Steven And Marc Butt Heads (Literally) In Moon Knight Episode 2 | SlashFilm Reviews

You can't help but feel bad for Steven — he's lost his job and his sense of his place in the world. To make matters worse, the personality he shares brain space with is, in his opinion, kind of a jerk who kills wantonly for the Egyptian god of the moon. That's a lot to get used to, but it turns out Steven has more inner strength and resolve than Marc or anyone else expected. (Can you tell I'm Team Steven?)

Read on to get the breakdown of how Steven (Oscar Isaac) and Marc (Oscar Isaac) get into more than one argument about what they're both doing with their lives while Khonshu heckles from afar.

Warning, spoilers for the second episode of "Moon Knight" lie ahead.

It's Area 51 And MI6 Bonkers, Man

After the dramatic ending of the show's first episode (Moon Knight fighting a jackal! Bathroom sinks flying in the air!) we start this one with Steven once again waking up in bed. This time, however, Steven can't pretend that what happened last night in the museum was just a dream. After trying to find the other man in the mirror and failing, Steven heads to work, eager to see the security footage of supernaturally strong jackals chasing him through the exhibits. 

What shows up on those vids, however, is just Steven — the jackals don't show up on camera, and it looks like he is the one causing all the destruction himself. This gets him promptly sacked, which gives Steven plenty of time to dig into what the hell is going on when he's "asleep." He uses the storage key as a start and eventually finds Marc's mercenary man cave. It's there Steven finds the MacGuffin scarab that Harrow needs to find Ammit's tomb, and it's there where Steven and Marc have their first real conversation.

There are a lot of ways to portray someone with multiple personalities talking to themselves, and most of them are bad. "Moon Knight," however, threads the needle well of having Marc and Steven talk with each other via reflections without it becoming hokey. This conversation also lets Steven (and the audience) in on what is really going on — Marc is the avatar of Khonshu, the bird-skulled, scythe-wielding monster Steven has been seeing. This conversation also makes clear that Marc sees himself as a steward of sorts for Steven — he was trying to take care of him, in his own way, by keeping him out of all this.

Steven doesn't take the news well, and who can blame him? He vows to take the scarab and says he's going to get himself locked up, so his body doesn't hurt anyone. Khonshu isn't happy about that and starts chasing Steven in the storage building hallway — Steven appropriately freaks out, runs outside, and tumbles to the ground right in front of his wife.

Every Marriage Has Its Difficulties

Well, Marc's wife, actually. It's Layla from the phone, and she's confused, hurt, and angry at Marc. Steven doesn't know any of this, of course, but they both go back to his flat, where Marc-in-reflection is none to happy to see Layla there. We find out that before Marc disappeared from Layla's life all those months ago, he wanted a divorce. We also find out that Marc wants to keep the scarab hidden from her, and Steven ultimately tries to hide it from her when reflection-Marc tells him that if she becomes involved, she'll be killed.

Layla is too smart for that. She finds the scarab and realizes that Steven isn't just Marc putting up an act. Two "police officers" knock on the door interrupting their conversation, however, and Layla escapes unseen with the scarab while Marc gets hauled off.

Those so-called police officers actually serve Ammit and, by extension, Harrow. They take Steven to Harrow's headquarters, a place full of hardcore followers who tend goats, grow tomatoes, and watch weird television shows with dolphins and flamingos doing stuff in slow-motion. Harrow is all cool as a cucumber with Steven — he offers him lentil soup and tells him that he used to be Khonshu's avatar.

Who broke up with who is unclear, but Harrow is now all about Ammit, who judges people before they've sinned. Steven, in a very Steven-like way, points out the logic of that isn't so great, as it basically allows for child murder and all that. But Harrow doesn't care about Steven's qualms — he just wants the scarab.

Steven doesn't have it of course, and he's not going to give up Layla. But then Layla shows up with the scarab, confronting Harrow head-on.

Meet Mr. Knight

Steven is, to put it mildly, a bit startled by all of this. Layla keeps telling him to "summon the suit" and he is a bit clueless about how to do so. The two run away from Harrow's minions, with Layla beating up more than a few of them on her own. Harrow has jackals up his sleeve, however, and uses the cane to summon them.

Steven and Layla end up in a room full of Egyptian artifacts that Steven cleverly calls, "an evil magician's man cave." Layla keeps begging Marc to come out, and in a touching scene, she finally reaches out to Steven directly. Layla realizes now how separate the two are. It's an emotional moment for Steven, but he still doesn't know how to summon the suit.

A jackal breaks in, and we find out that only Steven can see it, most likely because he is the avatar of Khonshu. The jackal pushes him out of the building and as he falls, he summons the suit and lands in a superhero pose before toppling over. His suit, however, is an actual three-piece suit rather than the traditional garb of Marc's suit. Marc-in-reflection is unimpressed, but we then get a delightful scene of "Steven with a V" trying to fight the jackal himself. It doesn't go great, and Steven ultimately gives up the body to Marc, who then takes the jackal on a chase and impales it on a steeple.

The jackal is gone, but Harrow now has the scarab, as it fell out of Steven/Marc's pocket at some point. It's here where Steven-in-reflection and Marc have another serious conversation, and this one really doesn't go too well. Steven is understandably pissed off — his whole life has been wrecked by Marc and Khonshu, and he doesn't want his body hurting anyone else. Marc says that he must follow Khonshu because of a deal he made with the Egyptian god, and breaks the mirror when Steven doesn't buy it.

We then end the episode with Khonshu and Marc having a little conversation of their own. Khonshu is a complete jerk! He's moody and belittling and so, so bitter. Marc tells him they'll get to Ammit's tomb another way, and Khonshu wearily says they have to go. When Marc asks where, Khonshu replies, "Where the hell do you think?" F. Murray Abraham's delivery here conveys so much — Khonshu is a tired, irascible, desperate god. And where he and Marc (and Steven) go is to Egypt, with the last scene of the episode revealing a drunk Marc in a hotel in his underwear, looking out the window at the pyramids.

Other Thoughts

• Marc, Steven, and Khonshu are giving off some Odd Throuple vibes here, though their relationships are anything but endearing. 
• The Egyptian hotel room where Marc is staying has a smashed mirror. Looks like he and Steven still aren't getting along.
• One of the "police officers" who serves Ammit calls her partner "Billy," a nice reference to the orderlies in the Lemire comics.

New episodes of "Moon Knight" drop Wednesdays on Disney+.

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https://ift.tt/nNZgFli Vanessa Armstrong