‘Percy Jackson And The Olympians’ Episode 3 Spoiler Free Review
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“We Visit The Garden Gnome Emporium” is the book chapter title that graces episode 3 of Disney+’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians and follows the trio on their quest for Zeus’ Lightning Bolt. This episode features one of the most iconic monster encounters and quite a lot of bickering and realization for the young heroes.
One of the things we didn’t mention in the first review was the episode titles. As fans of Percy Jackson know, Rick Riordan is a master at the most hilarious chapter titles which hint at what is to come in the chapter, and also providing humor in the first person commentary. It was a great idea for the series to include some of these masterful titles as the episode titles for each episode. While the series can’t include all of the chapter titles since it will only be 8 episodes, it will be interesting to see which ones they pick as the series goes along. So far, the first two have been “I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher” and “I Become Supreme Lord Of The Bathroom”.
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The episode picks up right where we left off in the second one and follows Percy as he begins to embark on the quest that Chiron (Glynn Turman) and Mr. D (Jason Mantzoukas) set him. As with the previous episodes, there are some changes from the book, including a few more significant ones that have left fans wondering how that’s going to play out later when we see certain characters further on in the story. While the plot runs the same course, there are differences in how Percy finds out certain information and how the plot points are reflected on screen. However, they aren’t necessarily bad changes and in fact, they are currently showing a deeper and more nuanced story.
Percy Jackson is a middle grade fantasy which means the writing doesn’t always do deeper character and plot development until we get to the later books when Riordan expertly weaves in all of the plot and character elements to an epic (or several) reveal. This is not a bad thing and is very typical of the type of book that it is. But with the Disney+ series, Riordan and the other writers had the chance to really lean into that character development and hint even more at the nuanced and deep political structure that is the gods and their children and how they act and interact with the humans. This episode especially starts to put into motion things that will come up later in this particular story and in later seasons. We get to see a lot more character development between the main three, Percy, Annabeth, and Grover. Percy is still struggling deeply with the realization of who he is and what that means. He’s still angry at his father and the gods, especially as he finds out even more things that they have done to his friends and other demigods. Because the series isn’t in first person, like the book, we also get to see more of Annabeth’s internal struggles and hints at what she is dealing with internally as well. And even amidst Grover’s humor, which has always been one of the best parts of the books, we’re starting to see his fears surface.
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Walker Scobell (Percy), Leah Sava Jeffiries (Annabeth) and Aryan Simhadri (Grover) continue to be perfect in their roles, bringing the characters to life, and definitely showing their range as actors. Walker has stepped perfectly into his role as Percy, completely showing the perfect mix of humor, pain, and wanting to be brave that we see from Percy in The Lightning Thief. Already you can tell he cares deeply for his friends, showing the quality that, throughout the series and beyond, continues to help and get him into trouble. We are also introduced to his complete disregard for following the “rules” of the gods. Leah’s portrayal of Annabeth’s determination and surety mixed in with her fears adds another level to the character development that is shaping up to be core in the series.
This episode almost felt like we didn’t move the plot forward much as the trio doesn’t seem to get very far on their quest. We don’t really learn much more about the main overarching plot, except who may have Zeus’ master bolt. But, in the monster encounter, which is the primary focus of this episode, we are introduced to more of the political structure of the plot and the world. The monster, “Aunty Em”, brought to life on screen expertly by Jessica Parker Kennedy, reveals that the gods aren’t always as they seem, and love to toy with humans and those who worship them. In the book, she is seen as more monster than almost human, but the series mellows her out more and makes her more than one dimensional really showing why she is how she is and using that to challenge the trio even more, not just physically but mentally. Both Annabeth and Percy are offered choices to help them individually on the quest at the expense of the others, and they learn even more about themselves and each other. It will be interesting to see if what she said to them continues to impact the trio throughout the journey.
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We get to see some more of the world of Percy Jackson in this episode brought to life with beautiful production design and now that the quest has started, we’ll get to see even more places which will be fun to see come alive on screen. We also get a brief glimpse at one of the Olympian gods we haven’t seen on screen before, so that was an exciting peek. The soundtrack, by Bear McCreary, has released and includes some hints in the song titles of what we will see going forward, which is sure to excite book fans since it definitely cements we will be seeing some big scenes from the book. Also, there are quite a few more Easter Eggs in this episode for fans to spot and see what they might mean for later on.
This episode is scored a 7 out of 10 for those of us at CultureSlate. And we are very excited for what is to come next Tuesday as the episode preview showed some exciting hints.
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