"The Prophecy Comes True"[1] is the eighth and final episode of the first season of the Disney+ adaptation of Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
Synopsis[]
Mount Olympus beckons... and Percy must face his greatest battle yet.
Plot[]
In a flashback, Percy is training in sword fighting with Luke. Percy lists all the monster attacks before he reaches camp. The son of Poseidon is struggling with the training as Luke reveals that there are rules of warfare, knowing the rules to take on an opponent.
In the present, Percy challenges Ares to single combat, with the first to draw blood wins and the war god accepts. Percy mocks Ares by calling Kronos the ringmaster of the plot and saying he saw him in his dreams. Ares says gods do not dream and charges at him. Percy charges at Ares but he is quickly disarmed. Percy summons a wave and knocks Ares to the ground. As Ares crawls to his sword, Percy slashes the god's thigh. Annabeth and Grover go over to Percy as Ares mockingly congratulates the son of Poseidon and declare that he made an enemy of life before vanishing. They spot the Helm of Darkness and Annabeth picks it up.
Percy notices the cabin he and his mother were staying at the night of the Minotaur attack and leads his companions towards it. Once inside, Percy hears the radio talking about ionic disturbances and calls for his mother, but the trio is greeted by Alecto. Percy realizes that Alecto was assigned to retrieve the helm and hands it over, telling her to have Hades return his mother. Alecto takes the helm and wishes him luck on Olympus. Annabeth and Grover try and fail to take Percy out of confronting Zeus, but he is adamant on returning it personally. Annabeth says Zeus would never let him leave alive, but Percy still insists he must try at the very least and Annabeth gives him her necklace. At the Empire State Building, Percy shows guard the Master Bolt and is granted access to Olympus.
In a flashback, Luke tells Percy how the gods sire mortal children to break the rules they cannot. As Percy asks why the gods are not afraid of them, Luke mentions Annabeth's fear of spiders and Luke tells him they will be killed if the gods perceive a half-blood as a threat.
Back on Olympus, Percy confronts Zeus in the Throne Room alone and returns the Master Bolt. As Percy explains why he failed to return the Master Bolt on time, Percy states Kronos stole it and is plotting against the gods, but Zeus rebuffs him by saying his father is not threat at the moment and focuses on his war against Poseidon and tells Percy to leave. However, Percy says his family is only loyal to Zeus through fear and any of them could betray him at any moment. As Zeus is about to strike Percy, Poseidon arrives and saves him by surrendering to his brother. Poseidon begs Zeus to spare Zeus and compares him to Thalia. After conversing in Ancient Greek, Zeus backs down and calls a council of the gods before vanishing.
Poseidon talks with Percy for the first time and reveals he knew they were talking about Kronos and reveals his mother taught him Ancient Greek. Percy asks Poseidon if gods can dream, which the god confirms, and asks if he dreams about Sally. Poseidon gives Percy a pearl and sends him to Camp Half-Blood.
At camp, the others congratulate Percy and Annabeth hugs him. They notice Clarisse La Rue in the crowd, but she urges Percy to do nothing for the moment. Percy speaks with Annabeth and Luke about keeping mum on Clarisse as it could start a riot. Luke urges Percy to tell Chiron privately. That night, during the celebrations, Percy and Luke speak in Camp Half-Blood Forest about the prophecy not being fulfilled and, as Percy recites the prophecy, he realizes Luke is the true lightning thief and Luke was using the daughter of Ares as a scapegoat and that he planned for Percy to deliver the Master Bolt to Kronos. Percy backs up as Luke says he is Percy's friend and is trying to recruit him. As Luke pulls out a sword, he opens a rift and tells Percy to come with him. He offers Percy a chance to help him create a renaissance of the Golden Age, but Percy rejects him. Percy draws his sword and reveals he met Hermes. A fight breaks out, while Percy has the upper hand at first, Luke quickly disarms Percy and prepares to kill the son of Poseidon. However, Annabeth, who was hiding in plain sight with her hat, disarms Luke and reveals herself. She says she heard everything as Luke looks at her with a pained expression before vanishing.
As Percy packs, Chiron speaks with Percy as he prepares to visit his mother. Chiron states that Luke sees Percy as a potential ally as Percy states he will never join him. Soon, Dionysus arrives and tells all those leaving to leave as soon as possible. At Thalia's Pine Tree, Percy finds Annabeth, who reveals she is going to meet back up with her father and travel with him. Soon Grover arrives to reveal he got his Searcher's License. Grover reveals the Council of Cloven Elders thinks Pan is nomadic and that it is a right time and place thing to find him, but Grover thinks he should search the seas. Percy suggests they make a pact to meet up at camp next summer and the others agree.
In a dream, Percy returns to the cabin at Montauk and calls for his mother, only to be greeted by and illusion and speaks with Kronos. Kronos promises he and Percy will see each other in Person one day and that his survival is essential for the Titan king's return. Sally Jackson wakes Percy up on his first day of seventh grade and he says he dreamt of Kronos again. Percy does not tell his mother what Kronos told him and they both get ready for the day.
In the mid-credit scene, Gabe Ugliano is on the phone with his lawyer after Sally filed for divorce complaining about his predicament as well as finding out that Sally changed the locks to the apartment. He then spots a package near the door and opens it, unaware it contains Medusa's Head which turns him to stone when he sees it.
Cast[]
Starring[]
- Walker Scobell as Percy Jackson
- Leah Sava Jeffries as Annabeth Chase
- Aryan Simhadri as Grover Underwood
Guest Starring[]
- Megan Mullally as Alecto
- Lance Reddick as Zeus
- Virginia Kull as Sally Jackson
- Timm Sharp as Gabe Ugliano
- Jason Mantzoukas as Dionysus
- Charlie Bushnell as Luke Castellan
- Dior Goodjohn as Clarisse La Rue
- Adam Copeland as Ares
- Toby Stephens as Poseidon
- Glynn Turman as Chiron
Co-Starring[]
- Andrew Alvarez as Chris Rodriguez
- Threnody Tsai as Sarah
- Bola Omodara as Security Guard
- Nick Boraine as Kronos
Differences[]
- Percy, Annabeth, and Grover end up in Montauk rather than Santa Monica.
- Ares doesn't curse Percy when he's defeated.
- Percy encounters Alecto in the Montauk cabin rather than all three Furies witnessing his fight with Ares.
- Percy immediately shows the Elevator Security Guard the Master Bolt rather than arguing with him first.
- Zeus doesn't threaten to strike Percy down if he ever flies again, although Percy wasn't forced to fly home in the TV series due to being teleported to Montauk rather than Santa Monica.
- Zeus acknowledges the possibility of Kronos' return rather than outright denying it.
- Percy confronts Zeus about his behavior and how the god only has the support of his family out of fear.
- Due to Percy missing the deadline and Zeus and Poseidon being at war with each other, Poseidon is forced to officially surrender to Zeus in order to save his son's life rather than the return of the Master Bolt being enough to satisfy Zeus and the end of the matter.
- Zeus implies that he will inform the council of Kronos' impending return rather than banning any discussion of it.
- Percy understands Zeus and Poseidon mentioning Kronos because Sally taught him Ancient Greek rather than Percy's brain being hard-wired for it as a Greek demigod.
- Percy and Poseidon's conversation is shorter, and Poseidon doesn't tell his son that he regrets his existence or that a package will be waiting for him when he gets home. In addition, Poseidon isn't sure when Hades will return Sally rather than telling Percy that she's at home waiting for him.
- Poseidon uses one of his pearls to teleport Percy back to Camp Half-Blood from Olympus rather than Percy returning home first by taxi and then making his own way back to camp. As a result, Percy and Sally's reunion at their apartment is omitted along with Percy's discovery that Gabe has been abusing his mother.
- Percy figures out that Luke is the Lightning Thief on his own rather than Luke revealing himself.
- Unlike in the book, Luke does not explain how he pulled off the theft. He also tries to recruit Percy rather than threatening him from the start and shows some remorse for the danger that he had placed his friends in, Grover in particular.
- Luke fights Percy rather than setting a Pit Scorpion on him.
- Annabeth intervenes in Percy's fight with Luke.
- Luke uses Backbiter to open a doorway out of camp while in the book, he was just described as vanishing, leaving it unclear if he opened a portal or used a power that he got from Hermes.
- Sally files for divorce from Gabe rather than petrifying him with Medusa's Head. Additionally, Gabe inadvertently petrifies himself.
- However, it's possible that Sally or Percy had purposefully left the box outside of the apartment for Gabe to find.
- The package containing Medusa's Head only says that the gods returned it to Percy rather than it being Poseidon specifically.
- Because of the manner of Gabe's death and Sally thus not saving herself, the line of the prophecy about Percy failing to save what matters most in the end is left unresolved.
Trivia[]
- The title is derived from Chapter Twenty-Two of The Lightning Thief.
- The opening of the episode mirrors Percy's dialogue from the first episode.
- The episode marks the final television appearance of Lance Reddick and his only appearance as Zeus. As a result, the ending includes an epitaph for him reading "In Loving Memory of Lance Reddick."
- Reddick died only about four to six weeks after shooting the episode. According to Dan Schotz, Lance's wife reached out directly with a beautiful note about how excited she is to see him in this role.[2]
- According to Jon Steinberg, the prophecy was deliberately left unresolved in regards to the line that Percy will fail to save what matters most to him, meaning that it may still come true in the future.[2]
- On the decision to send Percy to Olympus past his deadline, Steinberg said "I thought there was something interesting about removing all of Percy's obligation to do the right thing and seeing him confront that. Even absent this sacred responsibility to move forward, there's a different kind of responsibility."[2]
- As Percy arrives back at camp from the quest, a set of Demigod twins/brothers are seen applauding him. It could be hinted that the two are Travis Stoll and Connor Stoll.