'Moon Knight' Ep. 4: More Hippo God(?!) Please
I've been covering the Disney+ umbrella—Marvel, Star Wars, all that—long enough to know one essential truth about each and every film or TV series the Mouse House gives us: There will always, always be a sudden and incomprehensible debut of a non-human character.
The Mandalorian had Frog Lady. Loki had Alligator Loki, swiftly followed by Frog Thor. Now, Moon Knight has—and forever will have—Hippo God. Hippo God! All hail, etc. etc. Before we get to Hippo God, who, yes, has a name, let's briefly discuss the surreal ending to Episode 4 of Moon Knight. At the end of this week's edition, villain Arthur Harrow shoots and kills Marc Spector, which kills Steven Grant as well. Marc wakes up in what seems to be a psychiatric hospital, seeing various items from his recent adventures scattered around the ward. Struggling to come to his senses, Marc undergoes some mildly stressful questioning from Harrow, who seems to be something akin to a social worker in this dream, reality, or illusion. (We're not sure which one yet.)
Marc manages to escape Harrow's grasp, barreling through the corridors of the hospital, where he finds, who else, Steven. The two Oscar Isaacses (spell check anyone?) hug. Aw. As they storm off together, running through a set of double doors, the men are halted by a hippo. The credits roll from there. Marvel! Having us accept that these kinds of things are normal. Well, as far as the Hippo God of it all goes, this character is the Egyptian deity Taweret.
Here's what Moon Knight Head Writer/Executive Producer told Marvel.com about the decision to include Taweret:
“Right from the very first week, Marvel provided us with a ton of reference material on Egyptology, and on ancient Egyptian gods and deities,” He continues. “One of those pieces of material was a laminated poster that had like a little kid, cartoon drawings of all the different gods — one of those gods was Taweret. I spent that entire first week of our writers' room, just staring at that. Then finally, at some point, I couldn't take any more. I interrupted whatever we were talking about and I was like, ‘Guys, we have something much more important, which is, how do I get this hippo into the show?’”
Also per Marvel.com, Taweret is the Egyptian goddess of childbirth, and "ceases aging at adulthood and cannot die by conventional means." Apparently, according to Marvel's description, "dispersal of a major portion of an Ennead’s bodily molecules will cause death, and even then, resurrection via other gods may be possible." With Marvel highlighting Tawaret's ability to, you know, effectively remain immortal, you'd have to think that she'll help revive Marc and Steven, seeming relatively friendly and, you know, all powerful. If Harrow is trapping Marc and Steven in some type of illusion, then maybe she'll have the means to bust them out of it as well.
Aside from the superhero of it all, I'm just happy that Marc and Steven are finally getting along, and that they have a new friend to play with. That's all.
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