When starting a new series, there’s, understandably, a good deal of world and character building to complete before the story can really get underway. After all, if we don’t care at least a bit about our central characters and understand who they are and what they want, how can we appreciate the dangers, drama, and crazy hijinks they will undergo over the course of the series? And when that central character happens to be three characters rolled into one – Marc, Steven, and Khonshu – well, that’s a heck of a lot of background to dig through before getting the audience to a place where we understand this guy and what his real mission is. With “The Friendly Type,” Moon Knight has finally started to hit its stride – and not a moment too soon, as this episode also marks the halfway point in the series.
I know it might not be the most popular opinion, but boy is Steven way more interesting to watch when we only get him in small doses. And I suspect that’s going to be the way we experience both Marc and Steven together* moving forward, as the duo appears to have reached a détente of sorts following two episodes of exhausting pushing and pulling between the two identities. It’s certainly for the best now that Khonshu has sacrificed himself (I’m sure only temporarily) in service of ensuring Steven and Layla discovered the key clue to get them to Amitt’s tomb before Harrow can resurrect her and bring “justice” to the world.
*It certainly appears that, like in the Moon Knight comics, there is a third personality living within our hero, albeit one that neither Marc nor Steven are fully aware of. Whoever took over their body to dispatch of the thugs certainly has a particular set of skills – he’s even more violent than Marc and presumably tortured some of the men – but when he’s in control, Marc and Steven are unable to see/hear/take back control from him. There’s not a ton of time left to explore the emergence of a third personality, so I suspect this might be a revelation saved for the end of the series, a cliffhanger of sorts where both Marc and Steven realize there’s a lot more going on in their head than they thought.
And let’s talk a bit about Khonshu’s actions. Initially set-up as a morally questionable character (because despite living within Marc/Steven, he’s his own character), his actions this episode proved there’s definitely more going on with him and his own ideas of “justice” than I initially thought. This nuance is welcome, because the series was lacking a point of view for the character – particularly egregious considering how much of the story he influences. Having him on the side of “good” here – wanting to stop Amitt from rising up, even when the rest of the avatar-having gods are willing to essentially look the other way – firmly provides us with someone to root for, giving us a key reason why Khonshu, at least in this instance, isn’t the bad guy.
Similarly, we get a better understanding of Marc. Instead of him being a macho bro with stellar fighting skills who wants to protect Layla (who, based on the company she keeps in her everyday life, probably doesn’t need protecting*), he’s a much more complex character than how he was initially presented to us. He genuinely wants to do good with his powers – aside from the occasional heist of ancient artifacts, at least – but puts too much emphasis on keeping Khonshu happy to allow himself to be happy as well. A tortured hero is all well and good – and lord knows the MCU is full of ‘em – but we need to see the humanity behind the fighter. This time around, watching how he interacts with Layla, how he acquiesces to Steven when the need arises, and how he’s not always willing to put on the suit just because it’s demanded of him, we now have a better understanding of who this man really is. He’s complicated, that’s to be sure, and I’m not thrilled that he apparently has a major secret regarding the death of Layla’s father that will come out at the least opportune moment as a means to artificially pull the pair apart, but I’m intrigued to see how he balances with Steven moving forward.
*The quick mention that Layla has been doing business in Madripoor is particularly interesting. As you might recall from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, that’s the MCU city where Sharon Carter is the Power Broker and where all the shady Marvel business goes down. If Layla is established as someone who frequents Madripoor, well, that’s a sign that she’s into some potentially dark stuff and could reappear in additional MCU properties on the side of evil (or at least morally complicated).
But the best part about the episode, however, was that it confirmed that Moon Knight is aiming for a pretty simply overall narrative arc for the plot: Stop Amitt from judging the world. Yes, it’s also introducing a new potential MCU hero, but it’s not trying to do much more than that. The one knock against some of the MCU Disney+ shows has been that they – even when they were incredibly successful – are seemingly trying to fill in the blanks so that we know what we need to know for the next big MCU film. Here, that’s not the case. We’re getting to know Moon Knight as a character and following him as he tries to stop one man from doing one thing. It’s refreshingly simple – even when dealing with something as complex as Dissociative Identity Disorder. My worry had been that the series would get bogged down in complex plot points, but it’s looking like we’re in the clear for that. I’m still not wholly sold on Moon Knight as a viable future character within the MCU, but I’m more than willing to watch how his current adventure unfolds here.
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