Ok so Episode 1 of Moon Knight is now out on Disney Plus and the Marvel MCU show has a lot to unpack from it. Filled with easter eggs, hidden details and things you missed we follow things from the perspective of Marc Speccc….well we’ll get into it.
(featurette)
Ok so if you have absolutely no idea who Moon Knight is then the next part of the video is for you. First introduced in Werewolf By Night 32 Moon Knight or rather Marc Spector was a hero that was often compared to Batman but Marvel has done a great job of separating the two.
Born the son of a Jewish Rabbi, Marc thought his father was a coward because he fled Europe during the second world war in order to escape the holocaust. Marc wanted to make himself strong and thus he trained as a boxer before he joined the army. Marc ended up as a mercenary and during a mission to Egypt, he was betrayed by a man known as Raoul Bushman who left him at death’s door. Marc was carried before the Shrine Of Khonshu and in exchange for getting his life back, he promised to become the God’s avatar on Earth.
Marc returned to America and he became a vigilante equipped with Moonerangs, grappling hooks, a cape, a jet, a moon cave and a mansion but he’s not Batman…he’s not Batman. Marc adopted several other personalities including Steven Grant, a playboy millionaire and also Jake Lockley, a cab driver who had his ear close to the street.
Now Jake is pretty much missing from this first episode but we do get things from the perspective of Steven who has been changed up a lot from the comics. Rather than being a rich playboy, he’s now a museum staff member that has trouble sleeping. We know from the trailer that both Marc and Steven are gonna be going back and forth in Mirrors and the first episode is laced with the idea of reflections throughout.
The first comes when Marc goes to work and he walks through a puddle. Later when he pours his heart out to the mime we see a puddle is once more used. They do an amazing shot at this moment where you think you’re looking in the puddle on the bottom but it’s actually at the top.
Steven also wakes up after his nightmare and we get a shot of him inside what appears to be a pyramid with two reflections of him on the right and left. This could represent Steven and Jake and this is potentially referenced later on when he’s in the museum at night. He walks past the glass and we see two reflections remain behind potentially symbolising them.
This is mirrored on top of a mirror when he’s getting ready for the date and we see that he has 3 panes of glass to reflect his 3 personas. There’s also the elevator scene and he needs to stop being a smooth criminal, put on that white suit and come to grips with the man in the mirror-like Michael Jackson Gaddamn. As he leaves the bus we get one in the window and we know from trailers that he’ll have a transformation in a shot that looks similar to this.
The episode of course culminates in a bathroom filled with Mirrors and we can see that the back one is smashed which could be a metaphor for Marc breaking out from behind them. There are pretty much no superpowers used in this entire first episode and I absolutely love that they instead tease us with the mystery of what’s going on with Steven. Marvel shows are often criticised for trying to get us to come back every week with hints towards a big villain and they even removed scenes of Kingpin from Hawkeye so that we’d talk on social media about who the big bad was.
Way better storytelling to do it this way I think and most of the pieces end up on the board come to the end of this first entry.
Every Grain Of Sand
Now before we get into the breakdown of the episode we’d really appreciate you being the hero this video needs so hit that thumbs up button punk and don’t forget to subscribe as we’ll be going over the series every single week. In case you’re new here, this is the heavy spoilers show, I’m your host Paul aka Poon Knight…now let’s get into the video.
Ok so Episode 1 opens from the perspective of Arthur Harrow and we hear the song Every Grain Of Sand by Bob Dylan.
Grains of sand are of course plentiful out in Egypt but beyond that, the song has a meaning that ties into this scene. According to Bob’s brother, he recorded this after becoming a born again Christian and it takes us on a journey of spirituality.
Grains of sand are of course plentiful out in Egypt…make sure you stay subscribed for amazing facts like that, dear me.
Anyway, Harrow in the comics was a mad scientist that carried out human experiments during the second world war. He was given funding to continue these through the latter part of the 20th century and Moon Knight ended up putting a stop to them. Where the show differs is that it turns Harrow into a cult leader who is very much the hand of an Egyptian God that we don’t have confirmed as of now. Ethan Hawke has stated that Harrow is a David Koresh type figure who in real life said that he was the final prophet. Koresh created a cult that ended up having a shootout with the FBI and ATF in an event that was known as the Waco Siege.
It’s clear Harrow is willing to carry out acts of violence and at one point we see him sending his soldiers after Steven in order to gain a magical golden scarab.
Now, who this number 2 of the Gods is working for, we do learn and it’s Ammit the Crocodile headed God. Harrow has a cane with the creature’s head on it and also a tattoo that moves whilst judging souls.
There’s even a hint towards this when Steven is packing stuff for the gift shop and we see him pick up a box with the God’s head inside of it. Later on, when he walks through the Museum at night we can also catch a crocodile model hinting towards this.
Moon Knight has had several face-offs against Ammit and in the comics, they even masqueraded as a psychiatrist named Dr Emmett. This was during the Jeff Lemire run in which Marc was held prisoner at a hospital for the mentally ill which may end up popping up in the show. We have had shots in the trailer where he appears to be in one and that book itself was very much about Marc learning to embrace the other sides of his personality.
In addition to this Emmett also had orderlies that were secretly Jackals and they chased Marc throughout the hospital much like how Steven is chased by one at the end of the episode.
Harrow is extremely dedicated to them and God Ammit the guys in de-nile if he doesn’t wanna see me bust out these Egyptian Puns.
Walking On Broken Glass
Now we even see him smashing a glass at one point and placing the shards in his sandals and because of this, every single step he takes would be extremely painful. This religious penance explains why he needs a cane with him at all times and it might hint at his violent past that we could learn about in the series. Typically a religious penance is carried out in regards to make up for sins committed and these acts can range from saying hail mary’s all the way up to allowing rattlesnakes to bite you depending on what you follow.
Harrow weirdly dips his finger in the water and rubs it around the glass in order to make a noise and this might be seen as some form of Baptism or something, I dunno but the guy seems very dedicated.
From here we cut to the Marvel Studios logo which has had a slight update. Shang-Chi was added for Hawkeye and The Eternals and I believe that we now have an added shot of Doctor Strange in Infinity War as the character is taking on a more prominent role in the MCU. There are also the Eternals and the song you can hear in the background is A Man Without Love by Englebert Humperdinck.
This is clearly about Steven who’s completely alone, he doesn’t even wake up to a notification saying the new Heavy Spoilers video is out.
The idea of him waking up is also mirrored in the lyrics and this is reflected later on in the dream sequence in which we get Whams ‘Wake me up before you go go.’
We see Steven believes that he suffers from a sleeping disorder that means he wanders off in the night but this is later on revealed to be DID or dissociative identity disorder.
I believe that Steven remains in control when he’s awake because he’s making a conscious effort to stay that way, however when he goes to sleep Marc takes over and is able to become Moon Knight. This is hinted at in the REM or Rapid Eye Movement which typically takes place during sleep and it actually shows the handoff between Marc and Steven.
Later on, Steven misses an entire day and I think we might even get the blanks in this episode filled in later down the line.
Now Steven chains himself to the bed and also places tape on the door in order to see if it’s been opened or not. We later catch him attempting to do a Rubix cube and in this opening shot, we can actually see a completed one beside his bed. He’s kinda struggling with the one later on so I’d love it if we found out that Marc was actually doing this. Rubix cubes are of course made up of many sides that are all different shades, however, they can come together to create one whole.
I think it would be amazing if we watched Steven slowly solve this throughout the series and it would be some great symbolism if he completed it come to the end of episode 6. Now him wearing white and lying in the sheets might also be a nod to the Lemiere run in which he spent a lot of time in the hospital bed and at one point he even ended up making a cape and mask out of a pillowcase and sheet.
The sand around his bed could also be a nod to the ritual of putting a circle of salt around something in order to protect against evil forces.
Now Steven can’t remember his dreams or what happens on night and this idea of memory is reflected in his goldfish, which are known for having bad memories.
See kids, learn something new every day. Best easter eggs ever.
Stevens Mother
Steven leaves a voice note for his mother who has apparently sent him a postcard. Probably a load of crap and it’s likely someone from his past who he’s constantly ringing. Whoever it is, sends him lots of postcards of Egyptian landscapes and these are reflected in the fish tank which also has them. Marc bought them, you chump.
Steven signs off the call by saying.
So yeah, Alligators and Crocodiles are the new Mephisto.
Though he should be fully rested, Steven falls asleep on the bus because he’s exhausted and this adds a lot of weight to Marc taking over at night. Inside the museum, he gets chatting with a kid who asks..
This very much reflects Moon Knight who was saved from Death by Khonshu and over the years, the God has resurrected him several times. It’s even possible that when he wakes up in the field later on that this happened just after he’d died and this conversation has a lot going on in it.
Marc also talks about how the Egyptians believed that a person’s heart was weighed in the afterlife to see if they’d been a good person or not. This is very much what Harrow does later on and the tattoos on his arms even have scales on them to hammer this idea home.
It’s at this point we’re introduced to his boss Donna and every time I order a Donner, I get called Boss… a bit of a Kebab shop joke for you there.
Anyway, she gives him some boxes to carry including a scarab that looks a lot like the golden one we get later on. We know from the trailer that the wings on it open up and as I’ve been saying, it’s all connected.
I love this little bit here where he reassures himself that he’s steven and he taps his name badge to correct Donna. He’s managed to bag a date that he doesn’t even remember booking and this was clearly carried out by Marc because it’s at a steak house and Steven’s a vegan. When he learns he’s missed an entire day he ends up breaking this and he orders a steak.
We later learn that Marc also got a new Goldfish and I’m glad he’s got his priorities in order.
Donna gets him to put away some of the gift shop goodies and these include hippos that are based on the Fertility Goddess as well as Mummy’s. In the Jeff Limere run when attempting to escape the psychiatric hospital, Marc had Mummies set on him and with us going to Egypt I can see them popping up.
Annaksuuuun Amun.
The Ennead
Steven talks about the Ennead, the supergroup of Egyptian Gods who will probably be showing up at some point. They’ve been laced throughout the comics and have often battled for Marc’s soul. Later on, he reads a book that discusses the rift between God and Man that exists with them and the avatars are very much used as their playthings.
Marc talks about how the museum poster for them is missing Gods and Khonshu is likely among them.
As he exits we hear the flute from the song Khosara Khosara which was sampled by Timbaland for Jay-z’s song big Pimpin. Guy got in a lot of trouble as he didn’t get the rights to it and it Timbalanded him in big trouble.
Thank you I’m here all week.
To add to the confusion, the security guard calls him a different name on the way out and to make things even worse, the outside of the museum isn’t even the one we find Steven inside of.
Filmed in The British Museum he ends up outside the National Gallery at Trafalgar square. This may be to throw us for a loop when watching it but it could also be because the museum is gonna be used as the Illuminati base in Doctor Strange in the multiverse Of Madness.
Steven talks to a mime about how if he doesn’t tie himself down he can wake up anywhere and this is somewhat shown in his dream that we’ll talk about in just a bit. This mime could end up being Crawley, an informant who helped Jake Lockley out with info. Steven is pouring his heart out to him and being a mime would allow him to blend in places without people raising their guard. Crawley also appeared in the Lemire run and Marc had to win his soul back from Anubis by rescuing his wife’s soul.
A couple asks to take a photo with the mime but that’s a bit pointless because everyone looks like a mime in a photo.
I love how Steven talks about how his body is just trying to hit his 10,000 step goal and anyone who’s tracked their fitness knows all about 11 pm walks to get that notification. Also, there’s a shop sign that says Oscar, like Oscar Isaacs…didn’t say they’d all be good easter eggs.
That night Steven wakes up and encounters Arthur Harrow. I believe this is in Germany due to the architecture that looks like Neuschwanstein Castle.
This actually inspired He Who Remain’s home in Loki Episode 6 and the peace is quickly broken when Harrow’s guards start firing at him. Steven is told by Khonshu to surrender his body to mark and he also discovers the Golden Scarab in his pocket. We don’t know what happens to this but we do know from the secret agent tv spot that it eventually ends up in a lock-up that Marc has set up.
Scarabs are a symbol of Ra and they also are thought to bring regeneration and immortality, potentially explaining why he wakes up here.
We also don’t see what happens to make Steven wake up with a broken jaw but it is possible that he went over the cliff like what we saw in the trailers. I did say that I thought he might have been saved by the snap but I don’t think that happened at all now. But ey, at least I didn’t say there was a Doctor Doom easter egg because of a f**king cupcake box. I know it was you, I know it was you.
Fill In The Blanks
I’d love it if we saw the blanks that we get in these moments in future episodes as there are a lot of scenes where Steven blacks out and we see the destruction left in the wake of Marc’s arrival. It would be so cool to get flashes of this I think but we do get Harrow’s first interaction with Steven happening in these moments.
Lovely bit of costume design as we have Steven wearing a white hoody that he props up and Moon Knight of course also wears a white hood.
It’s not too long before Harrow arrives and we see that his followers reach out to touch him much in the same way that the Christians did to Jesus.
He says he wants to bring heaven to Earth and ends up weighing two people’s souls. These are in the promise of serving Ammit even before she wakes and Harrow clearly wants to bring the Goddess to life. She has inhabited bodies in the comics and there may be a vessel that’s used in Layla or someone else.
Now I think these two people were chosen to show that Harrow is just cherry-picking people to be his soldiers. He ends up accepting the young guy as a good person when everyone knows we all have access to the internet and there’s no way anyone under the age of 50 now hasn’t looked at some bad stuff.
However, the old woman ends up dying and with Ammit being the soul devourer, she could be feasting on good people in order to power her up. Makes way more sense that good souls would be more worthy and she collapses and gets carried off.
The weird thing about this is that Steven is talking to Harrow like he’s in the present even though this clearly happens in the past and just try getting your head around how dreams change things in the past, if at all. Harrow also recognises him and calls him the mercenary which is was Marc Spector was in the comics.
Unable to hand the scarab over, Steven ends up blanking out and Marc takes over to do what I’m gonna do to people that don’t like the video.
He escapes in a cupcake van which leads to a high-speed chase that Marc takes over during when things get tough.
Steven at one point says (I don’t even have my licence) I’d love it if we learned that he can’t drive but Marc can.
There’s also a lorry carrying tree trunks and I swear, I think of one of these every time I go on a motorway. Final Destination 2 has f**ked me up for life.
There’s a nice little set-up and punchline here as Marc causes the lorry to crash, he goes further down the hill, almost gets caught and is then saved by the trees. These him as well, possibly linking to the shot of him going over the cliff and he then wakes up.
Steven makes a Miss-Steak and misses, the steak date. Also forgot to mention he’s got a phone with hieroglyphics on it that look like the ones that appear in the bathroom later on.
Anyway, Marc returns back to his apartment and he seems to be talking to his mother again. This time she seems to be responding but I think she’s like my parents, just not there.
Now I will be there for you and everyone loves a giveaway so I’m happy to announce that we’ve teamed up with noblechairs and overclockers UK to give away an amazing chair to one of our viewers. Whoever wins can choose between an Iron Man or Spider-man one and we’re gonna announce the winner of the competition in the next video. All you have to do is drop a comment below and I’ll scroll through them on Tuesday night and pick one at random. Unfortunately, it’s only available to people in The UK and EU but if you’re in the US hang around until the end of the video for another giveaway that we’re doing.
Steven Finds a Phone and a Key
Back inside his home, he discovers a phone and key to what I’m guessing is the lock-up from the secret agent tv spot.
The phone is inside a pyramid and it’s a Motorola Razr which I used to have, it’s an oldier though.
Inside the phone are several missed calls including Duchamp who is a character known as Frenchy that’s an ally of Moon Knight.
Layla seems to be a completely new creation though she could be based on Leila O’Toole from the comics. This might be an amalgamation of her and Marlene from the source material who’s a love interest for Marc.
Layla doesn’t understand why he’s changed his accent and upon hearing the name Marc, he gets a Spector of the character who talks to him in a mirror.
He flees to a lift and sees a vision of Khonshu in a fake-out that reveals it’s actually an old lady. Khonshu can possess people so potentially he used this old woman to hold open the doors so that he could appear in the lift. We cut instantly to the next day, unaware of what Marc has been up to we see the God following him as he travels on the bus. Harrow also stalks him too and in the museum the Security God otta been someone who stopped him but he didn’t.
Otter puns on deck baby.
Harrow shows he’s got people everywhere and it leaves Steven in a Harrowing situation. He initially comes to Steven as a friend and explains that Ammut could have stopped several atrocities if she’d been on earth. He ends up weighing marc’s soul but due to the several personalities within him, he can’t get a read on him and therefore can’t judge him. We discover that Ammit can see all that someone will do and maybe she killed that old woman cos she farted in the lift or something.
Now Harrow also explains that Ammit was betrayed by her own Avatar and we could potentially meet the agent that turned on her.
Arthur is now the person she uses and after Steven gets away, Arthur sends in the hounds.
Harrows Minions
Now I absolutely love how tense these scenes are. Just seeing random members of the public step out of the crowd and realise that they’re his forces is great and there are so many cool things they can do with this. We also see the perspective of the jackal outside the art gallery and this chases Steven throughout the exhibits.
This Jackal is likely a death jackal which is often referred to as the guard dogs of the dead.
The series very much turns into an almost horror monster movie thing and you can catch it moving behind marc, appearing in the reflections of glass and it runs after him forcing Steven to run into a bathroom. After talking to Marc he finally hands over the body willingly and it leads to the money shot that was shown in all of the trailers.
It’s a brilliant way to end the episode and I’m guessing that next time we watch the beast chase Moon Knight through the London sky. This was heavily shown in the tv spots or we could end up getting more Jackals appearing later on.
Either way what a fantastic first episode and out of all of the MCU shows so far this was my favourite first one. I love the whole God aesthetic they have going on and I think it was brilliant to really hold off the hero shot until the last second of the show. Kept me interested throughout and I also think it’s super smart to show things through the eyes of Steven rather than having Marc’s origin story play out in chronological order.
The mystery that surrounds the show makes it really enthralling to watch and can we agree that this is up there as being one of the best Marvel costumes ever made.
Better f**king agree or you’re blocked.
I can’t wait to see how crazy Oscar Isaacs gets with it and this was a very solid way to kick start the season.
Moon Knight is the best DC film since Harry Potter and The Revenge Of The Jedi (what) and it’s gonna be a blast covering this series week to week.
You better bloody join me or I swear to god I’m kicking off mate, and in the meantime let me know your thoughts on the premiere.
I’d of course love to hear your thoughts so make sure you comment below and let me know you punk.
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