The Reel Rejects - REJECT RECAP: Moon Knight Ep 5 "Asylum" REVIEW & Credits Discussion - PODCAST

Episode Date: April 27, 2022

Heading into the end of the season, Marvel gives us one of their BEST EPISODES TO DATE with Moon Knight Season 1, Episode 5 - aka "Asylum." Greg & John discuss the episode's themes & revelations as the show takes us deep into the troubled minds of Marc Spector and Steven Grant as they attempt to navigate the underworld and find their way back to settle things with Harrow on Earth. But what, if anything, is *really* real? Could this all just be the delusions of a dying man? Dying men? Greg & John (sans our usual guest, Coy Jandreau, who will be back next week for the finale!) share their thoughts on the episode and break down all the latest developments. Watch the Reaction Highlights on YouTube or Stream Along with us at Patreon.com/TheReelRejects Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-reel-rejects/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How's it going, Reject Nation? John here. What you guys are about to listen to is our Moon Night, episode five, review, breakdown and just overall discussion right on the heels of having finished episode five in the wee hours of the morning. This was the best episode of the season, as far as I'm concerned. I think Greg would definitely agree. And an all-timer in terms of just visual, on-screen, Marvel MCU entries. This was really something special. For those of you playing along at home one thing you'll notice is that unfortunately coy jondro our good friend and resident comic book expert was not able to join us this week he said he doesn't care anymore it's not worth it he's not a part of the reject nation so uh wherever you use the internet go find coy and send

him some hate no no no no no don't do that uh coy unfortunately was called in to do some some last minute but very important stuff he had a scheduling conflict and you know things happen we may do without him but uh you know coy will be back next week we love love love love coy dearly but i think gregg and i had a had a really terrific discussion about this and i think it is one of our just favorite discussions of the season as well so i hope you guys enjoy just as much as we did and uh yeah gregg coy and i will all catch you next week for the season finale crazy to think it's almost already here But for right now, if you guys would like to tune in and experience the episode with us, you can check out the reaction highlights over on our YouTube channel or grab your own copy.

Come on over to our Patreon page. Sync up with us at patreon.com slash the Rio Rejects. Watch the full length watch along and pretend like you're here in the room with us. Enjoy that juicy intro. And we'll see you on the other side. All right, guys. I really feel like this is going to be the best discussion. we've ever had.

Thank God, Coy's not here to ruin it for everyone. Jesus Christ, talking so fast, you can't even hear the points. Like, we don't need, you don't need you, shut up. All your comic books that you read. This isn't the time, Coy. Place. No, like, to be totally frankly, this hits all the cylinders of everything

that I particularly am very much gravitated towards in any medium, no matter what a B-competitive. show or whatever i'm this is if i my passion in life is actually writing and if you've ever read anything i've ever written i would this if there was a marvel episode i would have written would have been this one except all the egyptian stuff i wouldn't know what to do with that but all the other things i'm like yeah that's like my jam right there that's what i love that's the stuff i love and it's cool watching this and like my thoughts just started like firing because i start seeing all this like connective tissue what

they're doing with this character with these traumatic wounds of guilt and shame and watching how the recreation of certain things happens with like the psychological recreation meaning you attract you know people or events situations that basically regurgitate those exact feelings and it's like i was thinking about the situation with Layla, how she's not like Mark's mom, you know, that old cliche of, you know, you date your parents or something like that, especially if you have unresolved issues with them, you, you attract someone who that would like, it's like, you would think you'd be in an abusive relationship or something like that, right? And what I found fascinating was the last time we saw Layla

was her blaming him for the death of her dad. how she then abandons him or like doesn't abandon him but is rejected in turn to like it's obviously not going to be the same from here on out and that's a very different circumstance versus when he his brother died and his mom blamed him for that and held that against him so it's a fascinating parallel to end it on on that exact note despite the fact that the relationship dynamics are very different between them so uncovering that package and it was what I think what they're doing with Harrow is the psych ward hero, Dr. Harrow. The one comic reference I could pull is that at one point Mark's dad does take him to, like, I believe it, a psychiatrist or a doctor. Some doctor who specializes in this because he discovers that he has a split personality or has DID or something of that effect. And, you know, they say that this hospital is in Chicago where Mark is from. And so I think this is a projection of that doctor.

that he was speaking with. So this is all like childhood traumatic wounds and watching how that ripple effect has carried over into his entire life. So I think it's just really like awesome shit. It really is. And they created such immersion and such a well-blended psychological mind-bender

but with a good amount still of wonder and, you know, MCU magic around the periphery. And it's cool because it's an episode that has so much to do with all the circumstances that have happened up until this point and some of those people. And yet it absorbed me to the point where I wasn't even really thinking about the other episodes or, you know, connecting specific references. It was a wonder and a joy and, you know, despite it being sort of painful,

to dive in so headlong to these characters and to make it so that I feel like that's just a good dramatic device. is, you know, in order to figure out whatever McGuffin or, you know, ticking clock is at hand, we need to dive into ourselves and we need to clear some sort of trauma or confront something or move some kind of emotional baggage. And they've really made Stephen and Mark and everything that that entity is really gripping and really touching and really poignant and resonant. And like I think in the in the comic that this draws heavily from, you know, Like Stephen is an imaginary friend at first that becomes, you know, the other personality. And here I thought it was so, such a wonderful choice to make his origin,

the kernel of the moment that he becomes here is portrayed as a direct kind of response to this horribly painful event. And I love that, you know, I mean, they were talking about this show as being heavy, and I think it's easy to associate that with violence. And even in the ending moments where you see Mark, you know, sort of, you know, in that origin, that we'll get to surely in a moment, you know, where he's on the steps underneath the Conchu statue. Like, you know, there's that blood and it is, you know, harsh again. It is stark, but I love that the heaviest stuff is the emotion of all this and the

exploration and the confrontation of just how harsh of a life this guy has had and how you could point at any one of these moments and go, that's the origin, but they're all kind of the origin of what is right now. And I think that was really beautifully handled in an episode that, again, you have this, you know, sort of transition at the end of episode four, and you spend the entire time, you know, sort of oscillating within the realms all anchored by this, what do they call it? You know, the construct to organize all that, you know, for your mind and making that be this hospital. I thought it was, it was like, this, you know, the promise of Marvel on Disney Plus or TV or whatever is like movie caliber television. And I felt like that was absolutely what this was, you know, almost 100%. Well, I think what this episode did is similar to what Wanavision did as well.

You know, it's interesting when you look at like the Netflix model where it was usually like episode four was when they would decide to do like a whole origin tale of how they got their powers. And I noticed what they do with their origin tales here that Wanda Vision did it, I think, close to its final episode. If I'm not mistaken. And then this is the penultimate episode as well is it's not really about an origin tale of how they got their powers. It's more of an origin tale of why they are the way they are as people. And I think that's a way more fascinating deconstruction of our characters because you have two characters here. You're deconstructing who are part of the same body, part of the same entity, yet the goal for both of them is to each get to a stage of acceptance.

You know, they all have, they both have a different form of denial. Like, Mark seems to have a logical understanding of what he's in denial of, but it's the feeling. That's the heart. That's the thing that he can't do. It's like, he knows up here, you know, like, that's, like, a lot of the time, I'll talk with individuals who have, I'll talk about if I have patience or something. My followers. I talk with my followers about their psychological problems. Absolutely.

A lot of times you talk with people, and even for myself, a lot of times I might logically know, like, oh, yeah, I know why I am the way I am. But the key to uprooting that is sometimes, depending on what type of therapeutic process you're going through, is you have to relive those memories, not to dwell in it, but to accept it, and so you could let it go. And that's what they're doing here, but just on a pure visual medium, and where it's very physical of diving directly into it. And it's both of them having to face the reality. Like, Stephen is the opposite. He feels. He's very, he is vulnerable. But up here is where it's all blocked.

Whereas with Mark, his up here, for our podcast listeners, up here, meaning the mind is where he's all blocked. Whereas with Mark, in the mind he knows, but in the heart, he can't feel. He has to fight against the feelings. So I think that's where the balance, I mean, it's one way to, interpret it, I feel like. The balance comes down to the mind and heart having to coexist as one, the logic and emotion, both learning to be in harmony with one another, where Stephen represents like a different emotional side of him, and Mark is all in the head about it. And so I love

that. And so that's where the crack happens on the day of the funeral, just that inability to rectify the two. Yeah. It's powerful, it's powerful, powerful stuff. And I love how even in the psych ward quote unquote of wherever you want to call it is that there even dealing with dr harrow that's still a form of them repress like every time they get closer yeah to uncovering and facing truths they go back to that room they go back to the room so they still need the guide they still need the push they still that's still them both of them fighting against the truth Because even Stephen, when it comes time for his big truth, the thing he can't face, which is the death of their mom, he fights against it and escapes, you know. So it's a neat correlation as to what's happening.

And to get the answer to it, like, this is mom real, what's going on there, you know? And it is interesting, the choices of the female interest they've had with the, and I don't know how intentional this is. Um, there is something similar in appearance and look that they've done with the first person that's asked out, who I still think is Jake Glockley, uh, in the first episode, who asked out to dinner, you know, get meat, get the steak. and Layla and the mom they all are kind of similar in appearance. I don't mean that in like a racial stereotyping way. I honestly don't know the races of the other two.

I don't know the race of the actors. But there is a likeness that does kind of reflect who his mom is at the same time. So it is like very psychologically poignant. And then of course you get all the cool

Egyptian stuff. Yeah. Two of going to, like, I kept, I did start, there's only one point where I started to get pulled out going, is Dr. Strange going to do this? Because you see those like zombie characters in there? Yeah, yeah.

You're like, oh, are they going to look the same? They're going to have the same design? Is this what this is? Are we going there? Is it time? Is it time for the MCU to break through and become an alternate personality of this show? Well, I, you know, that's what they look like. What is that called?

The, because the duot. The doot. The sea of the the dead people dead souls we see it's it's an interesting prospect because if you're looking at mark specter as it as just a pure individual you know or like most movies and shows will take the approach of you are a thing i have created i have to let you go so i can be in harmony with myself and be one complete where i don't feel like the show is going that path especially because is a penultimate. I don't think the show is going that path. I think that the bigger realization has to be presuming, because where the wrench gets thrown in here is like, let's presume for a

moment that him being at the field of reads at the very end is indeed real, you know, or is this still part of his mind? I'll go off the presumption that it's real. Now, it's like, how does he get out of there because he has to come back you know it's a pen ultimate episode he has to come back to earth you know join force who conchus stop harrow you got to do all that shit i don't i don't feel like the answer though what i with the unique approach with this i don't think the answer is to put stephen away you know yeah it doesn't without without going too much into you know the spoilery comic book things i i feel like they're going towards something that will probably mean, yeah, that these characters will continue to coexist in Mark's mind.

And if anything, I wonder if they're going to bring in that theme of leaning into that chaos in your heart and mind that kind of comes up in the book. Because that I can see as a clear route of perpetuating this character and making it a thing that can easily keep on going. And too, I feel like maybe at the end, then we might get a Jake Lockley tease. And as much as we've sat here and been like, where's Jake? I've at least as of this episode really enjoyed the choice or I feel it rewarding that they kept it to Mark and Stephen and had that be such a lucid interplay and too like I'm excited to go back through the show and just pick up all the different like the I have to imagine there's an expert kind of correlation between all the different little visual motifs or faces of people who show up or you know it's like you know it's like the scales popping up or you've got the the you're the the Stephen Grant like toys and things like that that show up and all these different things.

But too, just like I loved what Ethan Hawk was able to do here too because it's... I enjoy this version more than I enjoy Arthur Harrow, to be honest. Because Arthur Harrow becomes a little one-note comical. The further you get from the main plot, the more I'm like, I love what Ethan Hawley get. He's like, he's good on the mortal plane as, you know, this, this pseudo-avit or whatever. but him as doctor harrow i think has been terrific to watch because you know when you're removed from the circumstances of the plot it also it's like you have that to inform your perception of the performance and so it adds to this whole off-putting uneasy uncomfortable

like the episode does manage something i think is really hard which is kind of translating what a sort of insanity or at least being, I have to imagine at least the way they portray it here, you know, this inter-clashing of personalities has to be sort of jarring for a person and, you know, having so many loops where you have to question your own sanity. It's very jarring. And I thought they captured that really well. And I loved how you almost have Ethan Hawk at the center of it with just the most warm and beautiful presence that becomes benevolent at times.

like it almost seems like he legitimately does get stephen at least to that point like that whole scene with the phone i thought was really beautifully handled and when he finally holds it himself and here's the dial tone like i thought that was a a beautifully supportive scene between the two of them and yeah like it's it's hero you know for whatever his plan is on actual earth you know i feel like could be one of the most memorable mcc villains uh to me anyway partly because of all this stuff is like, man, that is a character, whether or not, you know, like the main plot stuff is all that satisfying in the next episode or just amounts to, we got to vanquish him. We did it, you know.

Well, I think with Dr. Harrow, it's so perfectly suitable to have the project, like, Mark's and Stephen's own projection of the doctor, I mean, I'm under the assumption that, you know, Mark Spector did have a doctor at one point in his life. and that's what we're dealing with. They gave enough clues indicating, like, where this hospital is located and a very specific name of the hospital. Like, it sounds like this is an actual part of his past. To have the villain, to have the doctor have the face of the villain on Earth, Arthur Harrow,

because that doctor, for someone who is in that much of a denial process, considers them a threat to their well-being because they fear having to go inside and twist the reality that they have made up in their own minds. Like, this is the reality that I'm not talking about, like, specifically a person with D.I.D. I'm obviously not that educated on specifically that subject, but on a basic human level. Yeah, I would, I think that's what they are doing with him. So I think, because I kept wondering why choose Ethan Hawke to specifically be him because when you're in a situation like that, you view that person like the villain, especially because I imagine that Mark did not voluntarily go see this doctor. I imagine that he was sort of, you know, as a young person was put there or to, you know, be studied or to try to work through this, but didn't admit himself at the age of a concessive.

hunting adult. Yeah, absolutely. As the sort of last resort, we're just going to put you here. And that's probably going to make the whole thing seem colder and more adversarial. Yes. And without having like of parental figures to truly trust, I think that that bleeds over too in the previous episodes. You see it here with Conchu taking advantage of him, manipulating on his emotional weaknesses

because it was a cool correlation of how he's physically weak. He's literally physically dying, but he doesn't pray on that. He's praying on the internal weaknesses of Mark Specter at that moment. And even with Layla in the psych ward, she takes advantage of him as well. You know? So it's like, yeah, I wouldn't say like the mom like takes advantage, but in a way she does because she imposes all blame for what happened to the dead son, the brother on her.

And it's cool that what they've done with Stephen is he's not just a coping mechanism. He's also a void for, he fills the void for what losing the brother left behind. He found a brother there. So I think what Mark has to get to is a point of realizing, like, Stephen, you're not a separate person. You're not, not me. Yeah. I am you as well. And, like, they have to...

And, like, Stephen was accepting that. On the boat, he was accepting that. You see him doing that. Like, if I can do... So that's why he gets the bad. He's able to, like, mess up some of those... Deadites? I don't know what they are.

Lost souls. I thought that was a cool effect. Just a quick sidebar. Like, of all the things I've seen in these shows and movies to create some fun pulpy violence without it being, like, gushy. I thought the whole, like, sand, zombies thing was great looked wonderful yeah did so yeah i mean i think this is an amazing ass

episode i really love this one um yeah quite a lot i thought it was all going to be about who's the hippo and how do we uncover what's it who are you just tell us already but i called the boat you did called the boat called the boat man you are observant you're a good cinephile called the boat you did man i didn't think it'd be on sand but i called the boat it's okay there's little pirates just sprinkled it i couldn't help but think a little bit about pirates during a couple of those exteriors but we also got the ancestral

plane shout out that was cool yeah that was nice it seems like the MCU has like some version of a I don't know some dimensional underworld pocket dimension there's pocket world pocket dimensions

of their under it's not like you know it's not like traditional Christianity which is earth heaven hell you know yeah that's you go one at the three you'll like yeah and it's not just Egyptology. It seems like how they embrace this is there's like pocket dark dimensions or something else, you know, afterlife dimensions. It feels like the metaphysics is informed by whoever's perspective is experiencing them. Yeah, like the ancestral plane within Black

Panther, wherever freaking Thanos saw Gamora in Infinity War after being on It's like the Formeer. Formeiros in Voldemort. Yeah, after being on Vormir and then here, it's like they have, and it seems like Dr. Strange will probably explore more of that too. Mm-hmm, yeah. Yeah, this was a phenomenal episode.

That was phenomenal, and I'll end up with this. I have not seen... The last time I felt this way was with the Netflix shows. I really hope that when Emmy... season rolls around and I don't really give a shit if I rarely watch a war I only watch the Oscars this year because I was in a voting pool and I just wanted

to just hang out with friends drinking and I fortunately it was the best Oscar was that we got the slap I really do hope that they consider Oscar Isaac because he is incredible in here he's absolutely incredible it's not

easy what he has to do and it kudos to the Because I can get distracted from time to time of, you know, I rarely become aware that there was a ton of any scene with Mark and Stephen that Oscar Isaac had to do his takes Mark, and then he had to do a steak, Stephen, and then they had to splice it together. I rarely become aware that they had to film it that way. I usually am just so pulled into the performances and what's going on that I don't question it. I don't think about it. I'm just buying two completely different people.

And then when you have scenes like post-funeral, when he shifts in and out, it's like it's not only impressive. It's like I'm not even, I don't know how to put in a word. It's just such damn good acting and he knows how to embody both and he can switch in and out of both characters insanely well.

It's incredibly lucid. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And now I just hope that next week they can really... I hope they stick to fucking... I really hope they do. It's funny because this is an episode

where it's like, you know, whatever led before it and whatever is happening after it, I was like so... Like, this is one of my favorite all-time just episodes of the MCU. thus far and yeah now i'm just like there seems like there's a lot left to do though like in one episode i am a little nervous if they can stick the landing and not just turn into because it seems like it's set up to become the problem that some of these things fall into which is big battle

episode yeah that's what i don't need to get to caught you and drop become moon nine i want to be a bunch of chaos now and then have like all plot and and and little kill like like Like, you know, I want to carry some of this juiciness into that next episode and to really feel like, you know, the, all the elements. Because, you know, you start out with more of the fun and the mystery and then you get into the deep psychological. And I hope that the last episode combines both. Yes. You know? Yes.

It's neat when you think about the character of Mr. Knight and the comic, too, of like a badass detective in a way. Yeah. You know, whereas, like, Moon Knight is pretty accurately portrayed via through Mark Spector here. When you think about Mr. Knight and how different Mr. Knight is here versus the comic, where it's much more comical, but that goes to accentuate the psychological association of embodying a personality that is, like, fantasy fulfillment, because that's what Stephen Grant is. Yeah. He's an embodiment of fantasy fulfillment.

And, you know, right down to the name being pulled from some movie that apparently young Mark Spector was obsessed with that no one's scene. It's best movie, though. Dr. Grant. Yeah, Dr. Grant. And it's funny because Dr. Grant is what look like Layla's dad in the comic, whatever her actual name is that I'm blanking on right now on the comic. But, yeah, Marlene, I think, yeah. I want to say Whitney, but, yeah, I think you're right. Whitney.

They named Bushman. Bushman, not French. Even the French, he's in the phone. Yeah, I think that's all that's going to be. I think DeCamp will come in later, maybe, but. But he says Bushman is his partner. And they called that too in the new Rockstar's breakdown. We've only brought it up that I'm like,

I thought it was Bushman. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Research. Yeah, do research, you rock stars. You guys know what you're talking about. What are you guys got? We clearly know. we can pick up a thing where you might have glossed over it's ha ha how do you feel now um

probably don't even notice all right guys thank you so much for being here to keep a look out for our finale reaction uh coy you're not missed at all you can rot in hell yeah i hope you fall into the two eyes your soul is sucked down and i hope you're i hope you're doing miserably right now never make to the feel to read and yeah we'll catch you guys soon thank you so much for being here Thank you.