Percy Jackson and the Olympians began with a two part episode, "I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom" kicks off Percy's destiny, the other characters, and Camp Half-Blood! Re:cap - Percy Jackson is a 12 year old student who daydreams of creatures out of Greek myths. He is bullied alongside his best friend, Grover. Percy sees his mother, Sally, who takes him to their cabin in Montauk. She reveals that Percy is a Half-Blood and there is also Grover who is a satyr! On the drive, a minotaur crashes the truck, Sally, attempts to distract it. Then, she fades away! The pen Percy was given by his teacher, Mr. Brunner, forms into a sword of Celestial Bronze! The minotaur charges and Percy manages to get on its back, snaps off one of its horns, and plunges it into the monster’s head! The minotaur fades into black flakes. Percy is knocked unconscious. He just revives when he hears a voice say, “He must be the one.”
Percy looks to see a centaur, half-man, half-horse, in the dawn’s light tell him, “Welcome to camp, Percy Jackson.” Centaurs are probably the most difficult creature to realize with effects. The earliest may be Nessus in the Hercules show. Here the tv version has a long body that would unbalance the human half sticking straight up. The movie version with Pierce Brosnan was slightly better. The best was Oreius in the Narnia films. This second part is again directed by James Bobin with writing by Rick Riordan and Jonathan E. Steinberg. The second episode opens with Percy waking up in a bed only to hear a girl tell him, “You drool when you sleep.” He wakes up again, this time to see Grover in his orange, Camp Half-Blood, shirt. Grover tells him he is safe and Percy looks over to a shelf that has the broken minotaur horn. Grover apologizes for not being able to protect his mother.
Percy gets up and wants to head off to find his father. He sees the pastoral camp and then walks over to see a bearded man (Jason Mantzoukas) with sunglasses, a real slacker dude. Mantzoukas was in the action comedy series, Obliterated. Percy introduces himself and the man shouts, “Peter Johnson is here!”, kinda funny. Grover runs over to introduce Percy to the camp director, Mr. D. He cautions Percy that the camp director is Dionysus, the god of wine. Percy asks Mr. D if he can see his father. Mr. D says Percy is his son and asks him to get a bottle of wine. Then, Mr. Brunner trots up as a centaur! Grover explains that his name is really Chiron, camp activities director and trainer of heroes! Chiron corrects Mr. D that he is not Percy’s father and that Zeus forbade him from drinking. For some reason, I think Chiron’s voice reminds me of the herald of the Childlike Empress, Cairon, in Neverending Story (1984).
The god of wine was trying to get around Zeus’ command to have Percy get the wine for him! He walks with Percy showing him the camp which is in a sacred valley safe from any threats. Percy says he lost the sword, but Chiron tells him that the pen is in his pocket and that he can only lose the sword if he surrenders it. Then, the centaur takes him to see the twelve cabins for the children of the twelve gods. Percy’s father is unknown, but Chiron says he has a place with the cabin of Hermes, unclaimed children are also there. He introduces the entire cabin to Percy. On his own, Percy walks over to his bedroll, a taller boy with a scar on the side of his face, Luke (Charlie Bushnell), introduces himself. Bushnell was in the show, Diary of a Future President.
Later in the day, Grover heads to the forest, amazingly a woman that looked like a tree stump, a dryad (Kathleen Duborg), starts to move towards him! She tries to reassure him, her face has the rings of trees. They enter a tree hollow and Grover stands in the middle of a group, the Cloven Council. Mr. D and Chiron are playing cards when Grover interrupts them to tell about Sally Jackson. He says that she faded away and that the council told him that Hades can take mortals away. Chiron says they know, but Grover must keep it a secret from Percy. The truth could be dangerous to Percy and the world is in danger. Sunset, Percy is by a campfire, he sees the light in the darkness. The voice says that he was left there and that he wants justice! The ground collapses and Percy wakes from his nightmare!
Luke says it is normal to have nightmares and all of Percy’s problems. He says “Demi-gods just process reality differently than humans do.” This is an empowering perspective on learning challenges. Luke says Hermes is his father and that the goal of the camp is glory. They continue walking, but Percy is knocked down by another bully, Clarisse (Dior Goodjohn), the daughter of Ares. They don’t bully Luke because he is the best swordsman. Still, he doesn’t say a word to Clarisse. Percy wants to prove himself to win glory that will get the attention of his father. Luke says they can’t force the gods to do anything. Percy is not exactly skilled at archery or blacksmithing. Later, Percy is eating lunch when a bell rings and Luke heads out with the offering to the gods.
At night, Percy tosses into a fire, some blue candy from the bag his mother gave him. He confesses to his mother that he wanted to go home after having a tough day at school. Percy admits that he has made friends. He vows that he will make his father see both of them. Good acting by Scobell. Percy returns and faces Clarisse and her bullies who take him to the bathroom. Clarisse wants him to admit he made up the story about the minotaur. Even though there is evidence with the horn and Grover’s story. Clarisse has the two bully girls dunk Percy’s head in the toilet. The water drains away! Then, three streams of water blasts the bullies back and soak them! Clarisse shakes the toilet water before running away.
Percy is just stunned to see the shattered stall door and the soaked restroom floor. He is seen by a girl (Leah Jeffries) and tries to explain. Jeffries was in the action movie, Beast (2022). Percy realizes she is the same girl when he was in the infirmary. She introduces herself as Annabeth. She is introduced much earlier in the book. Annabeth was waiting to see Percy use his powers that may help her win Capture the Flag! In the morning, under a statue of Athena, the camp kids are practicing for a mock war. Luke points out head counselor of the Athena camp, Annabeth who has led the team to three wins, he says she is “six steps ahead of everyone else.” Luke says Annabeth is his “little sister.” By the lake, Luke tells Percy about meeting a Forbidden kid, Thalia.
He explains that Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades’s pact stopped them from having children because they became too powerful. Zeus broke the pact with Thalia. A “Forbidden Kid attracts trouble.” Of course, Percy is also one. They found Annabeth and were impressed at her fighting. Thalia “didn’t make it.” This is a great part of the story. He explains that Annabeth was waiting for a demi-god who would start a quest. Chiron would allow Annabeth to join the quest. The best way to build up a character is to talk about her, Annabeth’s long in waiting introduction makes her dynamic. This is all lead in to Percy’s destiny and his father quest. The seeds of the Percy Jackson world are sown here and there. “I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom” is an excellent second part with good character moments and world building for the first season of Percy Jackson and the Olympians!
Five Celestial Bronze Swords out of Five!
#PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians, #JamesBobin, #RickRiordan, #JonathanESteinberg, #WalkerScobell, #AryanSimhadri, #LeahJeffries, #JasonMantzoukas, #GlynnTurman, #CharlieBushnell, #DiorGoodjohn
Comments
Post a Comment