Review: ‘Moon Knight’ Episode 5 – ‘Asylum’ Explores Marc Spector’s Origin Story
I wasn’t sure what to think after Moon Knight‘s chaotic cliffhanger that saw Marc wake up in a psychiatric hospital and reunite with Steven, before they both met a hippo woman in a confusing final scene. I wasn’t comfortable with the idea that Marc had simply imagined all of the exciting and interesting things that had happened this season, but thankfully, it seems I had nothing to worry about.
Asylum nudges the series forward while spending most of its time looking back at Marc and Steven’s childhood. I can’t say I was looking forward to spending an entire episode looking backwards either, but the episode won me over. It turns out Marc has a particularly tragic backstory, and Oscar Isaac’s performance brought me to tears. It’s a fascinating look at the events that spurred on Marc’s dissociative personality disorder and his eventual transformation into Moon Knight. I felt so sympathetic towards Marc and Steven this week.
The episode gives us a few answers regarding Marc’s disorder and leaves him ready to confront Harrow once again going into the season finale as the stakes climb to their highest point. The character beats this week are some of the most emotional of the series, making for a highly entertaining chapter.
Spoilers ahead…
I genuinely thought we were going to see a third personality this week (which seemed to be teased by that extra sarcophagus bouncing around in last week’s cliffhanger), but we got nothing of the sort. When Taweret explained that Marc and Steven’s souls were incomplete, I interpreted that to mean that a third personality needed uncovering to provide balance. That never happened though, despite a handful of clues early on in the series.
Instead, Marc and Steven needed to be honest with each other and come to an understanding. Marc needed to understand that he is not the murdering monster they both believed he was, while Steven needed to understand his true origin by learning about what really happened in his childhood.
And what a traumatizing childhood it was. We learn that Marc grew up in Chicago with rich parents and a little brother, “Ro-Ro”. One day, Marc and Ro-Ro went out to play, and Marc led them into a cave, where his little brother drowned. If the survivor’s guilt Marc must have felt from that wasn’t awful enough, it turns out his mother actively blamed him for Ro-Ro’s death. As Marc grew older, she turned to drink and began abusing him both physically and verbally. Marc’s dad still loved him, but found himself unable to stop his wife’s abusive behaviour.
One day, Marc couldn’t take it anymore and created Steven Grant, a personality to retreat to when his mother came for him. Steven grew up believing his mother was a loving woman, and Marc had tried to keep things that way so he could remain an innocent place for him to retreat. It seems Steven hadn’t appeared for years until his mother died, only two months before the events of the first episode. It’s only since then that Steven has been resurfacing on a regular basis.
We see a truly powerful performance from Oscar Isaac as Marc communicates silently with his father from across the street. His dad beckons him in, but Marc refuses and walks away. We see a close-up on Marc’s face as he breaks down in the middle of the street, all the emotion pent up inside him bursting out. It’s a hugely vulnerable moment, and Oscar Isaac makes it feel so true. This character had always been pretty likeable, but learning of his childhood trauma right beforehand maximized every ounce of sympathy I felt for him in the moment.
We then see he retreats into Steven Grant, unable to take any more pain, and the first thing Steven does is ring his mother, who obviously goes to voicemail. This answers the question of who exactly he was talking to in the first two episodes, and it’s heartbreaking to watch. Steven is naturally devastated by the realization that he is not the original personality, but he understands that Marc is not the monster he thought he was. It’s him who explains to Marc that he is not responsible for his brother’s death, no matter what his awful mother told him.
I’m not sure Marc entirely believes that yet, but the process of self-forgiveness has started now. The reveal certainly helped make Marc and Steven’s bond grow stronger, as Steven finds his inner courage to save Marc. Sadly, in saving Marc, he ended up falling off the boat and into the Duat, where he became frozen in sand and consigned to the Egyptian underworld. I’m sure we’ll see him again somehow, but it felt like a blow to lose Steven so soon after the truth came out. Marc’s on his own now, with no Steven nor Khonshu inside his head.
Strangely, it seemed to take Steven’s removal for the scales of justice to balance themselves. I thought strengthening their bond was supposed to be enough to balance them, and the idea that Marc simply needed to be on his own seems too simplistic by comparison. And the scales don’t seem to think Marc is a cold-blooded murder-monster either, which should be proof that he is actually a good man. Hopefully, Marc can use this to forgive himself and move on by the end of the season.
We also saw a flashback to the moment Marc became the Fist of Khonshu. He explained that he got discharged from the army for walking off in a fugue state (assuming this wasn’t him transferring to Steven, maybe another clue that he has a third personality hidden away). His old SO hired him to raid an Egyptian tomb before deciding that there couldn’t be any witnesses to what they found. Marc didn’t agree with this and was fatally wounded while failing to stop him from killing everyone, including Layla’s father.
We then witness the moment he meets Khonshu. It’s clear that Khonshu preyed on his vulnerable position to persuade him to become his avatar, and Steven says as much to him — yet another example that Khonshu doesn’t really care about his avatars, and it seems Marc hadn’t realized that until now. It makes you wonder where he will stand with Khonshu once the series is over.
One element that still didn’t work for me was the psychiatric ward. I found the flip-flopping between memories and therapy sessions with the overly dismissive Dr. Harrow confusing, and I don’t believe it was necessary. The memories and childhood trauma were much more interesting, and we didn’t need the therapy scenes to explore them at all.
By the end of the episode, Taweret explains that souls are now beginning to enter the Egyptian underworld before their time, confirming that Harrow is getting to work on realizing Ammit’s vision. It’s not clear whether Ammit has been freed yet, but it seems that when Marc does resurface from the underworld (presumably with Moon Knight powers), he will be stepping back into chaos.
The final promises to be epic and has much ground to cover. We got some great character moments this week plus answers to some of the show’s biggest mysteries. Hopefully, Moon Knight will stick the landing next week.
Josh is a huge a fan of Star Wars, superheroes and video games. He spends most of his time wondering who would win in a fight between Boba Fett and Star Lord.
