“Gods and Monsters”

Moon Knight concludes its first -and possibly only- season with an epic battle against Harrow and the newly freed Amit as well as a resolution of the conflicted Marc/Stephen relationship.

This is a show that would definitely benefit from more time. What it has delivered has been strong and engaging but it often doesn’t have the time to properly develop the available plots and ideas. Not taking the time to fully explore the notion of the entire adventure being the concoction of an asylum inmate is a very clear example of something that needed more time to deliver what it was getting at. It touches on a number of styles and ideas without ever fully committing to them which does let it down.

One aspect of where the show excels is in its approach to the characters. I’ve expressed previously that I know very little about Dissociative Identity Disorder so I won’t go into any analysis of how they handled it as a concept but I will go into the Stephen/Marc duality that has been one of the pillars of this show. The previous episode had Stephen sacrifice himself so that Marc could complete his journey to an afterlife. Stephen doing so balanced the scales and allowed Marc to transition and the sacrifice was appropriately tragic. In this episode Marc decides to leave the eternal paradise ahead of him and go back to rescue Stephen. This isn’t a surprise because it flows naturally from the development of this relationship where the last episode featured the two characters working towards accepting one another as fundamental parts of each other. In particular Marc accepting Stephen is important because Stephen was created to protect the best of himself from the abuse he was receiving. To deny Stephen is to deny the best parts of himself so going back for him makes complete sense.

That doesn’t make it any less satisfying when he does because it’s the logical next step. Marc will be incomplete if he goes on without Stephen even if he will remain separated into two beings. In some ways that’s an advantage as he has companionship and a moral compass with a voice. The moment where Marc rescues Stephen works really well; the line “you’re the only super power I ever had” was fully earned because the journey to that realisation has been very well handled.

The episode ends with them coming full circle in a way by being back in Stephen’s apartment chained to the bed though it’s not the same as before as they have context. Marc and Stephen have the answers to many of the questions that have been plaguing them, have completed intense personal journeys both separately and together and believe they have achieved freedom from what was holding them back. The operative question of “now what?” lingers in the air but ending back where they started with the benefit of context is reasonable as a conclusion even if it is less than definite.

Outside of the ending and the afterlife rescue the episode doesn’t have a lot of time for characterisation as much of it is dominated by an extended set piece. Fortunately it’s a very good set piece and the distinct personalities of Stephen and Marc are utilised very well. They spend the bulk of the fight suited but but the visual shift between the Mr. Knight and Moon Knight costumes along with the injection of the personality of the wearer allows the action to shift naturally and seeing Stephen so delighted to be in control of his powers when in the Mr. Knight costume is immensely satisfying. As someone who felt powerless most of his life being granted power and having a degree of control of it would be liberating and it comes across as such.

The action falters in that there isn’t a clear indication of how the power levels compare to one another which makes it difficult to track whether there is any real threat at play. There is a moment where it looks like Marc may be about to die but there isn’t enough context to determine whether the threat is real. This means that the action is bereft of tension as entertaining as the spectacle is. Earlier episodes did some work to begin to establish how the Moon Knight powers work but the task wasn’t finished so there’s no reason to assume that Marc, Stephen and Layla were anything but functionally invincible.

Layla gets to join the fray after becoming the avatar of Taweret. The relationship is an immediate contrast to that of Khonshu’s relationship with Marc/Stephen as it’s implied to be based on transparency and cooperation. It’s a connection that they can use to support one another rather than being founded on manipulation as is Khonshu’s default. This allows Layla to become a superhero and she takes to it naturally; even inspiring a young girl in her first outing as is traditional for female heroes. As with any other episode she is very capable. Her costume looks great and her abilities add variety to the action. She does arrive at the decision very quickly which is jarring but what follows goes some way towards making up for it as the pairing appears to be a good fit.

With this episode largely functioning as an action piece there isn’t a lot of room for Layla to develop beyond her function within it. She is missing any sort of conclusion as she helps stop Amit and doesn’t appear after that so there’s a lack of finality to her role within the show. There are no final moments with Marc or Stephen so her relationship to them appears to be largely forgotten about. This is a character who absolutely should return in future but it does her a disservice to have her disappear without any indication as to how she feels about her new normal and where she might go next.

Harrow remains an interesting villain though suffers from the standard MCU third act problem of stripping away much of his depth in favour of him contributing to the action sequences. Despite the reduction in depth there is an interesting exchange between him and Amit about his devotion to his own ideals. He sees himself as the facilitator of the better world who is unable to be a part of it. By his own rules and values he is unworthy because he had to do terrible things to absolve others of doing terrible things so he feels that he needs to be judged as part of what Amit represents. Amit sees it differently and wants to use his loyalty to secure him as her avatar. Curiously this makes Amit a hypocrite as she exists in direct contradiction to her purpose but the episode does nothing with that because it rapidly moves on to Harrow fighting with Stephen/Marc and Layla while Khonshu and Amit battle it out.

An opportunity existed for a harsh lesson to be learned about morality. Amit is possibly a hypocrite because her own standards are impossible to achieve as true purity as she defines it simply can’t exist in Humans. The idea of balancing the scales of morality was explored brilliantly in The Good Place where this show delivers a glancing take on it at best. Defeating Amit could have been about Harrow coming to realise that everything he had devoted his life to pursuing was a lie because Amit herself doesn’t believe in what she wanted her followers to subscribe to. It could have been a visceral moment of self realisation that left Harrow broken but instead he becomes Amit’s avatar and joins in the combat.

Khonshu and Amit’s conflict is similarly surface level. Instead of being a battle of complimentary yet conflicting ideologies it amounts to a visually impressive Kaiju battle where they periodically exchange platitudes about their views on punishment. Amit thinks it should precede the crime and Khonshu believes in punishing someone after they have done wrong. They are two extremes on the same scale but nothing in the way of commentary is provided on the pros and cons of either approach. Prior episodes begin to explore the ideas but don’t follow them to any sort of conclusion. Khonshu has to win because his plan doesn’t involve harvesting currently innocent souls and that’s about as far as it goes. He is very much the lesser of two evils so has to win because the alternative is billions of deaths. It makes for a flat and uninspired conclusion to ideas that had real merit.

The post credit scene provides an answer to the question of a third personality; such a possibility has been teased for a while and receives very pointed coverage during the extended set piece. Marc and Stephen both black out and regain their senses only to find that the potentially life threatening situation they were presented with has been resolved. This points to there being a third personality that neither of them know about and this is confirmed in a post credit scene where Harrow is taken out of a facility by a mysterious man carefully shot so as not to show his face before he is taken into a limo and confronted by Khonshu who details that Marc took his interest because he was more broken that even he knew before introducing Harrow to Jake Lockley; a Spanish speaking third personality who promptly shoots Harrow.

This is something of a cop out as Marc’s decision to kill Harrow was a personal victory for him since he made the decision for himself rather than doing what Khonshu wanted. It was in defiance of Khonshu and something of a redemptive act on Marc’s part. Jake killing Harrow means that the blood is on. It doesn’t entirely line up especially when considering his known body count but it’s an indication that he listened to his moral compass and made a decision he determined to be morally correct. He submits Harrow for judgement but not in the way Khonshu defines it. Marc’s hands without being on Marc’s hands which may well be the point of the character entirely. Nothing is known about Jake but he seems to be a willing participant in Khonshu’s plan though he may be misguided or misled. It’s a tease for a later story that may never be told but the idea of a third personality trapped by Khonshu’s influence is an interesting one.

If there is to be a second season it’s unclear what form it will take as this season burned through a lot of the potential in short bursts. The asylum setting is something that could have been a season in itself, a treasure hunting adventure could have occupied more time, the horror angle could have been a prominent fixture over the course of a season and so on. Over the course of six episodes many things are attempted with none of them being fully committed to which renders a second season difficult on a stylistic level as there’s no clear indication of what could be done next. The characters were strong and the concept interesting enough for me to want to see more but something more cohesive would be required in a second season if there is to be one.

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Verdict

A good finale that delivers engaging beats but does give way to being an action piece with limited resolution to some aspects. Marc opting to leave the afterlife in order to recue Stephen was an expected yet satisfying development that is fully supported by the journey that was taken to reach this point. It’s the logical next step because Marc will be incomplete if he goes on without Stephen as denying him means denying the parts of himself. The episode ends with them coming full circle to be back in Stephen’s apartment chained to the bed though it’s not the same as before as they have context and the answers to what has been plaguing them. The operative question of “now what?” lingers in the air but ending back where they started with the benefit of context is reasonable as a conclusion even if it is less than definite. Outside of this the episode doesn’t have much time for characterisation as much of it is dominated by an extended set piece. Fortunately it’s a very good one with great use of the two personalities visually signified by the costumes. The action falters in that there isn’t a clear indication of how the power levels compare to one another which makes it difficult to track if there’s any real threat. Layla gets to join the fray after becoming the avatar of Tawaret. Their relationship is an immediate contrast to the one Khonshu dictates. It allows her to become a superhero and she takes to it naturally. She does arrive at the decision very quickly which is jarring but what follows goes some way towards making up for it as the pairing appears to be a good fit. Unfortunately there isn’t a lot of room for Layla to develop much beyond her function in the episode. She is missing any sort of a conclusion and shares no final moments with Marc or Stephen.

Harrow remains an interesting villain but suffers from the standard MCU third act problem of stripping away much of his depth in favour of him contributing to the action sequences. Despite the reduction in depth there is an interesting exchange between him and Amit about his devotion to his own ideals. He sees himself as the facilitator of the better world who is unable to be a part of it. By his own rules and values he is unworthy because he had to do terrible things to absolve others of doing terrible things so he feels that he needs to be judged as part of what Amit represents. Amit sees it differently and wants to use his loyalty to secure him as her avatar. Curiously this makes Amit a hypocrite as she exists in direct contradiction to her purpose but the episode does nothing with that because it rapidly moves on to Harrow fighting with Stephen/Marc and Layla while Khonshu and Amit battle it out. An opportunity existed for a harsh lesson to be learned about morality. Amit is possibly a hypocrite because her own standards are impossible to achieve as true purity as she defines it simply can’t exist in Humans. Defeating Amit could have been about Harrow coming to realise that everything he had devoted his life to pursuing was a lie because Amit herself doesn’t believe in what she wanted her followers to subscribe to. It could have been a visceral moment of self realisation that left Harrow broken but instead he becomes Amit’s avatar and joins in the combat. Khonshu and Amit’s conflict is similarly surface level. Instead of being a battle of complimentary yet conflicting ideologies it amounts to a visually impressive Kaiju battle where they periodically exchange platitudes about their views on punishment. Khonshu has to win because his plan doesn’t involve harvesting currently innocent souls and that’s about as far as it goes. The post credit scene provides an answer to the question of a third personality by introducing Jake as being a seemingly willing participant in Khonshu’s plan. His actions are something of a cop out as Jake killing Harrow means that there’s blood on Marc’s hands without blood being on his hands. It somewhat undermines Marc’s moral decision. Burning through a lot of the potential in short bursts over the course of six episodes was a mistake as it undermines a lot of the potential the concept has. The characters were strong and the concept interesting enough for me to want to see more but something more cohesive would be required in a second season if there is to be one.

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