Amac Productions

Ah, a lovely spa. Where they tell you all your faults and turn into a guinea pig if you dare to call C.C. on her BS. Isn’t that lovely?

I sure would love to go there. Not.

Overall, the differences from the book to screen here may be plentiful, but I don’t think it detracts from anything.

Like instead of being tricked, Percy is just sprayed with dust to turn him into a guinea pig. They don’t take the same ship from the book. The visions for Percy and Annabeth are different, and I think we even get a bit more lore for C.C. The pirates are sort of friends with Percy after they all return to their forms.

So far, I don’t think there’s really anything too glaring or story changing about the changes from page to screen.

I mean, I don’t think anything can be as offensive as the movies were.

However, the changes here give me something new to see and think about while still maintaining the spirit of the original storyline. I love that.

Such as, the change of the siren visions that both Percy and Annabeth see.

In the book, Percy wanted his family together. Happy.

Annabeth’s fatal flaw was revealed to be hubris. Thinking she could build things better than anyone, even the gods.

In the show, Percy just sees Annabeth.

And Annabeth sees herself outsmarting the sirens and gaining her mother’s approval.

The fatal flaws are the same as they are in the book with a new twist on how we get them. Percy would risk himself and the fate of the world just to save Annabeth. His fatal flaw is his loyalty to the people he cares about.

No one – perhaps – more so than Annabeth.

Except maybe his mother.

Percy even admits it within the episode that if it came down to it, he would choose Annabeth over Olympus.

The choices he makes, the fatal flaw, they’re all the same as they were in the book. Percy would choose Annabeth over everything and everyone else. He relies on Annabeth to tell him when that’s not the right choice. To let her reason and logic guide him.

It’s why they make a good team.

He’s impulsive, loyal, and emotional. She’s calculating, reasonable, and intelligent beyond all reason.

SPOILER – It’s how they save Olympus in the end.

While the changes may annoy people, they do not bother me. They keep the spirit and the underlining message of the book, which I feel is more important.

For example, I did want a blonde actress for Annabeth – but her personality is so much more important to me.

And every episode, every moment Leah Sava Jeffries is Annabeth – I’m beyond certain she is the right choice. Even now, thinking of the books, she is the picture I have in my head for Annabeth.

Even Walker Scobell hasn’t completed erased the image of Percy my mind conjured up while reading the books. Yet Leah has. They nailed this casting.

Overall, I enjoyed this episode.

It’s weird and fun to know how things end up while the characters do not. Such as, after the explosion everyone is convinced everybody else is dead. Percy and Annabeth are sure Clarisse and Tyson are gone. Clarisse is sure they’re gone. Tyson is nowhere to be seen.

I’m enjoying their discomfort and worry, while I munch on popcorn, like ‘I’m good.’ Everything is fine.

It’s just funny to me. And it never really makes it less enjoyable to know the end. Maybe even more so, because I’m not stressing.

C.C.’s island is even more crazy to me than I remembered from the series. Feeling super cultlike and creepy at every turn. People were just way too happy to be trapped there for who knows how long. Nearly losing hope until someone manages to escape.

Supposedly.

It’s a pretty brilliant con.

And part of me feels for C.C. as well. Cursed to an island. Alone.

I can’t blame her for wanting people around. For wanting friends. Something to ease the loneliness.

And she’s not the only one whose punishment is like this. Percy will meet another sometime in the future as well. It’s a favorite punishment – so it would seem.

So I get it.

Then she turned Percy into a guinea pig, and I lost most of the sympathy.

Like – hey – people were being kept there and lied to, but at least they were well taken care of. For the most part.

They weren’t turned into some kind of animal and trapped in a cage.

Except the ones that were. You know – I have to draw the line somewhere.

Also, I cannot begin to describe to you how happy I was that Annabeth still dumped the vitamins into the cage to return Percy to his rightful form. I don’t know why, but that was just one change I did not want.

Like the rampant chaos of dumping all the pills into the cage filled with who knows how many people turned into guinea pigs and then unleashing them upon the island – is just too much fun for me.

Because this is Annabeth.

She’s reasonable and logical. And while the pirates do give a distraction for them to escape and take a ship, she didn’t really know what she was unleashing. I’m sure with her brains she could surmise that the other guinea pigs were people too. But she knew nothing about them.

Yet, there she goes, just dumping the entire bottle in with an ‘oh well, let’s see what happens’ attitude about it.

Which is way more a Percy reaction than an Annabeth one. But hey, this is also a moment that shows how much they care for each other and are rubbing off on one another.

Annabeth would also risk a whole damn lot for Percy.

I really love this relationship and how it’s being fleshed out this season.

Truth be told, in the book we get a lot of Percy’s perspective, and he has no real clue that he’s crushing on Annabeth. And since we have only his perspective, we get a muddled version of what Annabeth is thinking. Because he’s not really paying enough attention or he doesn’t know what he’s seeing.

We don’t get her viewpoint.

However, with the show – we do.

We see her get shy when they ask if Percy is the boyfriend. We see him get upset there might be another boy. They’re annoyed at how little they’ve spoken but also couldn’t bring themselves to call. Not really. Annabeth didn’t want to upset him because being a kid is hard for her.

Her worry. Her care. Her concern. Her respect. Leah does an amazing job of showing that she’s starting to care more for Percy than as just a friend. And this conflicts with so many things for her, allowing for an amazing internal struggle we see her dealing with.

Rather than understanding it because of the few hints Percy has managed to convey the reader.

It’s a lovely little detail I didn’t know I needed from the show.

Overall, it’s a solid episode and I enjoyed it. Mostly because I’m hugely thrilled of any time Percy and Annabeth get to spend together on the show. Walker and Leah have great chemistry and Annabeth and Percy are so much fun to watch bounce off each other. To understand each other better than anyone else, but frustrate each other like no one else can.

Truly awesome.

Meanwhile, to their adventure. Grover and Clarisse have found each other but are still as stuck as he was before. In fact, maybe worse since the very large Cyclops has some evil plans of his own since he knows Grover has been lying the entire time.

Apparently, he talks in his sleep.

Oops.

I’m sure this will all go well and nothing absolutely terrible will come of this.

Onto the next episode! Thanks for reading!

Please consider supporting!

Spread the love and read on!