Hey everyone, I'm The Canadian Lad and today I watched Moon Knight episode 3 at 0.25x speed
and found some amazing new details.
Now, this is gonna be a complete breakdown + my 0.25x speed series, so I will go scene-by-scene
and try to explain everything.
And if there's an easter egg or a hidden detail that I found along the way, I'll talk about
it too.
So without wasting any time, let's begin!
The episode opens with the camera trying to focus on Layla.
Almost giving us an impression as if we just woke up and now seeing a different perspective.
Only to realize this is actually director Mohamed Diab playing with the camera to show
us Layla getting her pictures taken for a fake passport.
Now her fake passport reveals a few information about her.
Her full name is: Layla Abdullah El-Fouly, now if you're familiar with Arab culture,
you'll know that the name Abdullah is a very common name in their culture which means "Servant
of God" And her date of birth says she was born on
October 28th, 1994.
Although these credentials might also be fake but I think her real name and date of birth
are at least real.
Now there's a tiny bit of issue here, notice the issuing date of her fake passport is 29th
of May, 2021 on the physical copy.
But while this lady was photoshopping her fake passport, the computer screen showed
it as 2019.
Meaning, she must have changed it out before hitting the print button.
Which might indicate Layla was in fact never snapped or maybe Marvel fixed it in the post
as they don't wanna reveal way too much about Layla now.
Now we learn from this scene that Layla is actually a Robinhood type character who steals
the already stolen items and returns them where they belong.
Layla El-Faouly is based on the Marvel Comics character Marlene.
Introduced in 1976’s Marvel Spotlight #28, she’s basically Moon Knight's longterm love
interest.
In the comics, Marlene is the daughter of a noted archaeologist.
After discovering the lost tomb of Khonshu, her father was attacked and killed by mercenaries
seeking to raid the dig site.
Marlene, who was working with her father on the expedition, found Marc Spector and was
with him ever since!
And as we learn in this episode, Layla is also the daughter of an archaeologist and
spent plenty of time at his dig sites as a kid.
While Layla doesn’t go into details, it’s clear that something bad happened to her father
as she says, So, if we put everything together, both Layla
and Marlene are daughters of an archaeologist and they're both Marc Spector’s on-and-off
partner.
So it’s safe to say that Layla is the MCU’s version of Marlene.
Cut to the desert where we see Arthur Harrow guiding his followers to the tomb of Ammit.
Now I can't help but think how this scene resembles the way Moses guided his followers
in the desert according to the holy scriptures.
Now the scarab that Arthur Harrow is holding is actually floating in the air.
Now notice the shadow on the sand, the VFX department made sure to CGI the floating scarab
on the shadow as well.
Then we see Marc Spector running after some knife fighting thugs.
But there's a very interesting bit of action we see here.
Notice how Oscar Isaac gets rid of his hat while running at full speed.
Now, in the comics Marc Spector has another alter identity by the name Jake Lockley, a
very smart cab driver who wears a similar sort of hat.
So my theory is, Jake Lockley must have instigated this fight but in the middle of his sprint,
Marc Spector took over.
And I loved that Marc didn't let this guy complete his showboating and just outright
punched him in the face.
I don't think I can thank Mohamed Diab enough for this scene though, I mean I've seen so
many action movies where villains would pull off a move like this and the hero would just
stand and watch.
So I'm glad Marc didn't let that happen.
Now one more detail from this scene, notice how Marc Spector despite being a mercenary,
still showed mercy towards this kid.
He chose to slap him instead of throwing a punch.
So Marc isn't exactly the opposite of Steven Grant, he does have humanity in him up to
some extent.
However, it's Jake Lockley who seems to be the most brutal among the three personalities.
More about this in a minute.
Cut to a Taxi where Steven is now in control of the body or that's what we are made to
believe.
So from our perspective, Marc Spector was in the middle of fighting and then Steven
Grant took over, ended the fight and got on a taxi.
But I don't think that's exactly what happened here.
I think this is a deliberate misdirect from director Mohamed Diab teasing us about Jake
Lockley.
Because, if Steven had taken the taxi to go to the airport, he would still remain Steven
even after coming back to his senses.
Steven wouldn't just simply take a taxi and then give the body back to Marc.
So what I'm trying to say is, Marc was fighting over here, then he had this black out but
then when he came back to his senses, he was still Marc Spector.
This means Steven Grant never took over.
It was Jake Lockley aka the 3rd personality who took the taxi in the first place.
Plus, another consistent hidden detail I noticed throughout all 3 episodes is that the transition
between Marc and Steven is very smooth and seamless, they can literally switch places
mid conversation or mid fight.
But whenever a 3rd personality intervenes aka Jake Lockley, Marc suffers a mini seizure.
This has been happening since episode 1.
So it's safe to say all 3 personalities have been there since the very start.
Now I love how this taxi driver was asking for his money, which might be a nod to this
famous Moon Knight meme where he asks Dracula "where is my goddamn money?"
Then we see Marc chasing down one of the knife men.
But notice just before he got caught, he knocked over some rolled up carpets to slow down Marc.
And there we get this massive blunder from Marvel, somehow the camera crew showed up
on screen or they just forgot to edit them out due to a bigger aspect ratio.
But you know what?
Given how good this series has been, I'm gonna forgive them as an audience, I'll give you
some leeway here Marvel.
Or this could all be intentional as Steven Grant in the comics believed he's in a TV
Show called Moon Knight.
Marc then suffers another black out and finds himself surrounded by 2 dead bodies.
And as I said already, whenever he has a blackout or a seizure, it's Jake Lockley taking control
of the body.
That's why when Marc asks Steven why did you kill these 2 men?
Steven says: So this basically confirms my theory that
every time Marc and Steven switch places it's pretty seamless and smooth.
But when it comes to Jake, the body suffers a mini seizure.
Now notice how Steven calls Khonshu a pigeon while Khonshu laters calls Steven a worm.
I guess they're even now, innit?
Anyway, Khonshu then causes an actual solar eclipse just to grab the attention of the
other gods.
Khonshu even explains the extreme consequence he would have to face before doing it.
This line from Khonshu was actually foreshadowing
his own fate where the other gods decide to imprison him in stones.
Not only that, notice what he says to Marc here:
This dialogue over here also foreshadows the fate of Marc Spector.
Who loses all of his Moon Knight powers and healing abilities by the end of this episode,
where he would have to fight using his own human skills to rescue Khonshu.
I love it when writers write scenes like these.
It goes to show that not one dialogue is just for the sake of filling content, every bit
of words spoken by each character end up revealing a bigger picture at the end.
Now just before the meeting of Ennead takes place, Khonshu starts walking away leaving
Marc behind.
Notice what Marc says here after seeing this: So instead of saying "Aren't you coming with
me?" he only asks "Aren't you coming with?"
This is another clever piece of writing because Marc suffers from dissociative identity disorder
or DID and he knows it, that's why he doesn't say "Come with me" because he's not sure who
he will be in a few minutes!
Now notice another amazing visual detail here.
Whenever Khonshu is nearby Marc, he casts a shadow which is only visible on Marc's body.
His shadow doesn't appear on the ground or on any nearby surface, but notice when Khonshu
started walking away, the giant shadow of Khonshu also moved away from Marc.
I went back to episode 1 and 2 to make sure of this detail and I found it to be true and
consistent.
So this has to be one of the best hidden details in this series so far!
Now in this trial of Arthur Harrow, we meet avatars of Horus, Isis, Tefnut, Osiris and
Hathor.
Aside from their obvious real life inspiration, each of these gods already exists in Marvel
Comics.
Now the most prominent avatar among all of them in this episode was Yatzil, avatar to
Hathor.
This might be Marvel planting the seeds for a future villain though.
I'm not saying Yatzil is a villain but a future incarnation of Hathor might be.
Let Me explain.
In the Marvel comics, Hathor or Hathor-Sekhmet takes a feline appearance and is a sibling
of Wakanda's panther god, Bast.
Now, Hathor-Sekhmet eventually takes on the mantle of "Lion God" in Wakanda, becoming
an enemy of Black Panther.
T'Challa even mentioned Sekhmet by name in Captain America: Civil War.
So if Marvel decides to do anything more with this character, they can now easily do it
in Black Panther 2.
Now, while Harrow enters this court, notice there were plenty of stone statues just like
the one of Khonshu at the end.
Meaning, the gods have previously imprisoned a lot of others in stone.
Now we learn on this court that the gods have basically decided to avoid meddling with humankind
because humans pretty much stopped worshipping them.
Although the reasons are different but they are like the Eternals up to some degree.
And that's where Khonshu differs, he asks the other gods to start taking actions instead
of letting mankind destroy itself.
No matter how much he said, the other gods just didn't buy his argument and left Harrow
unpunished.
I mean I don't blame them, Khonshu didn't have any evidence to prove his point and if
he had asked the others gods to look in the desert where they would find followers of
Harrow digging Ammit's tomb, I'm pretty sure Harrow already had that taken
care of before he appeared in this court.
I mean if you think about it, Khonshu was essentially asking the gods to punish Harrow
for a crime he didn't commit yet.
So in a sense Khonshu was going against his own values here and that's why he lost.
But thank goodness Yatzil is there who gives a massive lead to Marc helpfully toward Ammit's
tomb.
She tells Marc that there's only one man who had the exact location of Ammit's tomb aka
Senfu.
So if Marc finds Senfu's Sarcophagus, he would also find the map to Ammit's tomb.
And she also tells him that Senfu's Sarcophagus was sold in the black market so that's where
Marc would have to go to find it.
Now before I jump to the next scene, can I just take a few to admire Oscar Isaac's brilliant
acting skills here?
I mean, my guy acted his heart out in this scene.
Switching between Marc and Khonshu, you could see it was taking a physical toll on Marc's
body and Oscar portrayed it perfectly.
And when he admitted that yes he does need help as he's going through some mental issues,
Oscar really made sure to give his all in this scene!
So hats off to Oscar Isaac and I personally believe he's currently Marvel's best actor
along with Jonathan Majors and Mahershala Ali.
We then see Marc Spector searching for Senfu.
But notice somehow his hat has worked its way back to where it was!
The last time we saw him wearing this hat, he was running on the rooftop and left it
behind but it's surprisingly with him again!
So it's feasible that Jake Lockley actually assumed control off-screen before this street
sequence, then reverted back to Marc ahead of the boat ride.
The reason I'm focusing so much on the hat is because the 3rd personality aka Jake always
wears a hat in the comics.
Enters Layla who then takes Marc to Anton Mogart's place.
Now if Moon Knight is Marvel's Batman, Anton Mogart is Marvel's Joker.
The writers even tease it during this scene:
In the comics, Anton Mogart is a thief who only steals the finest jewels and pieces of
art and he always strikes at midnight.
That’s where he got the codename Midnight Man and the name fits with his all black outfit
as well.
Now here's a very interesting detail: When Khonshu appears on the top of a clock
and tells Marc that his time is ticking, notice the time is exactly 12 AM, referencing Anton
Mogart's alter ego Midnight Man.
Now, my prayers are with the late Gaspard Ulliel who played Anton Mogart and it really
breaks my heart that we won't see him again, he's gone way too soon!
Enters Harrow who interrupts the conversation and talks about how Layla's father was murdered.
Notice how Marc immediately looks at Layla as soon as Harrow starts talking about it.
Now my theory is Marc was the mercenary who killed Layla's father or at least had something
to do with it.
Or perhaps it was Jake Lockley who killed Layla's father but the blood is still on Marc's
hand.
Now Marc didn't share any of this with Layla as he fears Layla would hate him for that.
Harrow then destroys the Sarcophagus of Senfu and that's when a massive fight takes place
and Marc finally summons the suit in this episode.
Now there are a bunch of hidden details during this fight that you'll easily miss if you
don't slow down the playback.
For example, when Marc was using his cape as a shield to protect Layla from the bullets,
notice the bullets were getting stuck on his cape.
Almost as if his suit is storing them so he can unleash them later.
Which he eventually does by whipping his cape sending all these bullets back to where they
came from!
And I think this is a very easy to miss detail, because I've seen a lot of people think this
was Moon Knight throwing sharp blades at the guards.
But when you watch the scene slowly, you'll notice those are actually the same bullets.
And I love how Moon Knight summons his Crescent blades mid battle, kinda like Thor who summons
his hammer.
Now a lot of us really wanted this series to be R-rated and Marvel is really pushing
the boundaries here.
I mean, take a look at how Moon Knight literally breaks one of the guards' arms and another
one's leg, that too without even looking!
Those are some badass moves right there!
Marc then loses control of the body to Steven who then tries to diffuse the situation by
talking but that obviously backfires!
I love how one second he was like "give me the body Marc" and the next moment was he
like "take the body, take the body Marc" I mean, Oscar Isaac's comic timing is equally
brilliant!
Now notice just before Steven switched places with Marc, he was stabbed twice with 2 huge
poles on his body.
But when Marc took over in his Moon Knight suit, there was only one pole pierced through
his body.
Implying Marc Spector is so strong with the suit, that "him" taking control immediately
broke off one of the poles.
Just take a look at how 3 of Anton's guards have literally pinned Marc into the ground
as they can't cope with Moon Knight's enhanced strength.
And still it only took Moon Knight 2 seconds to break free.
Cut to the final phase of this episode where Marc gives control to Steven and I laughed
my ass off watching the exchange between Marc and Steven:
Just like I said, their transition is very seamless!
Anyway, Khonshu then changes the night sky by turning back time to 2000 years ago!
Khonshu says he remembers every night, especially that night when Ammit was vanished and hidden
in the desert.
Now keep in mind this is Khonshu's 2nd time meddling with the sky in the same episode,
so as a result the court summons again and punishes Khonshu by turning him into a stone!
Now I'm glad Marvel mentioned how the stars would be contingent on time of day and that
the stars have shifted since the map was created.
So Khonshu had to do what he did.
I love it when sci-fi movies or shows try their best to remain close to real life physics.
And this lightshow over the night sky looked incredibly amazing!
Now I'm curious what Doctor Strange might be thinking seeing this chaos all over the
sky!
Now as they succeed in turning back the night sky, all of Khonshu's powers leave Steven's
body as well.
But notice the last thing Khonshu said to Steven:
So by the end of this episode, even Khonshu trusted Steven who would now have to pass
this message to Marc.
And that's how this episode ends.
Now one thing I noticed after watching all 3 of the episodes,
Steven seems to be the man Marc wants to become: Intelligent, soft-spoken, nerdy and kind.
He calls his mother every day and even shares the same interest with his wife.
He is the kind of man that is worthy of Layla's love.
Think of it this way, your father really wants you to become a good soccer player but you
suck at it and deep inside you keep telling yourself "I wish my father had another son
who was great at playing soccer" And as your dissociative identity disorder
kicks in, you become that version of yourself and now all of a sudden play amazing soccer!
But if Steven represents what Marc wants to be, Jake represents what he is afraid he truly
is: Violent and dangerous!
For instance: Marc was trying to interrogate these guys but Jake just outright murdered
them.
I think Jake is gonna be really scary, as he represents the darker side of Marc Spector.
Now one last detail from this episode would be from the credits where the Moon is slowly
getting fuller by each episode.
And that's it, this would be my breakdown of Moon Knight episode 3 at 0.25x speed.
I know my breakdowns come late but when I make these videos, I spend days thinking and
finding hidden details that you won't find anywhere else.
So if you think the wait is worth it, please give me a thumbs up, grab the subscribe button
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Till then, I'll see you lads in the next one!