Ron Does Stuff

I’ve been a little busy over the past week, so I’m catching up on everything that I was supposed to post. And with the trailer for the second season debuting yesterday, there’s that extra pressure to finish this season before the new one premieres in December!

Percy finally gets his quest in the previous episode, but first he has to meet a… Halloween decoration? I don’t know about this thing because I haven’t read the books and I can’t remember if this was shown in the movie! I couldn’t figure out at first which mythological creature this is, but the subtitles thankfully spoil it and tell me that it’s an oracle.

The oracle — through the form of Percy’s douchey stepdad — tells him that Percy has to “go west and face the god who has turned”, and that he “shall find what was stolen and see it safely returned.” Chiron says that this means Percy has to face Hades in the Underworld, whose entrance lies under Los Angeles. He also tells him that he gets to pick two of the campers to ensure that he succeeds, and of course, his first pick is Annabeth.

His second pick is Grover, and while in the movie this just happened, there’s an added layer to his selection here in the show. The oracle told him that he’s going to be betrayed by the one who calls him friend, and that he will “fail to save what matters most in the end.” When Percy tells Grover that he trusts him, he really doesn’t, which gives the relationship between them some tension, and doesn’t just reduce Grover to comedic relief. See, now I’m getting why the book people didn’t like the movie.

Before Percy leaves, Luke drops by and gives him a pair of Converse that are actually a magical item gifted to him by Hermes. Percy also explains why he didn’t pick Luke, and Luke says it’s okay, he understands, but does he? I still remember who Luke really is, so I wonder what’s going to happen, since this isn’t the way things happened in the movie.

ALSO DID SOMEBODY SAY CONVERSE (HIGH)?

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Percy’s also a little bit of an asshole here as he gets told Thalia’s story, although I do get what he’s trying to say. Zeus is a powerful being! Why just turn your daughter into a tree? But also, once Annabeth tells him how important Thalia is to her, he didn’t have to be a smart-aleck about it.

Anyways, the quest finally starts and I am enjoying the exposition dumps so far — how Percy can’t fly because Zeus might strike him down because he’s a forbidden child, and how one needs training to spot the monsters that are after these forbidden children. And one particular monster is following them right now! It’s Anastasia Beaverhausen!

Anastasia — and another Fury — try to get Percy, but Annabeth’s quick thinking gets them out of that particular pickle. But now, they’re in a forest, and I am honestly not jelling with Percy here. He’s being a little too whiny for my taste, and to have Annabeth be a Black girl having to pull the weight of this white man? Exasperating!

But that conversation about their mythical parents will have to wait because Grover smells hamburgers being cooked, which leads them to Aunty Em’s Garden Gnome Emporium. That Emporium’s actually the lair of Medusa, who is someone even Anastasia Beaverhausen is afraid of. Now, I don’t know who’s playing Medusa here, but I did love Uma Thurman’s turn as the Medusa in the movie.

Or maybe it’s just that I love Uma Thurman, period.

That said, I am liking how the Medusa is written in this show more. It’s truer to her actual myth, and the change made is of course understandable, because having to explain that she got raped is too much for a show for kids. I also like that the thing being driven home here is that the gods are not infallible.

I also liked the moment when it becomes clear that Medusa isn’t on their side either, but it’s done in a way that doesn’t make her just a monster to be defeated like it was in the movie. She’s got a reason why she is the way she is. Her pursuit of Percy and the gang is also filled with tension, even if it’s not as flashy as the one in the movie.

They defeat the Medusa and the Fury, but the audience also gets a little pay-off from the tension that’s been brewing between the group, with Grover being the one that mediates. Percy finally reveals that the oracle told him a friend would betray him, which is why he chose Annabeth, because he can’t imagine ever being friends with her. So I guess I read that situation wrong earlier!

Unlike in the movie, they send Medusa’s head to Mount Olympus, and it’s delivered by Alexander Hamilton!

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