WARNING: Contains spoilers for this and previous episodes
Well we're just a tad emotional over here. Everyone thought this would be the episode where we got to see the third personality sharing the body but no! What we did get though was a superb episode telling us the backstory of Marc and Steven.
The episode sees Taweret, the Hippo-headed goddess, guiding Marc and Steven to the afterlife. In one of the show's few nods to the wider MCU Taweret mentions that there are other afterlife's including the Ancestral Plane that we saw in Black Panther. Straight from Egyptian mythology comes the concept of their hearts needing to balance with a feather in order to make it to Heaven. This became a great vehicle in the show to have the characters explore their memories, or more specifically to have Steven explore Marc's memories.
Marc's story is devastating. As a child he was with his brother exploring a cave when it flooded, killing Randall. Marc's mother then blamed Marc for Randall's death and abused him. It was at this point that Marc create the alter-ego of Steven Grant based on the Indiana Jones knock-off we saw briefly in the previous episode. Marc became a mercenary but turned against the orders of his boss but couldn't save the intended targets including Layla's father. Marc was mortally wounded in the process and was about to end his misery with a bullet to the head when Konshu appeared and Marc became his avatar. We then saw one final moment before the start of the series where Marc was trying to visit his father after the death of his mother and he could no longer control the identity of Steven, who believed his mother was alive.
It's a really dark story that was told exceptionally well by having Steven see it for the first time. We've largely been focused on Steven during the series and Marc was far less easy to connect to as a viewer. This episode did a fantastic job of telling his story and showing us how and why he is the man behind the Moon Knight mask.
The episode ended with Steven being dragged to Hell and destroyed whilst Marc made it to Heaven. Marvel have often revived characters we thought were dead but I think this might actually be a rare case where they stay dead. The whole point of the episode was Marc dealing with his trauma and no longer needing the personality of Steven to protect him so I think it's unlikely we will see Steven again. How Marc is going to return from Heaven to stop Harrow and Ammit is unclear at this point.
Of course, it's still possible that this is all happening in Marc's mind. We continued to see Marc spend time in the 'asylum' that appeared in episode four. It's still not impossible that the series will conclude by showing us once and for all that this is all happening in Marc's head and the whole Taweret thing was just a way of him dealing with his trauma. The fact that we saw only Dr. Harrow's office in this episode suggests that Harrow himself is attempting to manipulate Marc, perhaps somehow using Ammit's powers to access the afterlife. If he is doing that it's not entirely clear what he is trying to achieve because actually he does seem to be helping Marc out quite a bit.
The final episode has a lot to cover. Are we going to see Jake Lockley after all? How is Marc going to return to Earth? Can he stop Harrow and Ammit and release Konshu? And is this all happening in Marc's mind? I can't wait to see how it ends!
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