Moon Knight – Gods and Monsters review S1 E6

Jeffrey Lyles May 4, 2022 0 Comments Ethan Hawke, F. Murray Abraham, Marvel Cinematic Universe, May Calamawy, Moon Knight, Oscar Isaac

Moon Knight’s season finale was predestined to be messy. This was a superhero show that kept delaying the payoff of actually showing the title character in… superhero action. With no more episodes left, the writers had to quickly close main narrative loopholes regardless of how satisfactory the conclusion.

There were a number of dangling plot threads and the rush was on to address as many as possible.

Marc simply decides he’ll go back and save Steven, negating any remote suspense from last week’s cliffhanger.

Harrow seemed completely oblivious that Layla is in disguise as one of his minions despite revealing her face. This was a little frustrating as Layla rarely faced any hardships or struggles throughout the season and now the main villain has to be clueless so she can get in close.

While Layla does release Khonshu from his statue captivity, she doesn’t trust him. With good reason. She is game to partner with Tawaret, who’ll make Layla her avatar.

Hopefully she fares better than the avatars of other gods, who Harrow wipes out quickly. Presumably these avatars are experienced and somewhat battle-tested. They certainly seemed formidable in shutting down Khonshu, but now they’re a bunch of chumps.

Harrow releases Ammit (Saba Mubarak) to serve. Ammit is an impressive CGI creation with the head of a crocodile, the forequarters of a lion and the hindquarters of a hippopotamus.

As Khonshu and Ammit battle it seems like Moon Knight would have fared better with a more traditional street level hero show that teases these deeper Egyptian religious ties. Maybe then the Marc and Steven dynamic wouldn’t feel like such a stark clash to this plot point?

Marc (and Steven) return to the land of the living in time for Marc to suit up to stop Harrow. At this point, Moon Knight drastically shifts to a standard superhero finale. Only in this instance, it doesn’t feel well earned. Given the buildup, Marc and Harrow battling on the mental plane probably would have made more sense.

Layla getting her own superhero alias was OK, but it felt more like the writers losing focus than a necessity for Season 1. Granted, Layla made more hero moves than Steven, it still came off more like checking off a box so Layla could be an Egyptian superhero instead of a vital element to the series.

And given that Marc was so rarely Moon Knight in the series it seemed way too early to introduce a superhero ally. This would be similar to throwing in War Machine in the first Iron Man for the big final battle against Obediah. Especially when there’s already a “second” hero with Steven as Mr. Knight.

With time winding down on a curiously shorter episode, we get another jump where Marc has savagely beaten down Harrow and killed his men. Both Marc and Steven are perplexed again at this violent outburst. You’d think they would start considering the other obvious possibility…

Either way this felt like a cop out of the big final battle between Moon Knight and Harrow.

Khonshu wants Harrow and Ammit taken out, but Marc doesn’t kill. He’s a hero. Back to the psych ward. Huh? Ah, both Marc and Steven are swapping out in this conversation with Dr. Harrow, who know is wearing the sandals of glass that seemingly never made him bleed beyond the first episode.

I guess the notion here is Khonshu placed Harrow in this psych ward dream? But why was Marc having that dream/nightmare too? This got a little confusing and made even more confounding as Marc/Steven awaken in Steven’s apartment, leg still fastened to the restraint. What was and what wasn’t real? And where’s Layla?

Harrow is now a resident of a psych ward when he’s greeted by a mysterious visitor. While doped up on medication, Harrow doesn’t miss the random bodies bleeding out on the floor. The man throws Harrow into a car and is greeted by a suited Khonshu.

Turns out Khonshu didn’t have any problem freeing Marc and Steven from his clutches as he’s still got influence over the deadliest personality, Jake Lockley. Jake introduces himself officially by killing Harrow. That was a heck of a cliffhanger, but will it ever get resolved?

There’s definitely a need for a second season and one hopefully that doesn’t try and do so much while resolving so little at the end. Oscar Isaac, Ethan Hawke and May Calamawy really held this series together through most of the rough patches. With a stronger story, I’d love to see what Isaac and Calamawy could do with their characters.