The Heartbreaking Randall Spector Clue You Missed Early In Moon Knight
Contains spoilers for "Moon Knight" Season 1, Episode 5
When Episode 1 of "Moon Knight" opens, series lead Oscar Isaac is portraying a museum employee named Steven Grant. Later on, Isaac's character becomes Marc Spector — another personality housed in the same body. Those familiar with "Moon Knight," as well as viewers who simply paid attention to promotional material for the show prior to its release, were aware during the episode's premiere that Steven's introduction coming prior to Marc's was something of a subversion of the Moon Knight character, given that he was born Marc and manifested the personality of Steven at some point later in life.
The mechanics of Marc's split personality are finally detailed in Episode 5, titled "Asylum." As it turns out, Marc once had a brother named Randall. When Randall died, Marc created the personality of Steven to cope with his resultant trauma.
While Episode 5 marks the first viewers learn of Randall's existence, one user online figured out that his importance was foreshadowed all the way back in Episode 1.
Steven's pet subconsciously reminds him of Randall
"Moon Knight" Episode 1 is titled "The Goldfish Problem," in reference to Steven at one point noticing that his pet goldfish Gus seems to have sprouted an extra fin at some point in time. When he realizes that his one-finned goldfish has two fins, he calls the pet store where he remembers buying Gus, only for its owner to claim that his shop never would have sold Steven a one-finned goldfish in the first place.
While the precise reason for the fin discrepancy remains unclear, one user on Reddit pointed out that in an Episode 5 flashback, a young Randall Spector (Claudio Fabian Contreras) is drawing a one-finned goldfish during a family barbeque. While the young version of Marc (Carlos S. Sanchez) makes fun of the drawing in that moment, this scene becomes significant in retrospect given the importance of a one-finned goldfish to Steven in the series' present.
In the ensuing comments in the Reddit thread, users proposed different theories as to why Steven thinks Gus might have sprouted a fin overnight. Whether Steven hallucinated Gus' actual number of fins or Marc replaced the fish without Steven knowing, Gus has implicitly functioned as a reminder of Randall since the very first episode of "Moon Knight," unbeknownst to viewers at the time.