Moon Knight (Disney+)

[jon-el87]

Episode 5:

Probably not the end of Steven Grant.

Good exploration of Marc Spector's past. Including an establishment that "Steven Grant" was something from Marc's childhood, rather than something caused by Kohnshu.

We still don't know who the third personality is. Is it who was inside of that other sarcophagus?

I like that they had his mother be the abusive parent, while the father's the loving and nurturing one. Normally, in shows and movies, parents are presented the other way around. The truth is that there a plenty of men, who are loving, caring and nurturing. And plenty of women who should never be allowed near a child, or be left alone with a child (look into the childhoods of Anthony Perkins and Pamela Anderson for some examples of women like that). A refusal to talk about it only harms the victims.

I'm glad that they outright established Marc's Jewish background. Now, if Marvel Studios could just acknowledge the Roma ethnicity of Wanda Maximoff.

Randall Spector drowns as a kid. It's always tragic when children die. He doesn't die as a child in the comics. Instead, Randall grows up to become a serial killer, targeting nurses.

[darkphoenix21]

Episode 5: Asylum

It was exactly what I expected. We got the origins of how Steven came into being and how Marc became Moon Knight.

It’s always the same with DID. The personalities arise in a time of unimaginable trauma. Marc’s mother blamed him for the death of his brother Randall. He was a child and they were just exploring a cave; it’s what children are supposed to do. They explore their world and at that age a cave is a pretty cool thing to discover.

We can infer how Randall drowned and Marc’s mother beat him. Marc created Steven so he wouldn’t have to deal with that trauma. And Steven created this narrative that he had a wonderful relationship with his mother. He never could reach his mother and when he did it was most likely all in his head.

The only thing I didn’t like was how passive his father was towards everything. He witnessed how his wife was treating his son, but did nothing to console Marc. The only thing I can figure is that he was also numb to what happened and just dealt with it by becoming passive; letting her take control by doing what he couldn’t.

As Taweret and the balancing scales, I really thought that they’d have to free the person in the second sarcophagus and they’d be revealed to be Steven’s created third personality (many times in DID a personality begets another and another and another). We never actually even touched that this episode…I hope they don’t leave it to the very end of the series (meaning the last few minutes of it); this is the penultimate episode.

I don’t think Steven is gone after all Marc created him to deal with his trauma. Marc will hopefully rescue him; they’re brothers created from the unimaginable (kind of like This Is Us in the way that family came together).

I’m so excited and wary of this last episode. How are they going to finish this off? I really hope that this isn’t a series finale (there’s been a few shows as of late that went from being limited to continue there after)

[jon-el87]

The only thing I didn’t like was how passive his father was towards everything.

I think that's pretty standard. One parent abuses the child (or children), while the other finds themself powerless to do anything about it. Here, we've also got factors of gender to consider. What could Elias do? Step in between his wife and Marc, potentially getting into a physical confrontation with her? Likely getting himself arrested (isn't that what happened to that dude from Step by Step?), leaving Marc alone with his abuser.

Divorce his wife (and take Marc with him)? Divorce courts tends to favor the mother, when it comes to custody. Without solid proof, it'd be difficult for him to prove that it's the mother (and not him) who beats Marc. I've been watching a lot of true-crime shows during the pandemic. There is an episode of A Crime to Remember (forgot which), where a a woman kills her stepdaughter for money. At the end of the episode, there's a discussion about how that sort of thing is shocking, because (I don't remember the exact wording) that's not how we're taught to view women/mothers (can't remember which word they used).

How are they going to finish this off?

I'm guessing ca. 90 minute finale. It's the only way that I could see them wrapping everything up.

[jon-el87]

Anyone else thought that Elias Spector looks like JJ Abrams?

[jon-el87]

Weird prediction:

Steven's heart is still on the scale. The third personality is still inside that sarcophagus, likely (unless this is like Ultimate Marvel, and I was right about that little girl) having an identical body to Marc and Steven, and a heart of its own. Taweret will remove the heart of the third personality, and put Steven's heart in his "body", restoring Steven.

On another matter, the finale's got a lot of stuff that it'll have to get done. Getting Marc back to life, freeing Khonshu, resolve the matter with Ammit. And, frankly, they really need to end with Marc and Layla going home to see Marc's father. Because his father's something that feels like it needs to be resolved. Actually, with Marc now being in an afterlife, he could encounter both his mother and brother, and make amends. Tying back to the start of the series, where he keeps trying to reach his mother (on the phone).

Personally, I'd also like to see where Marc and Layla (an adaptation of Marlene Alraune) lives. We've seen Steven's flat in London, and have now spent all this time in Egypt. We haven't gotten an idea of their home life. People involved with it have compared it to Indiana Jones (and other stuff). In Raiders of the Lost Ark, we do get a scene in Indy's house. In Last Crusade, we see his home in 1912. We also get several Jones family homes in Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, a series where Indy spends much of the time traveling the world.

[darkphoenix21]

Episode 6: Gods and Monsters

Hmmm…where does that finale leave us?!?! We are formally introduced to Jake Lockley and yet neither Marc nor Steven know. It looks like Jake has been Khonshu’s (literal) inside man from the start. And what does it mean for those two to be working together?

I was disappointed with how it ended; it was an underwhelming finale. They defeat Ammit/Harrow and from what Marc/Steven think, (get released from Khonshu), they than wake up back at Stevens’s apartment chained up and that’s the end. What happened to Layla? We get the post credit scene of Jake Lockley freeing Harrow from the hospital. Khonshu introduces Jake to Harrow only to have him shoot Harrow. We did get insistences of Jake throughout the 6 episodes, but it was only a preview of what’s to come.

Six episodes was not enough for a “limited” series; it’s still being described as a season finale in several articles/websites. When/where will we see Moon Knight again? We need a continuation of this story otherwise it feels just like any other canceled show, never to find out what happens again.

[jon-el87]

Episode 6:

Okay, I have some questions... Did Layla stick to her original terms with Taweret, and just temporarily served as her avatar? Or did she choose to stay as the avatar? She's not there at the end, when Marc/Steven wakes up at Steven's apartment. When that little girl was amazed and asked Layla if she's an Egyptian superhero, I felt that Layla needs to remain as the Scarlet Scarab. She must not give it up. Of course, Taweret makes it clear that she's able to contact her father, giving Layla a likely incentive to remain her avatar.

Did Marc ever go back home and see his father? The limo in the post-credit sequence had custom plates for "Spector" (not the exact spelling, of course). Does it belong to Marc Spector? Is he rich? The appearance of Jake felt a bit tacked on. Does it means that Marc is still Khonshu's avatar? (He just doesn't know it.)

[jon-el87]

This show ages worse and worse by each passing day. Especially in the wake of the growing antisemitism that we're seeing

When you go back and look that the Moon Knight comic from the 1980s, there isn't all of this magic, searching ancient temples, and Egyptian gods going on. The stories dealt with real world issues. In Moon Knight 37-38, there is a deep dive into antisemitism in America (and Marc Spector's Jewish heritage and identity). We see a synagogue burned by neo-nazis, a Jewish cemetary being vandalized, and the antisemitic violence that Marc witnessed as a child (the father-son story in that two-parter would've been a terrific storyline). This is completely gone from the show. We get (minor) acknowledgement of Marc being Jewish in the penultimate episode (which also features his alcoholic, abusive mother, and his weak father). No exploration of his Jewish-American identity, or the discrimination that he is bound to have faced growing up.

The whole thing feels very hypocritical, given how much time Falcon & the Winter Soldier and Secret Invasion spends on Sam Wilson and Nick Fury being black, and dealing with/discussing racism against black people. Ms. Marvel focuses on Kamala's Muslim and Pakistani identity and heritage, and discrimination against Muslims. But Marc Spector in Moon Knight? (Or Wanda Maximoff (who is of Romani-Jewish heritage in the comics, which the movies and WandaVision completely erased) in the MCU as a whole?) Nothing. I guess that David Baddiel is right (Jews don't count).