Moon Knight episode 6 is finally available to stream on Disney Plus, with the finale bringing this first (and only?) season to an end. As expected, the last Moon Knight episode delivers the show’s first and only post-credits scene. Other MCU shows have had similar gameplans, so this shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Fans of the series might have guessed what happens in the post-credits scenes, considering everything that happened in the second half of the season and the finale.
There are always expectations of giant MCU Easter eggs in credits scenes. After all, this is an MCU show. Unfortunately, as excellent as the show’s only post-credits scene might be, it doesn’t fix Moon Knight’s big MCU problem
Before I explain, I’ll warn you that spoilers from the finale follow below.
Moon Knight has only one post-credits scene
MCU TV shows taught us not to expect post-credit scenes after each episode in a series. Considering the big Moon Knight cliffhangers in the most recent episodes, we didn’t need post-credits scenes. Not to mention that the credits of each episode changed ever so slightly since the premiere.
But the finale had to have one.
Marvel has been dropping Jake Lockley teasers since the first episodes. Marc and Steven struggled to get along, but Marc’s mind was hiding at least one more personality in there. And that personality was a lot more violent and a lot less ready to reason with the other two.
That new Moon Knight variant showed up in the post-credits scene, where we learned that Khonshu actually prefers Jake over Marc and Steven.
Lockley is the more ruthless personality, the one who will not question Khonshu’s orders. Even if that means killing Arthur Harrow and Ammit with him. Why Khonshu doesn’t just murder Harrow himself is beyond me at this point, but we’ll leave that for a different article.
What I’m getting at here is the big MCU problem that Moon Knight had in the finale. Marvel could have saved it all with an MCU post-credits scene but failed to do so.
The big MCU Easter eggs are absent
Marvel warned audiences before the premiere that Moon Knight won’t feel like an MCU show because it won’t have big connections to the bigger picture. But we saw plenty of Easter eggs tying this new property to the MCU.
They started in episode 1, and they were tiny elements of much-need connective tissue.
It’s one thing to want to avoid major characters from the Avengers lineup and quite another to ignore the MCU completely. That’s not what fans want. As we learned later, all the Easter eggs were intentional. Marvel deliberately chose which MCU links to place in the story.
Marc’s mental condition meant that the Easter eggs didn’t really matter. It could’ve been the case that none of the events he experienced were real.
How does all of this tie into the Moon Knight post-credits scene? It’s simple: The scene in question doesn’t feature any significant MCU connection that the events in the finale would have to trigger.
We’ve seen this problem in other Marvel MCU Phase 4 shows and movies. The studio wants to tell a specific story where the new characters can shine on their own with as little interaction as possible with the rest of the Avengers. But then Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings had a perfect post-credit scene that told us the Avengers are watching over everything and are ready to intervene.
Why this is a big problem for Moon Knight
The Moon Knight isn’t just a little confrontation between two tiny gangs of thugs with an outcome that doesn’t matter. That’s Hawkeye. That show’s finale didn’t warrant an Avengers intervention.
But in Moon Knight, we have Egyptian gods coming to the surface in the worst possible way. They’re huge, scary beings fighting in Egypt. And the one that looks like it’s friendlier happens to absorb other people’s souls to grow its powers. It’s the scarier god that fights on behalf of humans.
Puzzlingly, regular people can see these Egyptian gods, which wasn’t the case in earlier episodes. But even if they can’t, they still witness three super-powered humans fighting on the streets of Cairo. That’s just as reports would detail countless cases of people dying suddenly in the city.
If this doesn’t trigger an intervention with the Avengers, then the MCU’s Earth is in serious trouble.
It’s important to remember that superheroes aren’t omnipresent or omniscient. But after Thanos (Josh Brolin), there must be heroes on call. With Wong’s (Benedict Wong) sorcerers ready to help with instant travel. Not to mention Stark’s drones in the sky and all the other programs and protocols that Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and SWORD must have implemented after Infinity War.
Marvel did it before with other post-credits
As much as Marvel wants the audience to love Moon Knight as a standalone project, it also wants the MCU to shine. And the MCU can’t be great with such glaring issues that keep coming up. That’s where the post-credits scenes can help. This is a plot device Marvel uses to advance the MCU.
The worst part is that Marvel did it before. A certain Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) kidnapped Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and had Loki (Tom Hiddleston) fall for 30 minutes to ensure the Earth was safe. And it all started in the Doctor Strange post-credits scene.
You would do that with any threat, including the massive Ammit cult that Harrow developed. After all, if Asgardian gods are real, then Egyptian gods must be at the top of your security list if you’re an Avenger familiar with all these mystical threats.
All that Moon Knight would have needed in a second post-credits scene was a nod from the Avengers. Maybe a Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) replacement comes in to take Harrow into custody. Maybe Wong shows up. Then, you get the MCU connection that ties up any Avengers-related plot holes in an acceptable way.
What’s certain after the Moon Knight finale is that we need to see more of Oscar Isaac in the MCU. Hawke’s Harrow could definitely still play a part in it as well, assuming Jake didn’t kill him.
But each new MCU project brings new plot holes that keep getting bigger and bigger. It’ll be interesting to see if or when Marvel ties up all these lose ends.
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