Moon Knight Episode 3 Poses 7 Questions & Headscratchers
Warning: SPOILERS for Moon Knight episode 3.
Marvel's Moon Knight episode 3, "The Friendly Type," raised seven important questions and headscratchers about the Ennead, Khonshu, and Marc Spector's powers. Now in Egypt, episode 3 sees Marc Spector (Oscar Isaac) tracking down Ammit's scarab stolen from him by Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke). Layla (May Calamawy) tracks him down to help, which eventually leads them to the art and artifact collector Anton Mogart (Gaspard Ulliel). Moon Knight episode 3 also introduces the avatars of five other members of the Egyptian Ennead, who convene upon Khonshu's (F. Murray Abraham) request to warn them about Arthur Harrow's nefarious motives to bring back Ammit.
Moon Knight episode 3 expands the setting beyond London and is the MCU's first instance of a project being primarily set in Egypt. Despite the fact that Moon Knight's filming locations don't actually include Egypt, it's still refreshing to see the MCU expand to new locations outside its usual Earth settings. Giving the setting an added personal touch is Egyptian Moon Knight director Mohamed Diab, who is also one of the show's producers.
Deep into its phase 4, the MCU is building up plans for Moon Knight, even making him a potential Avenger if they guide the character in that direction. Moon Knight continues to maintain itself as a more standalone series, but considering the intricacies of the MCU at this point, episode 3 inadvertently raises further questions. However, Moon Knight also prompts intriguing thoughts about its characters. Here are Moon Knight episode 3's questions explained.
At the beginning of the episode, Layla gets a fake Egyptian passport from the forger Lagaro (Barbara Rosenblat) so that she can find Marc in Cairo. The passport details do not change her name, and traveling to Egypt doesn't necessitate an Egyptian passport specifically. Forging the passport, especially considering the fact that Layla is Egyptian, then seems redundant.
However, Layla isn't actually forging the passport to hide her identity. In fact, it's likely done to circumnavigate around her enemies, not strangers. With Moon Knight yet to reveal more about Layla, the show still provides enough clues about her past to reveal that she is no longer entirely safe in her home country. She's dismissive of the risk that her "name pisses off a few people in Cairo," as she puts it to Marc. Still, she likely wants to conceal her current country of origin by using a fake Egyptian passport to suggest that she never left in the first place. Additionally, an Egyptian passport also facilitates customs processing.
Gathering the Ennead together may or may not require nearly as much drama as a spontaneous solar eclipse, and Moon Knight episode 3 reveals that Khonshu is certainly the flashiest of the Ennead. At the Great Pyramid of Giza, Marc learns from the other avatars that they have convened together previously as they know each other and are familiar with the ritual. Moon Knight's five additional Egyptian gods introduced in "The Friendly Type" seem to agree on a more observational code of conduct with humanity and discourage the kind of actions like an unscheduled eclipse.
Khonshu holds a different standing in the Ennead than the other Egyptian gods. Notorious for enacting his sense of justice in a more direct and perhaps unethical way, Khonshu is often at odds with the rest of the Ennead, who have little respect for his flashy antics. Khonshu even calls his idea a "bad one" before creating the solar eclipse, as he understands that his fellow gods won't readily listen to him. But in this case, he's desperate enough to risk the wrath of the rest of the Ennead in order to alert them to the threat posed by Arthur Harrow.
His meddling in human events likely influenced Khonshu's banishment, as Moon Knight's episode 2, "Summon the Suit" suggests. In Moon Knight episode 3, Osiris' avatar Selim (Khalid Abdalla) expands upon the reason when he tells Khonshu that his banishment was for "nearly exposing" the Egyptian gods. While this prompts the question of why the gods didn't just immediately imprison Khonshu for his impromptu eclipse, it provides an additional layer to the Egyptian gods' values. It's still unclear what Khonshu specifically did that prompted his banishment, but it might not actually be relevant to Moon Knight.
Khonshu dramatically rewinds the night sky back by 2,000 years to help Steven Grant and Layla find the exact position of a specific constellation, putting his solar eclipse to shame. There are many types of magic in the MCU, with the powers of the Egyptian gods probably being in a category of their own. Even though there are godly figures in the MCU, it's not yet been absolutely confirmed that the Ennead are actually deities or, like Thor and Loki, extremely powerful aliens who humans treat as gods. Khonshu's magic, and its resulting consequences, are still up to question. If his magic is truly changing the sky, he is reversing thousands of years of change in a matter of minutes, therefore bringing back dead stars and repositioning entire star systems.
It's more likely that the sky trick was actually a powerful illusion. Khonshu says he can "turn back the night sky," not the actual universe. The Ennead proved that if it exposes the gods and meddles in human affairs, a powerful illusion is reason enough for imprisonment; a solar eclipse, even if unexpected, can at least be explained away, but the sky rapidly spinning backward is impossible for humans to fathom. While gods have long existed in the MCU, with Thor: Love and Thunder to further expand the MCU's god lore, there's still a lot to speculate on regarding what MCU gods are actually capable of doing.
There isn't proof to say that Doctor Strange and Wong didn't notice the sky turning back. Still, the question remains. Considering that Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Wong (Benedict Wong) can form portals to anywhere at a given time, transporting themselves to Egypt to confront Khonshu would be easy enough for them to do and would be in line with their duty to protect space and time. The sky rewinding seems as though it would be a serious and immediate enough threat for them to investigate.
Their actual absence, and the rest of the Avengers' absence in Moon Knight for that matter, is understandable. At the time of the event, Doctor Strange is likely dealing with the ramifications of cracking open the multiverse in Spider-Man: No Way Home. That said, being absent from this specific Khonshu event could be explained by things yet to be understood. It's possible, as mentioned above, that Khonshu may not actually be moving the stars and planets to change the sky, making the consequences significantly less serious as perceived.
It's also worth noting that Doctor Strange and Wong tend to consider the possibilities of their actions. They may recognize a less risky, more effective way of fixing the ramifications of Khonshu's trick or merely have decided to observe further before stepping in to intervene. Doctor Strange and Wong were careful in facing Thanos, understanding that actually stopping him needed to be done with extreme precision. Likewise, facing a god would need to be handled with equal care.
It's possible that nothing can kill Moon Knight, so long as he is protected by the power of Khonshu's armor to give him one of the MCU's stronger invincibility capabilities. Moon Knight episode 3, in particular, shows Moon Knight suffering from seemingly lethal spear wounds at the hands of Anton Mogart's henchmen. Moon Knight also jumps from the top of buildings, landing unscathed, and fights supernatural entities capable of causing serious mortal injuries. Khonshu brought Marc Spector back to life, making him his avatar. Therefore, so long as Moon Knight is protected by Khonshu, he seems impervious to lethal wounds.
The Ennead imprisons Khonshu after his Moon Knight episode 3 sky trick, taking away Moon Knight's powers. Before performing his sky rewinding trick, Khonshu instructs Steven to tell Marc to free him from imprisonment; he knows that the Ennead will surely encase him in a stone statue for this act. While Moon Knight's episode 3 ending provides a cliffhanger that leaves Moon Knight powerless for the foreseeable future, Marc will likely resolve the issue in the next episode with, interestingly, the possible help of Hathor and/or her avatar Yatzil (Díana Bermudez). The real consequences will come from the Ennead's reaction to Khonshu being freed, adding further conflict for Moon Knight's remaining three episodes.
Moon Knight releases new episodes every Wednesday on Disney+.