Released March 30, 2022, the premiere episode of the Disney+ “Moon Knight” series was, in a word, confusing.

The episode, “The Goldfish Problem” began by following the main character, Marc Spector (Oscar Isaac), in his daily life as a clerk at an ancient Egyptian museum and his personal struggle with insomnia and what seem to be dreams but appear as flashes to an alternate reality of Spector’s. He travels back and forth to different places inexplicably and suddenly finds himself awake back in the “real world.” Here, he has supposedly skipped several days into the future and has no recollection of the events of his normal life in the few days previous.

Spector is constantly making preparations each night to observe whether or not he sleep-walked, and there is no indication he has indeed traveled to other areas in his sleeping hours. Despite this tidbit, the storyline clearly does flip to an alternate reality in which Spector faces considerable danger after shortly returning to the world he knows to be his own.

In the flashes to the alternate reality, Spector finds himself face-to-face with a menacing, temporarily unnamed villain (Ethan Hawke), who continues to question him about an artifact Spector happens to have come across, and the voice in his head that continuously whispers suggestions to him throughout the episode as a sort of ominous narrator.

As the episode progresses, the “real life” of Spector presented in the beginning merges with the alternate reality he has been traveling to, and he begins to experience visions and altercations with the villain he previously encountered who, once again, interrogates him about the object he is harboring.

The storyline has its groundings in ancient Egyptian culture, as Spector works in a museum having to do with said culture and the villain is said to worship an Egyptian goddess prompting him to retrieve the artifact that Spector has. As he transitions from his everyday life into a living of his dreams, Spector shifts back and forth between the persona of the voice in his head and his normal self, periodically speaking to his reflection in the mirror which responds as its own character and may perhaps be a manifestation of the narrator (voice) in Spector’s mind.

There is a shock inspired by the absolute chaos that was this episode in its impossibility to comprehend whether or not each scene is reality or a mere dream, but it does leave an enticing trail for the audience that may spur them to continue with the series in order to discover how all the confusion may unite to create a cohesive plot.

“The Goldfish Problem” was an excellent hook and stream of exposition as character development for this new possible superhero Marc Spector, and certainly thrilling with all of the action scenes present, leaving Marvel fans excited to learn more about who this new Marvel Cinematic Universe character is and what the mysteries of his premiere may mean for the rest of the story.

What did you think of the first episode of “Moon Knight?” Let us know in the comments below.