The Old Stories: Moses Episode 3 Recap, Review, & Analysis

Kevin Keating
Jun 4
8 min read

The Old Stories: Moses is a three-part mini-series adapting the biblical story of Moses’ encounter with God in the Burning Bush, the confrontation between Moses (Sir Ben Kingsley) and Pharaoh (O-T Fagbenle), and the exodus of the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt. It’s also the first spin-off of Wonder Project’s House of David series, with David’s father, Jesse (Louis Ferreira), serving as the storyteller in the frame narrative. Below I’ll share a recap of The Old Stories: Moses Episode 3, “The Deliverance”, which brings us the exodus of the people of Israel (Exodus 13:17-22) as well as the climactic parting of the Red Sea and destruction of Pharaoh and his pursuing chariots (Exodus 14). I’ll also share my review of the episode and (eventually) my analysis of key themes and ideas. You can also check out my reaction to and discussion of Episode 3 on The Bible Artist YouTube.

Moses (Ben Kingsley) parts the Red Sea in The Old Stories: Moses — Moses (Ben Kingsley) parts the Red Sea in *The Old Stories: Moses*

What Happened in ***The Old Stories: Moses Episode 3*? (Summary)**

Episode 3 begins with a flashback to Moses and his adoptive mother, the daughter of the previous Pharaoh, as they look out on pyramids and slaves laboring. Moses’ “mother” explains to him how the pyramids have been since long before his grandfather’s grandfather, because what Egypt builds stands for eternity. She believes participating in this effort is what will one day be Moses’ purpose.

Returning to the present, we meet Moses survey the streets, strewn with dead Egyptians and with crowds of cheering Israelites. Aaron is a bit overwhelmed and questions how they will get over a million people through hundreds of miles of desert, but Moses simply insists that God has delivered them thus far and will continue. Pharaoh is also watching, as his chariot commander questions how Moses can defy a living god (i.e. Pharaoh).

Arriving at the Red Sea, the Israelites form a camp, with no clear way forward and “vengeance behind them” – as Pharaoh’s chariot commander reports to him how they are caught with their back to the sea and Pharaoh orders him to summon the chariots (c.f. God’s prediction in Exodus 14:3-4). Moses’ only idea is for them to hire boats to ferry the people across, but this will take months and the Israelites are worried that they will starve in the meantime.

Soon they have bigger problems though. A cloud of dust presages the arrival of Pharaoh and his chariots, inciting a panic, as people accuse Moses of bringing them out to die (Exodus 14:10-12). Moses cries out to the Lord, questioning what he would have Moses do. The Lord briefly appears in the midst of the camp in a whirlwind, responding to Moses in Hebrew, before evaporating – and descending back down between the Israelites and the Egyptians in a massive pillar (Exodus 14:19-20). Moses tells the people to stand firm and see what the Lord will do (Exodus 14:13-14), sending a boy named Joshua to urge the people to look to the sea and behold the power of God.

As Moses approaches the sea, he is knocked down by a wave. Rising, he brings down his staff, which sends out an initial shockwave. He then raises his hand, causing the seas to rise up to either side, creating a pathway through (Exodus 14:21). Meanwhile, the Pillar is raining fire down on the Egyptian chariots, causing Pharaoh’s commander to urge him to retreat. But when the Pillar withdraws from between Israel and Egypt, Pharaoh instead leads his people after the Israelites (Exodus 14:23), urging them to avenge every dead son of Egypt with ten Israelites.

By this time, the Israelites have crossed and Moses alone now stands in the sea basin. As the chariots race across, some getting caught in mud (Exodus 14:24-25), Moses declares that God is not mocked – just as the sea begins to fall back in a massive wave, which Pharaoh is unable to outrun (Exodus 14:27-28). Moses is just barely pulled up out of the sea bed in time. Across the sea, Zipporah sees a cloud of dust and goes out to meet Moses and the Israelites, wondering who they are. Moses replies that they are “our people.”

Back in the frame, Jesse concludes by pointing out how the God who spoke to Moses from a bush of fire kept his promise, giving the people a story to tell and a song to sing, the song of Moses. He explains that God was not asking Moses to be strong enough but only to ask what was in his hand. He tells Avva and the children that one day they too will feel small and afraid and will have to ask what is in their hand and trust that the God who gave that to them can use it – as David thoughtfully holds the sling that he will soon use against Goliath.

The Israelites (AI) in The Old Stories: Moses — The Israelites (AI) in *The Old Stories: Moses*

Review of The Old Stories: Moses Episode 3

Episode 3 of The Old Stories: Moses is meant to be a big, climactic conclusion to the three-part House of David companion series, but is unfortunately the least satisfying installment so far. At its best, The Old Stories: Moses has delivered strong dramatic scenes, driven by the acting and chemistry of Ben Kingsley and OT Fagbenle. But Episode 3 leans into the other significant component of The Old Stories: big AI spectacle, filled with a lot of indistinguishable, nameless Israelites and Egyptians.

In Episodes 1 and 2, these AI moments were tolerable as background filler, between actor-driven scenes, but they lack the emotion and gravity required to hold up almost the entirety of Episode 3. It’s hard to care about obviously fake things happening to a bunch of artificial people we haven’t even met before. That’s precisely why shows like House of David and The Chosen expend so much time and energy developing biblical figures into fully-realized characters that the audience is emotionally invested in. Because we don’t care about any of the Israelites, scenes that are meant to be stirring, like Joshua’s exhortation to the Israelite, fall flat. Moreover, although the crossing of the Red Sea has some mildly impressive moments of spectacle, I was mostly disengaged as a viewer. Instead of trying to summarize the departure and deliverance of Israel in a straightforward narrative, I wish TOS had kept to its prior MO, focusing primarily on a single character-driven exchange (perhaps between Moses and Joshua). This would have allowed the parting of the Red Sea to have held the emotional import that the show wants it to have.

A few other issues with Episode 3:

Performance: Ben Kingsley’s performance has been a strong point of the series so far, but I was less impressed in this episode. I’m sure that has less to do with him as an actor than it does with the set up – it’s hard to performatively interact with a bunch of nameless, imaginary people. I also think it’s hard because Moses’ emotional arc isn’t very clear. It briefly seems like the show is going to give him a moment of doubt, but there’s not really enough time to explore it or make us believe that Moses is really questioning anything.
Pharaoh: I would have been completely fine if they omitted Pharaoh until he showed up with his army of chariots. But I wasn’t satisfied with the half-hearted attempt to tell his story. It wasn’t clear to me why Pharaoh changed his mind about the Israelites. It just kind of felt like the show was going through the motions in carrying out the biblical story.
Boy Joshua? The Old Stories depicts Joshua as a young child at the crossing of the Red Sea. While I get the thematic appeal of having a young boy urging the crowds to have faith, there’s no way this age for Joshua makes sense with the remainder of the biblical narrative. Not long after the Red Sea crossing (less than a year), Joshua is supposed to lead the Israelites in a bloody battle against the Amalekites (Exodus 17:8-16). At youngest, Joshua could be an older teen, but it’s quite likely he’s forty.
The Pillar Appears: When the pillar of cloud and fire appears, we get the sense that this is the first time the Israelites have seen it. The biblical narrative makes it clear that the pillar is guiding the Israelites on their way through the wilderness to the sea.
Zipporah: Zipporah’s look has always felt a little out of place to me, so it wouldn’t have been the place I would have chosen to land the plane. Also, her question, “Who are they?” made no sense.

To be fair, Episode 3 has a couple things going for it:

Spectacle: Jon Erwin has said that he made this series primarily as a tool to help his boy engage with the biblical story. Like I said earlier, there are a few somewhat impressive moments of spectacle involving the pillar of fire and cloud and the parting of the Red Sea. I could see these moments appealing to a young boy who just wants to see something cool and doesn’t care all that much about story or acting.
House of David Connections: TOS lands its analogy to David fairly well. At the end of the day, the description of it as a companion series is quite appropriate. I can’t see anyone enjoying The Old Stories as a completely independent series, but it functions fairly-well as an appendix to House of David. The Moses-David parallel is biblically-sound and worthy reflecting on. The show also establishes a Moses-Samuel parallel through the "God is not mocked" line which is equally sound and meaningful.
Moses and Pharaoh’s Daughter: I like the brief moment between young Moses and his adoptive mother. Her expectation about his purpose stands in interesting contrast to what he actually ends up doing. I wish the show returned back to this a little more.
Frame: The use of the frame narrative works well enough. Indeed, I think Episode 3 could have leaned even more into Jesse in order to skip over stuff.

Ultimately, The Old Stories: Moses has turned out to be an unsatisfying experiment in adaptation. At times, it feels like TOS wants to live up to the bar set by its bigger sibling, House of David. When it tries to do so, however, it inevitably fails due to its innate limitations. The Old Stories works best when it recognizes its limits and contents itself with delivering a few well-acted dramatic scenes anchored in Scripture. Episode 3 fails largely because it tries to pull off more than it can in twenty minutes with a mostly AI-cast.

All that being said, I hope Wonder Project doesn’t give up on The Old Stories concept altogether. This first attempt was thrown together in less than half a year. If Erwin and company learn from what worked (actor-driven scenes) and what didn’t work (trying to cover too much story in twenty minutes, dramatic exchanges with bland AI crowds), I could see the next attempt working much better. It still wouldn’t be a replacement for fully-developed shows like House of David, but it could provide us with some interesting explorations of biblical scenes, characters, and themes that might not otherwise get brought to screen.

A plague in The Old Stories: Moses — Pharaoh (OT Fagbenle) and his chariots in *The Old Stories: Moses*

Key Themes of The Old Stories Moses Episode 3

Check back soon for my thoughts on key themes of Episode 3, including topics like:

Eternity
Behold the Power of Your God
What is in Your Hand

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