Yeah, yeah I know. After a stellar opening episode and two impressive follow up installments Moon Knight is about to enter into its fourth week and as you may have noticed, I neglected to publish a review for the second and third episodes. After week one as much as I was enjoying this show I got the feeling that this was a series that would lend itself to one, big review at the end of the series. Well things just keep happening with the titular character and I’m only enjoying this Marvel project even more as the weeks go on. So on the eve of episode four, here I am giving my quick (and Spoiler-y) thoughts on the past two entries.
Episode 2 – ‘Summon the Suit’
Picking up quickly after the wild final moments of the series opener, ‘Summon the Suit’ simultaneously answers questions left over from episode one and raises a number of other questions. In the age of the belief that everything needs to be explained to the audience, ‘Moon Knight’ is a breath of fresh air. There’s plenty of fun speculation that comes out of a project that is comfortable leaving viewers in the dark when the story calls for it.
Introduced in episode two is Marc’s wife Layla (May Calamawy) who, at first is used to answer those lingering questions and help paint a more transparent no, translucent picture about Marc/Steven’s situation. This aspect quickly fades and she becomes a very welcome sidekick to our duo.
Ethan Hawke’s Arthur Harrow also gets more character work done as Steven (and eventually Layla) end up at his, for lack of a better term, compound. Of course things don’t quite go as planned and a fight breaks out with the ill-equipped Steven in control for much of the fight. After several hits and one unexpected suit later, Marc takes control and takes down yet another jackal. After a conversation with Khonshu and a frustrated Steven, Marc finds himself in Egypt in order to stop Harrow (who I forgot to mention now has the scarab.
The action in the episode was exciting, the continuation of this twisty story is intriguing and the performances (particularly Oscar Isaac) will keep you wanting more.
Episode 3 – ‘The Friendly Type’
Going into week three, ‘Moon Knight’ continues to show no signs of slowing down. Now in Egypt, Marc/Steven are starting to suspect a third personality taking hold of the body. Despite the looming danger, Marc and Layla take to the streets of Cairo to try and gain information which takes them to Anton Mogart (played by the late Gaspard Ulleil). There’s also a really interesting meeting of the gods that includes Khonshu who’s there via Marc to accuse Harrow of his plan to find Ammit’s tomb. While there were several great moments in this episode, the meeting might be my favorite sequence in the episode.
Of course there’s also plenty of action in the episode both at the beginning and one particularly exciting sequence towards the end of the episode. A fight at the start of the episode is the first indication in the episode of that potential third personality. Then there’s a much more intense fight where Marc, in the full Moon Knight getup gets to show off his strength.
As everything comes to a close, Khonshu makes the decision to manipulate the night sky by a few thousand years in order for Steven and Layla to pinpoint Ammit’s tomb before Harrow. By doing this, Khonshu gets himself imprisoned, leaving Marc/Steven powerless.
It’s hard to say where this series is going to go next but ‘Moon Knight’ is quickly becoming one of the best Disney+ series to date.