For the most part, I’m enjoying this show. Really, I am! It’s just… what’s about to follow may imply the opposite.
Because I made the mistake of stumbling onto Reddit and finding this.
Are you shitting me??
Okay, let’s start by focusing on that last part, because… whoo, boy.
Is the 2010 PJO movie a terrible interpretation of the book? Yeah, absolutely, there’s not a fan on Earth who’d argue with that. But is it objectively terrible?
That’s a hard no from me. It’s cheesy, a product of its time, and portrays the “modern Greek myths” atmosphere perfectly! Yes, maybe I’m biased because I watched this movie dozens of times as a child before I read the books, but for Rick Riordan himself to call for its total erasure… yikes.
And this gives me space to vent about another one of this show’s massive missed opportunities: bring back the OG cast! You know what I’m saying! Give Logan Lerman, Alexandra Daddario, and Brandon T. Jackson some cameo roles!! Do a “passing the torch” scene!! Come ON!
I’m so genuinely disappointed we’ll never get to see the OG trio in this show. But moving on from that… no Poker Face? Really? That’s one of the most iconic scenes of the 2010 movie, not to mention a fantastic modern adaptation of the Isle of the Lotus Eaters! And that movie handled the Lotus Casino a thousand times better than this show did!
But I digress. Let’s get into the episode in order before I have an aneurysm.
So, Grover’s “I know who has the bolt” claim from the last episode is… Clarisse. And sure, I guess this makes sense at this point in time. If the kids are assuming Ares has something to do with this, Clarisse is a reasonable suspect. But this just feels too much like “Hades has the bolt” from a couple of episodes ago – if you’re outright saying “The villain is X!”, X is clearly too obvious a culprit.
Hey, at least this is better than the 2010 movie, where Luke was literally the ONLY significant camper, making the mole plain as day.
We have Iris Messages, which is something, but this episode removed three of my favorite lines from the truck transport scenes! First off: when Grover sees the state of the animals, he freaks out, giving us this part right before the doors slam shut.
He probably would’ve gone right back outside to beat up the truckers with his reed pipes, and I would’ve helped him…
Chapter 16, We Take a Zebra to Vegas
It’s minor, but this was one of my favorite throwaway lines in TLT. Grover being ready to throw hands for his fellow creatures and Percy being on the same wavelength? Good shit.
Secondly, there are a lot of important conversations in the back of that truck. Percy putting the pieces together and telling them he knows that Grover was the satyr who was supposed to deliver Thalia to camp, and that Luke and Annabeth were the other two campers with her, blew my mind as a kid. It’s a well-built-up-to reveal, one which the show ruins by sharing all these facts well ahead of time.
Later on, when Grover is sleeping, Percy and Annabeth have a heart-to-heart. Early on, TLT brings up the Poseidon-Athena feud to explain Annabeth’s distrust of Percy, and in this scene Percy asks what sides the gods will fall on if war breaks out. Annabeth tells him “I don’t know what my mom will do. I just know I’ll fight next to you.” When Percy asks why, she says “Because you’re my friend, Seaweed Brain. Any more stupid questions?”
Ugh, this is what the show is missing! I need the kids to actually bond, not just do stuff together!
But that’s not my last complaint about this scene. I have a lot of them about how the show doesn’t have the kids helping out the animals in small ways, like switching around their food, but this part is my favorite. Multiple times, Percy hears the zebra talking to him, calling him “lord.” When Grover gives them the Satyr’s Sanctuary (something the show kept intact) and Percy frees them, the zebra bows to Percy and says “Thank you, lord.” It’s a really cool way to establish Percy hearing horses as part of his Posiedon-child skillset!
Annnnyhow. Going from that disappointing scene, we have the Lotus Casino. Surely this part won’t be even more of a let-down, right?
Riordan, you really shouldn’t have dissed the 2010 scene. It’s leagues better than whatever the Hades the show was trying to do!
At least we have Lin-Manuel Miranda as Hermes. I really like this guy, and I think he makes a good Hermes. But… I don’t know, man. Like I said, this show is front-loading all its gods! And making Hermes just Lin-Maunel Miranda in a hoodie… it just feels lazy. (Also, Hermes’ first appearance in the PJO books is when he gives Percy and Annabeth the bag of tricks. When they encounter Circe, Annabeth takes the vitamins from Hermes’ bag as protection against her spells. As a kid, this was the coolest scene in the world to me, as it fit the Odyssey perfectly! But I digress.)
It’s somewhat interesting to have Hermes genuinely care about Luke and feel guilt over him, as well as mentioning his mom, but it also makes the entire structure of the books fall apart. The gods not interacting with their kids is a major part of the lore, so having Percy casually encounter so many when said kids haven’t met their parents just feels… off.
Ugh, but let’s step back and focus on the most egregious part of this episode, i.e., the Casino itself. As we all know, the Lotus Casino is a modern isle of the lotus eaters, where the locals eat the lotuses and forget everything but enjoying themselves. This is represented well in the 2010 movie, where the kids promptly forget about their quest and have fun partying, gambling, and dancing until Poseidon mentally tells Percy he needs to escape. This is a pretty bad change from the books, where Percy realizes something is wrong when he starts to recognize people from different time periods. When he realizes people in the casino have been in there for decades, he finds Grover and Annabeth to break them out of the spell – but when they finally leave, a week has passed, bringing them dangerously close to the deadline.
In the book, graphic novel, and 2010 movie, the casino is accurately portrayed as a wildly fun resort filled with all the games, food, and bungee jumping a kid could ask for. Having spare time, the trio lose themselves in enjoyment, only for Percy to slowly put the pieces together. It’s a fantastic bit of casual horror. And what’s even more annoying is that the show could’ve portrayed this perfectly – it’s easier to show people from different decades in a visual format than the written one!
Also, it pisses me off that the kids don’t stop to have fun. A large part of the book is that they’re, you know, kids! They make decisions like stopping at the Gateway Arch and trying out waterbeds because they’re all twelve and haven’t had a good run of things! They’re not fully quest-focused 24/7, unlike their TV counterparts! It’s disappointing.
The lotus drugs being delivered through the vents instead of just the food… fine, whatever, this episode feels like it had the cheapest budget of the lot. And Grover encountering a satyr friend isn’t necessarily a bad plotline. But their convo about looking for Pan leads Grover to a VR game that Percy and Annabeth have to break him out of. And… I don’t like that.
This circles back around to my “let the kids be kids” point. Making the only “game” the kids succumb to a super serious one detracts from the Lotus Casino once more. The trio doesn’t fall for the games because they’re indicative of their true purpose; this isn’t the sirens! In the book, Grover gets obsessed with a reverse hunting game and Annabeth with an architecture one. You know, things representative of their interests!
Also, don’t get me started on the wild laziness of the only game we see being a singular VR headset.
Before watching this episode, I heard a rumor about it having a Nico and Bianca reference, so I was eagerly looking for that. And… nope, nothing. I looked this up after the fact, only to learn that at some point (I really can’t be bothered to check), you hear a voice saying “Bianca” in the background. Booooo! What kind of fanservice is that?? Just have Nico’s name be the top of a leaderboard or something!
Oh, and Riordan’s refusal to include any form of Poker Face in here is a major missed opportunity! Wouldn’t it be cute for the kids to flip through a karaoke playlist, land on Poker Face, then frown and choose a different song? Pass the torch instead of pretending like the torch never existed in the first place!
Ugh, but with all of that ranting out of the way, this episode has the strangest ending. Instead of the trio emerging from the Casino with only one day to the deadline, they full on MISS it! So the tension is gone?? What even IS this show trying to do? And then Percy gets four pearls?? The whole conceit of “you will fail to save what matters most in the end” hinges on there only being three of them!!
Not only is this episode the worst one so far, it feels like a giant middle finger towards the 2010 movie – which isn’t what an episode of this show should feel like! It’s just… bitter.
At least we got Lin-Manuel Miranda, I guess. I’ll keep telling myself that until next week. Until then, here are my live notes!
