The following contains spoilers for Moon Knight Episode 3, "The Friendly Type," now available on Disney+.
Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) has been a core aspect of Moon Knight over the past 20 years. In the Marvel comics universe, Moon Knight and Mr. Knight are Marc Spector's heroic alter egos, though he also has two other identities or alters he's co-conscious with: Steven Grant and Jake Lockley. In the television adaptation streaming on Disney+, showrunner Jeremy Slater and director Mohamed Diab take some liberties with Marc's DID to present a more realistic depiction.
Moon Knight Episode 1 explored the three common symptoms of DID, such as the presence of two or more identities, gaps in memory, time, relationships and life events, and the brief periods of dissociation in which switching occurs. Episode 2 explored some of the ways DID can negatively impact the lives and relationships of the different alters. While Moon Knight has thus far explored aspects of DID commonly seen in fiction, Episode 3 steps up the game by depicting two other aspects of DID rarely seen in fiction: the situations where having other alters can be helpful and the fact that individuals with DID aren't always co-conscious with every alter they have.
The first theme of individuals with DID not always being co-conscious with all of their alters was briefly explored in the first episode of Moon Knight. Before becoming co-conscious with Marc Spector, Steven Grant was completely unaware he had DID and did not become aware of Marc until he started experiencing blackouts that sometimes took him to completely different locations. Marc's existence further solidified when Steven found items in his possession he couldn't recall owning and met Marc's wife, Layla. In Episode 3, a third alter emerged while Marc was in Cairo tracking down Arthur Harrow, and at first, Marc thought the third alter was Steven.
Little is known about the third alter apart from neither Marc nor Steven knowing who that person is, and they seem to only emerge whenever Marc and Steven are fighting during a dangerous situation. Since taking over the body in Episode 2, Marc has been fighting Steven internally to keep him from interfering with his mission of stopping Arthur from resurrecting the deadly Egyptian goddess, Ammit. Between the two, Marc has no problem using lethal force to stop Arthur and his followers, which is something Steven takes issue with. In fact, throughout Episode 3, Steven consistently tries to talk Marc out of killing Arthur's followers in combat.
The first time Marc was on the brink of killing one of Arthur's followers, Steven briefly took over to let the man go. When he relinquished control back to Marc, the latter attempted to resume his deadly questioning of the follower, and Steven once again attempted to interfere. This time, however, the third alter emerged as a mediator between Marc and Steven and killed the man, presumably after questioning. This came as a complete shock to both Marc and Steven, who are now aware there's a third alter residing within their body. While the third alter has yet to reveal themselves, comic book fans of Moon Knight assume the third alter is Jake Lockley -- the taxi driver -- considering Marc woke up in a taxi during this sequence.
The second half of Episode 3 explores the second theme of DID being helpful in certain situations. While Marc is determined to stop the resurrection of Ammit without Steven, he quickly learns he may actually need to work with Steven to achieve that goal. Since alters have their own distinct personalities and skillsets, those different alters can be helpful in situations that require skills the original identity doesn’t possess. This, too, was explored in Episode 1, with Steven being in control for most of the episode's duration, while Episode 3 explores the opposite scenario.
In Steven's case, he is an ordinary man, possibly on the autism spectrum, leading an ordinary life. He also has a high interest in Ancient Egypt to the point of teaching himself to read hieroglyphics as a hobby and was working in the gift shop of an Egyptian exhibit at The British Museum. Since Steven rarely finds himself in dangerous situations, he doesn't have the combat skills Marc possesses from his life as a mercenary. As such, Steven is not equipped to handle life-threatening situations and often needs Marc to take over to battle dangerous threats. This was shown in Episode 1.
In Episode 3, Marc is in the driver's seat and -- for the most part -- can make all the hard decisions Steven can't make in dangerous confrontations with Arthur's cult. The one time he doesn't find his own experiences useful is when he is forced to locate Ammit's tomb without the assistance of the scarab that Arthur reclaimed. With Layla's help, Marc manages to locate the stolen sarcophagus of a medjay that has a celestial map of Ammit's tomb. The only problem is Marc can't interpret the celestial map because he does not possess Steven’s knowledge of Ancient Egypt.
At Layla's suggestion, Marc reluctantly relinquishes control back to Steven so he can put the celestial map together and interpret it correctly. This saves Marc and Layla hours of figuring out the map on their own, and with the map successfully assembled by Steven, the Egyptian moon god Khonshu temporarily realigns the stars to their original position 2000 years prior to accurately locate Ammit's tomb. Layla is able to pinpoint the exact location with her tablet, though the effort it took to keep the sky in this position long enough for her to do so exhausts Steven and gets Khonshu trapped in stone.
With Moon Knight now at its midway point, it has successfully covered many grounds of the DID experience. It began by exploring the disorder's common symptoms and their impact on day-to-day life and relationships. The series has shown some of the unique challenges that come with the disorder -- like not being aware of every alter -- but also some of its advantages.
New episodes of Moon Knight air every Wednesday on Disney+. Episodes 1-3 are available now.