Moon Knight, Season 1, Episode 2: Summon the Suit
The second episode of Moon Knight is a bit slower compared to the very excellent first episode, but amidst way too many reviews warning that 'the series goes downhill after the first episode', I found this to be... perfectly respectable? I suppose I perhaps have a much higher tolerance for sub-par superhero shows after literal years of reviewing so many of them, but I did really enjoy this episode of Moon Knight. Perhaps not quite as much as the first one, which had the great allure of basically being a horror story. Episodes 2 and 3 onwards start to unravel the mystery behind the horror, the little man behind the giant floating head, and that might cause some viewers to feel like some of the magic is gone.
But not me -- I know full well what we're getting into when we're getting into Moon Knight. Egyptian gods and multiple identities and instant suit transformations leading to crescent-moon-a-rangs being used as weapon.
A lot of 'Summon the Suit' builds up on what's already established in episode 1, and sees how poor, beleaguered sweet gift-shop-guy Steven Grant deals with the strange 'dream' of the first episode where he transforms into a badass hooded magic-mummy vigilante. After the expected comedic routine of Steven Grant showing the museum staff of... absolutely nothing, because the anubis-jackal CGI monster was apparently invisible to us normal mortals. Steven Grant gets laid off, and the poor, confused bloke ends up stumbling into more and more signs of Marc Spector's double-life -- including finding the scarab plot device and having certain conversations with Marc Spector, who starts giving the audience a fair amount of exposition about their true nature -- that they're the avatar of the Egyptian god Khonshu. The multiple-personality thing is something that Steven shouldn't even be aware of, but now he's in control and he's not too willing to listen to the untrustworthy, potentially-psychopathic alter ego Marc.
Now admittedly, I went into this already knowing this 'twist', if you could even call it that. But I suppose slowly peeling off the layers of the onions and showing us not just the multiple personalities but also the concept behind Moon Knight's powers... and, a bit more interestingly for someone who's already well-vested into the character's "gimmick", the actual events that had happened in this particular adaptation.
So as Steven Grant runs around being pursued by a very irate Khonshu (the show makes the best use of Khonshu's CGI model in dark corridors or in brief shots where he's just ominously in the background), he ends up running into Marc Spector's wife Layla El-Faouly, who's none too happy that Marc has basically ghosted her for months. Layla thinks "Steven" is just Marc really getting into a role, and Steven himself is basically super-confused about everything and barely realizing the whole 'another personality takes control of my body every now and then' thing, and... and I feel like the whole Layla scene does a pretty good job at giving us both backstory and also letting the multiple-personality thing take some time to sink to the audience.
The Ammit (we're apparently using this spelling instead of 'Ammut') Cult ends up taking Steven Grant to see Arthur Harrow again. And other than some hilarious butchering of the Mandarin language, Harrow's apparently built up a small community and shows what an utopia it is -- something that really speaks to poor, confused Steven Grant. The fact that all this 'god' nonsense, Marc Spector's obvious streak of violence and mean ol' Khonshu making creepy ominous winds are really confusing Steven Grant. It's a bit slow-paced, but I did really like that Harrow's pulling out the charismatic cult leader side of things to try and essentially seduce poor, gullible Steven Grant to his side. Harrow also claims that he was Khonshu's previous 'avatar', in the middle of expositing about Ammit's goal of judging all the guilty before they have done their sin.
The whole 'killing babies' thing, and the fact that Harrow doesn't have an argument for it, ends up causing Steven Grant to finally realize that the guy walking around with glass in his shoe soles is bad news -- that, and Marc, Khonshu and Layla all screaming at him to 'summon the suit'. Ultimately, Harrow sics another jackal demon-thing at Steven Grant again, and we get some very, very cool action scenes.
And... okay, the invisible doggo demon is pretty neat (and, I wager, saves the studio some CGI) but definitely my favourite part is the seamless transition from Steven Grant to Mr. Knight -- I did find it really hilarious that they decided to adapt suave Mr. Knight as the Moon Knight suit when summoned by Grant. And then when Steven "Mr. Knight" Grant gets a bit too overwhelmed, we get the very Tokustatsu-esque transformation as Moon Knight's bandages wrap around him as Marc Spector takes control. We get some very cool shots, too -- though two back-to-back shots of Moon Knight running in front of the moon might be too much -- and the debut of the moonarangs.
This leads to what seems to be an ongoing season-long conflict -- Marc Spector essentially takes full control of the body in the way that Steven has been doing so throughout this episode, and shoves Steven into the locker. Khonshu also proves to be a lot more of a jackass than he initially seemed, because he's essentially holding Marc hostage by threatening to use Layla as the next avatar. And then the episode ends with Marc/Steven in Egypt.
Again... none of these episodes would have worked all that well without Oscar Isaac's amazing performance, and how he effortlessly shows off his multiple personalities even in-suit as Mr./Moon Knight. Admittedly, Marc Spector's super-duper cool, but come on -- Steven Grant's over-the-top Bri'ish accent as he swaggers around with his newfound Mr. Knight super-strength? You can't tell me that's not at least a little bit funny! "Psycho Colonel Sanders" indeed, and my absolute favourite -- "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee; my name's Steven, with a VEE!"
Multiple-personality superheroes isn't something that's brand-new -- Doom Patrol's Crazy Jane is perhaps one of my favourite, but James McAvoy's character in Split as well as the titular Legion were also amazing -- but how engaging the main actor is would definitely make or break the show. And as someone who had to carry two pretty slow-paced episode essentially on the back of his acting prowess, I should say that, yeah, Poe Dameron and Apocalypse were absolutely poor showcases of what Oscar Isaac's true acting range could be. Enjoying this a whole ton for sure.
Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:
- While not named such, Steven Grant's Moon Knight suit is the "Mr. Knight" persona from the comics.
- Marc Spector's profile number starts with 1975, the year the character debuted. A bus has the numbers "WBN 0032", which is Werewolf by Night #32, the specific issue Moon Knight first showed up.
- Global Repatriation Council ads -- first seen in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier -- show up in the buses.
- Harrow mentions that he used to be Khonshu's "Fist of Vengeance", which was a moniker Moon Knight took when he was temporarily wielding Ghost Rider powers.
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