We’ve reached the final showdown! Ares is ready for a fight, Zeus is planning for war, and the kids still don’t know who the OG lightning thief is! There’s a lot to wrap into one last episode, so let’s get into it!
Because I’m such a sucker, I genuinely liked the Luke-Percy sword training scenes, especially in how they come into play for this battle! Luke’s views towards the gods, especially considering his mom, are incredibly valid, and I quite enjoy his character. More on that later!
(Although this plays into one of my minor frustrations with the show: it functions on an episode-to-episode basis rather than referencing the entire season, making each episode feel rather self-contained.)
It’s funny how my inability to reconcile this Luke with the OG book version in here is paired with the absolute perfection of Ares. He’s so book-accurate, and this battle scene was great, ichor and all! And at this juncture, I was very much buying the misdirection of Clarisse as the Lightning Thief! And we get some good post-battle lines from all the kiddos, too.
So, you know how Lance Reddick, AKA Zeus in here, played a character named Charon in the John Wick movies? That might’ve been what was on my mind when I made another John Wick connection in this episode. Percy gaining access to Olympus by showing the security guard the bolt reminds me of those JW scenes where Keanu gets in a seemingly normal taxi and the driver asks where he’s headed. Keanu just hands the guy a Continental coin, and the driver says “Right away, Mr. Wick.” I just love a good casual reveal of an unimportant character being privy to a lot more of the world than you’d think!
Anyhow. While I’m still a little confused by the shift of the kids missing the deadline – it really does weaken the stakes – the change did make for some great moments. Lance Reddick is a terrifying, powerful Zeus, and I’m so saddened by his passing. Riordan’s line “maybe Mount Olympus simply had need of their king” is so beautiful.
Poseidon outright showing up to save Percy and saying “I surrender” wasn’t bad at all – maybe that’s one of those significant changes that actually works! And the ancient Greek being spoken between the gods, love that too.
And then we come back to the Percy-Luke moments! I reread The Lightning Thief in anticipation of this show, and I’ll say this: the show’s Luke is quite different from his OG counterpart. I still remember the impact of his betrayal in the book, where he just casually tosses a scorpion onto Percy’s hand, still smiling, and reveals his plan. It’s so shocking and chilling at once. In here, however, Percy puts the pieces together even before Luke draws his blade. The parallel between the beginning of this episode and the end is a good one, as are the fireworks in the background. Very cinematic.
I really like Luke trying to convince Percy to join the dark side – I’m so here for this ongoing plotline! But I still don’t love Charlie Bushnell as Luke, and that’s nothing against him as an actor; he plays the role well! I know that he’s five years older than Walker Scobell, but he looks so young. Half of the menace of Luke’s betrayal in TLT comes from the shock of the cool older guy trying to kill Percy! At this point in the book, Luke is 19 and Percy is 12. Charlie just doesn’t seem old enough to recapture that specific dynamic.
Also! I wish the show had included Luke’s line from the book about Backbiter being half steel and half Celestial Bronze, meaning it could kill mortals as well as monsters. It’s a great ominous red flag right before the betrayal reveal, and it sharply illustrates the difference between Luke and Percy. Especially given the fact that bookverse Percy, during the quest, swiped at an attempted thief with Riptide, only for it to pass right through the guy, surprising him enough for the kids to make their escape. I remember that scene being clear as day in my mind when Luke first talked about his sword!
Anyhow. This show has so many instances of “moments that could be emotional if you actually put effort into them.” Annabeth hearing Luke’s whole revenge plot and having a showdown with him could be cool, but emphasize the emotional aspect! Luke genuinely cares about Annabeth! Make this moment hurt! (But also, I can’t help but think Annabeth knowing all this about Luke this early in the game is going to be to the show’s detriment. The fact that she goes so long in the books trying to believe the best of him (because she didn’t see what happened!) is a large part of her character.)
Moving on from Luke, we get some cute moments from the original trio – and a group hug, finally! And some more creepy Kronos moments to set the stage for season 2, because why not, right? I liked the rain and thunder ending, but then the show just had to go and betray Riordan’s claims back in episode 6! Remember how he was all “we’re pretending like the 2010 movie never existed! Erase bad movies!” And then the show went and stole the same damn ending as the movie!!
And man, the movie did it so much better.
As a kid, I rewatched The Lightning Thief dozens of times. And after the first time, I always covered my eyes during the end credits scene – or usually just skipped it entirely! That final jumpscare, man! Gabe sorting through his shit, opening the fridge, and Medusa screaming at him right before the cut to black? Good shit!
Ugh, I really hate the show’s ending. The point in the book and movie is that Percy is giving Sally a way to free herself from Gabe for good. And she takes it! But in the show, it’s a whole freaking accident! Gabe tries to break into the apartment, sees the box that Mount Olympus hit “return to sender” on, and opens it to see if he can steal something, only to very anticlimactically turn to stone. You get how much that butchers the OG ending, right?
But stepping away from that dogshit retcon, we’ve got a solid finale here! The current villains have been defeated (or at least suppressed for the time being), the future threats have been established, and there are enemies and allies alike out in the world! I can’t wait for season 2 of this show – and for the tentative future of the Riordanverse as a whole! If PJO keeps it up, we could make it to a Heroes of Olympus series! Then maybe even Kane Chronicles, Magnus Chase… but I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s make it to Sea of Monsters first!
For the final time, here are my live notes!
