Moon Knight (2022): 🌙

Ancient Egypt, Multiple Personalities, and a Hippo Therapist… yeah this show went places

Let’s start off with showing yall the trailers shall we

Non-Spoiler Plot Overview

So this show is very different from the usual superhero stuff we’ve gotten so far, which is a good thing in my opinion.

We follow Steven Grant (Oscar Isaac), who works at a museum as a tour guide, mainly dealing with ancient Egypt—and yeah, this is where the show instantly hooked me. I love anything involving ancient Egypt. Always have. So the second the show leaned into that, I was already invested.

Steven is awkward, quiet, and just feels like a guy who barely has control over his own life. Then we find out why—he has dissociative identity disorder. And that’s when things start getting weird.

He discovers he has another identity, Marc Spector, who is way more confident, way more aggressive, and very much involved in something dangerous. Then we get Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke), this calm, almost too-friendly cult leader who is after a mysterious Egyptian artifact for reasons that slowly become a lot bigger than they first seem.

Then yeah… Moon Knight happens.

A white hooded suit with a cape just forms over him, and suddenly he’s out here fighting supernatural creatures tied to Egyptian mythology. And from that point on, the show just keeps escalating.


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Character Rundown

Steven Grant (Oscar Isaac) is honestly one of my favorite parts of the show. He’s awkward, socially off, and just constantly confused about what’s happening to him. You feel bad for him because he genuinely has no idea what’s real half the time.

Marc Spector (Oscar Isaac) is the complete opposite. Confident, aggressive, and way more in control. The way Oscar Isaac switches between these two is actually insane. It doesn’t feel like the same person at all.

And then there’s the third personality, Jake Lockley… who we barely see, but when we do? Yeah… that dude is a problem.

Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke) is one of those villains who doesn’t need to yell or go crazy to be intimidating. He’s calm, soft-spoken, and somehow that makes him even more unsettling. The way he talks like he’s helping people while clearly doing something messed up is just… yeah, no thanks.

Khonshu is not some wise, noble god either. He’s manipulative, demanding, and honestly kind of a jerk, but that’s what makes him interesting.

And then there’s Taweret… the hippo goddess. Yeah. A giant humanoid hippo guiding souls to the afterlife. Sounds ridiculous. Somehow works.


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Pacing / Episode Flow

For most of the show, the pacing is actually really solid. It takes its time building Steven’s situation, slowly revealing what’s going on instead of dumping everything at once.

The middle episodes, especially the asylum stuff, are easily the strongest. That’s where the show really slows down in a good way and focuses on the psychological side of things.

The final episode though… yeah, that’s where things speed up a little too much. It feels like they had a checklist of “big finale things” and just started rushing through them.


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Pros

The biggest strength of this show is how different it feels. It doesn’t feel like your typical MCU project, and that alone makes it stand out.

Oscar Isaac absolutely carries this show. The way he plays multiple personalities without it feeling forced is honestly impressive.

The Egyptian mythology is another huge win for me. The gods, the afterlife, the whole avatar system—it’s all really interesting and adds a unique layer to the story.

And the asylum sequence? Easily the best part of the show. It actually challenges you and makes you question what’s real instead of just giving you answers.


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Cons

The final episode. I’m sorry, but this is where the show kind of loses me.

It goes from being psychological and character-driven to giant CGI gods fighting each other while Moon Knight and Harrow are running up the side of a pyramid.

And I’m just sitting there like… yeah, this is a bit much.

It’s not terrible, it’s just a huge tonal shift from what the show was doing before. It feels like it falls back into the typical MCU finale formula instead of sticking to what made it unique.


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Final Thoughts

Overall, I actually really liked this show.

It takes risks, it’s different, and it leans into things like mental health and mythology in a way that feels fresh for Marvel.

Even when it stumbles, I’d rather watch something like this that tries something new than something that just plays it safe the whole time.


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Rating

9/10


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Spoiler Warning

Alright, from this point on we’re getting into full spoiler territory.

So if you haven’t seen Moon Knight yet… this is your warning.


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Spoilers

So the asylum stuff… yeah, this is where the show peaked for me.

Steven and Marc suddenly wake up in this all-white mental hospital, and everything we’ve seen so far gets thrown into question. Arthur Harrow is now the doctor, casually talking to Steven like none of the Moon Knight stuff ever happened.

And the show just sits there and messes with you.

Is this real? Has Steven been here the entire time? Was Moon Knight just something he made up? Or is this place inside his head? The show never gives you a straight answer, and I actually love that. It puts you in Steven’s shoes where you genuinely don’t know what’s going on anymore.

Then we get Taweret showing up—the hippo goddess—and somehow she becomes the guide through the afterlife. She explains that they’re basically on a journey to balance their souls before passing on, and we get this whole sequence of them going through their memories.

And this is where things get heavy.

We find out that Marc created Steven as a coping mechanism from childhood trauma. Steven wasn’t just some random personality—he was created to protect Marc from the abuse he went through. That moment hits hard and honestly adds way more depth to everything we saw earlier.

Then we get the whole boat scene where their hearts are being weighed, and when it doesn’t balance, Marc ends up losing Steven. And for a second, it actually feels like Steven is gone for good. That whole moment where Marc finally accepts him and then loses him? Yeah, that was rough.

But of course, he comes back, because this is Marvel and we can’t stay sad for too long.

Then we jump to the finale… and this is where things get messy.

Harrow successfully summons Ammit, and suddenly we’ve got giant gods fighting each other in the background like it’s a kaiju movie. Khonshu grows massive, Ammit grows massive, and they’re just throwing hands in the middle of the desert.

Meanwhile, Moon Knight and Harrow are literally running up the side of a pyramid to fight each other.

And I’m just like… we really went from psychological breakdowns and trauma exploration to this?

It’s not even that it’s bad, it’s just such a hard shift from what the show was doing so well. It feels like two completely different finales smashed together.

Then we get to the ending.

Marc and Steven think they’re finally free from Khonshu. They go back to normal life, chained to their bed again, trying to keep control.

And then the post-credit scene happens.

Harrow gets taken out of the hospital, put into a limo, and Khonshu is sitting there waiting. And then we see the driver…

Jake Lockley.

And yeah, this dude is way more unhinged than the other two. No hesitation, no talking, just pulls out a gun and shoots Harrow right there.

Which confirms two things.

One, Jake has been around the entire time doing things that Marc and Steven don’t remember.

And two… Khonshu never actually let them go.

So that whole “you’re free now” deal? Yeah, that was complete nonsense.

And honestly, that ending? That part I loved.