Oscar Isaac keeps killing it in Moon Knight Episode 2, “Summon the Suit”

Episode 2 of Moon Knight is out today on Disney+! If the series premiere, “The Goldfish Problem,” spent most of its time setting up the complicated character of Steven and his multiple personalities, then “Summon the Suit” takes these balls and runs with them.

As always, there will be full SPOILERS for the latest episode of Moon Knight below.

Moon Knight Episode 2 review

Fittingly, Moon Knight’s second episode opens with Steven Grant (Oscar Isaac) back in his bed, jolting awake as if he was having a horrible nightmare, which of course he kind of was. Last week’s episode ended with Moon Knight beating a jackal creature summoned by Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke) to a pulp in the museum bathroom, making a mess of the place. “Summon the Suit” picks up right where that left off, with Steven regaining control of his body the morning after and freaking out because of what he remembers from the night before. It’s a nice mirror to “The Goldfish Problem,” where Steven was introduced waking up. This time, however, everything has changed.

“Summon the Suit” focuses on Steven unraveling the mystery of who exactly Marc is, why he has these Moon Knight powers, and how Arthur Harrow fits into everything. Steven is fired from his museum job after the security footage from the night before shows no trace of the jackal creature that was pursuing him, and instead just makes Steven look like a crazy person. From there, he’s off to find the storage locker that corresponds to the mysterious key he found in the wall of his flat.

Once inside, the big picture starts to come together. The storage locker is a hideout for Marc, containing a cot, a supply chest, and a duffel bag full of guns, Marc’s passport, and the golden scarab that Arthur Harrow is so intent on finding. The ensuing confrontation between Steven and Marc, followed by Khonshu pursuing Steven down a creepily lit hallway, is terrifically atmospheric. Isaac’s high-pitched scream at seeing Khonshu up close is one instance of many that show how perfect his comic timing and delivery is.

Really, Isaac is just brilliant in the role, and it’s a huge part of what’s making Moon Knight work for me at this point. I’ve always enjoyed him as an actor, but this show is giving him such an enormous range of material to work with and he’s stepping up.

Layla and Arthur Harrow

Isaac doesn’t give the only standout performance in “Summon the Suit.” The episode also introduces us to Layla El-Faouly (May Calamawy), who you’ll probably recognize as the voice that spoke to Steven on his flip phone last episode. As it turns out, Layla is Marc’s wife and was a part of his mercenary adventures in Egypt. She’s justifiably skeptical that Steven isn’t just an act, especially because the last contact she had from Marc was when he sent her divorce papers. We come to find out that this was actually all part of Marc’s plan to protect Layla from Khonshu, but Layla doesn’t know that. She’s walks a line between being happy to see her estranged husband and bitter at him for seemingly abandoning her.

The other big performance is from Ethan Hawke, who we got to see a bit more of this week. After being abducted from his apartment by people he thought were the police, Steven is driven over to Arthur Harrow’s cult neighborhood. He gets the full tour and we see that Harrow is building a community that includes a vegetable garden, education centers, free cafeteria, and the expectation that everyone will learn at least three languages.

The juxtaposition between the seeming good that Harrow is doing and the brainwashed cultishness of his followers is done so well. It’s really believable, and Hawke totally sells it with his performance, which sways from kind and soft-spoken to ominously cold depending on the topic he’s discussing.

Harrow solves a few mysteries for us, including how he has the power to summon these mysterious jackal creatures. It turns out that Harrow was the avatar of Khonshu (aka Moon Knight) before Marc, but had a falling out with the Egyptian moon god. The way that Khonshu tries to convince Steven to kill Harrow while Harrow offhandedly guesses everything Khonshu is saying was great. Now, Harrow has sworn to a new master: Ammit, the Egyptian goddess known as the “devourer of the dead” and the personification of divine retribution. The golden scarab that Marc has been trying to keep away from Harrow leads to her tomb, where the cult leader is hoping to resurrect her and bring judgment down on the Earth.

You see, when he was serving Khonshu, Harrow felt that the judgment for evil always came too late, after people suffered. With Ammit, everyone could be judged before any crimes were committed, and the people who would eventually do evil weeded out. Apparently Harrow has never seen Minority Report, because it’s a lousy plan that nonetheless makes him terrifying. (And also makes you wonder how he would avoid being judged in this truly fair system.)

Meet Mr. Knight

Steven refuses to give up Layla, who now has the scarab, but she saves him the trouble by crashing the party. It all leads into the episode’s climactic action sequence where the pair escape Harrow’s hideout and after a bunch of internal debating Steven takes on the Moon Knight powers for the first time, but in a ridiculous new form that has him wearing a suit and tie with the mask instead of the trademark mummy-style armor. In the comics, this variant of Moon Knight is called “Mr. Knight,” though it seems in the show it came about because Steven was hyper-focusing on the word “Suit.”

Steven tries to fight off another jackal creature, which we find out is not a figment of his imagination but simply invisible. Eventually too many bystanders are pulled into the mix, which convinces Steven to hand control of his body over to Marc so that they can properly become Moon Knight and put an end to the threat.

“Summon the Suit” ends with the gamechanger that Marc is now in control of the body and refuses to relinquish it to Steven until after Harrow has been stopped. He discusses the terms of his servitude with Khonshu, who reminds him that if Marc were ever to step away from being Moon Knight, the deity would force Layla to take up the mantle instead.

The final shot of the episode reveals that Marc has gone to Egypt to chase after Arthur Harrow, who picked up the golden scarab in all the confusion. Let the world-hopping begin!

Bullet Points

• I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: Oscar Isaac is just killing it on this show. I’m thoroughly convinced his acting is the reason that 3/4 of the jokes work. For a show that is so filled with psychological twistiness and creepy atmosphere, Moon Knight continues to be surprisingly funny. I think I laughed more this week than last.
• The music drew my attention a lot this week, with sweeping Egyptian orchestral motifs playing while Moon Knight did his thing and we learned more about the conflict between Khonshu and Harrow. It gave Moon Knight a very different aesthetic than I expected, recalling movies like 1999’s The Mummy as opposed to typical Marvel fare.
• To date, there have been basically no references to the larger MCU, and man is it working for me. So far Moon Knight is the most standalone series that Marvel has released on Disney+, requiring basically no knowledge of the MCU as opposed to series like Hawkeye or The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Moon Knight feels so much more compelling at this early stage. It’s just focusing on being a good story that stands on its own two feet, and that feels like it’s really paying off.
• There were quite a few references to the mission where Marc made the accord with Khonshu in this episode, like when Harrow’s two goons talked about a group of archeologists Marc had seemingly executed. I’m looking forward to finding out more about that backstory now that the mercenary has returned to Egypt.

The verdict

If Moon Knight’s premiere was primarily setting up the characters, “Summon the Suit” felt like it was setting up the show’s overarching conflicts. It pulled it off really well, introducing us to Harrow’s motives, giving us insight into Khonshu and Marc’s relationship, bringing Layla into the series as a force in her own right, and more. The humor continues to land really well, and Oscar Isaac is totally nailing everything about this difficult role. Very excited to see next week’s episode now that we’ve left foggy London behind and are traveling to Cairo!

Episode grade: A

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