The following contains spoilers for Moon Knight Episode 4, “The Tomb.”With Moon Knight’s fourth episode, the audience is taken on a wild ride. It’s earned comparisons to franchises like Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones thanks to the search for a hidden tomb. As Steven and Layla race to get to it before Harrow’s people do, they find themselves encountering a few dangerous obstacles.
This particular episode actually goes a lot heavier on Easter eggs than episodes past. There are plenty of comic book references - and potential hints about what’s to come in the series. The latter half of the episode, however, is largely self-referential, providing the audience with a ton of callbacks to the first three episodes for fans who pay close attention.
Moon Knight’s Trapped Gods
The episode opens with a reminder of just where the audience left off at the end of Episode 3. After manipulating the night sky again, Khonshu has been imprisoned in a statue. He’s not alone, however, as the audience sees his statue placed in a wall with several others. While not all of the statues can be easily identified, it does appear that Egyptian gods Anubis and Bes might also be in statues. Both are characters in Marvel comics that were missing from the previous meeting of the Ennead.
A Goat Watches Steven And Layla
When Steven and Layla approach the entrance to the tomb they’re searching for, the camera cuts to reveal a goat watching them from a cliff. While that might seem inconsequential to some members of the audience, other audience members might remember that Steven ran into a goat when he first found himself in the town where Arthur Harrow and his followers live in Episode 2. It seems like an odd coincidence for a goat to watch him now.
Khnum is one of the Egyptian deities, often depicted with the head of a goat or ram. He was known as the “divine potter” because, as the god of the Nile, he was thought to own the clay in the river during flooding. Khnum was thought to use the clay to shape children, and even some of the other gods.
All Of The Scarab References
A scarab was used in earlier episodes to act as the compass to lead Harrow to Ammit’s tomb. Scarabs are all over this episode beyond the compass though.
There’s one seen following Layla in the desert. The camera provides the audience a closeup of it. There’s another on a bandage on Layla later in the episode, and a stuffed one as well. Layla, called her father’s “little scarab” also is said to have made a scarf with scarabs on it for her father.
Those scarabs all point to Layla’s father being the Scarlet Scarab, a reveal that is made later in the episode when she says her father’s name.
Layla’s Comic Book Connection
Abdullah El-Faouly is the name Layla uses to reference her father when she attempts to confront Marc about his death. That name explains why Layla isn’t named after Marc Spector’s comic book wife. Abdul Faoul is a character who debuted in Marvel comics in 1977. Also known as the Scarlet Scarab, he was a protector of Egypt who attempted to keep invading forces out in the 1940s. His comic book story is being combined with a piece of Marc’s comic book backstory.
Marc tells Layla that he was a part of the group that raided the archeological site her father was on, but didn’t actually kill him. This falls right in line with the character’s backstory for becoming Moon Knight. Marc raids a site with Bushman, but Bushman begins slaying everyone at the site, which Marc disagrees with, and when Bushman turns on Marc, Marc ends up dead. Khonshu, however, comes to Marc’s aid, saving his life as long as Marc becomes his servant on earth. In the comics, that archeologist isn’t Abdul Faoul, but the story is still the same.
The Importance Of Alexander The Great
The tomb that Steven and Layla find surprises Steven as he comes to believe it’s the resting place of historical figure Alexander the Great. While he is a real-life part of history, Alexander the Great is also a character in Marvel comics. Kang the Conqueror is actually a huge admirer of Alexander the Great.
During the reign of Alexander the Great, he’s so consumed by his own power and status that he proclaims himself to be the son of Zeus. Not much Greek mythology has been included in the Marvel Cinematic Universe outside of The Eternals, but Zeus is on his way to the MCU. Russell Crowe is playing the character in Thor: Love And Thunder. It’s entirely possible that this might not be the last we see of Alexander the Great.
The Callbacks In The Institution
After Marc is shot in the tomb, the scene suddenly changes to one of an institution with white walls and furniture. The hospital setting is inspired by Marvel’s 2016 Moon Knight comic book run. There, writer Jeff Lemire and artit Greg Smallwood place the character in a mental health facility, where he’s manipulated by the doctor in charge, Doctor Emmet, an Avatar of Ammit.
More than a comic book nod, however, Marc’s time in the institution in this episode is full of callbacks to previous episodes. The other patients and the employees are all people from his real life. Steven’s museum boss Donna is a patient, holding a stuffed scarab. The gold-painted living statue Crawley is a patient, calling out the bingo numbers. Even Layla is a patient, eating the same Turkish delight from the previous episode and placing postcards from Steven’s apartment on the whiteboard. While Harrow is present as the lead doctor, the police in his employ (Billy and Bobby) are here as orderlies. Likewise, Anton’s right-hand Bek is the man passing out sweets. There’s a clear divide with patients as those Marc doen’t see as a threat and institution employees as those he does.
The details are pretty staggering in the sequence with Steven Grant a character in a movie that Marc loves, Khonshu’s staff being one of the hands on the clock, and even a Moon Knight action figure in Marc’s costume. There’s also a man playing with a Rubik’s cube, just as Steven tried to do to keep himself awake. Marc is even chained to his wheelchair in the same way that Steven was to prevent him from “sleepwalking.” His goldfish makes an appearance as do the pastries from the truck that he wakes up in after a confrontation with Harrow’s men.
Of course, Harrow’s office also features Egyptian decor courtesy of the many artifacts Marc and Steven have recently seen. The painting that Marc keeps looking at is the village where Steven first meets Harrow.
A Third Sarcophagus
In the space of the institution, which seems to largely be in Marc’s mind, Marc finds Steven trying to escape a sarcophagus. As the two run through the building, however, there’s a third sarcophagus that someone is locked in, evident by the repeated banging coming from inside. Neither of them make a move to open that one, clearly scared of what they might find.
This is the third hint that there is a third identity at play. Neither Marc nor Steven claim responsibility for killing several people in an earlier episode, and it also appears that neither of them were the one to ask out Steven’s coworker. Steven didn’t remember the event, and Marc is too focused on Khonshu and Layla to have been the one. It’s likely the comic book identity Jake Lockley. He works as a private detective.
Taweret Makes Her Debut
The cliffhanger of the episode involves Steven and Marc running right into someone who has the head of a hippopotamus. The character was teased way back in the first episode of the series when Steven corrected Donna about a box of stuffed hippopotamuses, which were actually figures of the Egyptian goddess Tawaret.
Tawaret is the goddess of fertility and childbirth and wasn’t present during the meeting of the Ennead in an earlier episode. It looks like she might have a large role going forward.
Moon Knight is currently available to stream on Disney Plus.