Wynterwolf

At least it looks like Disney is allowing some proactive statements, instead of pretending the racist attacks don't exist.

I suspect this might be partly related to Owen being in public around a lot of other people, and Haja being alone in an alley. I doubt that all Inquisitors have that ability (and I don't think all Jedi did either), so she might not want her co-workers to know she can do that. So maybe she uses it sparingly and in places where she isn't seen. If Haja says anything about it, who would believe him?

Google is your friend. Leia (and therefore also Luke) was 19 in ANH, and 22 three years later in ESB when the romantic relationship started between Han and Leia. Age difference is not a factor in whether a romantic relationship between two consenting adults is creepy or not, the relationship dynamic is. But I don't think that's related to this series since this Leia won't consider a romantic relationship with Han for another 12 years.

This article explains the timeline.

I'm not Jewish so I think it's more appropriate for me to link to other voices with more insight than me: Link 1 Link 2 Link 3 Link 4 Storytellers make choices. That's their job. Those choices are always going to affect different members of the audience in different ways, I like to learn from people who have a different perspective from mine.

Exactly. Plus there was no intention here of making her "more interesting", this was just a short-hand narrative device to minimize & sidestep the inconvenient canon fact that the character is Jewish and that his faith was an integral part of his canon story in the comics. Except his DID predates him meeting Khonshu by decades so one has nothing to do with the other. His DID complicates his life in general, which includes his affiliation with Khonshu, but they are being presented here as completely separate things. All of the alters are real people, and all of them have their own experiences, that the other alters may or may not be aware of. But everything that's happened to them is real (in the context of a super hero show). This episode with it's depiction of the asylum is within the system's mind & the limbo between death and life that Tawaret inhabits, so isn't real in a physical sense, but that's separate from what the system has experienced in the 'real world'.

Unless... the way Marc's face kept changing to having a broken nose and then not was a signal that Marc and Jake were switching without it being obvious, but Steven was still somehow outside and separate from them. So you could be exactly right about Steven being accepted into the whole with the other alters, so to speak (I apologize if that's bad terminology, I'm not sure how else to say it). The mother dying seemed to change things between the alters and that was when Steven started waking up in strange places.

I suspect it's because that backstory for what caused Marc's DID is entirely made up for this show, and is completely different from the comic. They obviously didn't want to deal more than just superficially with Marc being Jewish, so they had to invent a whole new trauma for him (in the comics it was related to anti-Semitic violence. And his father, whom he had a complicated relationship with, was a Rabbi). So I doubt if they had much time to flesh out this backstory and just went with parental abuse = trauma and didn't think much deeper about it. I'm glad to see the discussion of little Marc and little Steven! That confused me too and I'm still not sure what they meant to imply there since there wasn't any hint at all that any alter other than Steven received that beating. So I'm still confused by that. Outside of the stellar acting, I think this is the first ep that has disappointed me. It felt almost like a random bottle episode when we've only got 6 eps to tell this story. I’m also just not a fan of Very Special Episodes dealing with characterization like it’s a separate thing and not part of the plot. They could have slowly revealed a lot of this throughout the other eps, then at least some of the action here could have also been used to move the plot along. But as a showcase for Oscar to shine, it was gold. But with Disney's aversion to "spoilers" it feels like they've taken that to ridiculous extremes to the point where they aren't even telling a story anymore. I feel like I'm sitting in a waiting room, looking at the interesting pictures hanging on the wall, before being let into the finale next week when all the "twists" will be revealed. The only thing I feel like I have to noodle over is why did they show that third sarcophagus last week, but then never even hint at the third alter in this ep once. At first I thought the scales were messed up because they weren't all there, but that obviously wasn't the case. So yeah, I don't know... I guess I'll just wait for next week?

Yes, he totally did. LOL. For kissing Layla. For a minute I also thought Marc had taken over their body, but then Steven started geeking out and I knew they hadn’t switched.

Yes! I did too, but like you I didn't think that would be why she'd be there. I also like this bit from that article: And it says she is sometimes thought to be Osiris' mother, which given his Avatar's role in the trial proceedings, could also be significant. And that third sarcophagus has to be I can't wait!!!

Based on what I quickly googled, I suspect your last comment likely answers your prior one. From here. And since she also seems to be associated with rebirth and rejuvenation in her association with protecting new life and children, that seems to fit. Plus she seems to be kind of the polar opposite of Ammit, so she'll probably be sympathetic to their goal. This ep was wild and I love it! The interplay between Marc and Steven is really fascinating, and I love how we are learning more about Marc as Steven does. I generally detest romantic triangles, but this is definitely not a typical triangle (understatement!!). And I could definitely see this evolving more where Steven becomes Marc's wing man, because I think deep down Steven realizes that Marc needs Layla in a way that he doesn't. And kudos to the acting from all three of them!!

Also, now that it's fairly clear that there is a third alter and that he may have killed people (without us knowing anything about the context from his POV), I can't stress enough how harmful the 'evil alter' trope is to real, actual people with DID. Abled people believing that people with mental illness are dangerous has gotten more disabled people killed that you can imagine, and abled people are astronomically more dangerous to disabled people than the other way around (but you'd never know that from news or entertainment media). Just something to please keep in mind as this plays out.

Yes, you're right. I did watch it again on a different screen and he does have it with him, but he seems to just casually hook it on his arm to get it out of the way when he reaches out to touch the man to kill him. He doesn't appear to use it they way he did previously (his own bit of theatrics maybe?). So it still seems like he might not need it to kill people, he just wants people to think he does. But we shall see...

Gold guy is based on the comics character Bertrand Crawley. It's too soon to tell if he'll be more than just a sounding board for Steven, but I suspect he will eventually.

One thing I noticed on subsequent viewing is that Harrow didn't have the cane with him when he killed the homeless man who found the scarab after the fight, so it would seem possible that he might have other types of non-human power he can tap into that may or may not be tied to an artifact. So as far as the gods being able to just 'see' what he's up to, maybe he is cloaked in some way, either with another artifact from Ammit like the cane, or some power that is specific to him. But in watching that scene with the gods again, the whole tenor of the proceedings really changes when Harrow brings up Marc/Steven/???'s mental illness. They were already skeptical of Khonshu because of his theatrical nature, but the fact that his Avatar is - in their view - defective, where they place such high value on their Avatars and give them the power & freedom to handle things on earth while they exist elsewhere, the fact that Marc couldn't deny being "unwell" decided them that nothing he or Khonshu said could be trusted, or given any weight. That is ableism in a nutshell and it was portrayed quite realistically.

Why would they care, though? They're certain she just wants to murder humans and that's not of any concern to them. And if she gets out of hand, it's clear they believe they'll just turn her to stone like they did Khonshu. Harrow very deliberately comes across as unassuming and reasonable. I would have been surprised if they had taken Khonshu's warnings seriously. Plus, that's how people with power treat those who are 'othered', and the combination of Khonshu, who they already think is a troublemaker, and Marc who they now see as damaged and dismissible because of his mental illness , they are completely convinced their decision is the only correct choice.

Yes! I'm happy that we now probably know where most of the dead bodies are coming from. And I'm wondering if "mom" could be the third alter? I know Layla is aware of mom, but she still may not have ever met or even seen mom, and if Marc has told her they are estranged, that would keep her from asking about it. I am really enjoying this so far. The music, the cinematography (yay no yellow filter!! So beautiful!) and the fight and action choreography... all of it. And I know there have been some tiny hints of linkage back to the larger MCU (like Madripoor in this ep), but I am so far very thankful that they've all been ignorable for the most part. That may not last, but I'm going to enjoy this show feeling like a stand alone for as long as I can. I'm also now more curious than ever about what caused Steven/Marc/??? to split, and also when that happened. And I'm appreciating that Harrow is a fairly straight forward villain. He doesn't have a moral leg to stand on, he's just good at making it sound surface level good until you get into the details (the way Steven did with him). And I'm still wondering if the sucking the life out of people is a power siphoning thing. And I guess he just has all these little cult enclaves all over the world? The town where the castle was, and then the place in London? (And I'm sure in Egypt too). I love watching a show that rewards watching it multiple times.

Do you mean from a character sense or from a storytelling sense? (I've been reading some about DID, so if I get any of this wrong, please correct me) As far as I understand, Steven is an alter and is absolutely real. So is Marc. They are a system. Each alter within the system is a real, individual person. They just share a body and mind, potentially with other alters. I think Arthur saw "chaos" in Steven because of the other alter(s). But based on the few things I've read about the show, Salieri isn't an alter, he's the Egyptian god? But we just don't know how he and Marc got linked yet. DID is caused by trauma, usually at an early age, so it seems likely that Steven and Marc existed as individuals before Salieri came into the picture. Or, whatever caused the link with Salieri was part of the trauma that caused the DID.

I didn't pick this up until I watched it a second time, but I'm assuming Marc (and Salieri) was(were) breaking into Arthur's castle to steal the bug. Then Marc got tossed (or jumped) out a window and that's when Steven woke up. I suspect finding out what the bug is and why it's important will be the story going forward, and we'll see Marc in action then, but I think what happened in this ep was just about Marc getting the bug. I thoroughly enjoyed it on first viewing, and also intrigued enough to watch it again. Some things were much clearer on second viewing (like the whole fish fin thing. Poor fish!!). I basically just knew the character has DID, and that Egyptian gods play a role and that's it and I'm actually enjoying the way things were teased in the first ep. It's also giving me sort of an old school Indiana Jones vibe which I'm finding fun. LOVED the car chase with the Wham soundtrack, and I'm finding Steven's lost time transitions really interesting and effective. Definitely agree that Steven's 'mom' is just a way for Marc (et al? or someone else?) to know what Steven is up to, since so far it's just him leaving voicemail messages. And I wonder if the whole 'Judgement' schtick that Arthur is playing is just a ruse to have an excuse to suck people dry for energy? I don't know... but I'm very much game to stick around and find out.

Fair enough, but he's still responsible for acting as judge, jury and executioner. That choice is on him (as things stand right now). Fisk potentially giving him a hit list doesn't absolve him of his culpability.

So it's justified if he only murders bad people? By who's standard? Under what circumstances? What about due process? What about a mistake? And what kinds of offenses automatically warrant a death sentence?

Unless it turns out that Clint was completely mind-controlled like he was previously by Loki, then he was still absolutely responsible for his actions, I don't care who may have given him the intel.

That's a good question, but I think they did a nice job of showing the ideological differences between Mom and Daughter, so I suspect that mom knows her daughter would not approve of her 'methods' (which I'm sure is all she considers them to be, and that she is just using her resources like any good amoral, rich, power-hungry member of society might).

Right? I love her!! Jack really thinks he's in control, but ho boy is he going to be in for a surprise. That was my take too, that she was already into the martial arts (kids that age are usually already scheduled with various classes to the point it's basically a full time job, and money was obviously no object). And I loved how they handled the training montage through the credits. It was very cool!