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Moon Knight Episode 3 Review: Let's Just Bring In All The Gods
Moon Knight episode three is the first episode where we spend a significant amount of time with Marc compared to Steven. It helps show how different these characters are while also leaning into the weirder aspect of this mythology. We aren't just getting one or two gods, we're getting a bunch, and the possibilities for what that means for the Marvel universe going forward are interesting. While Marc has been lurking in the shadows for the first two episodes of this show, he's front and center for this episode, which is still really interesting to see. In the comics, Steven and Jake are the alters of Marc, who is the host, but the show seems to be hinting, at least with the points of view that we have right now, that Steven seems to be the host, which is an interesting way to approach this show. Jake is someone we haven't met yet, but for the first time, we see something happen where neither Marc nor Steven says they were the ones that had control of the host body at the time. What is fun about episode three is getting to see the more badass side of Oscar Isaac come out and seeing him fighting against his instincts to use violence while having Steven in his ear telling him to hold back.
More Marc also means seeing how he interacts with the people around him. We get to see Marc with Layla, with Khonshu, with Steven, even with Harrow, and we see how different he is with other people as compared to Steven. His relationship with Layla is interesting to watch, even if the direction they are going with their plot couldn't be more obvious than if Khonshu himself wrote it in the night sky. It's predictable, which is a little boring. Still, the reactions to it will be the things that define that relationship—seeing how Marc and Steven interact when Marc has control of the body and how they are still fighting each other instead of working together is fascinating to watch. Isaac has to move from character to character, and the subtly of the performances remain on point. We see him switch without the special effects in this episode, just through facial expression and body language, and it's pretty neat to watch.
Another unique part of this episode is that we get the longest scene so far with the Moon Knight suits. So far, this show hasn't spent a lot of time in the suits compared to other superhero shows, but this time we get an extended action scene with Marc in the Moon Knight armor fighting. While the scene is still pretty neat to watch, the cape remains the part of the suit that still looks distractingly fake. There is just something about the way it moves and the way it is rendered that makes it look just a little too otherworldly. If it was supposed to look almost unreal, that would work, but we see someone literally grab it during this fight scene. It's a cape that exists, and for some reason, it just doesn't look good compared to capes like the ones in Thor or even the one in Doctor Strange. Those at least looked like they had some weight, while this cake remains awkwardly weightless.
It's a shame that the movement of the cape looks so weird because, in still images, it looks fantastic, and this episode features some of the best imagery of the series so far. One of the things that the showrunners spoke a lot of was not leaning into stereotypes regarding how it portrayed Egypt and Cairo in particular. There is a filter that Hollywood loves to use when they are filming in the Middle East that washes everyone out in yellow. It is supposed to make the sun and the heat feel more oppressive, but it gives people an inaccurate version of what these cities look like. Cairo is a massive city that looks like a city, and Moon Knight shows it as a city with modern electronics and not some backward town where no one has running water. It's just another city, and normalizing cultures that are often seen as "foreign" to Western audiences helps them perceive the world in a more accurate way, even just a little. There are countless stories of travelers going to other countries and being baffled that they look nothing like the movies and TV they have watched to the point that they are sometimes let down. The lack of filter shows these lands as beautiful and vast without making it feel like fetishizing something for being exotic that is important.
This is also the episode where we get to see the visuals of what the gods are actually capable of. In the previous episode, Harrow made it sound like Khonshu couldn't do much, but in this episode, we get to see a lot in the way he manipulates the sky. The manipulation of the night sky and the very idea that, of course, stars move and that a map based on star coordinates from 2000 years ago seems incredibly obvious, but it's also one of those things that the show could have figured out a way to write around. Instead, they found a way to make one of the best visual scenes of Moon Knight so far that not only shows Khonshu's power but it is also just beautiful to watch on screen.
Finally, we need to talk about language again because we aren't shutting up about language anytime soon. In the previous episode, when Harrow told Steven that he wondered if he was chosen because his mind would be easy to break or if it was already broken, Steven countered that he wasn't broken and that he just needed help. That sort of language is important, and episode three of Moon Knight continues to show the importance of language. This time, Harrow is trying to prove that Marc is unstable, and he starts throwing around a lot of not great words, including "insane" and referring to the alters as "personalities." However, the thing that Marc is asked by one of the other gods avatar's isn't, "are you insane" or anything like that; it's "are you unwell?" Again, the importance of latching onto that word specifically, Marc replies that he is unwell and needs help. We have two alters now who have admitted that they are unwell and need help, but they aren't demonizing themselves.
The most interesting use of deliberate language, however, comes from Harrow to Khonshu in the final scene of the episode. Harrow tells Khonshu that it was his actions of "breaking" him so completely that he would never have learned "the value of healing." The breaking wording is important, people keep bringing it up, and it keeps showing up around the show in terms of broken mirrors, but usually about Marc and Steven being "broken" or fragmented somehow. This time, we hear it from Harrow. "Your torment forged me. I owe my victory to you," is what Harrow tells Khonshu, essentially laying the blame for all of this happening on Khonshu's feet above all else. It's been a bit hard to get a handle on what exactly Khonshu's intentions are here, but here, we see the villain of our piece blaming the god giving our hero the cool powers. That language speaks of something akin to almost a cycle of abuse that Harrow is trying to break himself, and by extension Marc as well, out of. Does that absolve him? No, not even a little, but it makes you side-eye Khonshu when he says he is doing this because everyone else abandoned humanity.
Moon Knight episode three is probably the most visually interesting episode, and we get to see the most variation of the alters and the different interactions between the characters. However, we have reached the halfway point, and much like all of the Marvel shows, it almost feels like there is too much to wrap up in three episodes. Is this going to be yet another Disney+ Marvel show that ends up racing to the finish line in the final episode only to epically faceplant on the way due to pacing issues? Guess we'll see. As for right now? It's still working.
Moon Knight Episode 3 "The Friendly Type"
9/10
Disney+ & Marvel Studios' Moon Knight episode three might be the most visually exciting one so far as it continues to lean into the weird mythology of the show. But looking ahead now that we've reached the midpoint, the series will need to start offering more concrete answers sooner rather than later.
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