‘Moon Knight’ Episode 4 Ending Explained: Who’s the Hippo?

Well, that was a surprise. It’s not like Moon Knight has exactly been playing it safe the last three weeks, but Episode 4 — “The Tomb” — was so out there that it made everything we’ve seen before look like a CBS crime procedural. Everything we thought we knew about this show, which admittedly wasn’t a lot, has been tossed out the window thanks to that surprise ending.

And why waste more time with an introduction when we can just jump into that twist ending? SPOILERS ahead, because we gotta try to make sense out of what the hell just happened on Moon Knight.

What the hell just happened?

Moon Knight Episode 4 plays out like an Indiana Jones adventure — until Marc Spector gets shot. With a quarter of the episode still to go, the bad guy seemingly wins. Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke) shoots a powerless Marc in the chest… twice. The man who was Moon Knight falls backwards in slow motion into a pool of ancient water that you just know has to be filled with ancient bacteria. That’s not what Marc’s concerned about, though; he’s concerned about the two bullet holes in his chest and the fact that if being shot won’t kill him, he’ll drown… in gross tomb water.

Instead, something absolutely bizarre happens: fade up on a highly rasterized, 4:3 aspect ratio image of a teen and an explorer named Steven Grant (sound familiar?) with a cheesy British accent (also sound familiar?). The cheap set, bad dialogue, and hammy acting feels just like the kinda low-budget program you’d see on UPN on a Saturday afternoon in 1998. Then we pull out to see that the tape is playing on a TV in a psychiatric hospital. Marc’s there, bound and incommunicative in a wheelchair.

The ward is filled with the people and objects that we’ve seen on the show so far. The street performer is calling out bingo numbers, Harrow’s associates Bobbi and Billy are orderlies (just like in the comics), Steven’s boss Donna is clutching a scarab plush, and Layla’s chatting up Marc and stealing his winning bingo card. Beyond that, an old woman draws a pic of Khonshu, a man serves the patients cupcakes, and there’s a fish in a fishbowl. The implication seems to be that Marc has been writing the first 3.75 episodes in his head incorporating everything within his line of sight.

And then Marc’s taken in to see the doctor, the man that inspired (or is?) Arthur Harrow. He has everything associated with Harrow: a cane, sandals, a painting of the Alps, and a calm yet adversarial relationship with Marc. Marc is able to eventually form words, and he tells Harrow, “You shot me.” Marc musters up enough strength to get out of the wheelchair, fend off Bobbi and Billy, and make a break for it.

He runs down the snowy white hallway and ducks into one of the rooms to evade his pursuers. That’s when he hears someone that sounds a bit like Steven pounding away from inside a sarcophagus. Ta-da — it is Steven! And he remembers being shot, too! They’re standing face to face for the first time, and they are in this together. They take off down the hallway again, passing up another room with another rattling sarcophagus, and are stopped dead in their tracks when a large, bipedal hippo goddess strolls through the doors ahead of them. “Hi!” she says in a cheery voice. Marc and Steven scream — and we’re done.

So, what the hell just happened?

The big note here is, this kinda stuff just happens in Moon Knight comics. When you have a character with multiple personalities who lives with dissociative identity disorder, you’re going to have a lot of trippy stories at least tangentially involving a mental hospital. Just look at FX’s Legion! Same thing!

If you’re looking for specific inspo, though, you can check out the 2017 Moon Knight series by writer Jeff Lemire and artist Greg Smallwood. This entire sequence feels pulled directly from that comic, and it may help us understand what’s going on here while we wait another week for answers. As in the comics, it’s possible that this whole asylum bit is an illusion conjured up by Harrow — maybe even Khonshu! — to push Marc/Steven towards a desired end. It’s also possible this is a hallucination brought on by all that tomb juice getting in Marc’s bloodstream. Then there’s that hippo!

Who is the hippo at the end of Moon Knight Episode 4?

If there is any sign of hope during this surreal turn, it’s the hippo. Yes, the hippo is hope. That’s because in ancient Egyptian religion, hippopotamus goddesses are seen as protective figures. It’s incredibly likely that this character is Taweret, the goddess of childbirth and fertility. We’ve already seen Taweret in the show, albeit as a cute little plush that you just know is gonna go up for presale in our reality soon.

Marc Spector could sure use a rebirth. Or could it be that there are some new personalities that need to be born, like one that’s back there rattling in a sarcophagus? At least, considering the hippo goddess’ pleasant disposition and the protective, nurturing role that hippos play in ancient Egyptian religion, it seems like Marc and Steven may have found a surprising and unlikely ally.

We’ll find out next Wednesday when the penultimate episode Moon Knight hits Disney+.

Stream Moon Knight on Disney+