Warning: The following review of Moon Knight's season finale, "Gods and Monsters," contains full spoilers.
You can check out our review of last week's Moon Knight episode, "Asylum," here.
"You are the only real superpower I ever had."
Sitting a notch above a few other MCU Disney+ finales, Moon Knight ended with an epic battle between gods and avatars, duking it out for the fate of the world as Ammit, in full crocodile form, was freed and Marc and Steven both returned from beyond, working seamlessly together to stop her and Harrow. It's become something of a pattern now for these Phase Four MCU shows to get really emotionally heavy and introspective in the episodes leading up to the finale and then slightly stumble in the end zone, turning everything into action and nullifying some of what came before. Moon Knight's season ender has some of this, but the action was more exciting than usual, an element of fun was present, and the crescendo of visuals felt earned.
That's not to say there weren't a few finale shortcuts here and there, but "Gods and Monsters" made up for some of the make-em-ups by utilizing the characters we've grown to adore over the past five episodes. Plus, there was one goal here, and the cast is more or less a three-person (four-personality) game, so there weren't lingering arcs out there to fumble.
Honestly, Moon Knight's action -- that is to say, Marc or Steven actually being Moon Knight -- has been the least interesting part of the show up until now. "Gods and Monsters" unleashed it at the top of its lungs, giving us hero vs. villain, Layla as a newly Hippo Goddess-infused butt-kicker, and a really stunning Kaiju brawl between Khonshu and Ammit! Sure, it's a bit of whiplash when you consider the rest of the show, but Marc and Steven, now joined as one (and nicely flipping back and forth during the melee), kept it grounded, delightful, and meaningful.
"Gods and Monsters" was in line with most superhero finales, delivering a chain of events where everything just sort of falls into place so that good can clash with evil. It's here that shows tend to feel more plot-driven than character-driven and outcomes seem more certain. The uniqueness of Moon Knight's Marc/Steven story helped elevate everything, giving us our most powerful and engrossing "Fist of Khonshu" yet. Up until now, Moon Knight unleashed the most fury back in Episode 3, but it was a botched deal due to the Steven struggles. Before that, he bested CGI jackal warriors in unimpressive outings (with Steven still stealing the show). And previous to this too, his murderous exploits "protecting travelers of the night" were never shown. Here, however, he was exciting, effective, and handily brutal, feeling for the first time like a superhero who could be useful in the larger MCU scheme of things.
The new love and appreciation that Marc and Steven have for each other gave us a fully formed crusader, with even Steven pulling his own weight as Mr. Knight (who, at one moment, wonderfully tidies and adjusts his suit during the fight, like James Bond did in Skyfall). Likewise, Harrow was no slouch. We've been waiting to see what this guy could do all season, having been Khonshu's former avatar. He's been mostly restrained in both voice and violence for five episodes and now his chains were off.
Of course, this is also when charismatic villains tend to lose their charm and turn into boring and formless baddies for the sake of a boss fight, but Harrow was able to avoid this pitfall for the most part. Actually seeing him do something of this magnitude was jarring enough to become entertaining in its own way. And keeping Ammit out of his body (and at Godzilla-size) allowed Ethan Hawke to remain as-is and not don a personality-stifling super-costume.
Check out our review of Moon Knight's fifth episode, "Asylum"...
Speaking of action-oriented costumes, who knew allowing a lovingly loopy goddess like Taweret to take over your body would change you into a full-fledged badass? It makes sense, though -- delightful hippo personality aside -- that the "protector of women and children" would take a formidable form and it seems like Layla, heading out of this episode, is the hero to watch. Marc and Steven are Khonshu-free (more on that soon) and although she said she'd be Taweret's temporary avatar, who's to say she wouldn't/didn't change her mind?
Layla was already a skilled and driven fighter and now she has supernatural gifts (and weaponized sword wings, echoing Taweret's breastplate) to help save people. The scene where the little girl stands in awe at the MCU's first Egyptian superhero can also be read as Layla suddenly realizing how needed she is on different levels. Given how Taweret is a hundred times friendlier than Khonshu, sticking with these powers feels like a no-brainer. This whole element of the finale was excellent, allowing star May Calamawy to join the supernatural fray in a way that felt right and fit the show's format.
Speaking of Khonshu's bitter bargains, he got to further straddle that line between ally and a-hole. As a cosmic being truly devoted to stopping Ammit, and one who does keep his word, he's still a sneaky son of a bitch. He makes a play for Layla at one point, which we'd been told was his endgame all along, but in the end, it turns out his designs were even more devious than that. It's cool to have a character like Khonshu around, as it spices up this supernatural saga with someone who's both honorable and crafty.
Now... let's dig into the "Jake Lockley" of it all!
Just when it seemed like I was way off base about a third personality, and that it was either too much to shove into the finale (or that it was too close to the end of the finale to deliver), we got the full reveal of this shadowy, more violent third persona -- the one who killed the goons back in Episode 3, and the one who may have been responsible for Marc going AWOL back in the army (and who also may have even been "Bushman"). For those who don't know, Marc Spector started in the comics with two alter-egos to help him fight crime of different fronts. Steven Grant was a Bruce Wayne-style rich guy. Jake Lockley was a street-wise cabbie who got him information from local citizens. It wasn't until decades later that the idea of Marc having actual multiple personalities was created as a new Moon Knight element.
Anyhow, ever since the show was announced, and Steven was revealed to be a part of it, fans were asking "What about Jake?" Well, Jake's finally here, and he's a nasty Spanish-speaking hitman type (with the cabbie's cap, though!). And he's the loophole that Khonshu looks to exploit, and apparently the personality Khonshu's wanted all along, since Jake kills without hesitation or remorse.
Slipping Jake in there, during the end fight with Harrow, could be seen as a cheat, but -- let's be real -- it's vastly more interesting to tease Jake as a powerful "can of whoop-ass" force off-screen than it would have been to just see Marc/Steven and Layla best Harrow in normal super-fashion. This way, "Jake Lockley" gets to take us out of the episode as the big lead-in for a potential Season 2, which is a nice surprise in its own right since we've been hearing how self-contained/standalone this story was supposed to be and how Oscar Isaac only signed on for a single season and all that jazz.
He and Hawke both did that one-season signing, though Harrow seems to have been taken care of in the mid-credits part. It's tricky to figure out where and when that final stinger takes place. Was Harrow in a real asylum or in a mind-asylum as part of his containment? Did Jake kill real people and bust Harrow out of an actual place or was this a mental assassination by Khonshu, who somehow has access to Jake on a different plane? Either way, it's not too confusing to bog anything down here. Moon Knight's prepped us for this type of reality-bending bamboozling.
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