🚨 There are MASSIVE spoilers ahead for Moon Knight Episode 5 on Disney+! And this post contains mentions of abuse. 🚨
1. First, Dr. Harrow mentions to Marc that he's currently a patient at "Putnam Medical Facility" in Chicago. In the Moon Knight comic book series from 2016, which was written by Jeff Lemire, Marc is a patient at Putnam Psychiatric Hospital in Chicago.
2. Also, in Episode 2, we found out that Marc is from Illinois based on his passport. In the comics, Marc Spector was born in Chicago too.
3. When Taweret is explaining to Marc and Steven that they are in the ancient Egyptian version of the afterlife, she mentions the "Ancestral Plane" as another version of an afterlife. This is a reference to Black Panther and the Ancestral Plane where T'Challa saw his father again.
4. When Taweret places Steven and Marc's hearts on the scale, they are being balanced alongside a white feather. In ancient Egyptian mythology, the white feather of truth was used to balance on the golden scale alongside one heart, and this determined if a person could make it to the Field of Reeds. The feather symbolized "ma'at," or harmony.
5. When Steven spots one of Marc's memories in a bedroom, you can see a QR code for a "floor map." If you scan the QR code, it actually takes you to a free copy of Moon Knight Issue #1 from 1980. This QR code was also present in Episode 3.
6. In fact, the memory Steven finds is a scene from later in the episode when Marc is standing outside his dad's home while his mother's funeral is going on.
7. When Steven walks into Marc's memory of hanging out in a backyard with his family, you can see that his little brother is drawing a one-finned fish, which is just like Steven's fish Gus from Episode 1.
8. We learn that Marc's younger brother drowned when he was younger, which caused Marc's home life to become worse and worse. In the comics, Randall Spector, Marc's brother, doesn't die when they are younger, but he ends up becoming Shadow Knight, one of Moon Knight's greatest adversaries. Shadow Knight thought he was chosen to be Khonshu's avatar. In Shadowland: Moon Knight Issue #3 from 2010, Moon Knight ends up killing Randall.
9. When Marc and Steven end up in Marc's memory about the night Layla's father died, Marc mentions that he went to work for his "old CO Bushman." In the comics, Raul Bushman debuted in the first Moon Knight comic in 1980, and he worked alongside Marc and Frenchie Duchamp. Bushman was the person who killed Dr. Peter Alraune, aka Marlene's dad. As I've mentioned before, a lot of Layla's story overlaps with Marlene's from the comics. And Bushman fatally wounded Marc, which led him to becoming Moon Knight.
10. Marc's almost-death after the raid and at the base of the statue of Khonshu is a moment taken directly from the Moon Knight comics. Just like in the show, Marc almost dies, and Khonshu appears to him and saves him by turning him into Moon Knight.
11. After Marc and Steven agree that the only way to stop Harrow is to return to the land of the living serving Khonshu, Taweret mentions that the only gate that can get them back is Osiris's. In ancient Egyptian mythology, Osiris was the god of the dead, resurrection, and life, and was the ruler of the dead in the underworld.
12. Marc finally shows Steven that their mother abused him following his brother's death, and that's what caused Marc to create Steven as a coping mechanism. In the comics, Marc doesn't create Steven after his mother begins abusing him, but rather after he finds out that his uncle/close family friend, who he trusted, is a serial killer and a Nazi.
13. In Marc's room, you can quickly spot that the toys he pushes off his desk are the two characters from Tomb Buster, the movie that was playing in the psych ward during Episode 4.
14. In Marc's childhood bedroom, you can see that he's got a Chicago Cubs poster on the wall, which is something Marc had on the walls of his childhood bedroom in Jeff Lemire's run of Moon Knight comics in 2016.
15. You can also spot that Marc framed and hung up his little brother's drawing of the one-finned fish.
16. And over by the door, you can spot a Star Wars: A New Hope poster, which Marc had on his childhood bedroom wall in Jeff Lemire's comics, and of course, Oscar Isaac starred in the Star Wars franchise as Poe Dameron.
17. While young Marc is sitting on the floor of his room, you can see in the mirror that he has a race car cutout and/or bed in his room, and in Jeff Lemire's Moon Knight comics, young Marc has a race car bed.
18. In Marc's childhood bedroom, you can see scales, which of course relate to Marc and Steven's journey with Taweret in the afterlife.
19. You can also spot a bunch of space-related toys throughout young Marc's bedroom. This could be a nod to Jeff Lemire's Moon Knight comics, where one of Marc's personalities is said to be an astronaut.
20. On the Tomb Buster poster in Marc's childhood bedroom, you can see the name Doug Perlin, which is a nod to Doug Moench and Don Perlin, the duo who created Moon Knight for Marvel back in 1975.
21. And you can see that the film was produced by "Timely Atlas Studios." Timely Comics pre-dated Marvel in the 1930s and published the first comic book named Marvel Comics No. 1 in 1939, and Atlas Comics paved the way for what would become Marvel in the 1950s.
22. When Steven comes face to face with Dr. Harrow, he jokes that he looks like Ned Flanders, which is a perfect (and accurate) reference to the iconic The Simpsons character.
23. Steven sadly learns that his mom is actually dead, which is different than what happens in the Moon Knight comics. In the comics, Marc's father Elias is the one who dies while Marc is being held at Putnam Psychiatric Hospital. Marc ends up resenting his father for having him admitted because he believed that his dad was embarrassed by him.
24. Also, when Marc is drinking outside his mother's shiva, you can see a sign reading "Waterson Food & Liquor" behind him. This is a nod to Trevor Waterson, who is a co-executive producer on Moon Knight, and he's also worked on WandaVision, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, and Hawkeye.
25. And finally, the episode ends with Steven heartbreakingly not making it to the Field of Reeds and dying, although I PRAY we see Steven in the finale because I'm not ready to say "laters gators" to him. Steven's fate was foreshadowed way back in Episode 1 when a little girl asked Steven about getting rejected from the Field of Reeds.
