Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Episode 3 Review

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After successfully handling Camp Half-Blood, it’s time for the quest to begin. Percy Jackson and the Olympians episode three became my favourite upon watching it and that is due to one element in particular… the humour. If you have ever read the Percy Jackson series you would know that the books are quite funny with many of the episode titles being chapter titles from the book. Now I have felt that the show has been funny the whole time but it felt like the humour between our trio clicked in this episode and I was filled with joy.

I knew after seeing The Adam Project that Walker Scobell could play Percy perfectly. 

If he was able to learn the humour of Ryan Reynolds, which is mostly based on sarcasm, he could easily translate those talents into the Seaweed Brain himself. In this episode, we head out on our quest after Percy visits an accurate version of the oracle and then we get more of Annabeth, Luke, and Thalia’s story of how they got to Camp Half-Blood and what happened to Thalia. This gives Percy another chance to express his anger towards the gods. Percy is one of those characters who expresses his emotions through jokes and sarcasm. It can be hard to convey those emotions without the advantage of an internal monologue but I thought the show managed quite well. 

Once on the quest, I like the juxtaposition between the deadliness of the quest and the ordinary parts of the mortal world. I think this series has always had a good balance between comedy and drama and I think the show is doing a good job presenting that part of the show. We will have the scene of Grover singing his consensus song and then Annabeth’s conversation with Alecto. Both function within the world but have very different tones. I always like reminding myself the characters are 12 which adds to the tension of every scene because they are kids dealing with world-ending consequences. 

As a kid, I felt that leaving the fate of the world to kids was a normal thing to do but now it seems bonkers and I love that.

I like the way the show presents Medusa as it allows Percy to sympathize with her story and see her as more than just a monster and something to kill. Obviously, Medusa is trying to manipulate the heroes and paint herself in a sympathetic light but she is truthful that the gods can be quite spiteful in their punishments.

Still, she makes a mistake with Percy when she threatens his friends ( foreshadowing his fatal flaw). The beheading of Medusa was awesome though I would’ve liked to see the head at some point. I like the conversation the trio has afterward with Percy and Annabeth showing they might actually become friends yet. The episode ends with one of my favourite moments from the series as Percy sends Medusa’s head to Olympus.

Overall, this was the best episode yet with the humour being what elevated this for me. The developments of our trio and their relationship plus the beginning of the quest are fun to watch and I am just more impressed with this show after each week!