1x06 Gods and Monsters

:white_check_mark:86% :thumbsup:19 :thumbsdown:3 = YOU SHOULD WATCH IT!

THUMBS UP:

This is easily the best episode from Moon Knight's/Mr Knight's perspective, and the latter finally feels like something more than just forced comic relief. It's a pity we didn't get this earlier.

This is a Layla-centric episode and May Calamawy acts her heart out, perfectly capturing the desperate, heartbroken and defiant nature of the character, still trying to get over Marc's death while saving the world in the process. She has a particularly wonderful moment toward the middle, where she is performing a double-act.

So they make Layla a superhero here (the Scarlet Beatle?) - somewhat unexpected, but very welcome because she is a lovely character I'd like to see more of.

The last episode perfectly ramps up the tension and the stakes by showing Harrow's, and by extension, Ammit's, full power.
We are also given good emotional closure, by having Marc accept Steven and thereby ending the inner turmoil that has haunted him, so far.

Eternals gave us epic battles with space gods, and Moon Knight offers a great time with a one on one duel between two real gods.
It's mostly straightforward action in this one, which provides a nice final chapter in this six-part saga.

They've put the majority of the money and effort into the CGI in these last two episodes because they both look good. Ammit here is up to the usual Disney standards.

Watch the end credits scene! It finally provides an answer to the hints we've been getting about a third Marc persona.

THUMBS DOWN:

The ending feels almost too brief, not like a season finale, but like a comic book run cancelled mid-run.

Is it just me or does Layla's superhero persona feel like a Marvelized version of the DCEU's Wonder Woman?

It is somewhat annoying that the last episode of the season is also the shortest one, considering how much there's still left to do heading into the episode.

[7.6/10] The climax of a superhero story tends to be my least favorite part. Usually, it’s all action and no substance. To some extent, that's true of this season finale. Sure, there’s important character beats throughout. But there’s also a giant crocodile god fighting a giant pigeon skeleton, and a three-way (arguably four-way fight) between Marc/Steven, Layla, and Harrow. And there’s a pantheon’s worth of deities and avatars slain, souls sucked up from regular joes, and plenty of random mooks turned into cannon fodder for the good guys. If you want action and spectacle, “Gods and Monsters” has you covered.

But for the most part, I dig it. I’m impressed at how much Moon Knight is willing to go all in on the weirdness here. They don’t blanche at having a human being seem reverential toward a giant lizard deity, or two kaijus do battle in the Egyptian desert Power Rangers-style, or having Moon Knight himself develop the power of flight and zoom into battle with his crescent cape. This show plays things very straight, without much in the way of irony, but isn’t afraid to get very comic book-y with all of this, which I admire.

Along the way, there’s some eminently solid character beats. There’s power in Marc’s choice to essentially give up Heaven in order to save Steven. It leads to the man reconciling these two parts of himself, and becoming a more harmonized, actualized, more complete self that gives him the unity of person he needs to stand up to Ahmet. Marc’s speech to his other half is wholesome, and there’s great joy in watching the two of them switch seamlessly between armor and suit, one self and the other, showing the way that this man is finally at peace with these two parts of his psyche rather than setting them against one another.

There’s good material for Layla too. Not being steeped in Moon Knight lore, I was surprised to see her become the avatar for a hippo goddess and get a badass new suit of her own, but damn if it wasn’t cool. For as much as I gripe about an action-heavy finale episode, her moves were probably the coolest, with some excellent use of her wings to deflect bullets and energy beams, and some fluid movements that made the hand-to-hand combat sections hit harder.

The divine upgrade comes with some important character beats as well. She’s the one who free Khonshu, helping to give her agency and purpose beyond being Marc’s partner, which I appreciate, More to the point, Marc doesn’t save her from Khonshu, she deliberately rejects his invitation to become the new avatar, having witnessed what being in his service did to the life of someone she loves. Her deciding to become the temporary avatar of the hippo goddess, and hearing from the keeper of the afterlife how much her father in The Good Place will be pleased by this, is a nice and cathartic win for her.

Hell, I even like the development we get for Harrow. He is not just some power-hungry megalomaniac, but a true believer. It’s hard to explain why, but there’s something pathos-ridden, even endearing when he unleashes Ahmet, learns that his scales are unbalanced, and basically says, “I understand that you have to kill me” with sadness but acceptance. He doesn’t ask for special treatment. He’d hoped that his service would be his penance, but he believes so deeply in his cause that he’s willing to accept any outcome. That's both admirable given what’s at stake for him and frightening given his goals.

The finale likewise gestures to a broader thematic point that's interesting. It comes down to whether to punish people for what you expect them to do versus letting them actually make their choices. It’s the broader philosophical conflict between Ahmet and Khonshu beyond the whole soul-gulping, giant monster punching routine. Discerning when and whether to act in the name of justice is a tricky business, and while this isn’t the deepest exploration of it, it’s enough to give the show some thematic heft beyond Marc’s personal concerns.

There’s even a decent turn, with Marc refusing to kill an Amhet-infused Harrow because it would be a violation of the tenets they’re fighting for. I’m not sure I actually buy it, since both Harrow and Ahmet already made their choices. Punishing them for it now doesn’t seem like the sort of preemptive attempt at justice the show’s implicitly against. But whatever, it’s good enough for the broad thematic strokes this show has in tow.

Otherwise, the action itself is solid, with the CGI characters in particular feeling weightier, more detailed, and more vivid than a lot of similar computer generated figures do. The fights drag on a bit, and the editing certainly chops them up, but there’s soon cool sequences throughout. And watching Steven demand their release before he’s willing to help is a good beat for his self-actualization along with Marc and Layla’s.

I’ll admit, I still don’t know exactly what’s going on with the mental institution business. The self-actualization of Marc and Steven seems to allow them to overcome it, and Flanders-y Harrow’s bloody footprints seem to suggest it’s just a realm of “imagination” or something and not the real deal. But it still seems like the show’s playing a bit coy there or, more charitably, just over my head.

I’m also a fan of the post-credit reveal of the third facet of Marc’s personality, Jeremy, who represents his more murderous side. It’s a decent twist, with more than a few hints to that point, and suggests that Marc’s past may be more complicated than even he realizes. We’ll have to see if they ever go anywhere with it, but it at least closes the loop on those teases and creates more room to run if they want to keep exploring Marc’s thorny relationship with death.

On the whole, I liked Moon Knight. Its tone could be a little all over the place sometimes, but it had some outstanding central performances, a cool hero/villain conflict, and some thought-provoking material when delving into what exactly split Marc’s personality. Not everything landed, but the show was ambitious and bold in what it attempted, which counts for a lot in my book. I’m definitely up for seeing more adventures from Marc/Steven and Layla, which is a good sign.