Moon Knight Episode 4 had an ending that potentially pulled back the curtain on Marc Spector’s life to show him in an asylum surrounded by things we’d seen earlier in the season. It was like finding out your favourite Shield agent had been Hydra the entire time. Episode 4 was arguably the best Disney plus MCU show episode we’ve ever had.
Marc finds himself in the mess hall at a psychiatric hospital and it’s not too long before he’s taken before Doctor Harrow who tells him everything we’ve witnessed so far has been a fantasy that he’s cooked up in his head due to his mental illness.
Though we get a reveal of Steven and Tawaret later on and we know from the trailers on the show that things will likely be returning back to normal, well normalish…I wanna play Mephisto’s advocate and go through the entire season pointing out every clue that shows why Marc has been in the asylum the entire time.
I think you’ll be surprised at how many shocking details there are in this and by the time we get to episode 2 you might even start to suspect that Marc is still just imagining the entire thing. There are so many minor things that influence what happens later on that there’s such a strong argument for it that really makes me think the episode 4 ending might all be true.
If the creative team is smart, I think that they’ll even close out the series by leaving it ambiguous so we get an Inception-esque ending that makes us really question if what happened or if it’s all still part of the illusion.
The Trailer
Now the first bit of evidence begins all the way back in the trailers for the show when Steven said “I have a sleeping disorder. I can’t tell the difference between my waking life and dreams.”
This set him up as an unreliable narrator and from the off it kinda makes you question everything that he sees. Steven is apparently a sleepwalker and he says that he ties himself to the bed so that he can’t run away. This is through an ankle restraint that we later see mirrored when he tries to get up from the wheelchair and he’s chained to it.
He also apparently receives postcards from his mother which he pins up and these later appear on the whiteboard that Layla stands in front of.
At work
When Steven exits his flat he sees someone outside selling brooms. A trolley full of them is something that’s commonplace at a psychiatric hospital.
Notice that Steven also sleeps in the clothes that he has on in the asylum. He has not only the white jumper that Marc has on but he also has a darker one which Steven later wears when Marc comes across him.
Upon arriving at work a staff member called Dylan comes up to him and brings up their date which Steven has no recollection of. In the hospital, we can catch her sitting there along with our next character Donna who’s hugging one of the cuddly scarab toys from the gift shop.
Now Donna and Steven even talk about Tawaret who pops up at the end of episode 4.
This is a pretty big indicator that the things appearing in the fantasy could be influenced by what’s happening to him in the mental health facility and in this conversation Donna says a pretty interesting line.
“If you don’t stop nattering at me, I swear I’ll shove you in a sarcophagus”.
This is quite a big one because when Marc escapes Harrow’s office he comes across Steven stuck inside a sarcophagus which is such an amazing callback to this moment in episode 1.
Tomb Buster
The Steven Grant persona is very important in the show and our first fourth-wall-breaking moment comes when we cut to the film Tomb Buster which has a hero called the same thing.
If we are taking everything in the asylum at face value then this actually makes a lot of sense. We learn that it’s Marc’s VHS tape and if he’s carried this around for his entire life then he’d be completely obsessed with the character. In the comics, we learn that Steven was somewhat of an imaginary friend to Marc that he invented when he was a kid.
In his room, there were Indiana Jones posters – a guy who was obsessed with archaeology. Therefore it makes sense that if he was going to invent a persona, he’d bring in elements of what he is interested in and if we’re saying this is all real, the tape explains why he’d create Steven. Hell, he even has the same accent as Steven does.
Harrow also quotes the villain from this videotape. The Carl Jung quote being used by him and the villain shows that he sees himself as being reflected in that character which explains why he’d be the antagonist in the fantasy.
Now another detail that Harrow has is that he has quite similar hair to Steven Grant in Tomb Buster whereas in the office environment it’s slicked back. Grant also uses a compass much like how the Golden Scarab is used in the series. This leads him to a statue of a lunar God and Khonshu is, of course, one in Egyptian culture.
The woman that he later encounters in the lift also makes an appearance in the mess hall and though we only see her from behind, you can tell by the haircut that it’s definitely her.
Now I wanna get into more of a breakdown of this scene later in the video but I’ve promised you Episode 2 stuff so we’re bloody doing the episode 2 stuff.
Episode 2
Episode 2 opens with Steven getting caught for smashing up the bathroom in the prior entry. This was because he fought a jackal that couldn’t be seen on camera, again further hinting to us that he’s actually just imagining the entire thing. He’s taken into an HR office and here we find the staff member with lots of the items on his desk that Harrow later has. The table is also made of glass and this is the exact same one that Harrow later sits on.
At one point the HR head passes forward a pamphlet to a mental health hospital much like what we see Marc in Episode 4. On the front of this is a man whose face is completely blurred and though it’s difficult to make out who this is it looks a lot like Harrow later on. Hell, when we cut to Harrow in the office for the first time he’s completely blurred out much like what we have here.
Checking in to Hospital
Now if we take everything as being part of the asylum then it’s from here out that things line up exactly with how a patient is treated.
Policemen Bobby and Billy come to pick Steven up and they handcuff him much in the same way that orderlies coming to pick up a patient would. They are later revealed to both be orderlies at the hospital and they even give the fake surnames Fitzgerald and Kennedy which are riffing on JFK’s full name.
Once a patient is picked up by orderlies like this they’ll normally be taken to the hospital which is where they’re uncuffed and they meet their doctor for the first time who comes to them as a friend, much like how Harrow does.
Now I wanna give a huge shoutout to David Lee who sent me an email in which talked about how he’d spent time as an in-and-out patient at hospitals like this and how Harrow’s approach in episode 2 is exactly the kind of thing that he’d experienced when being dropped off at one.
He then says “I’m sorry for the wait, we just needed the chance to better understand your situation.”
Now let’s take this line’s meaning if it was being delivered by a doctor who had just come to meet their patient. Harrow is trying to understand Steven’s situation, i.e. his mental illness so that he knows how best to treat him. Up next I’m gonna play a clip but I want you to listen to it in the context that this is a doctor talking to his patient.
Steven: I just need some help, maybe
Harrow: That’s why we’re here – is he there, can you see him?
It’s also at this point in the series that we learn Khonshu can’t actually affect the world around him that much, further alluding to this all being a fantasy.
Now it’s at this point that Harrow walks him through the community but if we are taking him as actually being a doctor then this is exactly how a person would walk a new patient through the facility. There is a group sitting in the background discussing things on meditation pillows and we also have an area where there are people who are watching a relaxing nature film. This is commonly used to calm a patient and show them that it’s a gentle and easy-going environment where they’ll be cared for.
Next is one of the most common practices that psychiatrists use when bringing a patient into somewhere new. Harrow takes Steven to the get some food from the same line that others are eating from. This is done to show that the food is safe to eat because others are Khonshuming it and therefore this is a safe space.
Konshuming yeah look, I hadn’t done a s**t pun for a while yeah, video was getting too serious.
Anyway, all of Harrow’s tactics here are clearly put in place to make Steven feel safe and welcome and they’re all applied by psychiatrists whenever a new patient is brought in.
Harrow’s Office
Things seem to cement that this is all the asylum when things take a turn for the worse and Steven makes a break for it with Layla. The pair escape the main hall and run up to what appears to be a storage room filled with creepy bodies.
Now the next reveal is pretty mindblowing and this room itself is actually the exact same one that is later used as Harrows office. The two collums are there and the recessess in the wall also appear in his room confirming that these are indeed one in the same.
Costuming
Moon Knight of course also has a white costume which we see the patients all wearing and this is reflected in the little figure that Marc makes of the character.
Ennead is the Hospital Board
Now if we continue this idea into episode 3 then there’s a really interesting scene in the pyramid of Gisa.
Marc is taken before the Ennead and at this point they summon Harrow to come forth. Marc accuses him of trying to resurrect Ammit but it falls on deaf ears which does seem a bit suspicious. They take it less seriously than my dad took my mother’s pregnancy and just brush him to the side as soon as Harrow brings up his DID.
You’d think that they’d at least investigate it but this is something that we also see in mental health facilities.
If we keep up the idea that this is all in a hospital it not only explains how Marc is able to travel great distance in seconds but it also explains what the Ennead themselves are. This entire situation is exactly what would happen if a patient accused a doctor of abuse or neglect. A hearing would be held with the doctor’s peers and superviors where both would give their case. David told me about what normally happens in situations like this and he said that the doctor is pretty much always believed above the patient which is exactly what happens here.
Is Layla A Patient?
Now if we take Layla being trapped in the fantasy too then there’s quite an interesting bit that happens at the start of the episode. She meets with a passport forger who creates her a new one. This is the same woman that we see drawing a picture of Khonshu later on. Marc never meets this person in the series so it doesn’t really make much sense as to why she’d be in there unless Layla is a part of it too. Layla also eats Marshmallows off her desk and these are what she later snacks on in the hospital.
Midnight Man & Bodyguard
Now at this point Marc or…well Jake (I think this is Jake) and Layla meet and then she and Marc travel to meet Anton Mogart aka Midnight Man.
They’re greeted by his bodyguard who makes a big appearance at the hospital. This is the guy who can be seen pushing the cupcake cart.
These cupcakes of course tie back to the chase in Germany which itself shows up as a painting in Harrows office. There’s lots of weird things that happen in this scene such as Steven just randomly waking up in the hills, the guards then pop out of the window in a castle which is revealed to be miles away and Harrow’s followers all look to him as someone in authority.
Steven has weird conversations with him that only make sense if his present version was in the past and there’s also this idea of dreams and waking up laced throughout.
Episode 4
Now episode 4 could very much be seen as an allegory for Steven and Marc working together to get into certain parts of the hospital that they really shouldn’t be in. They go through the long corridors and abandoned passages in an attempt to get to the centre of the mystery, Alexander’s tomb. This is littered with ancient artefacts that later show up in Harrow’s office.
It’s also during this time that Harrow somewhat snaps Layla out of the fantasy by talking about her father. This is done in a very similar manner to the reveal in Shutter Island to snap Teddy out of what’s going on. In many ways Shutter Island and the scenario here could be very similar with doctors in a psychiatric hospital allowing one of the patients there to live out a fantasy in order to discover a truth about themselves. This could be used to reveal that Marc killed Layla’s father…or well…rather Jake did.
Now I know it’s Bushman in the comics and that they’ll probably end up teasing that but there are fan theories that Jake was the one who did it so ey, might as well drop them in whilst we’re doing theory time.
Changing of Time
Harrow then shouts “wake up” to Layla.
Now huge shoutout to Ryan Arey from Screen Crush for pointing that out and he also brought up the night sky being turned back in his reality.
Episode 4 itself starts off with Steven being knocked out after the whole situation in which they rewound time so potentially this could be further carrying on the dream.
If you think about it, turning back the night sky would completely break all time and space within the MCU so they’re either gonna have to say it’s all a fantasy or retcon it before the end of the show.
Gunshots = Sedation
The way that Marc transitions from the tomb to the hospital could also hint at what’s really going on. He is shot by Harrow and he then falls backwards. If this was happening in a hospital then this whole thing could be a metaphor for sedation and the shot could actually be a needle that’s sending him under after he and Layla have run amok.
Layla doesn’t need one of these because Harrow has already explained the truth to her and she’s accepted it without the need for drugs to calm her down.
In The Hospital
First off we have Crawley, who was the living statue that Steven would bear his soul to. This is very similar to what he’d do to a patient in a hospital.
There’s also a man playing with a Rubix cube which has one side that’s all-white much in the same what that Steven’s did when he was trying to solve it in episode 1. As we scan the room we also catch a clock with moon crescents on the hands, possibly influencing Moon Knight. Clocks have appeared throughout the series and if you’ve been following them they’ve actually been counting up to something that we’ll talk about in our upcoming videos on the show.
There’s a man tending to a some plants much like what there was at Harrows facility and the goldfish. The bowl for this sits on top of several books which all appeared in Steven’s apartment.
There’s Harrow’s cane, his sandals and of course all the links to Ammit. Hell, Harrow pretty much judges all the patients like he judges people with the scales.
In the Comics
Now that’s all the evidence that we could unearth and I’m sure that there’s a lot more. The series is really detailed and as I said earlier in the video I think that Disney will probably continue down the path that’s the most obvious with Marc escaping the hospital and it gets revealed that it’s a fantasy.
This is something that happened in the comics and the entire twist in the episode is based on the Jeff Lemire run. This saw Marc being part of an institution overseen by a psychiatrist named Doctor Emmit. She had two orderlies named Bobby and Billy who were later revealed to be Jackals much like the two Jackals that we’ve had in the series so far. Now this entire thing was an illusion located in a place known as The Othervoid. There Marc had a psychological trip through his past which seems like the next episode will be due to what we’ve seen in the trailers. He did manage to break out of it and I think the season will wrap up with him escaping this place and then stopping Harrow from shooting purples lasers into the sky and resurrecting Ammit. However, as I mentioned I do think that they’ll leave it ambiguous by the end of the show.
Much in the same way we had the spinning top in Inception, I think we’ll close out with either something like the Moon Knight figure or the B-22 bingo ball.
So you’ll always have this thing where you can see the events as being real but there’ll be a strong case that it’s all in Marc’s imagination.
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