"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. My name's Steven with a 'V'!"
Written by Michael Kastelein and directed by Aaron Moorhead & Justin Benson.
Steven comes to terms with discovering an alter named "Marc" and learns more about the situation he finds himself in.
Released April 6, 2022.
Tropes:
- Alliterative Title: "Summon the Suit".
- And I Must Scream: When Marc is in control, Steven is stuck in the mirror having to watch Marc walk around in his body. Marc, having experienced the same when Steven was in control, says he'll get used to it.
- Ankle Drag: At one point the jackal grabs Layla by the ankle, drags her towards it, and then lifts her up.
- Apologetic Attacker:
- Marc isn't exactly happy about trapping Steven in their mind, but he feels he has no choice.
- Harrow apologizes to the homeless man who finds the scarab, saying that he wishes he could see the new world Harrow and Ammit envision before killing him.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Steven continues to believe that Marc is just a hallucination and finds his story of serving as Khonshu's avatar and champion to be ridiculous. This, in spite of not just the events of the previous episode, but the MCU as a whole, where magic and godsnote are known to be real. Somewhat justified though, due to Steven's obvious mental health issues and the fact that the jackal creature that attacked him in the previous episode didn't show up on security cameras, making everyone else think he's crazy too.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Steven pokes a lot of holes in Ammit's Precrime Arrest philosophy, pointing out how children can fall under the umbrella of those who would be punished and questions everybody in the cult if they're really okay with the fact that they are expected to kill kids. This clearly unsettles Harrow, who doesn't have any retort and instead opts to use Ammit's power to threaten Steven.
- Arsenal Attire: Moon Knight's crescent darts form the symbol on his chest piece.
- As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Harrow speaks Mandarin in one scene, but Ethan Hawke's accent is so spectacularly awful that it's barely recognizable to native speakers, let alone comprehensible.Harrow: These four are tired, I'll play.
Jamela: You're still gonna lose.
Harrow: I'll get you back for that, Jamela! - Bait-and-Switch:
- After being told to "summon the suit" as the only viable solution to taking a three-story fall, Steven does so... and he lands in a suit, but as Mr. Knight, not Moon Knight.
- Near the end of the episode, Marc/Steven is alone in a courtyard, and Steven's voice says, "so this is what it's like being on the inside", leading us to believe this is Steven in the inner world. Then the camera turns, and it's Marc in the outer world, with Steven talking to him from a reflective surface.
- Balcony Escape: Layla manages to hide from the cops by exiting Steven's attic apartment onto the roof.
- Bathos: Darker and Edgier this series may be, but there's still room for the MCU's signature bathos. When Steven summons the Mr. Knight suit while falling, he seems to pull off the superhero landing... before toppling over onto his side. Justified as, unlike Marc, Steven is The Everyman and thus has no training to pull a proper one off.
- Battle Strip: Steven takes off the jacket from his suit while fighting the jackal.
- Big "SHUT UP!": Steven berates Marc while the latter is in charge of the body, listing all the horrible things he's done. Marc gets exceedingly agitated until he finally yells at his reflection to "shut up" and kicks at the mirrored surface until it's too shattered to let Steven continue to interact.
- Black Speech: Harrow summons the jackal monster via a spell cast in the Coptic language.
- Bottomless Magazines: Marc somehow draws two crescent darts from the chest piece with a third still visible, likely a result of the Moon Knight suit's magical nature.
- Break His Heart to Save Him: Marc has been trying to divorce Layla in order to make sure she doesn't become the next vessel of Khonshu. When she tries to get Steven to sign the divorce papers, he refuses to.
- Close-Knit Community: The disciples of Ammit in London are all residents of one. They are all content and chatty with each other, food and entertainment are provided for anyone to indulge in, and doors are kept unlocked at night.
- Commonality Connection: Steven appears to become smitten with Layla when it becomes apparent that they share interests like a particular French poet and studying hieroglyphs, to the point of Finishing Each Other's Sentences. It's heavily implied that Marc might've based much of Steven's personality on her.
- Continuity Nod: The bus that Mr. Knight gets slammed into has an advertisement for the Global Repatriation Council.
- Curb Stomp Cushion: Steven as Mr. Knight gets a solid punch in on the jackal monster, but otherwise gets completely thrashed until Marc takes over.
- Death Glare: When Steven and J.B. are reviewing the security footage from the previous night, they see Marc walk up directly into the camera's view and give it one of these.
- Distracted by My Own Sexy: During a tense conversation, Steven tells Marc that he's not going to listen to anything Marc has to say, no matter how "bloody handsome" he is. Marc is, of course, physically identical to Steven.
- Don't Make Me Destroy You: Harrow threatens Steven with his "cane", saying that it contains a sliver of Ammit's power and that he doesn't want to have to use it. He does so when Steven refuses to relinquish the scarab, revealing that it has the power to summon the jackal monster.
- Dramatic Wind: Khonshu summons wind before he appears in front of Steven and later Marc. According to Harrow, without his avatar, it's all Khonshu can really do in the material world.
- Draw Aggro: Steven draws the jackal's attention away from Layla by performing a dance on the street.
- Drowning My Sorrows: The final scene of the episode has Marc laying on the floor in a hotel room in Egypt with a bottle of alcohol in his hand.
- Eiffel Tower Effect: The Giza pyramid complex makes it unmistakably clear that the last scene takes place in Egypt.
- The Evils of Free Will: Ammit considers "justice" to be eradicating the possibility to choose evil before it's ever been made.
- Exact Words: Layla begs Steven to "summon the suit". So, he summons a suit... and turns into Mr. Knight, who is wearing a stylish white suit. He has to be told by Marc that the "suit" is his Moon Knight attire.Marc: Oy... Steven, what the hell are we wearing?
Steven: I don't know, whadda — she said I needed a suit!
Marc: Yeah, the ceremonial armor from Khonshu's temple, not psycho Colonel Sanders. - Firing Day: Steven gets fired for vandalizing the bathroom at the museum in the previous episode.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: A QR code on the warehouse door leads to an issue of Werewolf by Night featuring Moon Knight.
- Grievous Bottley Harm: Layla attacks the jackal with a broken bottle. It's no use.
- Hero's Evil Predecessor: Harrow is revealed to have been Khonshu's avatar before Marc but has abandoned Khonshu's belief system to embrace Ammit's. There's no love lost between the two; Harrow considers Khonshu a liar, and Khonshu thinks that Harrow has no conscience.
- How Do I Shot Web?:
- When Steven transforms into Mr. Knight after another jackal monster throws him out a window while he hits some pipes, it allows him to do a Three-Point Landing to save himself. Being unskilled in the realm of heroics, he ungracefully topples over onto his side after the fall.
- Steven also tries to fight the jackal monster as Mr. Knight, but gets completely manhandled by the creature, as he lacks Marc's fighting skills. Once Marc takes over, the fight goes much differently.
- Hypocrite: Showing that he's not as pure of intention as he claims, Harrow doesn't even bother to judge the homeless guy who picks up the scarab, he just kills the man.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Steven is stunned that Marc would abandon and divorce Layla, but Marc refuses to let her get hurt in the course of his service to Khonshu, or worse, become the moon god's next avatar.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Marc kills the jackal monster by impaling it on a spire.
- Instant Costume Change: Twice, but with a unique twist. Steven transforms in the time it takes him to fall out a window and land in the street, becoming Mr. Knight because he took "summon the suit" quite literally. When he allows Marc to take over, in seconds his costume shifts into that of Moon Knight.
- Invisible to Normals:
- The jackal creature that chased Steven down in the museum couldn't be seen by other people or security footage. When Layla fights another one, and splatters it with water from a discarded bottle, an outline of its head can be seen, but not enough for it to be fully visible.
- Khonshu is only visible to his chosen avatar.
- Kirk Summation: Harrow is Affably Evil, and tries to convince Steven that Ammit's cause is righteous. He points out that Khonshu is a brute who only steps in once evil acts have already been committed, while Ammit seeks to prevent bad things happening to good people. However, as soon as Steven has some time to think, he quickly figures out the problems with that ideology. It punishes people for things they have not done yet and requires its followers to kill innocent people, including children, simply because their god has declared them "evil". He points this out to Harrow, who tries to justify this, but Steven doesn't buy it, and proclaims that you cannot treat children like you would diseased body parts.
- Kubrick Stare: Marc gives one to the security cameras.
- Light-Flicker Teleportation: In the hallway with containers, Khonshu gets closer to Steven with each flicker of light.
- Literal-Minded: Steven is told to "summon the suit," so he summons a three-piece business suit. It works — it is a magical suit, after all — but he's still given flak for it by Layla and Marc.
- Magical Security Cam: The security camera footage Steven reviews with J.B. is of pristine quality. It also covers all the crucial angles of Steven fleeing from the "invisible" hound, which is justified by the fact that the cameras seem to adjust their angle towards moving objects.
- Magic Compass: The scarab points to Ammit's tomb.
- Match Cut: Khonshu's cape turns into red drapes in Marc's room in Egypt.
- The Maze: Steven is chased by Khonshu across a labyrinth of storage rooms in a warehouse.
- Mister Exposition: Marc gets Steven up to speed as to what's going on.
- Multiple Identity IDs: Steven finds Marc's bag filled with Chinese and American bills and his American ID. The "cops" who take him to Arthur use it to intimidate him and make him suspicious of Marc.
- Mythology Gag:
- Marc Spector's profile number starts with 1975, which is the year he debuted.
- A cut to the rooftop of a bus reads "WBN 0032", referencing Werewolf By Night #32.
- Harrow mentions that he used to be Khonshu's fist of vengeance. Moon Knight himself took on that exact moniker following his theft of Ghost Rider's powers in one arc.
- The alleged police officers, who turn out to be working for Arthur, are a black woman and a white man called Bobbi Kennedy and Billy Fitzgerald. In Jeff Lemire and Greg Smallwood's Moon Knight run from 2014, the two henchmen of Ammit who appear as orderlies are an African-American man and a Caucasian man named Bobby and Billy.
- Layla initially assumes that Steven is just an act Marc is putting on, as opposed to a distinct separate alter. As this article
discusses, this is actually how Moon Knight was initially portrayed before he was retconned into having DID.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: As Mr. Knight, Steven removes his coat when he's ready to fight the invisible monster...but he completely forgot that the scarab was inside that coat. Marc is naturally not happy to find the scarab missing.
- No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: When Steven gets kidnapped and taken to his antagonist Arthur Harrow, the latter invites him for a bowl of lentil soup.
- Not So Stoic:
- Up until the end of this episode, Marc has always been shown to remain calm and confident in the face of horrors, contrasting with the nervous and easily frightened Steven Grant. When Steven confronts Marc about how all he does is hurt people, including his loved ones, Marc finally snaps, yells for Steven to shut up, and smashes the mirror he speaks through.
- A more literal and humorous example in the form of the living statue that Steven regularly vents to. As he rambles, you can see the statue steadily failing to keep his frozen smile, and he very briefly breaks character when Steven goes to give him one last hug.
- One Last Job: Marc is convinced that finishing this business with Ammit and her followers will earn him his freedom from Khonshu. Harrow, meanwhile, tells Marc (through Steven) that Khonshu will keep Moving the Goalposts, so there will always be one more last job.
- Pet the Dog:
- Marc comments that Steven gave a good punch to the jackal monster.
- Despite firing Steven, the museum does not press any charges. The head of HR speaks very sympathetically to Steven, gives him a pamphlet for psychological help (which, as far as he knows, Steven genuinely seems to need), and even offers to make an appointment for him.
- Placebo Eureka Moment: Steven is very grateful when his street-performing friend makes him realize how to prove to himself that he isn't crazy... despite the fact that the street-performer has never actually spoken to him.
- Polite Villains, Rude Heroes: Despite Harrow being Affably Evil and a courteous host while Khonshu is an overbearing bully and Marc a brutal killer, Steven quickly recognizes which side is worse when Harrow talks about killing people before they can commit a crime (which Steven rightly points out means they are still innocent, and that this would include children).
- Precrime Arrest: Arthur and Ammit believe in judging and killing evil people, even if they haven't done anything yet.
- Rack Focus: A variation. As Steven hands his museum nametag and puts it on the HR person's table, the camera shifts focus away from the nametag and into Steven's reflection on the table.
- Rage Against the Reflection: Marc, now in control of the body, screams "SHUT UP!" at Steven while kicking the mirror that he's speaking through.
- Reality Has No Subtitles:
- The French poem by Marceline Desbordes-Valmore that Steven and Layla recite isn't translated.
- Neither the spell Harrow uses (in Coptic) to summon the jackal, or his conversation with the soccer-playing young woman (in Mandarin) are translated.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Steven verbally lays into Marc for completely upending his life following the jackal monster's defeat.
- Reduced to Dust: The jackal turns to dust when Marc impales it on a spire.
- The Reveal:
- Arthur Harrow was the previous vessel of Khonshu, and Khonshu himself is eyeing Layla to be his next one.
- Layla and Marc were married, and Marc went into hiding and sent her divorce papers because Khonshu wants her as his next avatar.
- The scarab is a compass that leads to Ammit's tomb.
- Harrow's cane allows him to summon the jackal monster in addition to its use in judging others.
- The skull-faced creature haunting Steven from the previous episode is Khonshu, the Egyptian god of the moon, and Khonshu isn't stalking Steven, he's protecting him. (Well, for a given value of protection — mostly he wants Steven to keep out of Marc's way.)
- Rule of Symbolism:
- HR requires Steven to give up his nametag, leaving him staring forlornly at his name while it fades to his reflection in the glass of the desk.
- The GRC tagline on the bus reads "Reuniting you with your better half", referencing both how half of the world's population has returned, and Steven reunites with his "better half", Marc. There's also the fact that the metaphorical "better half" of Marc, Layla, is properly introduced here, and she's at the heart of Marc's motivations in remaining as Moon Knight.
- Screams Like a Little Girl: Steven lets out a high-pitched shriek of pure terror when he comes face-to-face with Khonshu in the storage unit.
- See the Invisible: During their fight, Layla tosses a beer bottle at the jackal in order to make the creature visible to her.
- The Shadow Knows: When Steven tries to flee from Khonshu, Steven's shadow looks like a crescent.
- Shout-Out:
- Steven tells JB that a jackal was responsible for the destruction of the bathroom at the museum. However, only Steven himself is visible on the surveillance footage, and JB compares the situation to The Hound of the Baskervilles.
- The final scene has the troubled Marc sitting in a hotel room in his underwear with a broken mirror and a bottle of scotch, much like Willard's introduction in Apocalypse Now. Both men are even in a hot environment during the scene (Egypt for Marc, Vietnam for Willard).
- Marc tells Steven that in his white suit he looks like psycho Colonel Sanders.
- Skyward Scream: Marc screams "SHIT!" when he finds out the scarab is gone.
- Split-Personality Takeover: Though Marc has taken over temporarily over the course of the first two episodes, the final scene has him firmly shift into the driver's seat, so to speak, with Steven being relegated to the one speaking through mirrors. In all past instances, Steven wasn't conscious of what Marc was doing.
- Three-Point Landing: Steven does this after he summons the Mr. Knight suit... and collapses to the side in pain.
- Title Drop: This episode's title comes from Layla asking Steven to transform into Moon Knight.
- Undercover When Alone: When they first meet, Layla wrongly assumes Steven's English accent to be part of a cover identity and tells him to drop it while they are alone.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: Harrow and the cult's goal is "Heaven on Earth", but their means to do it is resurrecting Ammit and allowing her to pass judgement on everyone, young and old alike, and killing those she judges evil. This is the point where they lose Steven.
- Wham Line: When Steven speaks to Layla face-to-face for the first time.Layla: Do you see the spiral you put me through? It's not okay. I'm still your wife.
- Wicked Cultured: Members of Harrow's cult each aspire to learn three languages. Harrow himself chats in Mandarin with one of his followers.
- Would Hurt a Child: Harrow draws comparisons to removing diseased tissue in describing Ammit's justice, but Steven is quick to point out that he's talking about killing people, including children.
- You Owe Me: Khonshu brought Marc Back from the Dead, and Marc's service as his avatar is the price for that favor.
