eyes light up. The idea, I’m assuming, is that they’re kind of blessing the spell. Even though there’s no other avatars, they’re like, yes, we’re with this.
Out in the kaiju fight, Ammit gets pulled away and starts to disintegrate. Very reminiscent of the Thanos snap, I guess, but a little more energy than sandy. She gets sucked away and absorbed down into Harrow, and Harrow’s like, you’ll never be able to contain me.
Khonshu shows up. Finish it. She must be stopped. Kill them both. Layla’s like, hey, you don’t have to do this. And he’s like, yeah, I’m not going to do this. Khonshu says you have to. So he throws his moon dagger away, it lands in the ground, and he’s kind of like, then you do it yourself.
The Psych Ward, One More Time
Then we cut to the psych ward, and Marc and Steven are talking to Dr. Harrow. They stand up, and you notice they don’t look ill or upset anymore. He switches back and forth, because it’s both of them together talking to Harrow now. They go between one and the other with no issue, and the only thing that’s different is the way they talk and the set of their shoulders. It’s great. It’s amazing.
The Harrow in the psych ward gets up and walks away, and there’s blood on his shoes. He’s like, this isn’t me. Then it’s let’s go deal with all this, and he falls backward. They kind of give you the conclusion that this may very well have been happening in Harrow’s head. Possibly.
Then they wake up in Steven’s place. There’s two fish. That’s right. There’s still sand, and they’re still strapped in. And you’re like, okay. Roll credits.
Jake Lockley, Finally
There’s a credit scene, shock of shocks. What you see is the actual psych ward. The white is gone. It’s lit the way the rest of the normal world is. Harrow is there, there’s therapists and people. And a guy shows up who speaks with a Spanish accent. He’s got on gloves and the whole bit. You can’t see who it is. He picks Harrow up and walks him out, and as they walk you pass by people who are dead. That’s right. Orderlies, staff, the whole bit.
He gets walked out to a limo, a gorgeous limo, and thrown into it. And you see a suit-wearing Khonshu. Basically the Mr. Knight suit with Khonshu’s head. He tells Harrow that after everything that’s happened, Marc has no clue how broken he really is. Allow me to introduce you to my friend, Jake Lockley.
Ah. Finally.
The little divider between the driver’s section and the cab goes down, and in the rearview mirror you see Oscar Isaac’s eyes. He’s like, hello, my friend, in a Spanish accent. So apparently Jake Lockley is Hispanic. I’m okay with that. I’m down. He picks up a gun, and you see a totally different face, man. And that’s it. He pulls out, and the plates on the limo say SPKTR. Spector.
In the comic books, the three personalities we’ve talked about before are Marc Spector, the mercenary. Steven Grant, who’s a Bruce Wayne-like millionaire (back then it was a millionaire, now he’d probably be a billionaire or something stupid). And Jake Lockley, who’s the street-level guy. So they’re doing a little bit of playing with the personalities. I’m down. I love it.
The Verdict
The Moon Knight Season 1 finale is a strong 9 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index. I loved this episode.
So what does the series get from me? The entire series really hit for me in a lot of great ways. I think I’ll go eight and a half for the whole thing, on average. Yeah, eight and a half. I was happy with the whole series overall. It wasn’t perfect.
But there you go. Now you know. And if knowing’s half the battle, you’re halfway to being a know-it-all yourself.
I can’t wait for the next exciting installment of what’s happening in the MCU. You know what’s next, though. My review of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. My spoiler review is coming very, very soon, and I might even get Mrs. Know-It-All or some of my buddies to talk a little bit about it with me. It’s been exciting waiting for it. I can’t wait to see it.
Never forget: everyone loves a know-it-all.
What did you think of the finale, and of Jake Lockley finally showing up? The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.
