Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Episode 4 Review

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Percy Jackson and the Olympians episode four is the shortest episode of the season and it’s noticeable. Compared to episode 3, this episode is over 10 minutes shorter. While watching the episode it feels like I blinked and it was already the credits. I was surprised by how fast this episode felt, and it just felt like not a lot happened because of that. Don’t get me wrong I still enjoyed it and a lot of cool things happened but I was just disappointed.

To start with the changes made, this episode changes how Echidna affected the voyage of our demigods. In the books, Echidna is at the arch when Percy, Annabeth, and Grover arrive and she separates Percy and tries to kill him using the Chimera. In the books, they went to the St. Louis arch simply because their train stopped and they had time to kill. The arch in the book wasn’t a hidden temple to Athena, Annabeth just wanted to see it because of her interest in architecture. These changes add a faster pace to this chunk of the story and a more impending threat as they are being hunted by the Chimera. 

The Athena connection explores even further the god’s influence on modern society. Plus, when Athena allows Echidna to enter the arch this shows Annabeth that the gods will become spiteful over minor grievances. Of course, a child of Poseidon is not someone whom Athena would like but her punishing her daughter over the actions of another shows the true nature of the gods.

I liked the scene of Grover and Annabeth splashing Percy because it was a funny way to show how ridiculous his powers are. The scene on top of the arch was great and I love the way Percy sacrificed himself to save Grover and Annabeth plays perfectly into his fatal flaw. The move he made using Riptide to trick Annabeth was also pretty cool. The arch scene was one of the scenes I was most looking forward to seeing done and for the most part it did not disappoint.

The CGI on the Chimera looked really good. It didn’t look like a real animal but it sure looked like a mythical creature. I was a little sad that Percy didn’t fight for longer but I understand it costs a lot of money to fight a fully CGI character. I do have to say I wish Percy had jumped from the arch just because it would have been more accurate and cooler than him falling but I did like the way the water grabbed him. It was the best explanation of how he made that jump.

All in all, this is probably my least favourite episode of the season but that is mostly to do with the length and not the content. There are still many cool moments and things I have waited to see since I first read the books at age 8. I look forward to episode 5 because based on the sneak peek, it should be the best yet!