Sean Marshall The last episode ended with Marc & Steve fleeing “Dr. Harrow’s” goons & running into Taweret, which was a hilarious standout moment from the series. However, as soon as this episode starts, we find out that the last scene we saw was just in Marc’s mind & that he’s still in the office with Harrow & Harrow is trying to calm him down. Harrow tells Marc that what he thought he experienced moments ago with Steve & Taweret was all in his head. The conversation shifts once Harrow tries to push Marc to talk about this “boy” that he says Marc mentioned. This causes Marc to break the calm state Harrow was placing him under & become subdued by Harrow’s two goons, who inject him with some fluid that puts him back to sleep, or we can say it puts him back where the last episode ended.
Taweret, who doesn’t seem to know who Marc & Steve are since she asked them if they were twins, tells both of them that they are dead. Most of us knew this was the case, especially since we now have Taweret with the two. Also, there’s no way Marc would brush those shots off without having the suit, so yeah, they’re dead & yes, they’re in the Duat, the Egyptian afterlife. Marc thinks that Taweret is lying to him about being in the underworld, so he bursts through the door to find himself on a boat sailing through the Duat. Taweret takes their hearts out to weigh them on the Scales of Justice to determine whether they will be allowed to enter the Field of Reeds, the Egyptian afterlife’s paradise, but she discovers that their hearts are “incomplete.” Tawaeret orders Marc & Steve to go back into the asylum to balance each other out before reaching the end of their destination, or their souls will be destroyed.
Marc & Steve begin walking through the halls of the asylum & see key moments of their lives that took place recently. Marc & Steve walk into a room full of criminals Mark killed on Khonshu’s orders. After the scales in the room begin to balance, the two see a little boy who Steve chases & Marc tries to prevent him from pursuing. Marc goes through the door that the boy enters & sees his mother & the memory of a young Marc & his younger brother Randall, who was trapped in a flooding cave, which led to Randall drowning and Marc’s mother blaming him for his brother’s death. This was indeed a sad memory that we saw affected Marc hard. We saw how his mother turned her back on him & how she left him & his father alone to celebrate his birthday alone. Another memory followed & took place during Marc’s next birthday & shows how his mother still blamed him for the death of his brother.
Later on, we see a teenage Marc asking his father why he never fixed the relationship between himself & his mother, which transitions years later to where Bushman killed all of the men at the dig site & severely injured Marc. Marc & Steve follow a bloody trail that reveals Marc pulling himself into Khonshu’s temple. This is where we see how the deal between Khonshu & Marc came to fruition. The scales begin to balance, but before we see more of Marc’s growth as Moon Night, Taweret informs them that many souls from the living world are being judged and sent to the afterlife before their time. Taweret allows Marc & Steve to return to the living world, but they’ll return to the wounded body.
Marc freaks out after Steve tells him that if he doesn’t go back, he’ll be letting Layla & others die. Marc, still freaking out, wakes back up in Harrow’s office & Harrow is asking him to let Steve out. Now, this is where things pick up. We go back to where Marc was a child & we see how Marc created Steve to run away from the fury that his mother brought on him. Steve witnesses his creation & hits Marc because Marc kept him in the dark about his true self. Steve then freaks out & wakes up in control in Harrow’s office. Harrow tells him that his mother has died & since they are in the afterlife, Harrow hands Steve the phone so that he can speak to her. Again, this episode is hefty & emotional. Seeing Steve deal with his mother’s death was hard to watch. Steve calling his mother on his cell phone, pretending to talk to her, was relatable.
However, Steve & Marc were too late & the undead souls of the Duat came aboard the ship & began attacking Marc. Steve saves Marc & we see that Steve has embraced his warrior side, but it is short-lived as Steve falls off of the ship as it sailed off with Marc. This “loss” caused the scales to balance & Marc was able to go to the Field of Reeds.
Wow. This was a great episode & definitely will leave you teary-eyed at the end.
HIGHLIGHTS & FINAL THOUGHTS
- The scales only balanced when Steve fell off the ship & seemingly died.
- Ammit seems to have been summoned to the living realm due to souls falling into the Duat before their time.
- Could Steve’s “death” bring about Jake Lockley?
- Taweret mentioning the Ancestral Plain from Black Panther was a solid way to connect the MCU, especially since the Panther God has not been mentioned yet.
Moon Knight Episode 5: "Asylum" Recap & Review
Pros
- Very emotional & powerful episode.
- The episode solely focused on Marc & Steve & development as individuals
- We finally get an in-depth look at how Marc's mind split in two.
- World building that connects to Black Panther.
