Moon Knight Episode 2 confirms and dramatically multiplies the good feelings of the debut, with the psyche of the protagonist more and more at the center.

It may sound strange, but after two episodes we are pretty convinced that one of Moon Knight’s strongest strengths is the momentary absence of any connection with the rest of the MCU. Mind you, we are not in any way diminishing the monumental architecture created by Feige and associates, on the contrary, we openly acknowledge how much an operation of this kind deserves the right to enter the history of cinema. 

But it is also true that, in certain situations, the shared universe can be incredibly exorbitant, as it requires unavoidable stakes for the stories that can be told: said very trivially, even in his film Spider-Man cannot tackle multidimensional problems without at his side there is Doctor Strange, on pain of absurd problems of continuity if not of logical sense.

Again, on the one hand, it is what gives energy to the whole, while on the other hand it always runs the risk of limiting the potential of a character. Here, at least in his Moon Knight series, he has the privilege of not running into this eventuality, he has the extraordinary opportunity to forge his own imagination from scratch, even a feud between divinities. 

And this is the path taken in the second episode, which clearly shows how deeply the authors wanted to exploit this freedom because it is here that the sumptuous fertile ground in which Steven Grant / Marc Spector acts takes a little more shape in its undeniable tragedy.

Who is Marc?

After giving his body to Marc and fighting Moon Knight the Egyptian jackal who chased him in the museum (here you can find Moon Knight 1×01), Steven (Oscar Isaac) wakes up with a start in his bed, still doubtful about the nature of these events. Did they really happen or is his head reaching the heights of madness?

Arriving at work, however, he discovers that someone has indeed smashed the bathroom, despite the security cameras only showing a terrified and whimpering Steven running around between the various attractions and, most importantly, no signs of dogs, hounds, or jackals. 

One detail, however, captures him: the self he sees coming out of the toilet, according to him, is absolutely not him, but another person with a very different attitude. He then decides it’s time to face his fears and finally find out what lies behind the mysterious Marc.

And, like last week, it can only surprise us positively how the new Marvel series seems disinterested in taking simple paths or easy trivializations of events, which would have made the task much easier and given fans several more sops, at least for that which concerns the rhythm and the spectacular. 

Moon Knight, on the other hand, abandons any unnecessary action ambitions and adopts – like a good psychological thriller in the MCU theme – its own exquisite background slowness, or, it would be better to say, a frenetic mixture of braking and continuous accelerations to paint its main actor in the various shades and the wonderful mythology in which it is immersed (we have already explained to you why Oscar Isaac is the best choice for Moon Knight).

Fighting deities and grayscale

The incredible initial victory of Moon Knight is, in fact, precisely enclosed in these nuances that were anything but obvious: in the intensive exploitation of an extremely fascinating background of the character, in terms of moral consequences and more; in not offering clear positions, a glaring good side and a bad side in the clash between Marc and Arthur (Ethan Hawke). 

But a grayscale where he is inclined to lose the right moral compass; in the delineation of a tormented protagonist, tired and subjugated by an ambiguous and selfish divinity. Especially at the end of the episode, the peaks of characterization and drama, inherent in Marc / Steven himself without the need for external factors, explode in sequences that are nothing short of amazing.

Since the announcement, we were somewhat skeptical about how Moon Knight could be treated by the Marvel formula and how it could fit into the shared universe, but now there is really a tangible change of tones and themes. 

Of course, as in the debut, sometimes the comic streak continues to always go a little further and the action scenes are still below the standards that the MCU has accustomed us to, but the series still has a lot of time to prove us wrong. . On Moon Knight it was perhaps more important to frame the tragic essence of the character, which seems to be there fully and triumph over everything else.

The second episode of Moon Knight not only confirms the good feelings of the debut but amplifies them dramatically. And that’s because the new Marvel series looks like totally disinterested in making simple decisions or taking trivial directions that would have made the rhythm or the spectacle of the whole much easier. 

Aware of the delicate character it is dealing with, the screenplay instead continues to linger exquisitely on the tormented psyche of the protagonist, in trying to find out who this Marc is, in slowly unveiling the incredible mythology concerning the selfish and ambiguous Khonshu, who supports him. 

The result, especially when compared to the rest of the MCU, is stunning, wonderfully tragic, and full of shades of gray, with no distinctly good or bad. It is also true that the humor typical of the cinematic universe does and will always do its part and, as in the pilot, even here sometimes it exaggerates just that little bit too much. 

As well as the action sequences are a little below the standards we have been used to for over a decade. The character and his essence of him, however, are fully there for now and it was not at all obvious.

Moon Knight Episode 01

Moon Knight Episode 02

Moon Knight Episode 02