Asylum (Moon Knight)

"Asylum" is the fifth episode of the American television miniseries Moon Knight, based on Marvel Comics featuring the character Moon Knight. It follows Marc Spector and Steven Grant as they try to make sense of their situation in a psychiatric hospital. The episode is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), sharing continuity with the films of the franchise. It was written by Rebecca Kirsch and Matthew Orton and directed by Mohamed Diab.

Oscar Isaac stars as Marc Spector and Steven Grant, alongside May Calamawy, Ann Akinjirin, David Ganly, Fernanda Andrade, Antonia Salib, Karim El-Hakim, Rey Lucas, F. Murray Abraham, and Ethan Hawke. Diab joined the series by October 2020 to direct four episodes. Filming took place at Origo Studios in Budapest.

"Asylum" was released on the streaming service Disney+ on April 27, 2022. Critics highlighted the episode for its plot twists, emotional weight, Isaac's performance, and its portrayal of Spector and Grant's dissociative identity disorder (DID).

Steven Grant identifies the hippopotamus-headed woman as the Egyptian goddess Taweret, who explains to him and Marc Spector that they are dead and that the "psychiatric hospital" is actually inside a boat sailing through the Duat. She weighs their hearts on the Scales of Justice to determine if they would be allowed to enter the Field of Reeds, and she advises them to help each other uncover hidden memories causing their imbalance. Grant sees a memory of Spector's younger brother Randall drowning and Spector's mother Wendy blaming him for it, while Spector reveals to Grant how he became Khonshu's avatar on a mission with his partner Bushman. Spector and Grant convince Taweret to let them return to the living world to stop Arthur Harrow, who has released Ammit, and she steers the boat towards the Gates of Osiris.

"Dr. Harrow", a psychiatrist version of Harrow, convinces Spector to fully open up to Grant, and Spector reluctantly explains that he unknowingly created Grant as a result of their mother's abuse. Grant and Spector reconcile with each other, but their scales fail to balance, causing hostile spirits to attack them. While fending them off, Grant falls off the boat and is consumed by the Duat. The scales become balanced, and Spector finds himself in the Field of Reeds.

In August 2019, Marvel Studios announced a series based on Moon Knight was being developed for the streaming service Disney+. By October 2020, Mohamed Diab was set to direct four episodes, including the fifth episode. Diab executive produces alongside Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige, Louis D'Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Brad Winderbaum, and Grant Curtis, star Oscar Isaac, and head writer Jeremy Slater. The fifth episode, titled "Asylum", was written by Kirsch and Orton.

During development of the series, Slater kept returning to a poster that featured the various Egyptian deities, and was fascinated with the hippopotamus-looking one, Taweret. Once he determined she would be included in the series in some form, knowing she was the goddess who guided souls through the Duat helped craft the story for the back half of the series and deciding to kill Marc Spector and Steven Grant. The episode shows the origin story for Spector and Grant; it shows how Spector developed dissociative identity disorder (DID), leading to the creation of Grant's persona. Diab said that Spector's biggest fear was the death of his brother. Both Diab and Sarah Goher, a consulting producer on the series and Diab's wife, wanted the episode to depict Spector's internal struggle along with his struggle with Egyptian gods interfering in his life. Goher explained that the creatives wanted to be respectful in how the team depicted grief, as they did not want to depict Spector's mother as a bad person. Diab also explained that the episode was a "major turning point" in the series, as both Spector and Grant begin working together, adding that "Marc and Steven are a fraction of the same person. But you feel like Marc is the older brother and there is that dynamic".

Slater also wrote the episode to revolve around Spector and Grant "reconciling who they were" and their "internal journey over the course of that episode". As such, he felt that there was no need for them to balance Jake Lockley's soul, another identity of Moon Knight, as Grant and Spector were not aware of his presence. He also felt that Grant would be the one to balance their scales at the end because "realizes that he is the protector of the system, and him finally stepping up and doing that job, and sort of assuming the mantle of what he was always supposed to be", while Spector was aware of who he was throughout the episode, and was "repressing it and delaying it" throughout.