Knight of the Moon: The Hippopotamus and the Thoughtful End of Episode 4 Explained

Warning, spoilers. It is advisable to watch the 4th episode of Moon Knight before continuing to read this article.

As the Knight of the Moon draws to a close, Episode 4 of the Marvel Studios series changes all the cards in its final minutes and profoundly changes the trajectory of Stephen / Mark (Oscar Isaac).

Now alone, without power, and without the costume of the Knight of the Moon offered by the imprisoned Khonshu, Stephen and Mark follow Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke) to the tomb of Alexander the Great, which contains a statue of Amit, the deity Arthur serves. . (Meaning that the former king of Macedonia in the Marvel world was an avatar of Ammit).

Steven barely has time to give Mark control over his body, after a heated argument with Leila (May Kalamavi) he throws Arthur and falls into a pool of water. Wake up at a psychiatric clinic where he is a patient of Dr. Arthur Harrow along with Leila and Donna, the head of the museum where Stephen worked.

All the elements in the facility, from Egyptian-inspired decorative items to the figure of a moon knight, to the VHS ribbon of an Indiana Jones-style adventure film starring Stephen Grant, make us think that everything that happened in such a distant series was really just in Mark’s head.

Mark would therefore be an ordinary person suffering from a dissociative identity disorder and who has invented a heroic life consisting of adventures. Despite his physical and psychological weaknesses, he manages to escape the doctor and the nurses and finds Steven locked in a sarcophagus in another room!

Then they are both happy to have found themselves, each with their own body, and they understand that they did not dream about what happened to them. In addition to wanting to escape from the hospital they find themselves face to face with a strange hippopotamus!

Hallucination due to drugs or the real appearance of an anthropomorphic hippopotamus? The answer is that this creature is the tauret or tavern, the Egyptian goddess of childbirth and a symbol of fertility. It is actor Antonia Salib who casts a vote for this character, who has no equivalent in the Marvel comics world.

We need to wait for the discovery of the 5th episode of Moon Knight to understand how this deity will help Mark and Stephen, because it does not look bad towards the duo, it even looks quite benevolent. Is it real or just an illusion created by Harrow? Even better, could this be a subconscious image that represents the rebirth of Mark and Stephen after being shot by Harrow?

Or will he be the one to reunite Mark with his parents? Yes, Elias and Wendy Spectators, Mark Spector’s parents, appear in recent episodes of Moon Knight. Their translators Ray Lucas and Fernanda Andrad attended the red carpet review of the Marvel series and gave an interview to Variety, which confirmed their presence.

The Knights of the Moon teams were inspired by the comics of Canadian author Jeff Lemire, who in 2016 re-embarked on the adventure of vigilance with artist Greg Smallwood. This was confirmed by directors Aaron Murhead and Justin Benson, who filmed the 2nd and 4th episodes. And the last two episodes of the series could bring him even closer.

Because from these numbers of Jeff Lemire we learn that Mark, who suffers from amnesia, was locked up in a psychiatric hospital because he thought he was a superhero knight of the moon. He realizes that Dr. Emmett, who is the avatar of the Egyptian god Amit, prevents him from searching for memory. But Khonshu also hinders him from wanting to control his body.

Mark owes his salvation only to the fact that he has finally accepted the existence of his other identities, which helps him defeat Emmett and Khonshu. After these physically and psychologically violent adventures, Mark puts on his lunar knight costume and decides to be a protector and fight crime without the crushing weight of someone’s service.

If the knight of the moon goes to more and more violence and therefore completely embraces his horrible atmosphere, this change may be with a new character, or rather, with a different identity of the hero. In the comics, Mark Spector has several personalities, and we’ve already seen Stephen Grant.

But another thing we care about for the rest of the events is Jake Lockley, a taxi driver who roams the slums of New York City to gather information about the underworld. In the Marvel Studios series, Steven is quite kind, intelligent, and self-assured, while Mark is more arrogant, fearless, and self-assured. Jake could be an even darker and more violent part of the protagonist because he knew that the hint in episode 3 suggested that this theory could be proven.

In episode 3, when Mark fights Arthur Harrow’s thugs, Stephen tries to calm him down and Mark loses consciousness. When he wakes up, he is covered in blood and his opponents are dead. It seems that neither Stephen nor Mark are responsible for this butcher. Anyway, so they say. Then it could be Jake Lockley’s work.

It remains to be seen whether this theory is confirmed in the last two episodes of Moon Knight. But this third possible identity will be an opportunity to completely surprise the public and offer new surprises to Moon Knight.