Biggest Unanswered Question From Moon Knight
Over the course of a six-episode first season on Disney+, Marvel Studios' "Moon Knight" delivers the answers to quite a few key mysteries. We meet a man named Steven Grant (Oscar Isaac) and then learn that he is actually a man named Marc Spector, who also happens to be a costumed hero known as Moon Knight. We meet his wife Layla (May Calamawy), the moon god Khonshu (F. Murray Abraham) who chooses Moon Knight as his avatar, and a cult leader (Ethan Hawke) serving a rival god who wants nothing more than to cleanse the Earth of all evil-doers.
In short, it's a show that manages to reveal quite a lot in just six episodes, answering many of the questions posed by the early episodes by the time the credits on the finale roll. This is an MCU show, though, which means there's still plenty of mythology left to explore, even though Season 1 is over. Whether these issues are explored in "Moon Knight" Season 2 or through some other MCU story, here are the biggest unanswered questions we have after watching Season 1.
How many personalities does Marc really have?
Throughout the original six-episode run of "Moon Knight," viewers are treated to hints about the strange inner life of Marc Spector and the tumultuous tug-of-war going on in his head between at least two major personas. We watch as two of those personalities, the enthusiastic Steven Grant and the cunning Marc Spector, work at first apart, then together, as two sides of the same body, eventually bonding over past trauma they at first don't fully understand.
By the end of Episode 6, the series establishes that a third personality also has a role to play in Marc's life. Audiences meet Jake Lockley, a Brooklyn-accented fighter who seems to be the one who intervenes when things get too dicey for even Marc to handle. Jake's obviously set up to have a big role to play in the "Moon Knight" story going forward, but his last-minute arrival also raises another question: Just how many personalities are in Marc's body? In the pages of Marvel Comics, there's at least one other persona he often takes on -– Mr. Knight, the sharp-suited figure who does the talking before the fighting begins -– but it remains to be seen if that personality, or any others, will make an appearance. Right now, it seems very possible there are more than three in there.
Where is Marc's old partner now?
In Episode 4 of "Moon Knight," Marc Spector confesses to his wife, Layla, that he was present when her archaeologist father died. Layla's father, along with several other people, was murdered by Marc's former partner, a ruthless mercenary who is eventually identified as Bushman, a Marvel Comics villain who frequently plagues Moon Knight.
So far in the "Moon Knight" streaming series, we've only heard Bushman's name and listened to stories of the people he hurt. We've never actually seen him, but as far as we know, Bushman is still out there somewhere, perhaps biding his time until he encounters Marc Spector again.
So where is he? Is Bushman counting all the money he won as a ruthless mercenary? Is he aware that Marc survived the dig site massacre and is now running around as a costumed hero? Is Marc planning to track him down? The show doesn't dwell on it, but it's a loose end that future episodes of the series could definitely revisit in a very interesting way.
Have the Avengers noticed Moon Knight?
The Marvel Cinematic Universe thrives on a sense of interconnectivity running through all of its properties, whether we're talking about adventures on the big screen or the long-form stories unfolding on Disney+. However, the impact of these connections on each story varies wildly. "Moon Knight" presents a season of television that stands relatively on its own, unconcerned with the larger MCU and basically free to build its own mythology.
All that said, "Moon Knight" is still part of the larger MCU, which means at some point in the future we could see Marc Spector interacting with any number of other heroes, villains, and events unfolding in the world. Obviously, we don't know if or when that will happen, but in the immediate aftermath of the first season, we can't help but ask if any of the surviving Avengers know about Marc. Is Doctor Strange monitoring the energies of the rising and falling Egyptian gods in the "Moon Knight" story? Does Captain America get any intelligence briefings on this new vigilante sighted in London? We don't know, but it's probably only a matter of time until we find out.
Why didn't the other gods do more?
"Moon Knight" is a show that deals heavily with the affairs of various Egyptian gods, with a particular focus on two deities and a millennia-old struggle between them. On one side, you've got Khonshu, who's tapped Marc Spector as his avatar to protect travelers of the night and punish evil-doers. On the other, you've got Ammit, who tapped Arthur Harrow to be her avatar and balance the scales of the world by cleansing the Earth of evil souls.
Episode 6 features the rise of Ammit after years in captivity and a battle for the fate of the planet as she and Khonshu duke it out amid the pyramids outside Cairo. Meanwhile, Marc and Harrow have a battle of their own alongside Layla, who's become the temporary avatar of the Egyptian god Taweret. It's a battle for the ages with huge implications. So why don't any of the other gods get involved in a bigger way?
The show establishes that all of the Egyptian gods have avatars of their own, many of whom are killed by Harrow in his bid to seize power. If Khonshu and Ammit can project their physical forms into the world, why can't Osiris? Why do some gods watch from the sidelines while others fight for real? It's an intriguing piece of the mythology, one that future seasons could definitely expand on.
What happened to Layla?
Layla El-Faouly, Marc's wife and fellow adventurer, has quite the arc of her own for a show that's named "Moon Knight." She begins the series as a wife concerned about what happened to her husband and his superhero alter ego. However, over the course of six episodes, she learns the truth about what happened to her father, gets to know the other aspects of her husband's personality, and even embraces her own heroic potential as the avatar of Taweret. In the finale, she becomes the superhero Scarlet Scarab, fighting alongside Moon Knight for the fate of humanity, and she seems to legitimately enjoy taking on that responsibility.
That said, because the final minutes of the show are so heavily focused on what happens to Marc, we leave "Moon Knight" with no real indication of what Layla does next. Marc wakes up in Steven's apartment in London. Does that mean Layla went home without him? Is she still out there fighting as the Scarlet Scarab? Has she gone on some other adventure entirely? We don't know, but if ever there was a supporting character who needed more of her own story, it's Layla.
What are Steven and Marc doing now?
The final scene before the credits roll on Episode 6 of "Moon Knight" finds Steven Grant back exactly where we found him at the beginning of the series. He is back in his grimy London flat, surrounded by books and knick-knacks, chained to a post near his bed with sand surrounding the mattress in case he tries to sleepwalk. It's an amusing full-circle moment, though this time Steven's waking life is accompanied by Marc's voice in his head, letting us know that the two are still together and prepared to coexist in a new status quo.
But what exactly does that status quo really hold? We know that Marc and Steven asked to be free of Khonshu, and they found their way out of the illusion that was the asylum. So did Steven just go back to work at the museum? Are they aware that they're still secretly working for Khonshu on some level? Have they done any more digging into that third personality? All of this seems like the prime meat for a second season, so hopefully we'll get more answers soon.
How much time passes before that credits scene?
No Marvel Cinematic Universe story would be complete without a teaser scene embedded in the credits, and "Moon Knight" is no exception. After the credits roll, we see the long-teased third personality finally emerge in full form as Jake Lockley, who abducts a weakened Arthur Harrow from a London psychiatric hospital and throws him in the back of a limo.
In the limo, we see that Khonshu is not only still around but continues to claim Marc as his avatar, as shown by Jake's sense of ruthlessness. At Khonshu's behest, Jake shoots Harrow dead, ending the saga of Ammit for good and setting up a whole new story in which Jake might be the star.
It's a very intriguing scene that raises many questions. The first of these is quite simple — how much time has passed between this moment and the last, when we saw Steven wake up in his flat? The answer to that question might tell us a lot about where Marc is now, what his state of mind might be, and how long Jake's been out in the open like this. Sadly we're not really given any clues along those lines, making this a question that Season 2 will need to answer for us.
Who is funding Marc's operation?
The credits scene, which reveals Jake Lockley is working in lockstep with Khonshu, offers several interesting details about a potential future for "Moon Knight," such as the car that Jake throws Harrow in. It's an ornate white limousine with the license plate "SPKTR," and it looks like more than just an ordinary car. From what we see of the backseat alone, this looks like a high-tech custom vehicle, one that might be used for fighting crime by night.
In the comics, Moon Knight has just such a car, which he uses for investigations and even depends on during street battles, so it's easy to see where this idea originated. The in-universe question, of course, is where Marc managed to get his hands on so much money that he could afford a custom limo. Is it just his mercenary earnings, or is it something else? In the comics, Steven Grant makes some very smart investments, but we haven't seen anything like that play out in the show just yet. It's not clear where the funding is coming from, but it is clear that there's even more to Marc Spector than what the first six episodes have shown us.
Is Jake the dominant personality?
Jake Lockley is hinted at throughout the first six episodes of "Moon Knight" in Easter eggs, by Marc Spector suddenly spouting a Brooklyn accent, and through references to other personalities living within Marc's body. It takes the entire first season, but by the mid-credits scene, we finally see Jake out in the open, helping Khonshu clean up loose ends and generally proving himself to be a ruthless mover and shaker within Marc's body.
In the comics, Jake is most often seen as a kind of streetwise intelligence gatherer for Moon Knight, working as a cab driver in New York City to get dirt on criminals. In some stories, though, Jake steps up in a big way and eventually becomes the dominant personality within Marc's body, taking over the entire Moon Knight operation for long stretches of time. So is that what's happening here? Has Khonshu put his trust in Jake and therefore pushed him to the forefront of Marc's mind? We'll have to wait until Season 2 to find out, but if Jake's in charge, it could change the entire dynamic of the show.