Percy Jackson and the Olympians Episode 4 Review: The Main Trio Takes a Step Closer to a Wholesome Friendship

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Episode 4 Review: The action-packed fantasy adventure series is back, but this time on the small screen instead, with Walker Scobell, Leah Sava Jeffries and Aryan Simhadri in titular roles. Based on the much-loved book series of the same name, the first season adapts the first book, titled The Lightning Thief, in the chronology, and the Disney+ series is created by its author himself, Rick Riordan, along with Jonathan E Steinberg. Centred around a 12-year-old demigod who’s accused of stealing of Zeus’ master weapon, the thunderbolt, the show is set to open the discussion around the PJO books with 8 episodes in the season.

Also starring Suzanne Cryer, Virginia Kull, Glynn Turman, Jason Mantzoukas, Dior Goodjohn and Charlie Bushnell in pivotal roles, the Percy Jackson Episode 4 has a runtime of 33 minutes. It has been directed by Anders Engström, and will be released on Disney+ on January 3, 2024. Episode 4 is titled “I Plunge to My Death”.

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-Percy Jackson TV Series Episode 4 Review Contains No Spoilers-

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Episode 4 Review: Discussion

The most eventful episode yet. With more action sequences, and the trio’s friendship solidifying, it’s worth the wait. However, the final water sequence’s visuals a downer.

Episode 4’s first scene will instantly take you back to the old memories of the movie’s opening scene even though they’re both starkly different. It feels good to see the series invest more time and effort into building Percy’s relationship with his mother. Despite her having been captured by Hades, Sally Jackson’s presence and importance in Percy’s life remains intact. Even with the focus on the action-driven adventures the trio has embarked on, the episodes’ writing makes it a point to always somehow remind us of why Sally is such a great character and mother.

However, what I can’t bring myself to appreciate is the visual premise and settings of Percy’s visions. Right from the show’s onset, Percy’s been having these nightmare-ish visions and the CGI backing the foreboding visual theme for them just comes up as an off-putting inclusion. Fortunately, the attention swiftly moves on to the present-moment interactions between the trio. We’re now at that point in the story where Percy and Annabeth are warming up to each other, and as mentioned in the previous episode’s review as well, this gradual upward development is a plus factor.

The Disney+ series is also sensitively dealing with the real-life and very humane repercussions of these young kids having been abandoned by their parents. The fourth entry especially digs into a discussion that’s very much-needed and quite bang on in terms of deconstructing how toxic it is for children to constantly “earn” their parents’ attention. In empathetic moments dealt sensitively like this, the human part of these half-blood characters’ identity is also movingly unravelled.

So, it’s great to see that trio’s identity isn’t just a sum of the powers inherited by them from the godly side of the family, rather they have been put across as these young kids who are just as much disappointed in their parents as they crave for their attention and guidance.

Plus, it’s good to see how Percy feels the extra pressure of shadowing Thalia as the second forbidden child of the big three to have been discovered in the recent times. While the first book kept it quiet in terms of right away discussing Thalia, the TV series has gone the exact opposite way in shedding the enigma around her and rather setting up more stressful expectations he may have to match up to.

Even though Zeus’ daughter is gone, Percy can’t help but feel that connection despite never actually having met or known her. That way, it also acts like a measuring scale of what his dynamic with Annabeth and Grover is. Nevertheless, the balance of these emotions is also maintained as the narrative constantly juggles with the kids’ goofy side too that kicks in now and then and is likely to make you feel light and happy. Constant mentions of the Greek lore also further keep establishing the background and does its work in keeping the world-building factors kicking in even when the kids aren’t directly facing the ones they’re referring to.

The constant hurdle and challenge faced by the trio since the beginning is the question – how to distinguish monsters from non-monsters, because anyway such perplexing riddles impacting your lives in a high stakes flight or fight situation are bound to kick trust issues a notch higher, and props to the senior cast panel playing such characters for keeping things as grey as possible with their acting.

Nearly each episode mirrors the other in terms of what it demands of the main trio – them fighting off the monsters, attempting to slow them down, without any adult supervision. It’s the same steps of the process that will cause them to fill in their shoes and come into their heroic positions. Regardless of the overarching mutuality, each portrayal of the senior actors – be it Megan Mullally as Alecto, Jessica Parker Kennedy as Medusa or Suzanne Cryer as the menacing Echidna – adds a new fresh flavour and touch to the palette.

Percy Jackson Show Episode 4: Final Thoughts

All in all, the fourth episode has undoubtedly been the most enjoyable episodes for me yet. The situational comedy bits keep on reminding us that despite the glorious and arduous quest ahead of them, the main trio is still composed of a group of kids. Other than the overall endearing wholesomeness of the growing friendship of the three children, the final scene in the water with Percy after the crucial fight scene was a visual disappointment.

Percy Jackson Episode 4 will be released on Disney+ Hotstar on January 3, 2024, at 7:30 AM IST or January 2, 2024, at 9 PM EST.

Also read: Percy Jackson and the Olympians Episode 3 Review: Unorthodox Monstrous Conversations Smartly Up the Ambiguity