Recap:
It all starts with young Percy learning to swim, and his mother Sally (Virginia Kull) trying to get him to let go of the edge of the pool. She encourages her son and tells him that he must learn how to swim because one day he will need to know how. (A very necessary parenting move in real life, and for the demigod to be.)
When Percy (Walker Scobell) wakes up, he Grover and Annabeth (Aryan Simhadri and Leah Jeffries) are on a train heading west. Percy wakes Annabeth and asks her about Thalia. Annabeth is wondering why he wants to know, and Percy states that she was the last forbidden kid before him, and he wants to know how she delt with the pressure.
Percy is wondering why the Gods need such attention and why can’t they accept their kids for who they are. Annabeth tells Percy all about what her demigod childhood was like. Her father saw her as a gift from Athena, but then her father got married, and Athena’s stepmom saw her as a problem not a gift.
Dawn breaks and monsters board the train. Thinking they have two easy days of train travel Percy asks his friends how they will know how to navigate Los Angeles since none of them have been there before. Percy then asks why his friends don’t take the Oracle’s warning of failure seriously. Noticing centaurs galloping in the fields, Percy is distracted by how the mythical animals are not noticed by humans.
Grover tells Percy the story of Pan, the god of the wild, and how he disappeared. Without Pan the natural world is being chipped away at by humans. Annabeth points out that the Oracle didn’t say the quest will fail, and that the prophecy could be a variety of things.
The group is brought back to their cabin by a police officer, only to see their room is ransacked and the window is smashed out. Detained by the police, the trio needs to figure out a way to get off the train and avoid being delayed. The passenger who accused them of destroying the room sits down to speak with the kids. Grover quickly determines that the woman is the person who smashed in the window of the cabin. The woman reveals herself to be Echidna (Suzanne Cryer), the mother of the monsters.
Echidna explains that she believes the demigods are the true monsters because they are the most destructive of all, and she threatens them with becoming the prey of her pet monster. Annabeth stabs at the monster, but not before Percy is stabbed by its tail. The group flees.
Grover removes the stinger in Percy, and while they continue to head to the back of the train, the monster follows closely behind. Stopping the train due to the monster, the trio escapes. Looking for a safe place to hide, Annabeth knows of a sanctuary dedicated to Athena, which is the St. Louis Gateway Arch. Annabeth explains that the arch is a monument to perfection, which makes it a perfect sanctuary for Athena.
While Grover tries to find a new train for them to take to Los Angeles. Annabeth encourages Percy to use the temple space to try and say hello to his father Poseidon. Percy rejects this idea because his father has done nothing for him, and praises Annabeth for all that she has done. Percy starts to feel the effects of the stinger and nearly collapses.
Trying to heal him in the fountain outside, the group must seek sanctuary in the arch because Echidna has arrived, and she is angry. The little dog has grown to a full-size Chimera. Annabeth advises the group to get to the highest point of the arch and ask for help from Athena. Before the doors of the elevator close, the group notices that Echidna and Chimera are in the arch. Thanks to Percy sending Medusa’s head to Mount Olympus, the gods are mad. A shrine to Athena offers the demigods no protection.
At the top of the arch, Echidna and the Chimera cornered the group. Annabeth encourages Grover to get Percy away, but Percy tricks his friends and locks them in the stairwell. Telling his friends that he would have never made it to Hades alone, Percy faces the monsters at the top of the arch himself.
With Chimera and Echidna marching towards him, Percy raises his sword and slashes at the upcoming attack. A hole is blasted in the floor, and Percy is forced back into battle with the Chimera. Pushed out the hole, and barely holding on, Percy is looking at a steep fall to his death.
Echidna mocks him for never having help, and how the quest was unfair. If only someone had provided help. (Echidna’s taunting is top form.)
Losing his grip and falling from the arch, Percy looks doomed to death, when a water cyclone from the Mississippi River reaches out for him and brings him to safety in the river. Stuck on the bottom of the river, Percy is wondering what is happening. A messenger from Poseidon tells him that his father has always been here, and that it has been hard for him to watch his son from the sidelines.
Encouraging Percy to breathe, the demigod learns that if he is underwater, he can breathe with ease.
Review:
We are halfway through the series and an incredible battle at the top of the St. Louis Gateway Arch is one of my favorite moments in the book. Seeing it take place on screen is a delight visually but also because this is the moment when Percy really starts to learn about his demigod abilities. I have a great appreciation for how high Percy fell. I’ve been to the top of the arch, and it is a long way down.
What makes this midway mark so entertaining is how the trio bonds on their quest. They survived Medusa, and now when they meet Echidna and the Chimera, they work together to try and protect one another, and are willing to sacrifice themselves for the good of the quest. We see Percy, Annabeth, and Grover cement their friendship thanks to this moment in the story, and Walker Scobell, Leah Jeffries, and Aryan Simhadri prove without a shadow of a doubt how great their chemistry is in the show with the climactic battle. Having this part of the story cut from the film in 2010, took the heart out of the narrative. Thankfully it’s been shown in its full glory for the show.
Trains fascinate me, and stories set on a train always entice me. One is confined to a small area and that’s what helps build the tension. There are lots of moments like this throughout the story, and thankfully we get to see these character defining points on screen.
I was also appreciative of seeing the VIA rail symbol on the train. Just a little sign to remind everyone the show was filmed in Canada.
Episode Rating: A
For even more, be sure to check out this week’s installment of the Page to Screen series looking at how this episode was adapted from the book series.