Episode 3 of Moon Knight is out, and it’s a wild ride! (Spoiler alert: this article discusses events that happen in episode three of Moon Knight.)
In the third episode, we see a bit of Egypt and get a taste of Marc’s fighting ability and Layla’s information gathering skills. We also get to meet the Ennead, the pantheon of Egyptian gods. Perhaps the most surprising moment of the episode, though, comes pretty early on, when both Marc and Steven seem to lose control of their shared body. Did Jake Lockley just make his MCU debut? For that matter, who is Jake Lockley?
In case you need a quick refresher on what’s happened in Moon Knight so far: Steven Grant, a shy gift shop employee in London, finds out that he shares a body with Marc Spector, a hardened American mercenary. What’s more, Marc is the avatar of Khonshu, the Egyptian god of the moon. Khonshu and Marc are trying to stop a cult leader named Arthur Harrow from awakening Ammit, an Egyptian goddess and demoness who wants to preemptively kill every human on earth who has or will commit an evil deed at some point in their life. Harrow gets his hands on a scarab amulet that acts as a guide to Ammit’s tomb, and Marc has to follow him to Egypt. Luckily, Marc can transform into the superpowered Moon Knight.
Jake Lockley in the Comics
Longtime Moon Knight fans know that in the comics, Moon Knight has five alters, thanks to Marc Spector’s dissociative identity disorder. There’s Marc himself, a mercenary who was brought back from the dead by Khonshu. There’s Steven Grant, a millionaire playboy who finances Moon Knight’s vigilante work. There’s Mr. Knight, the police consultant version of Moon Knight. And there’s Moon Knight himself, the titular masked superhero.
Then there’s Jake Lockley. Steven Grant is so rich and powerful that he has trouble gathering information from the seedy underbelly of New York City, where the comics version of Moon Knight takes place. Luckily, he and Marc have Jake to sniff out that intel for them. Jake is a cab driver with contacts everywhere in New York’s underworld, so he’s the alter who goes out and does that aspect of Moon Knight’s vigilantism.
The trailers and early footage of Moon Knight mostly showed Steven but also hinted at Marc’s existence, and a poster gave us our first look at Mr. Knight. Noticeably absent, though, was Jake. For a while, it looked like he’d been cut from the story altogether. Thanks to episode 3, though, there’s evidence that he may be lurking somewhere after all.
Is Jake Lockley in the MCU?
In the first scene of episode 3, Marc is chasing after a group of Arthur Harrow’s followers (leaping across rooftops, of course, because that’s just what you do in action sequences). Once he catches up with them, Steven starts to plead with him not to kill them. Marc starts to blackout and Steven takes over and lets them go. The two vie for control of the body until Marc catches up with them again…and then something really weird happens. Marc blacks out again, and when he comes to, two of the men are dead. Did Steven kill them? That’s a bit out of character. But before we have time to wonder if our lovable dorky Steven is turning to the dark side, he denies having done it.
So if neither Marc nor Steven killed those guys, then who did?
So is it Jake Lockley? Well, admittedly, we never see him, and he isn’t mentioned by name, so it’s totally possible that something else entirely is going on. But still! It’s a weird moment, isn’t it? Some third-party clearly has access to Steven and Marc’s body.
Furthermore, even if this possible third alter is named Jake Lockley as an homage to the comics, that doesn’t necessarily mean that he’ll be recognizable as his print counterpart. Steven is vastly different from his comics counterpart in every conceivable way, from his job to his demeanor to his nationality. Even Moon Knight and Mr. Knight are different. In the comics, they’re their own separate alters, while in the show, they’re Marc and Steven in magical suits. So, if Jake Lockley is making an appearance, don’t necessarily expect the New York cab driver from the comics. He could be literally anybody.
Episode three of Moon Knight is now streaming on Disney Plus!
(image: Marvel)
