The following contains spoilers for Moon Knight, Episode 4, "The Tomb," now streaming on Disney+.
After Moon Knight's mind-boggling fourth episode dropped this week, fans are desperate to learn the fates of ruthless Marc Spector and beloved Steven Grant (both played sublimely by Oscar Isaac) after they were seemingly murdered by Arthur Harrow. Episode 4, "The Tomb," was wild and wacky from start to finish, and the last ten minutes broke the internet and blew Marvel fans' minds, making them question if any of the previous events of Moon Knight have even been real. Uncovering the long-lost tomb of Alexander the Great, Marc and Steven (two individuals sharing the same body due to Dissociative Identity Disorder) find the ushabti of Egyptian goddess Ammit, exactly what Harrow and his cult followers have been searching for. Confronted and cornered, Marc refuses to give it up, getting shot twice in the chest.
In a trippy bit of cinematography, Marc drifts to a sort of sunken place -- and wakes up partially sedated and completely out of it in a stark-white, ultra-clean mental ward surrounded by a multitude of callbacks to previous episodes and featuring nearly every character either Marc or Steven has interacted with -- including Harrow standing in as his psychiatrist. Marc tries to escape, quickly hiding in an extra room only to find it occupied by a sarcophagus. To everyone's surprise, Steven is inside, and the two embrace each other in one of the sweetest (and more baffling) moments of the series. Later, as the two of them sneak down the hallway, Marc notices a third sarcophagus in a different room, though he pays it no mind and instead keeps walking, cueing Steven to do the same.
Moon Knight fans are certain that the third sarcophagus is occupied by Jake Lockley, another alter of Marc and Steven from the Moon Knight comics, who has already been teased in Episode 3, "The Friendly Type." The fact that Marc recognizes the sarcophagus and intentionally walks past it implies he is aware of a third alter sharing the body with him and Steven -- though Steven doesn't know this. This is why Marc doesn't bring any more attention to the third sarcophagus: perhaps he knows Jake is just as dangerous a guy as he is, and he doesn't want to risk letting him out.
Of course, Jake Lockley had been teased in Moon Knight's third episode, when Marc is interrogating some of Harrow's men only to black out after brutally slaying all but one. At Steven's insistence that he wasn't the one who'd gone on a killing spree, fans were convinced that there was a secret, third alter that took control for those unseen moments off-screen. The existence of Jake implies not only a third identity, but quite possibly someone else who has their own established life, much like Steven and Mark. The fact that all three of these identities live in the same body almost has the same idea as a cat with nine lives; so if Harrow only shot Marc twice, is Jake Lockley the reason why Marc woke up in the purgatory-like mental ward instead of instantly dying?
While some Moon Knight fans have suspected this mental ward might be the Overvoid -- Marvel's metaphorical afterlife -- it makes more sense that they are instead in a purgatory state, with the hippo goddess Tawaret appearing in the episode's final moments. Traditionally, Tawaret (the Egyptian goddess of motherhood and fertility) helped guide souls through purgatory to cross over to the "other side." However, what if Marc and Steven ran into Tawaret not to be guided to the other side, but towards their third, previously ignored alter? Tawaret's reveal, while shocking, should have been expected, as her ushabti has been depicted in Moon Knight's closing credits, along with several others. Perhaps Tawaret has been trapped in this purgatory with other gods, including Khonshu, and with her help, Marc and Steven can combine forces with Jake, maintain balance and control in their shared body, free Khonshu and stop Harrow.
Moon Knight has done a fantastic job of establishing itself as a Marvel Disney+ series where fans can't quite figure out what's real and what's fantasy. Oscar Isaac's ability to effortlessly move between the characters of Steven and Mark (and hopefully Jake Lockley), the mystical ancient Egyptian lore and the eerily chilling horror-inspired elements have made it one of the most popular Marvel series on Disney+, following similar themes as Loki and WandaVision, securing it as a fan-favorite title, and Moon Knight as a new powerhouse in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
New episodes of Moon Knight drop every Wednesday on Disney+.