Moon Knight Episode 4 Review: Things Get Freaky Crazy

Moon Knight Episode 4 goes full Indiana Jones on us, delivering the biggest episode yet in Marvel’s event series. However, rather than just do a classic tomb-raiding adventure in Egypt, Moon Knight has to take things a step further in the direction of total head-scratching “WTF!” and the final act of Episode 4 certainly does that! With only two episodes left to go, Moon Knight has certainly set up some ambitious stakes to be resolved, for both the character and his world. 

Here’s everything that went down in Moon Knight Episode 4, “The Tomb” (SPOILERS)! PLUS: Scroll below for Biggest Questions From Moon Knight Episode 4 Explained! 

All Those Imprisoned Gods… 

Moon Knight Episode 4 opens by picking up from the cliffhanger ending of Episode 3, in which the moon god Khonshu was imprisoned in a statue (or ushabti) for helping Marc Spector and Layla chart a path to Ammit’s Tomb. We see one of the Egyptian god avatars take Khonshu’s statue to a room inside the Great Pyramid and place it on a shelf alongside dozens of other statues that presumably also serve as prisons for other Marvel deities. 

The trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder also premiered this week – a film that will see gods lives being threatened by a being called Gorr The God-Butcher (Christian Bale). Could Moon Knight‘s setup for a major godly jailbreak have any connection to Thor 4?

It’s Deadly In The Desert

The other part of Moon Knight Episode 3’s cliffhanger left Marc Spector/Steven Grant/Moon Knight powerless and incapacitated in the middle of the Egyptian desert. Well, that bad situation only gets worse as Layla (May Calamawy) is stuck trying to protect Marc (not to mention her own life) from a truck full of baddies with some big guns. Layla proves wily, and takes out the villains with their own ammunition, as Steven finally gets back on his feet. 

Steven and Layla follow the lead Khonshu provided and hightail it across the desert toward the location of Ammit’s tomb. 

Desert Heat 

As Steven/Marc and Layla play catch-up with Arthur Harrow’s (Ethan Hawke) cult in reaching Ammit’s tomb, the love triangle between Marc, Steven, and Layla gets a bit hotter. Steven and Layla finally (awkwardly!) kiss just as their about to enter the tomb; leading up to that charged moment, Steven confesses to Layla that Marc pushed her away to keep Khonshu from drafting her as his next avatar. 

Naturally, Marc and Steven experience some serious interpersonal tension over Steven and Layla hooking up – though Marc is eventually somewhat grateful Steven told her the truth about Khonshu’s desire to recruit her. That said, Marc does get Steven with one good sucker punch to their face for kissing his wife. 

The Great Voice of Ammit 

The inside of Ammit’s tomb proves to be an intricate maze, structured like the symbol of the Eye of Horus. Steven’s knowledge of the six paths of Horus helps him and Layla find their way through the tomb and eventually discover the tomb of Ammit’s final avatar: Alexander The Great!

Being in Ammit’s tomb also brings the issue of Layla’s dead archaeologist father to the forefront, forcing some long-awaited resolution on that front, as well (more on that below…). 

Marvel Goes Full Horror

The exploration of Ammit’s tomb also brings us what is arguably Marvel’s most horror-themed sequence in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe Saga. 

Marc and Layla’s rush to catch Harrow had them miss a lot of warning signs that Harrow’s cult of followers was meeting a grisly fate. Well, Steven and Layla can’t really ignore things any longer when they stumble into a chamber where a zombified sorcerer priest of Ammit is carving out organs from one of Harrow’s unlucky followers, in preparation for Ammit’s resurrection. 

Layla ends up getting the worst of it, as the zombie priest nearly nabs her. Ever the badass, Layla dispatches the monster over a cliff. Meanwhile, Marvel fans everywhere who stayed up to watch Moon Knight Episode 4 when it first dropped are losing all hope of sleep after this sequence. 

If this is what Marvel Studios is willing to go with horror scares, bring on Blade, Ghost Rider, and that entire Midnight Sons franchise!  

The Truth About Marc & Layla’s Father 

Layla doesn’t get a second to breathe after taking out a zombie before Arthur Harrow is back in her face and trying to get into her head about Marc’s connection to her father’s death. And this time, Harrow’s manipulation works (even if Layla doesn’t give him the satisfaction of showing it). 

As Steven achieves the height of discovering Ammit’s ushabti statue inside the “gullet” of Alexander The Great, he quickly drops to the low of having a furious Layla accosting him. Layla demands Marc take control and forces him to finally admit the truth: his “partner” in a mercenary group got “greedy” and killed her father along with everyone at the archeology dig site. Layla blames Marc for bringing a “killer” across her father’s path, and for making their entire relationship his twisted guilt trip indulgence.  

The question here is: Is Marc being fully honest? 

While “Marc” may not have killed Layla’s father, there is still this mysterious (and brutally ruthless) third personality lurking inside Marc/Steven. If that is the “partner” Marc is referring to, his tragic romance with Layla is even more doomed than we thought… 

Dead (Or Something Like It)

The end of Moon Knight Episode 4 is going to break the minds of Marvel fans everywhere! 

When Harrow comes to take Ammit’s ushabti from Marc and Layla, Marc tries to fight his way out, only to have Harrow pull a gun and shoot him twice – seemingly fatally. But instead of death, Marc wakes up in a very different reality: one where every character and plot point from Moon Knight are apparently delusions of Marc Spector’s mind, drawn from the mental institution where he is a patient. In this mental hospital reality, Harrow is Marc’s doctor, Layla is a fellow patient he’s bonded with, and “Moon Knight” is just a homemade action figure Marc carries around. “Doctor Steven Grant” is a TV show hero (with his own WandaVision style faux program). Drugs have Marc woozy and barely functioning, and despite the best advice of “Doctor Harrow” Marc refuses to accept this wild new reality he’s trapped in. 

Moon Knight Episode 4 ends with Marc finding out this “reality” is not at all that, when he finds his Steven Grant locked in a sarcophagus in one asylum room and frees his other self. The two sneak out of the asylum wing (not bothering to investigate that ominous sarcophagus holding their third personality!) only to find the doors guarded by a humanoid hippopotamus in Egyptian garb. Both Marc and Steven (and we the audience) freak the F out. 

What Is The Asylum Reality in Moon Knight Episode 4?

Big question takeaway of this episode – and there will be many theories. However, longtime Moon Knight comic fans may recognize that this is the MCU version of an infamous staple of the character: Namely, a psychic world where Moon Knight’s various personas co-exist and interact with each other, as well as Khonshu and other mystical entities and deities. 

Is Marc Spector Dead? 

Marc/Steven is probably hanging on somewhere between life and death after being shot by Harrow. But Marc has been here before: the night Khonshu found him dying and resurrected him as his Moon Knight avatar. As stated, Moon Knight comics over various years have found fun ways to play with Marc’s personality disorder and the way his mind organizes its personalities (or gets lost in them). “Doctor Harrow,” says the quiet part out loud when he says it’s a “psychic world”; if Marc can presumably get his fractured psyche into some kind of working order, it will probably unlock the necessary mystical power for him to survive – and defeat Harrow. 

Who Is Moon Knight’s Third Personality? 

Most Likely “Jake Lockley,” the other personality Marc Spector/Moon Knight often uses in the comics. In the MCU re-imagining, “Jake” seems to be a more violent and unscrupulous persona than “Marc Spector” – “darkness” to Steven’s “light,” with Marc being the middle of those scales. Jake could end up being a pivotal key to this character arc in the show. Marc, Steven, and Jake finally connecting and finding balance in co-existence could be the resolution that ends Marc’s internal “chaos” and finally sets up “Moon Knight” to be a major MCU hero. 

What Is The Egyptian Hippo Goddess At The End of Moon Knight Episode 4?

We’ll have to wait and see the full explanation – BUT, there is an Egyptian deity that is a hippopotamus: Ahti, who is described as “A malevolent hippopotamus goddess.” In Egyptian culture, hippos were generally representative of strength and disorder – which is pretty much the epitome of Moon Knight. Ahti was considered a weird and ominous goddess because of her animal associations (hippo body, wasp head) – so again, she would be a perfect representative for this twist in Moon Knight! 

Marvel’s Moon Knight streams new episodes Wednesdays on Disney+.