Well things just got weird(er).

This episode started off with us loving Steven (the bean) and living through our Egyptian phase (just me?) as they went tomb diving. But somehow we ended with a talking hippo and having Steven and Marc separated into two different beings and maybe Jake hanging out in a sarcophagus. Obviously we have a lot to talk about here, but we talk about a lot more in the full podcast episode. Click the button below to find the listening platform of your preference or listen below with the link provided.

The episode begins exactly where episode 3 left off and we got some insight into the idea that other gods have been imprisoned like Khonshu. I know from the get-go that I immediately thought about what gives these avatars (and in turn, their respective gods/goddesses) the right to imprison others. Even if this council is the governing body of the Egyptian gods, I don’t see how they have the right to imprison other gods under a rule that seems the minority holds. Choosing not to interfere with daily human lives outside of their avatars also sounds very familiar to the issues that took place in Eternals and very well could be the conflict between gods here once again. However, I do think this way of imprisonment shows just how powerful this council can be, which should be interesting to possibly see in the future. My best bet is that when Marc (or Steven) go to unleash Khonshu, they will likely unleash the other gods, starting a war among them all. Well, maybe the war won’t happen, at least not on screen, but I do think the unleashing of Khonshu will also come with the unleashing of the other imprisoned gods.

This episode once again really showed us how smart Steven is and allowed us to see him primarily as the alter in the most control for now. I just enjoyed that Steven was being the little bean he was and was fangirling over all of the ancient Egyptian artifacts since that would pretty much have been me if I was there. As Taylor said in this podcast episode, we got a lot of different action sequences that differ a lot from what we saw with MoonKnight and gave some Indiana Jones vibes. It definitely has shifted the tone of the show and makes it feel less super-heroy, whether that is a good thing for some or not so good thing for others. I think it helps to give diversity to the show in comparison to others, especially having one of the leads be a much softer person with interests outside of being a full-fledged hero. It also highlights (and you can call me stupid for this) the importance of having someone who isn’t just going to go in with their fists flying. It’s an interesting change and I am pretty intrigued to see where episode 5 takes it, especially with that ending.

I need to momentarily rant about this and it is just for the sake of my sanity, but I have to say I am over the ‘woman messes up the plan because she gets emotional narrative’. No matter your viewpoint on anything, I’m just over that specific storyline, as I think it has been over done in shows and films in general. And it always ends with the hero getting screwed over, as it did here. I could just do without and wouldn’t mind the whole narrative being avoided, as even in this episode, it wasn’t needed. They could have had Arthur and friends come right in when Steven pulled the statue out of the mummy’s mouth, yet instead had Layla interfere with something unimportant to the current mission. I guess my biggest issue comes from the fact that Layla is painted as a very ‘deal with this later, get what needs to be done finished now’ type of person, so seeing her interfere in a place that obviously screwed up the entire plan just also seemed out of character for her.

Before we reach that ending, I want to quick give a little insight on who the hippo is. Thanks to Twitter user Turns1701e, we have been gifted the knowledge that she is the goddess Tawaret, whose realm is pregnancy and motherhood. The biggest thing here is why would she have been in the scene, of all the gods and goddesses? The simple answer is that I don’t really know, but I can certainly deliberate on it. For one, it may be possible that with Steven coming out of the sarcophogus (and a certain someone else trapped within one) could be seen as a form of birth. That Steven (and Jake) are being born as their own separate beings, therefore tying to the goddess’s power of pregnancy. She also may act as a motherly figure to Steven and Marc while they are in this strange hospital scene, in which case she could be taken rather literally to her powers. Additionally, there is the whole ‘Steven was on the phone with his mom in the beginning of the show yet we haven’t heard anything else about it’ storyline, so it could show we might get an explanation here. Lastly, we could be thinking too much into this and Marvel may have just wanted to include her in the episode for the sake of having a goddess who is depicted as a hippo, so I don’t know.

So let’s finish this blog with the biggest thing that took place in episode 4 and that was the last 10 minutes, cause what. the. heck. Obviously I mentioned a little bit of it before, but the biggest aspect of this is trying to figure out if now everything we have seen has been in Marc’s head. Of couse, logically if it was in Marc’s head we wouldn’t have a superhero on our hands, so in the long run it would technically have to be actually happening. But it also might be partially in Marc’s head and him being in a mental hospital does make sense with his condition. Then with all of this, we get another hint at a third alter that may be waiting in his own sarcophogus. It certainly is interesting, as Marc and Steven are now two separate people, which could read that we are more directly in their mind and experiencing their lives as the two of them do. Honestly, I won’t lie and say I know what is going on here, but I do know next episode is going to be crucial in getting answers about pretty much everything.

Since I brought it up, the fifth episode of MoonKnight has come out TODAY, so go right from this blog post to watch it if you haven’t seen it already and are just here for a recap. Coming up, we have the final episode of MoonKnight one day before MoM begins early showings next week. This means that as a podcast we will be having two episodes next week, one covering the MoonKnight finale and the other being probably the first of two covering MoM. We haven’t had this big of a week since NWH and Hawkeye, so get ready cause Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “Moonknight episode 4”, Screenrant, Head Topics