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.

Favorite Characters: Layla El-Faouly (Moon Knight)

*Layla-related spoilers.*

Still on Moon Knight characters, although we’re going outside the main system today. Layla is a new character created for the show, and while there’s a lot of love about her relationships with both Marc and Steven, she’s also just fantastic in her own right.

When Steven discovers a phone hidden in his flat, he’s perplexed when a woman named Layla answers, one who seems to know him but thinks his British accent is fake. When she points out that they’re married, he goes from perplexed to gobsmacked. But of course, Layla is married to Marc, not Steven, and she isn’t even aware of Steven’s existence until the events of the series. When she comes to London looking for Marc and finds Steven instead, she’s in for quite an eye-opener.

That right there is a point in Layla’s favor, that she can learn such a remarkable thing about her husband, without warning, at a time when a ton of shit is going down, and she basically rolls with it and learns as she goes. Granted, at this point, Layla already knows about the Moon Knight suit and Marc being Khonshu’s avatar, so she’s no stranger to the unexpected, but it takes her some time to wrap her head around the fact that her husband is part of a DID system and she never knew about it.

But enough about Steven and Marc. Although I love them, this post is about Layla, who comes all in with these righteous Egyptian Indiana Jones vibes. Her passion is stealing Egyptian antiquities out under from the imperialists and collectors who stole them in the first place, returning artifacts to where they belong. She’s smart, tough, and swashbuckling as hell, and it’s no wonder both Marc and Steven wind up in love with her. When she learns about Marc’s Moon Knight mission to Egypt, her connections and knowhow prove invaluable and she saves Marc and Steven’s ass more than once.

In short, she’s amazing and I love her, but what I especially love about her is that she’s not some kind of superwoman. She makes mistakes, she’s vulnerable, and she’s not perpetually unflappable. When she and Steven get separated in Ammit’s tomb, there’s a fantastic scene where she’s attacked by a mummified sentry. They scuffle at the edge of a steep drop-off and it’s genuinely touch and go, with Layla fighting with all she’s got to stay alive. She finally manages to knock it into the ravine, calling on a last reserve of strength to keep herself from falling in too. Dragging herself back up onto the ledge, she flops onto the ground and just screams, releasing her pent-up terror and adrenaline. I adore that moment so much, that after being such a badass she needs to take a moment to gather herself and vocalize how very not-okay she is.

I also appreciate that, by end of the season, Steven and Marc aren’t the only ones imbued with power by an Egyptian god. In the finale, Layla semi-reluctantly accepts the offer to become Taweret’s avatar, though she’s careful not to sign her freedom away. She enters the climactic fight as the Scarlet Scarab, a fierce heroine whose suit features a wicked pair of burnished wings.

Layla didn’t need to become Taweret’s avatar. She was already crucial to the story without powers, and she held her own just fine. I know that not every Marvel character needs to be “super.” But I do love that Layla gets to be the Scarlet Scarab. When she shields civilians during the fighting and a young Egyptian girl sees her in action, I teared up at the sheer beauty of her strength and power. When, a few seconds later, the girl asks in amazement if Layla is “an Egyptian superhero,” it’s almost unnecessary—the look in the girl’s eyes already told me everything I needed to know about how Layla being a hero matters.