The Season 1 finale of Percy Jackson and the Olympians begins with a flashback. Percy (Walker Scobell) and Luke (Charlie Bushnell) are training in the forest, days before Percy went on the quest to find Zeus’ stolen master bolt. Frustrated by practicing sword fighting over and over and over again, Percy wants to take a breather.
“When am I actually going to use this stuff?” Percy whines to Luke. Luke gives his new friend a lecture about being prepared—it will be useful one day, he says. Then, we flash forward, back to the present, where we learn the answer to Percy’s question: Now.
Percy is going to use Luke’s training now, as he stares down Ares (Adam Copeland), ready to fight, both enraged by the master bolt fiasco. Percy thinks he has the bolt situation all figured out: Ares stole the bolt with help from Clarisse (Dior Goodjohn), Hades’ (Jay Duplass) favorite daughter. They then passed it off to Percy to frame him as the burglar. Now, Percy and Ares are going to duel on this beach for it—or the helm of darkness, which is still missing. Percy, who can control water, seems to have a huge advantage, playing on the home field.
Percy sets the rules: This will be one-on-one combat. Grover (Aryan Simhadri) and Annabeth (Leah Jeffries), who are also present, won’t be fighting. Ares agrees, although he’s not happy about it: “No one tells the God of War how to start a fight!” Then, Ares really tries to piss off his opponent. “After you die,” Ares adds, “say hi to mommy for me.” This revs Percy up, leading to him landing the first blow on Ares.
The fight is a wash—literally, not figuratively, because Percy uses a tsunami-sized wave to nearly drown Ares and scare him off. It’s boring and forgettable, over in just a few minutes. Ares promises that, one day, he’ll kill Percy; then, the god storms out, leaving Hades’ missing helm of darkness on the shore.
A house appears near the ocean. The kids, who are all unharmed, venture up the shore to see what’s up—it kind of looks like Percy’s mom’s (Virginia Kull) beach house. “Mom?” Percy shouts when the trio enters the building. But Sally is nowhere to be found. Instead, it’s Alecto (Megan Mullally), who has magically become human again after Medusa turned her to stone, ready to return Hades’ helm to them. Hades better uphold his side of the bargain, says Percy.
Percy has the helm of darkness back—next up is Zeus’ master bolt. Grover and Annabeth advise Percy to avoid Mount Olympus at all costs. Not only does Percy look like the one who stole the bolt, but he’s also a forbidden child. Zeus definitely wants to kill Percy. If Percy shows up at Mount Olympus, he may return to Camp Half Blood as a tree, like Thalia.
But Percy is nothing if not headstrong, so he leaves his friends and heads to New York City without their blessing. In the Big Apple, Percy heads to the Empire State Building, where he drops the master bolt on the front check-in desk and demands to see Zeus. Olympus is well-designed, far better than the darkened CGI of the Underworld from last episode—the heavenly location is larger-than-life, gorgeous, and somewhat terrifying.
We flash back again to another conversation with Luke. Why are we so fixated on Luke, now? We’ll probably find out later. Anyways, Percy says he despises the gods, and Luke agrees. Still, Luke says, never go against the rules. Let’s put it this way: Annabeth is afraid of spiders. What does she do when she sees one? It’s bad to be small and scary at the same time, because you can easily be killed. To Zeus and the other gods, Percy has both of these attributes.
But Zeus can tell Percy this himself. Here he is, now that we’re back in the present day, bold and all-knowing and intimidating, Zeus, played by the late Lance Reddick. Percy seeks forgiveness, but all Zeus can say is, “You failed.”
Percy won’t go down without a fight, as bone-chilling as Zeus may be. He warns the god about Kronos and the war brewing, but Zeus seems uninterested, asking Percy to leave. Percy won’t leave. Zeus finally gets real with the demigod: Percy’s life has been saved because he’s brought this information about Kronos to Zeus’ attention. Now, Percy can leave unscathed—he should be grateful.
Oh, Percy. When will you ever learn? The youngster still wants to be heard by Zeus, so he goes of on a tangent about how terrible the gods are at establishing healthy family dynamics and how much he hates being in the family. Zeus is enraged—to say the least—and activates his bolt. He’s about to kill Percy with one strike of lightning when another god comes between them.
Poseidon (Toby Stephens) is back. The God of Water surrenders for his son, offering Zeus the victory. The brothers have a quick catch-up (speaking in Greek, making sure Percy can’t eavesdrop) about Kronos. “Who else knows about father?” Poseidon asks.
“Ares, Hades, Hermes—so…” Zeus says.
“Everyone.”
What the heck are Zeus and Poseidon going to do? Right now, all they can do is schedule a meeting with Athena (who, sadly, doesn’t appear this season). Before Zeus dissolves into thin air, he has one more request: He never wants to see Percy ever again.
Then, it’s time for some father-son time. Poseidon and Percy get to share a brief, sweet moment together. Poseidon takes the blame for Percy being so disobedient. They wear the same type of clothes. This might be the best casting of the entire season, seeing as Poseidon and Percy look exactly like father and son.
Percy has a question for his dad. Poseidon immediately assumes that Percy wants to know about Sally, although he has no answers, because Hades is kind of a loose cannon. But that’s not Percy’s question—Percy wants to know if the gods can dream (they can), and if Poseidon ever dreams about Sally. He doesn’t answer. In response, Poseidon sends his son back to Camp Half Blood.
The campers welcome Percy back with a round of applause. Annabeth rushes to hug Percy—swoon!—which she uses as an opportunity to warn her friend. Clarisse is also still here, even after being accused of stealing the bolt. What gives? Later on, Annabeth, Luke, and Percy all come up with a way to keep everyone safe from Clarisse.
As fireworks celebrate the end of summer, Luke and Percy wander around camp, keeping an eye out for Clarisse. Percy is still nervous about the Oracle, but Luke tells him not to believe in prophecies. Still, everything the Oracle said came true—except for one line: “You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend.” Percy was never betrayed.
But immediately, Percy cracks the code. The reason Clarisse is still at camp is because Luke never warned Chiron (Glynn Turman) about her. That’s because Clarisse didn’t actually steal the bolt—Luke did. Ares gave Percy the master bolt, and Luke gave Percy the flying shoes that should’ve led him straight to Kronos. But when Percy passed those shoes off to Grover instead, he ruined Ares and Luke’s plan to get the bolt to Kronos.
Percy is flabbergasted, but Luke tries to make quick amends. He never meant to betray Percy, who he still considers a friend—in fact, Percy is a recruit, Luke says. Luke goes off on a tangent: He and Kronos agree that the gods have always been bad parents. When Kronos ruled, the world was in a “golden age.” Ares and Luke easily stole the bolt and the helm. What’s next? Percy, son of Poseidon, has become key to this mission to take down the gods.
Luke wields a massive sword, so Percy unsheathes his weapon too. But Luke insists that this is not a fight. Instead, he’s just showing Percy this tool, which can open portals and bring them to Kronos. But as soon as Percy mentions Luke’s dad, Hermes (Lin-Manuel Miranda), the niceties are over. The boys fight, as Luke tells Percy they could work together, while Percy refuses to stoop to Kronos’ level. After a few sword swings, it becomes clear that Percy will lose—he’s not by the sea like he was during the fight with Ares. Get this man a few gallons of water, stat!
Annabeth has been lurking in the shadows this whole time, though, and steps in to stop Luke. Luke, who sees Annabeth as a sister, won’t hurt her. He races off into the portal. The evil will have to be defeated another day, but at least Percy and Annabeth are unharmed.
Camp returns to normal, although it’s the end of summer, and everyone is leaving. Annabeth is going to see her dad in New York City; they have plans to go to Disney World. Grover got his searcher’s license, which means he can start looking for the missing God of the Natural World, Pan. His first stop? The ocean. Good thing Grover has an aquatic friend willing to offer guidance. The trio makes a pact: They’ll all meet up again at Camp Half Blood in a year.
Percy just wants to find his mom. He returns to that beach house from the beginning of the episode, and, wouldn’t you know it! Sally is there, ready to hear about Percy’s wild first summer as a demigod. But before the pair can have a normal reunion, Kronos invades with a message for Percy. “It’s time to wake up,” a demonic figure says, popping up in some sort of vision. Percy is the key to Kronos’ return, the figure says.
But then we’re back in sunny New York, where Percy is about to start seventh grade. He tells Sally that he’s been having nightmares about grandpa again—ha—but hopefully, that will all end soon. Percy is happy to be back in the human world, snacking on blue pancakes as he darts off to school, and ends the first season of his show with an uplifting message. If you feel like you don’t fit in, maybe that’s a good thing. You might be a demigod. You may have superhuman powers. You’ll fit in, eventually.
That’s the end of Percy Jackson Season 1, but there’s still one loose end to tie up: What ever happened to Medusa’s head? In a final post-credits scene, we see Percy’s icky step-dad Gabe (Timm Sharp), who is lamenting his divorce with Sally. He shows up at the Jackson apartment, only to find a box marked “return to sender.” It reads, “To Percy Jackson, From The Gods.” Gabe rips open the package, lifts up a bodiless head, and…well, you can guess what happens next—we probably won’t be seeing much of this creep in Season 2, should we be lucky enough to earn more episodes of this exciting series.