How Jeff Lemire's comic run inspired 'Moon Knight' episode 4?

Still from Moon Knight episode 4 (Image via Disney+)
Still from Moon Knight episode 4 (Image via Disney+)

To say that the last episode of Moon Knight melted our brains would be an understatement. Throughout the show, we were building up to an adventurous tone and episode 4 takes all of those concepts and flips it up on its head. It delivers a mind-bending twist that is true to the tone of Moon Knight and even gives fans a hint of where the show might lead.

Moon Knight's episode 4 ends with Marc getting shot by Harrow and waking up in a mental asylum. He finds Layla there as well being a patient and is deeply confused by what's going on. After a brief conversation with Harrow, who pretends to be his doctor, Marc runs away from the room only to find Steven in a sarcophagus. The episode then ends with them encountering the Egyptian God Taweret.

There is even a hint of Jake Lockley in the episode as it features an unopened sarcophagus that's shaking a bit. The best thing here is how much inspiration it takes from Jeff Lemire's Moon Knight run. So let's explore how Jeff Lemire's work inspired the Disney+ series.


Exploring how Jeff Lemire inspired the latest Moon Knight episode

We have already talked about the ending of the episode and how everything plays out, but that ending was directly picked up from writer Jeff Lemire and artist Greg Smallwood's run. The most interesting part about that run is that it directly puts Marc Spector in a mental asylum and that's where the comic takes off from.

With the recent episode, it makes us question what's real and what's fake, and that's exactly what the comic does as well. Is what we're seeing here real or is it just going on in Marc's head? Although the episode does it quite differently from the comic, there is no denying that the inspiration is there.

In the Moon Knight comic, we see Marc being trapped in the place by Khonshu in an effort to break him even more. After Marc attempts to escape from the prison, it's revealed that it's all happening in his head. Over here, all of Marc's personalities interact with each other as well.

In the end, Marc is able to break free from Khonshu's spell and walks away freely, and it looks like the series is heading in that direction as well.

We know Khonshu isn't exactly behind this as he is currently trapped by all the Egyptian gods. It's Arthur who is supposedly pulling all the strings right now. However, they can pull off another twist and reveal that it's actually Khonshu messing with Marc's head, like he always has been.

Also with the introduction of Taweret as well in Moon Knight, it looks like they're doing things slightly differently. The sneak-peak of Jake Lockley here is yet to be brought out. Jake has constantly been teased on the show and with the final episode it does look like we might meet him fairly soon.

For the uninitiated, Jake Lockley is basically Marc's third personality, and just more ruthless in general.

Whatever it may be, we will be getting our answers soon as only two more episodes of Moon Knight are left.

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