Moon Knight S01E01 Review: Split Personality

Moon Knight, Season 1, Episode 1: The Goldfish Problem

So I really actually like Moon Knight from the comics. I don't actually know all that much about Moon Knight himself, but the bits and bytes of him that I've seen over the years of reading superhero comics have made me really appreciate this utterly crazy, multiple-personality brutal character. He's like Batman and the Punisher rolled into one, with some mystic Egyptian themes tossed in, with the craziness ramped up to eleven. But I don't really know why I never sat down and read huge chunks of a Moon Knight comic run. I do know enough to really appreciate what they did with this episode, for sure!

As the first Disney+ Marvel show to technically introduce a brand-new adaptation of a character into the mainstream audience (What If technically starred Uatu; and I'd argue that both leads for Loki are kinda-sorta new characters), Moon Knight does what the Netflix Marvel shows did in the past and ended up giving us a brand-new saga in the MCU continuity by introducing the audience so someone new. 

And "the Goldfish Problem" does an amazing job at taking it slow and giving us an idea of what the Moon Knight character concept is in a show-not-tell concept. We hang around the persona of Steven Grant, mild-mannered, dorky museum gift shop guy who's just trying to make ends meet. Some things are not quite right, though, and I feel like the show does a great job at showing how it's all easily explained by 'alternate personalities/movie-ized Dissociative Identity Disorder' and how it's foreshadowed even early on with Steve Grant having dates he didn't remember making, or tying himself to sleep to avoid what he attributes to sleepwalking. 

In a lesser show, spending a chunk of the first episode just going 'is the magic real or not?' is something that could very easily backfire and make the pilot episode boring -- refer to Iron Fist for how not to do it. I think Moon Knight gets away with it not just because of Oscar Isaac's amazing charm in playing the persona of Steve Grant, but also because both the supernatural factors (i.e. Khonshu's moon magic) and the mental illness (multiple personalities) are real. 

I do really like how we transition to the madness, and how our introduction to the multiple personalities, to Marc Spector and Khonshu, is as scattered and confusing as how Steve himself experiences it. The first-episode-action scene is him waking up randomly in some countryside (implied to be in Egypt) where Steve Grant, the 'gift-shop-ist' from London, finds himself smack dab in the midst of mercenaries shooting at him, a cultist with a strange tattoo based on the Egyptian crocodile judge-god Ammut, and a deep voice in his head that can command his fingers to clench around a mysterious beetle totem. 

I love how scattered everything is and yet how ultimately easy it is for anyone with the barest hint of literature savviness to piece things together. And if it's not obvious enough, Steve 'glitches out' and stutters, leading to very well-done snap-cuts to him regaining control of his body after Moon Knight takes over, beating the shit out of mercenaries and leaving his hands bloody. It's equal parts horrifying as it is comedic due to Oscar Isaac's amazing acting, as well as some pretty amazing comical scenes like Khonshu going "did you seriously just throw the gun?"; Steve waking up to find himself driving backwards; or giant cupcakes and the black comedy with the falling logs.

Again, I love that the MCU propensity of comedy translates to some hilarious black comedy in this case, something that I felt was kind of missing in the Netflix shows. 

Again, the whole episode really sets up a lot of great mysteries that I'm sure will be covered in the future, swapping around between Steve's "dreams" that turn out to be real, him losing two entire days (that date is soul-crushing) and increasingly terrifying horror moments. It goes from pretty subtle things like reflections not working as they should -- seriously, pay attention to Steve's reflections after his little action sequence. Even before the massive hall-of-mirrors sequence near the end, we get some signs that things aren't doing quite as right. And there's also KHONSHU! Impressively CGI'd into a horrifying being, everyone's favourite bird-skull-headed god ends up terrifying poor Steve in that elevator hallway, and later on just keeps showing up. Really, really love that the focus of this first episode isn't just a by-the-books origin story, but rather on how this poor museum worker is quite literally and unwillingly thrust into a world of mysterious phone numbers, missing days, dead goldfishes and the Cult of Ammut.

The bad guy plot, so as it is, involves a pretty cool villain. Arthur Harrow (played by Ethan Hawke) is introduced to us in the first scene of the show with that very uncomfortable glass-shards-in-shoes thing, and his stated goal revolves around the Egyptian deity Ammut -- in real-world mythology, Ammut is the crocodile judge in the underworld, who would judge a person's heart against a feather, and would grant them access to specific parts of the afterlife depending on the deeds they did in life. The MCU version of Ammut is a bit more vengeful, noting that he attempted to judge people in life before they died, and was held back by the 'indolence of the other gods'. Very neat worldbuilding for sure.

I really do love how Harrow ends up being shown as a charismatic cult leader -- what with the moving judging tattoo that causes him to deem his followers worthy or instantly kill them. Absolutely love his conversation with Steve Grant in the museum, too, with the very unsettling revelation that so many of the tourists and guards are already part of the Cult of Ammut. (And then we get the Avatar-the-movie and Avatar-the-cartoon joke, which cracked me up so bad). A very interesting villain from the get-go, and hopefully Harrow would remain interesting throughout the entire season. Please no more surprise final-episode villains, Marvel, please and thank you.

And then, of course, we get the epic final scene. Poor Steve is stalked by some hideous skeletal dog-skull-headed demon in the museum, and he finally comes face-to-face with his alter-ego in that very appropriate double-mirror bathroom, and in a transformation scene that has very strong Tokusatsu vibes, we get Marc Spector finally taking over of the body on-screen for the first time, and mummy bandages slither up his body as he transforms to Moon Knight while Egyptian hieroglyphics glow in the walls of the room. Very fucking badass. Did no one ever give Moon Knight a mummy-themed outfit in the comics? Well, I'm happy the MCU costume designers did it. 

Very, very powerful first episode, and I really do feel like Oscar Isaac is actually the perfect choice for this with how easily he communicates when he's channeling Marc Spector or Steve Grant (though Steve's hilarious faux-British accent helps too). Very entertained by this for sure. More, please. 

Marvel Easter Egg Corner:

• I won't do a (potentially spoilery) full intro on who Moon Knight or Arthur Harrow is, but I'll do note some Easter Eggs.
• "Steven Grant" is already one of the personas of Moon Knight from the comics, but I do like to note that it's also the first two names of Captain America (Steven Grant Rogers) so it's possible that Marc Spector took that as an inspiration when crafting this mild-mannered civilian persona. 
• Among the Ennead textbooks Steve is poring through are textbooks on Asgard and Wakanda. 
• Other than the massive lines of Layla missed calls, the one sole non-Layla name is DuChamp, referencing Jean-Paul "Frenchie" DuChamp, Moon Knight's sidekick. It's the 32nd missed call, and Moon Knight debuted on Werewolf By Night #32.
• More of an internal Easter Egg, but in addition to Marc replacing Gus the goldfish, all the postcards from Steve's "mom" are the same postcards you could see in the museum, meaning that Marc probably mailed them to Steve to keep him essentially 'docile' in this civilian life. 
• Less of an Easter Egg but more of a foreshadowing, but Steve Grant's phone wallpaper being a crocodile and him signing off his calls to his mom (which may or may not exist) with 'later, gator' might be a reference to presumably Ammut herself.