More monsters bring more problems in this week’s installment of Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
READ: “‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ Episode 3 REVIEW/RECAP: The Sins of the Father”
The episode opens on a flashback, with a young Percy and his mother at Percy’s swim lessons, where she tries to get him to face his fear and let go of the edge. Virginia Kull is once again a bright spot in the episode, portraying Sally’s struggle to help Percy find his strength to prepare him for the rough future she knows he has ahead. You can see how she loves her son more than anything in the world, and would do anything to protect him, and is trying to reconcile that with knowing that he will always be in danger just because she fell in love with a god.
After our trio’s near-disastrous experience in New Jersey, they’re once again back on the road to Los Angeles, this time via railway. This leg of the trip starts out uneventful, with Percy unable to sleep and asking Annabeth about her time on the road with Thalia and Luke. As Leah Sava Jeffries’ Annabeth tells Percy about why she ran away from home at the age of seven, she’s so calm and matter of fact about her experience. Jeffries has a power to her that is commanding even when speaking softly, drawing your attention and never letting it go.
In this scene, you also get another glimpse of Percy’s anger at the gods for ignoring their children and needing to gain glory for their praise. His mother’s unwavering and unconditional love showed him what a parent/child relationship is supposed to be, and Percy won’t stop until Olympic relationships are the same.
Our heroes’ journey doesn’t stay normal for long though, as they encounter Echidna (Suzanne Cryer), the mother of all monsters. She corners the kids and tells them they are prey for one of her babies, Chimera, who stings Percy. Chimera wreaks havoc through the train chasing the demigods, while all the humans see is a small dog trotting her way down the corridors.
Annabeth suggests seeking shelter at the St. Louis Arch, a temple to her mother Athena. As a temple of the gods, monsters cannot enter, and the trio assumes they will be safe there. But Echidna is able to follow them in, as Annabeth allowing Percy to mail Medusa’s head to Olympus embarrassed Athena. The goddess is so proud that she willingly allows this imagined slight to endanger her daughter’s life. As Percy weakens from his poisonous wound, Annabeth decides to stay back and fight Echidna and Chimera, telling Percy and Grover to continue their quest. She believes it’s her fault they have been left alone in this predicament and is determined to face the consequences alone. But Percy, displaying his fatal flaw of loyalty to his friends, takes her place to fight the monsters.
A weakened Percy loses his fight with Chimera, falling through a hole that Echidna made in the arch. As he falls, his father comes to his rescue, sending water from the Mississippi to catch him and bring him underwater. Percy’s foot is stuck on something on the river floor, and it once again looks like time is up for our titular demigod. He struggles to get free as a Nereid comes to him and tells him his father is proud of him, and that he needs to trust in Poseidon. Upon learning of his father’s love for him, Percy finally lets go of his fear and discovers that as a child of the sea god, he can breathe underwater.
Percy has waited his whole life for his father to acknowledge him, and now he knows that unlike Athena, Poseidon will intervene for his children. While Percy is a “forbidden child”, that has never diminished Poseidon’s love for him, or desire to protect him. The sea god has needed to hold back and let Percy brave the storm on his own, or else face Zeus’s wrath. But now that Percy knows that his father cares, Zeus has a big storm coming.
Episode four of Percy Jackson and the Olympians is now streaming on Disney+.
About Post Author
Leave a Reply