The Hippo Goddess Taweret Tease You Likely Missed In Moon Knight Episode 1
Contains spoilers for "Moon Knight" Episode 4
Between the central character's struggle with mental illness and his closely tied relationship with vengeance-loving moon gods, Disney's "Moon Knight" can be a pretty trippy series. That being said, Episode 4 ("The Tomb") certainly brings that trippiness to a whole new level when Marc Spector (Oscar Isaac) wakes up in a sterile, surreal psychiatric hospital. The last thing he remembers is getting shot by the villain, Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke), in an ancient Egyptian tomb. Now, Harrow is his therapist in a hospital where all the patients are characters from Steven's journey thus far.
Once Steven realizes what's up, however, he's quick to make a break for it, quickly locating Steven in a random sarcophagus inexplicably placed in another patient's room. Around the same time, in a not-so-subtle hint to a potential third personality, Marc and Steven notice another sarcophagus. However, before the dynamic duo has even a second to inspect it further, an even more unexpected wild event occurs.
From out of nowhere a large, anthropomorphic hippo burst through a set of double doors, belting a happy-go-lucky "hi!" at them to their utter terror. As mythology nerds will surely know, is the Egyptian goddess Taweret (Antonia Salib), the patron deity of childbirth and one of the Nine Ennead. However, this isn't the first time we've met Taweret in "Moon Knight." The hippo goddess was actually teased early on in Episode 1 ("The Goldfish Problem").
Taweret was such a doll in Episode 1
When we first meet Taweret in "Moon Knight," it isn't actually in her fully-realized humanoid form. In Episode 1 ("The Goldfish Problem"), Steven's boss, Donna (Lucy Thackeray), forces him to do inventory as punishment for arriving late to work. Among the items that Donna requests Steven unpack is a box full of hippopotamus plushies. Of course, since this is a museum gift shop largely focused on Egyptian gods, the plushies are of Taweret, a fact that Steven eagerly points out when Donna refers to them as mere hippos.
Donna has no patience for Steven's love of Egyptian mythology and rudely shoos him away. In retrospect, however, fans will surely appreciate Steven's knowledge more. Of course, at the time this episode first aired, this probably seemed like a fairly unimportant detail to most viewers. Any Egyptian museum gift shop worth its salt would surely have plenty of merchandise related to the subject, after all. However, it's also notable that without Steven's knowledge, we wouldn't have much of an idea of the threat posed by the bubbly hippo in Episode 4 ("The Tomb").
Although Steven's knowledge didn't seem to quell his fears much, it's certainly comforting for audiences to know that "Moon Knight" writers have been planning this enormous twist from the very beginning of the series. Unfortunately, we still don't know exactly what Taweret truly has in store for Steven and Marc. She certainly seems friendly enough, but the gods of Egypt aren't always well understood (Exhibit A: Khonshu). It certainly seems possible that her cheerful attitude belies some antagonistic intentions.