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In the first episode of “Moon Knight,” Englishman Steven Grant (Oscar Isaac) goes from waking up in his London apartment at night to being in the countryside in the Austrian Alps in broad daylight. Grant knows he has suffered from blackouts before, but when he finds himself in Austria, he is just as confused as the audience is.

As he enters a nearby mountain town, he is immediately accosted by armed guards and mysterious cult leader Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke). When Grant sees that Harrow and the god he worships, Ammit, will kill people or “enact justice” before they even commit a crime, Grant tries to escape. But as the chase sequence ensues, he jumps in and out of consciousness. When he blacked out in the opening episode, he woke up and realized that he had killed four henchmen. This continues as the chase sequence hits the road.

Most Marvel Studios films rely on the big action scene early on to get an audience hooked. But its new Disney+ show hasn’t needed to yet. With no grand action, we only see the horrific and violent results of Grant’s other personality, American Marc Spector (Isaac). It shows us Spector and his alter ego, Moon Knight, are capable of being violent, but the audience doesn’t know how or why.

This is what “Moon Knight,” like other Marvel streaming shows, has done so well with early on in the first three episodes. Unlike in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, there is a great sense of mystery in “Moon Knight” that keeps the audience in the dark. The only thing we know is that there is clearly something amiss with our main hero. While some narrative questions were answered early on, the show mainly opens the door to new questions, which creates solid storytelling. So far, even though the action is not as good as previous Marvel films or shows, the audience has continued to guess what will happen as Grant, Spector and others try to stop Harrow and his cult from releasing Ammit from her tomb into the world.

By the end of the first episode, we only get a glimpse of what Moon Knight is capable of when he fights and easily beats a mythical jackal. The action sequences featuring Moon Knight in the following two episodes are quite enjoyable and exciting, but they lag due to poor special effects. But what makes these scenes interesting is the questions that have risen out of them.

In the second episode, a dynamic is established where Spector takes over the body shared by him and Grant whenever there are henchmen or mythical creatures to fight. But the two personalities sharing one body are very different, which has created tension with who will control the body and when. During one fight sequence that took place in London, Grant took over the body, and instead of wearing the hood and cape of Spector’s Moon Knight, he donned an all-white suit and bow tie, fitting for his much less threatening personality. Still, this provided entertainment and fun like any typical Marvel product and begged the question of which personality will control the body when this series is over.

Another interesting plot point that remains currently unknown is the extent of control the Moon Knight’s god has. According to the comics, the mysterious superhero is just an avatar for the Egyptian moon god Khonshu, voiced wonderfully in the show by F. Murray Abraham. The bratty and powerful god is the one who controls Moon Knight’s suit and gives Spector his powers. But through the first two episodes, Khonshu played a sideline role, only urging the two personalities to let him free so he can use his true powers to enact his own form of justice.

However, in episode three, his full abilities were used to help Spector and Grant. So the range of his control is unknown, and we may never know it because Khonshu’s fellow gods imprisoned him for unleashing his powers. Once again, this is great storytelling, as the cliffhangers of each of the episodes never feel forced and keep the viewer drawn in.

Khonshu’s past remains a mystery, especially with the nefarious Harrow, who once was an avatar of the god. But episode three also gave the viewer a glimpse into the relationship between Spector and his wife Layla El-Faouly (May Calamawy). The couple was about to get divorced before Spector disappeared and Grant took control of the body. Midway through the most recent episode, the seemingly all-knowing villain, performed effortlessly by Hawke, hinted that Spector committed some heinous acts against El-Faouly’s father. For now, though, this remains ambiguous and unknown, building up excitement for the second half of the season.

Marvel Disney+ shows have done a wonderful job of creating intriguing first halves of shows to get the audience hooked on the ending. However, the second halves of its series have sometimes failed to live up to expectations, such as “WandaVision.” The first three episodes of that series offered a mystery element that was entirely absent from the films, but the final two episodes suffered from too much exposition, which slowed the plot down.

Now, the question on everyone’s mind is if “Moon Knight” will fall into this trap and maybe even leave some questions unanswered. It is very possible, but so far, the interesting narrative questions that currently remain are the ingredients needed for a great ending.

Published on April 13, 2022 at 9:36 pm