A Few Notes on Mary and Walker (Iron Fist)

*Iron Fist season 2 spoilers.*

Long before Marvel gave us Steven and Marc (and Jake,) we got Mary and Walker (and a likely Alter #3, though we never got to meet them.) As I’ve gradually made my way through a rewatch of the Defenders sub-universe, I was curious to revisit this storyline in the second season of Iron Fist and see what I think about it now that I’m more knowledgeable about DID than I was the first time around. Be prepared for some inevitable Moon Knight comparisons here. (Note: I’m still very much a layman, though. What follows is purely my own opinion, and I know that others are more qualified to talk about this character than I am.)

I will say that part of the issue with the show’s portrayal of this system comes from framing their dissociative identity disorder as a reveal. We, like Danny, meet Mary first, the bubbly artist who’s new to the city and looking to make connections. When we follow her home and we see post-it notes around the apartment warning her not to leave, it’s meant to be “creepy.” When we see her responding to those notes by self-soothing and listening to the sound of running water, it’s meant to be “weird.” From the first episode of the season, we’re supposed to be asking, “Whoa, what’s the deal with Mary?”

But of course, it’s not just Mary. Walker is there too, the ex-military mercenary hired to spy on Danny and Colleen. Walker is soft-spoken and eerily calm, dangerously capable with weapons and hand-to-hand combat—she’s able to best the Immortal Iron Fist, after all! She’s laser-focused on doing her job, getting paid, and moving on, and she’s irritated that Mary interferes when she fronts.

Okay, let’s get into it. There’s a lot going on here that isn’t great. The suspenseful “reveal” of Walker and her whole vibe gives off an “evil alter” feel, and if that’s not enough, Walker learns late in the season that there may be a third alter in their system, when she realizes that neither she nor Mary know how they escaped when Walker’s unit was captured in Sokovia. Given that our only hard and fast evidence of this alter is Walker waking up surrounded by the dead bodies of her captors, this also gives off “evil alter” vibes.” When she meets with a therapist to discuss the possibility of a third alter, he seems ready to commit her then and there, on the grounds that this unnamed alter sounds violent and dangerous.

As with Jake Lockley, I don’t want to discount the possibility that this alter is a protector. During their capture, Walker and Mary were in a truly horrific situation—repeatedly tortured, raped, and forced to watch the rest of Walker’s unit killed in front of her—and all of Walker’s skills weren’t enough to get them out of it. This alter rescued their headmates and, understandably, took revenge on the men who tortured them.

Other elements fall into the “not great” category as well. The whole “switch and then immediately change your clothes/hairstyle” thing is kind of trite, an easy shorthand that’s overused in DID stories without much basis in real-life behavior. Also, it’s suggested that prior to her capture, Walker didn’t have DID and Mary only emerged during that ordeal. It’s my understanding that DID is rooted in early childhood trauma, so it doesn’t seem like someone could “become” DID as an adult. Not to mention, atypical timeframe seems to cement that Walker is the “original,” the “real one.” Certainly, that’s how Walker views it. That would’ve been a possible reaction possible anyway—Marc had that attitude toward Steven at first—but the narrative seems to validate that perspective. The therapist that Walker speaks with discusses Mary purely as an alter, never as a person, and he never asks to talk to Mary. And even though Danny and Colleen meet Mary first, once they learn about the DID, they seem to adopt a version of this attitude as well. Danny at least is mostly nice to Mary, but when she fronts at an inopportune moment, he treats her as an impediment, repeatedly asking how to get Walker back. Finally, I know that they get into a knockdown drag-out fight in the finale, but it’s kind of a dick move to Danny to end his fight with Walker by taking advantage of the triggers she disclosed to him, forcibly bringing Mary to the front.

There are some parts of this storyline that work. I like the depiction and the explanation given for the triggers that cause Walker and Mary to switch, with Mary being brought out by blinking lights and the sound of running water. And other people may diminish her personhood, but Mary never sees herself as anything less than real. When she discovers that the retirement plan Walker dreams about involves a cabin in the desert with “no triggers,” somewhere she could keep Mary buried indefinitely, Mary’s not having it, and she retaliates by trying to keep Walker from coming back out front and putting her plan in motion. It’s obvious that Walker and Mary don’t have much of a relationship—it doesn’t look like there’s any co-consciousness between them, and previous communication between them is mostly restricted to Walker’s threatening post-its. But in the second half of the season, Mary makes more of an overture. She realizes that Danny is going to need Walker to defeat Davos, so she allows them to switch, but not until after she’s made a video for Walker trying to appeal to her better nature, hoping Walker will ultimately decide not to suppress her.

So, on the whole, there are a few decent/interesting things here, but this storyline is pretty shaky. While I know that the Defenders universe shows came from different creative teams than the main MCU, it’s still probably a good thing that we didn’t get Moon Knight until last year. As with the Mandarin in Iron Man 3 versus Wenwu in Shang-Chi, it seems pop culture needed time to gain a little more knowledge and cultivate a desire to do things right. Steven, Marc, and Jake aren’t perfect representation, but their story is given way more consideration than Mary, Walker, and the third alter’s is.

Relationship Spotlight: Marc Spector, Layla El-Faouly & Steven Grant (Moon Knight)

*Spoilers.*

For me, Moon Knight is all about characters and relationships. Now, plenty of that happens within the DID system of the protagonist, and I’ve already talked at length about Steven, Marc, and their relationship. But when you add Layla into the mix, the whole thing levels up even further. These three, separately and together, are why I’m crossing my fingers that we’ll get a season 2, or some other continuation of Moon Knight’s story.

Even though Layla is Marc’s wife, we’re actually introduced to her when she’s meeting Steven for the first time. She doesn’t know that Marc has DID—she’s confused by the British accent her husband is “putting on” and is first annoyed, then alarmed, when he insists that he doesn’t know her. Their early scenes together are marked by Layla’s conviction that Marc is working undercover and refusing to drop the act even in front of her. It’s not until they have a dangerous run-in with Harrow and she sees Steven flounder that she realizes she’s dealing with something much deeper than she thought.

Steven, meanwhile, is instantly taken with Layla. They share a love of Egyptian history and antiquities, and they even have the same favorite poet. Much of what’s going on in his life is massively confusing at present—he’s only barely started to grasp the fact that he has DID—and this woman who’s come along calling him Marc and saying that they’re married confuses him too, but rather than being frightened, this is a confusion that Steven will gladly put up with to be around her.

As they get more involved in their mission against Harrow and Layla gains a greater understanding of what’s going on with Marc and Steven, she adjusts really well to this very unexpected turn of events. She and Marc do the undercover/more dangerous stuff, while she urges Marc to let Steven front during the brainy Egyptology-related stuff. It doesn’t take long before she’s treating them like separate people.

An additional complicating factor is that Marc and Layla were estranged at the start of the series. Marc has disappeared on her—unbeknownst to her, he left because he thinks Khonshu wants her for his new avatar and wants to keep him away from her—and when Layla initially comes across Steven, it’s because she has divorce papers for Marc. But Marc never stopped loving her, he just has a really clumsy/kind of paternalistic way of trying to protect her, and so it angers him to see her getting friendly with Steven. At different times when Steven is fronting, Marc warns him not to close too cozy with Layla, and after Layla and Steven share a kiss, Marc manages to take control of their hand so he can sucker-punch Steven.

But for all that Steven is falling for Layla, he’s also kind of advocating for Marc? As the more emotionally-open of the two, he’s able to bridge the communication gap between Marc and Layla. He tells Layla things that Marc has kept from her, and even though Layla is angry at Marc’s “I kept secrets for your own good” attitude, it does give her more insight into his actions and where his head is at.

I get that it’s the MCU and Disney is pretty vanilla, but honestly, the best resolution for me is for Layla to date both of them. They both like her and she likes them, and they have the same body. This seems to be the least messy way to go about it, though there’s no evidence yet on what Jake thinks of Layla, or how she’ll react when she meets him. All of this is just further proof of why we need a season 2.

A Few Thoughts on DID Representation in Moon Knight

*Spoilers.*

Before I get into it, I want to disclaim that I have no lived experience and pretty little knowledge of Dissociative Identity Disorder. Most of what I know came out of my interest in learning more about it before Moon Knight premiered, so I’ve been watching videos from the YouTube channel The Rings System and listening to the podcast System Speak. What I’m saying is purely my opinion of how the show handled this topic, based on my own scant knowledge.

Before Moon Knight came out, I learned just enough to feel apprehensive about how the show would address the main character’s DID, but by the end of the season, I could say I came away with an overall positive opinion of it. First and foremost, the show absolutely treats Marc and Steven as two separate characters. Over the course of the series, we get invested in both of them and their growing relationship with other. Each has a connected but individual relationship with Layla.

When it looks like Steven has been consumed by the sands of the Duat, it’s heartbreaking, for Marc as well as the viewers. Steven isn’t just “a part” of Marc that Marc “no longer needs” after finding “healing.” Steven is his own character, his own person, and Marc risks death himself to go back and save Steven. The season resolves, not by Steven being integrated into/subsumed by Marc, but by the two of them learning to collaborate and work together, switching as needed while the other remains co-conscious.

I appreciate that. Even though there’s some noise in episode 5 about Marc being the “original,” the show never treats Steven like “just the alter.” In fact, the narrative often centers Steven’s perspective and journey, emphasizing that he’s just as valid as Marc is. And while the “original vs. alter” thing is frustrating, it seems rooted in some clear internalized ableism on Marc’s part. While Steven has only just learned that he’s part of a DID system, this is something that Marc has known and been dealing with for years, but while that gives him practical knowledge, it hasn’t really helped him accept himself, or Steven as a part of his life, prior of the events of the series.

When Marc becomes Khonshu’s avatar, he assures the Egyptian god that Steven won’t be “a problem.” He never tells Layla about Steven, and when she asks how she could’ve gone through their whole marriage without knowing, Marc explains that he used to have “a better handle” on things, i.e. on Steven. This suggests that he was “dealing” with his DID by forcing Steven into dormancy, essentially trying to manage his headmate away so he could live as a neurotypical person. Once Layla learns about Steven, however, and it becomes clear that they need his help to stop Harrow, Marc is initially very reluctant to switch in front of Layla. When he needs to let Steven front, he walks away from her or waits for her to step back before switching. He doesn’t dispute Harrow’s statement that he’s “a deeply troubled man,” and when he and Steven perceive the afterlife as an asylum, Marc is quick to take that as evidence that he’s “crazy.”

The fact that they see the afterlife as an asylum, which perplexes Steven, suggests that Marc has had experience in mental health facilities, and probably not good experiences. We’re not really shown anything of what Marc’s mental health journey has been like, but given that his previous M.O. was to push Steven down and try to keep him from presenting, I’d bet that any therapy he’s had wasn’t focused on communicating with his alter and using their connection to start processing his trauma. As such, he has a fairly unhealthy view of himself, Steven, and their disorder. He thinks less of himself for having DID, and he at times tries to control Steven, wanting to limit Steven to his “function” of being the part of their psyche that’s shielded from the trauma and abuse they’ve survived.

None of that is helpful, but it is understandable, especially if Marc has had harmful experiences with therapy in the past. Part of his journey on the show, with Steven’s help, is to start processing some of the shame and guilt he feels over his past, and if we see more of Moon Knight in the future, I feel confident that we’ll see Marc in a better place in that regard.

Now, before I go, what about Jake? The third alter that neither Steven nor Marc know about, we see infrequent evidence of Jake throughout the series and only one clear-cut glimpse, during a post-credits scene. Every clue we’re given of Jake is squarely associated with serious violence: Marc or Steven black out, and when they come to, they’re surrounded by bodies. Any survivors are terrified, either running away or pleading for mercy. The only time we see Jake onscreen is when, at Khonshu’s behest, he shoots Harrow in cold blood, after Steven and Marc decided to let him live.

All of that seems to fit in with reductive “evil alter” tropes, which is definitely troubling. Because Jake only appears in a post-credits teaser, he feels like less of a person than Marc or Steven do. I have no context for anything he’s about, other than killing people. At the same time, though, Jake only seems to push himself to the front when Marc and Steven are in serious danger, and there’s an argument to be made that he’s just doing whatever it takes to protect them. I really hope that, if we get more Moon Knight, Jake proves to be a troubled, complicated guy who’s experienced and done brutal things but who would be capable of channeling his protective instincts differently with the help of his headmates and/or therapy.