Layla El-Faouly came to us in Marvel’s Moon Knight and brought with her an energy that was unmatched. Played brilliantly by May Calamawy, the character was driven by her need for answers and also her love for her husband, Marc Spector. But she never shied away from the woman she was, and in the finale of Moon Knight, we saw just how badass she is.
So, let’s talk a bit about what happened to Layla in the finale and why she’s easily one of the best Marvel characters to date.
**Spoilers for the entire arc of Layla El-Faouly in Moon Knight lie ahead.**
The entire run of Moon Knight had Layla refusing to take any sort of nonsense from Marc and forcing him to answer her questions about what was going on, and while he tried to protect her and push her away, she kept coming back and refused to back down. That in itself made her fun because she wasn’t going to just let Marc and Steven do whatever they wanted without looping her in.
But in the finale, she really came into her own as a character who wasn’t going to take someone else’s word to heart without making a decision for herself. Layla is the one leaves to take on Harrow (at least in her mind). She doesn’t know what Marc and Steven are trying to do and she just knows that she has to kill him. So, she follows Harrow and tries to get close to him before Taweret speaks to her and gives her the “plan.”
Her job is simple: Free Khonshu to bring back Marc. But Layla takes it a step further by refusing to let the gods tell her what she needs to do. Taweret, who we’ve learned is incredibly sweet, offers Layla the position of her Avatar, and Layla instantly refuses but does what Taweret asks her to do and finds a way to free Khonshu. There, he tells Layla that the only way to defeat Ammit is by being his Avatar, and still, she refuses because she knows how painful it was for Marc. Instead, she later agrees to be the “temporary” Avatar for Taweret, and it results in Layla becoming her own superhero, in her own words.
A young girl asks her, “Are you an Egyptian superhero?” and Layla responds, “I am.” While it could be a moment that people think is on the nose, it is truly an emotional moment given the orientalist history that the Marvel comics had. This show gave Layla her own arc, put her into the spotlight, and she embraced her history and her strength in a way that was awe-inspiring.
Layla’s her own hero
There wasn’t ever a moment in this show where Layla needed saving. Marc surely thought he was protecting her from pain, but the reality was that she was the one who helped Marc and Steven, and she was the one who helped to save them.
We don’t know if Layla tells Taweret that she’s done or if she is even still in contact with Marc and Steven by the end (we just see Marc and Steven living in the old London flat), so it will be interesting to see where she is in the future of Marc and Steven’s storylines. But god, it was nice to see her be a powerful badass in that last episode.
(image: Marvel Entertainment)
