After the wild cliffhanger of last week’s episode, Moon Knight has a lot to answer for in “Asylum.” In this thrilling and emotional episode, we finally understand Steven and Marc’s backstory as the two of them journey inwards to find inner peace. It’s more exciting than it sounds, trust me.
Balancing the Scales | After screaming their hearts out over the giant hippo lady, Marc (Oscar Isaac) and Steven (Oscar Isaac) are told by the hippo that they are in the Egyptian realm between death and the afterlife and that the asylum is their minds making sense of the realm. The hippo retrieves their hearts from their chests and places them on scales to balance their souls. The scales don’t quite balance, so the Hippo tells them that they need to go through their memories and find a way out, or else they’ll be claimed by the unbalanced souls of the afterlife.
While trying to find a way through the asylum, they stumble into a room full of corpses, all of whom Marc recognizes. They also see a little boy, who Steven follows into a room that leads to a young Marc with his parents and a little brother, Steven. As Steven watches the memory, he sees Marc take Steven into a cave as it rains and floods the cave, drowning Steven.
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Bad Memories | Steven continues to see Marc’s memories, including that his mother started drinking and blaming young Marc for his brother’s death. Steven also sees memories of an adult Marc after having slaughtered a group of archeologists and then tries to kill himself inside a tomb. Khonshu (F. Murray Abraham) then speaks to him and offers him a chance to become Moon Knight, which he accepts.
Steven gets angry with Marc for not telling him any of this and Marc then drops the bomb that their mother has been dead for years. Steven then wakes up in Dr. Harrow’s (Ethan Hawke) office in the asylum and Harrow confirms what Marc said by calling his mother only to get a dial tone.
Not Your Fault | Steven then sees one last memory of Marc as child hiding in his room from his abusive mother and then suddenly becoming Steven to avoid the pain of living with her. Years later, after his mother died, he surrendered to Steven so that he wouldn’t have to deal with his grief. Steven and Marc have a heart to heart and Steven tells Marc that he was not at fault for his brother’s death.
Unfortunately, this isn’t enough to balance the scales and dead souls start attacking them. Steven manages to fight a few off, but as one soul tries to kill Marc, Steven tackles it over the edge of the asylum and is consumed by the nothingness around it. This balances the scales and Marc is suddenly transported into paradise.
Moon Knight is now streaming on Disney+.