Moon Knight Episode 4 Poses 8 Questions & Headscratchers

Warning: contains SPOILERS from Moon Knight episode 4.

Marvel's Moon Knight episode 4, "The Tomb," has some particularly intriguing developments that offer more questions and headscratchers than the previous episodes - here are eight of them, explained. After Marc Spector's (Oscar Isaac) powers are removed upon Khonshu's imprisonment in episode 3, Steven Grant must find Ammit's hidden tomb with Layla (May Calamawy) to stop the mission of Ammit's avatar, Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke). Ammit's whereabouts, however, lead to extreme danger and a seemingly deadly fate for Marc Spector.

As the MCU Phase 4 continues, Marvel works like Moon Knight are adding bold elements and introducing newer characters with the intention of putting a fresher take on the post-Infinity Saga MCU. Moon Knight helps set up an Endgame-rivaling war supported by elements introduced in The Eternals and Loki. Upcoming MCU sequels like Thor: Love and Thunder and Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness are becoming more ensemble-based and, therefore, introduce the potential of adding bigger elements to their plots. Moon Knight is no different, continuing the MCU's trend of taking older themes and elements - which, in Moon Knight's case, include supernatural and mystical aspects - and spinning them with a new twist.

While previous Moon Knight episodes provided questions relating to character motivations and MCU connections, episode 4 begins to evoke doubts about the show's very reality. An episode that otherwise hearkens back to archaeological adventures like Indiana Jones and The Mummy with Steven, Marc, and Layla discovering Alexander the Great's missing tomb in Moon Knight, soon transcends into a mind-bender when Marc and Steven find themselves in a psychiatric hospital on a separate plane of existence. Needless to say, Moon Knight episode 4, "The Tomb," has a lot of questions and headscratchers that need explaining.

Who Are The Other Imprisoned Gods?

When Osiris (Khalid Abdalla) places Khonshu's (F. Murray Abraham) statue, or "ushabti," in its set location, Moon Knight reveals other imprisoned gods around him. Ammit's ushabti is, of course, not among them considering that hers was placed in hiding. However, the other statues shown reveal more about the MCU's Egyptian pantheon than before. Moon Knight introduced five additional gods from the Ennead in episode 3, "The Friendly Type" - Horus, Isis, Hathor, Tefnut, and the aforementioned Osiris.

There are theories as to who Moon Knight's other Egyptian gods are, even though episode 4 doesn't explain who each statue is. One ushabti appears to be Anubis, the Egyptian god of the dead and embalming. In Egyptian mythology, he and Ammit worked together to judge people at the scales in the underworld, with Ammit physically devouring the hearts of the impure. If Anubis in particular is imprisoned, this could truly spell a power struggle among the gods. Other potentially imprisoned gods include Ra, Thoth, Seth, Shu, Geb, Nut, Bes, and Ptah. Ra, also known as Atum, would also be an interesting imprisonment situation considering that he was the de facto leader of the Egyptian pantheon. Of course, there are dozens of major Egyptian deities and even more minor ones, so the imprisoned gods could be almost any of the deities not yet introduced in the show.

Why Are There People Being Mummified?

Ammit's location harbors Heka priests that are entombed to protect the pharaoh and, as described by Layla, were "sorcerers of their time." As a loose connection to the MCU and Marvel Easter egg, Moon Knight episode 4's Heka priests are the followers of Heka, the Egyptian god of magic. The Heka priests' room holds a mummification table with fresh blood and human meat surrounded by used canopic jars. It is then a Heka priest who soon embalms a victim alive on the table.

The purpose of the Heka priests is to protect Alexander the Great's sarcophagus, which they would accomplish by killing any intruders. However, other hints in the room, such as a snakeskin arm that Steven finds at a station with a corpse surrounded by more tools and canopic jars, reveal why the victims would specifically be mummified and not just killed off. Heka's powers related not just to magic, but to medicine and the afterlife. Egyptians also retained body parts during embalmment because they believed that it preserved a person's spirit. The Heka priests, then, are embalming their victims for further study and future sorcery.

Who Is In The Third Sarcophagus?

Moon Knight episode 4 locked sarcophagus

It's likely that Jake Lockley is in Moon Knight's locked sarcophagus. Moon Knight teased before that Steven and Marc might be accompanied by a third alter that, if the show follows the comics, is the taxi driver Jake Lockley. After Marc pulls Steven out of a sarcophagus, they then find a third, unopened sarcophagus in the hospital. As Marc/Steven just went through the trauma of Arthur Harrow shooting them (and then possibly dying), the shaking sarcophagus offers further, more established proof that a third alter is struggling to surface. Whoever the third alter is, Moon Knight has hinted at him being more violent than Marc and Steven; in a scene in episode 3, both Marc and Steven awake to find they've killed people and both deny responsibility for the brutality. It'll be interesting to see when and how Moon Knight will then officially introduce Jake, assuming that its hints indeed imply his existence. Another possibility is that Khonshu is in the sarcophagus. However, no clues on the sarcophagus itself imply this.

Where & What Is The Hospital In Moon Knight?

Marc Spector and Steven Grant in the hospital, Moon Knight episode 4

Finding himself in a psychiatric facility accompanied by previous Moon Knight characters as hospital patients, Marc has to adjust to a world entirely different from the one in which he was just mortally wounded. Because of Taweret's physical presence in the hospital at the end of Moon Knight episode 4, Marc's hospital experience is definitely influenced by the Ennead. The question is then whether the hospital is really in the physical plane, and if not, why Marc finds himself there.

The hospital sequence is inspired by the Moon Knight comic arc "Welcome to New Egypt," in which Marc Spector finds himself in a psychiatric institution as the result of undergoing therapy for his dissociative identity disorder. Illusions he experiences are the result of both his therapeutic treatment and Ennead-induced delusions. Depending on how much of a hand the Ennead played in creating the hospital's atmosphere in Moon Knight could then reveal the hospital's actual plane of existence.

Will The Hippo Goddess Bring Back Steven And Marc (Who Is She)?

The end of Moon Knight episode 4 introduces Taweret with a simple full-body reveal and a quick, "Hi!" She has an extensive range of duties in her long mythological history, with her most closely associated with affairs relating to fertility and childbirth. Seen as a protective force, Taweret would also cleanse the dead and help guide souls through the dangerous mountains of the underworld. If her appearance indicates that the hospital is indeed on a separate plane of existence from reality, then she could be preparing to guide Marc and Steven through the underworld. Egyptian mythology also shows instances of her being a peacemaker, which could be put to use in Moon Knight to mend relationships between Khonshu, Marc Spector, Steven Grant, and the other Egyptian gods. How many Moon Knight episodes Taweret's voice actor is scheduled to be in will be indicative of what role she'll play in Marc and Steven's life. While it's still debatable whether or not Marc is really dead, Taweret definitely has a powerful role to play in bringing him and Steven back to a more stable point after being shot.

How Can Marc Come Back To Life? Is He Even Dead?

Marc Spector Dying Fantasy Theory 1 Moon Knight

If Marc really is dead, he won't be dead for long. Moon Knight is, after all, the character's setup series with two additional episodes to go. However, he was shot without Khonshu's protection. For him to be saved, he either must not actually be dead in the first place, or another force will have to intervene. Moon Knight episode 4 introduced Taweret, seemingly to help Marc and Steven in the next episode, and considering her extensive presence in Egyptian mythology, she could provide assistance in many ways. Moon Knight's big twist also implies that everything in the show up until that point has actually been fake, which would not only explain why Marc is alive but why Moon Knight has been a largely standalone show devoid of the Avengers and other MCU characters.

How Much Of Moon Knight Has Been Real?

Marc and Steven shouting in Moon Knight.

Moon Knight's hospital twist implies a few theories. One prevalent explanation is that the entirety of Moon Knight up until that point has been imagined. The hospital includes people previously in Moon Knight, a Moon Knight action figure, and an Indiana Jones-esque B-movie playing on a television that stars a character conveniently named Steven Grant. However, because the hospital includes many fantastical elements as well, it's still debatable exactly how much of Moon Knight through episode 4's twist was real. Marc physically interacts with Steven for the first time in the show by freeing him out of a sarcophagus and hugging him. Then, both Marc and Steven encounter Taweret.

Moon Knight's episode 4 ending keeps things ambiguous. It depends on whether the parallels that Marc sees between the hospital and the world before, like the Steven Grant Tomb Buster movie, influenced his life in Egypt, or the other way around. He is either a patient in a psychiatric hospital whose imagination of fighting crime as Moon Knight was influenced by elements around him or the elements around him in the hospital are figments that signify that the entire hospital environment is a separate mental state or another plane of existence. If only the hospital is real despite its hallucinatory elements, then most of Moon Knight is imagined. While Marc and Steven have seen things before that weren't seen by others, such as Moon Knight's jackal, the hospital being real would prove that Marc and Steven's hallucinatory experiences are more severe than believed. However, if the hospital isn't on the physical plane of reality, there's an interesting set of possibilities for what really happened to Marc.

What Could Be In Store For Episode 5?

Oscar Isaac as Marc Spector in Moon Knight episode 4

Moon Knight episode 4's ambiguous ending leaves a lot of potential for episode 5. For one, Marc still needs to free Khonshu. However, now that he is in the hospital, he has to regain his grasp on what is happening to him. Taweret's presence will answer a lot of questions. He may actually be dead, which would then mean episode 5 needs to bring him back to life, likely with Taweret's help. If he isn't dead, then either the hospital or his time in Egypt need to be explained, for they can not both exist - not, at least, in their entirety. After that's resolved, Moon Knight needs to reunite Marc with Khonshu so that Marc's future as Moon Knight can continue. Because episode 4 introduces elements that leave the entire show up to question, Moon Knight has a tall order of things that need to be resolved in its last two episodes.

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New episodes of Moon Knight are released Wednesdays on Disney+.