After giving us one of the highest moments ever reached by the MCU series with the last episode (here you can retrieve our review of Moon Knight 1×05), the time has come to close the circle – sorry, crescent – of Moon Knight. 

And we’ll be honest, already pressing play we shivered a bit, as we feared the possibility of an ending too confusing for Moon Knight, a sensation heightened by the extremely short duration of the episode – which is around 35-40 minutes, excluding the titles. tail. It was honestly unthinkable to make ends meet and solve every single plot and trick concocted by the scriptwriters in such a short period.

This has led to unsatisfactory and hasty solutions, which do very little justice both to the various intriguing insights that Moon Knight has however fielded through the ups and downs so far and to the character itself, who could and should have marked a watershed. and carve out a space for a different tone in the MCU. 

It is now understood that it did not go that way, Moon Knight after a couple of masterstrokes capable of subverting expectations and questioning any event, immediately repositioned itself within the more classic Marvel formula. Too bad that the series had repeatedly shown enormous difficulties precisely in staging more standard and typically Marvelian sequences.

A couple of dim lights

But let’s proceed in order: the episode 6 begins when Harrow (Ethan Hawke) shoots Marc (Oscar Isaac) inside the tomb of Alexander the Great, with Layla (May Calamawy) horrified and hidden spectator who nevertheless manages to blend in with the followers of the mad apostle of Ammit. 

As she follows him waiting for the right moment to kill him, she is contacted by the goddess Taweret, who orders her to stop and focus on freeing Khonshu. In the Underworld, meanwhile, Marc rejects the Reed Field, despite the undoubted beauty and peace he has found, to help Steven and desperately find a way to escape the Duat once and for all.

Now, before starting the actual invective, it should be noted that the ending brings into play some interesting elements: first of all, it inserts Khonshu’s release most coherently and naturally possible, an element that alone ran the risk of corroding the base. the narrative fabric of the episode, which perhaps could be solved at random or even off-screen in the worst possible scenario; 

Steven finds the strength to bargain with the manipulative god of the moon, whereas even Marc finds impediments due to insurmountable feelings of guilt, which is a perfect closure of his evolution; some scenes are discreetly evocative and at times thrilling – such as the two-pronged combat or the brilliant post-credit scene. There is some good in this closing of Moon Knight, which however cannot shine in the presence of the nefarious choices that have been made for everything else.

A flood of superficiality

In fact, from the smallest aspects to the same situations that guide the episode, this epilogue is a mix of misplaced ideas, almost unbearable inconsistencies, and developments that would have taken much longer to have an impact. Let’s take for example the Marc / Steven dynamic: now the two get along well, but why now do they switch roles every 3 seconds making any attempt at dialogue with the others impossible? 

Why does Steven now suddenly know how to fight well and not clumsily? Why do they continually exchange even during battles for no reason? And on Layla, the circumstances are no better; the victim of a sudden characterization that does not limit and further weakens the already little space on the screen, but which above all is thrown into the fray without the conditions or consequences being really addressed.

Or who thought that a blackout in the decisive moment of the final battle was a stroke of genius? At this point it is no longer even a narrative tool, it is productive neglect. How wicked it is to get rid of all the intuitions of the last episode in a single swipe or to suddenly raise moral dilemmas at the last moment – and not before – in Marc, an individual who killed dozens and dozens of criminals in conditions without of stakes and not with the lives of billions of people at stake. 

For its characterization within the series, such grievances would not be out of place, but they cannot be thematized and resolved in five seconds flat. This is not the way to build an ending, Moon Knight is yet another demonstration that Marvel shows have a serious problem with the last act.

Moon Knight is yet another proof of how hard the Marvel series are in their latest act. Let’s assume that there is something good in this final episode: it inserts some plot elements most naturally and coherently possible, some sequences are breathtaking and evocative, the post-credit scene is brilliant, and the characterization of Steven finds its perfect closure. – almost. 

The problem is everything else, which is nothing more than a mix of wicked ideas (such as the blackout in the decisive moment of the fight to not solve it) or not focused, first of all, the sudden characterization of Layla. Or even out of place, like Marc’s final moral grievances resolved in five seconds, or ignoring with a single swipe of the sponge all the insights put in place last week. 

A weak ensemble emerges, which fits perfectly within the canons of the Marvel formula, a pity that it does not marry in the least with the character of Marc Spector and that the miniseries had repeatedly shown to be aware of these weaknesses.