Moon night is almost over with only one more episode left after this one. And There will be spoilers in this breakdown of the episode.
Beginning of the Episode
The episode begins with a quick flash of marc's mother in a scene in which he's about to be abused as a child which is what causes mental disorder, but we'll get to that in a moment. This is followed by a quick flash of the scene with taweret at the end of episode 4. Before we find marc still in Arthur harrow's office at the mental facility.
Mark's face is all beat up as if he just got into a fight with the staff at the facility. That doesn't actually happen but in a way it's showing that mark is beating himself up more on that in a moment.
Taweret's Purpose
After a brief conversation with dr harrow we're back with mark and steven standing in front of towred. We covered the egyptian goddess in our breakdown of episode 4 .
But she is mainly known as the goddess of maternity and childbirth. Her purpose in the series is more akin to her role in egyptian mythology to cleanse and purify the dead so they can safely pass into the afterlife.
Tower makes mention of jawat the egyptian underworld which is a sign marc is actually dead and this isn't happening in his fractured mind.
Black Panther Connection
It should also be noted that tylret mentioned the ancestral plane which is a nod to black panther. When t'challa consumes the heart-shaped herb he sees the ancestral plane. In the comics wakandan and egyptian gods are sometimes one of the same, which makes this a possible hint toward a future connection between moon knight and black panther in the mcu.
Scales of justice
Mark and steven find themselves on a ship as towrett is ferrying them into the afterlife. You can see the scales of justice on the deck of the ship. These are the same scales that arthur harrow has tattooed on his arm that he uses to judge people. your heart is weighed against the feather mat which represents truth and justice.
In egyptian mythology if your heart is heavier than the feather Ammit devours your soul. But in the show this has changed to being thrown overboard and turned into stone. If your heart is lighter than the feather you can move on to the field of reeds which is a similar ideology to heaven. When arthur tried to judge stephen earlier in the series he said his heart was in chaos and couldn't be judged.
The same thing happens here. Tower tells mark and stephen that they need to look through their memories in order to balance their heart so it can be properly weighed. However if they take too long they will automatically be pulled down into the sands and turned to stone. Marc's heart is unbalanced because it's incomplete due to his fractured mind. He must dig through his memories and accept his childhood trauma in order to balance his heart.
Meaning of the Mental Facility
Mark and steven head back into the mental facility which is just a way for them to visualize the underworld because it's not something that the human mind can easily comprehend. Tallart also mentions that it's been a while since anyone has passed through there.
This is because most people in modern society do not worship the egyptian gods like they did in ancient times. That lack of faith has not only caused the gods to retreat to another realm but it also means people no longer pass through the underworld like mark and steven are currently doing. This is kind of like an actual projection except their physical body is actually dead.
Marc's Memory
Marc and steven start looking into the rooms of the mental facility which are filled with memories of their life. They get to a room with a number of dead bodies which represents all the people mark has killed during his time as moon knight. New york is mentioned here which is actually where mark lives in the comics. This was changed to london for the series because too many mcu characters already live in new york.
Marc's Brother
When a child appears steven follows him into another room that serves as mark's childhood. It's here that we learn marc had a brother randall. As children the two went out venturing and randall ended up dying because he drowned when a cave flooded.
This is different from the comics in which randall actually lives to see his brother become moon knight. In fact randall eventually becomes shadow knight thinking he's also an avatar of konshu and ends up with similar powers to moon knight. It doesn't seem as though that will happen in the mcu but with the multiverse and the general ability of egyptian gods to bring people back to life you never know.
As we go through marc's childhood he wants to keep certain things from stephen which is partially what's keeping his heart in a chaotic state.
Steven Grant's Origin
We learned that marc's mother blamed him for the death of his brother and it caused her to lose her mind a bit as well. She even beat and abused mark. This caused his mind to break and he created the personality of stephen in order to protect himself from the trauma.
The indiana jones-like explorer from the show mark was watching in the mental facility in the last episode was named dr grant and he wasn't afraid of anything. Marc used that idea to create his second personality even going as far as to name him steven grant. Whenever he couldn't handle his mother's abuse stephen, would take over to protect marc.
Marc moves out when he gets a little older and stephen didn't need to take over as much when it. Eventually flashes back to mark and dr harrow back at the mental facility stephen has now taken over and the wounds from earlier are no longer visible on his face.
The Facility is Fake
Steven refuses to believe that his mother is dead but eventually accepts this when hero pretends to call his mother on the phone. This act caused steven to face the reality of his mother's death no longer hiding in denial.
This also shows that the mental facility is all part of the egyptian underworld as stephen and marc visualized this in order to deal with their trauma.
Their Mother's Death
Two months ago their mother died and mark tried to go to the shiva for her. A shiva is the first seven days following a jewish funeral. Marc couldn't go inside the house and steven ended up taking over once again to protect marc from the memories of his childhood trauma.
This is where his mind started to fracture even more and he could no longer keep the two personalities separate as they started to bleed into one another. This is what we've seen throughout the series. Marc blames himself for his brother's death.
This coupled with the abuse from his mother and his father's unwillingness to properly take care of the situation is what really caused marc's mind to fracture and for his heart to be unbalanced.
Moon knight Origin
We see mark's raid on the dig site where layla's father died. It does not show marc's partner bushman but he is mentioned again. Everyone at the dig site is dead killed by bushmen and mark is shown crawling into conscious temple.
Marc was about to end his own life when konshu speaks to him and convinces mark to become his avatar. While technically konchu did save mark's life this is more about mental manipulation with konshu taking advantage of mark and getting a new avatar in the process.
This is slightly different from the comics where mark is actually dead and khonshu revives him.
Time is Up
All of these memories nearly balances their heart but time is up. Servants of the dead made to look like people marc has killed board the ship and fight marc in an effort to drag him overboard to his permanent death.
Stephen helps mark fight them off but ends up going overboard himself. steven is turned into stone but with stephen gone mark's heart becomes balanced and he ends up in the field of reeds as the episode comes to an end.
The plan from here is for mark to return to the world of the living. He won't have the ability to heal or any of his other moon knight powers but he'll be alive again. That's all he needs. Because once he frees konshu all of his powers will return and he can stop Harrow andAmmit.
What is Next
Souls of the people Ammit judge can already be seen falling into the underworld meaning Harrow has likely already unleashed Ammit or is about to. Time is running out as marc will have to regain his moon knight powers and stop harrow and anmit before it's too late.
Jake and Steven
We don't yet know if we'll see the third personality jake in the final episode or if we'll even see steven again. This episode seems to take steven out of the picture it's possible mark's mind is still somewhat fractured especially after he eventually comes back to life and reconnects with konshu. And there have been multiple hints at the third personality which would indicate mark's mind is still fractured. It's also possible that mr knight could become steven's new persona with that version of moon knight occasionally appearing at times when steven would have appeared to help marc out of a situation. Either way we'll find out for sure next week.
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