Percy Jackson and the Olympians 2×03 Review: “We Board the Princess Andromeda”

With Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson off on their quest for the Golden Fleece, Clarisse starts her own quest.

I didn’t grow up reading the Percy Jackson series. I was 23 when the first book was published, and I didn’t read the series until 2010 when the film was released. So it’s not like I can look back at this now and think, “When I was a kid, I thought this, but now that I’m older…” Although, granted, I am older now than when I first read the books.

Anyway, all of this is to say that Luke, as a villain, makes a lot of good points. The gods in the Greek pantheon were not good people. They were petty, jealous, and volatile. Greek mythology is full of people who made a single bad decision and were punished eternally for it. Not everyone was Tantalus, who in some stories literally tries to feed his own children to the gods. Some of them were Prometheus, who tried to help humans and now gets his liver pecked out by birds for his trouble.

We saw this in the first season, but we’ve also seen it in these first three episodes. Hermes gets Percy a ride and conveniently doesn’t tell him that it’s with his enemy, because he’s hoping that Percy will be able to do what Hermes can’t and somehow reform Luke. Even Hermes, who has been kind of helpful, is using the demigods for his own purposes. (I love that I said “even Hermes”, like Hermes isn’t largely responsible for Luke.) Ares helps Clarisse, but he’s very clear with her that failure is not an option. And I don’t like the way he dismisses her when she tries to greet him respectfully, but then we know Ares is a jerk, so.

So yes, you can see how Luke could be convinced to side with Kronos against the Olympians, particularly given his own experiences. Annabeth says that he was manipulated because it’s easier to believe that than acknowledge that he may just have a point. The gods are fickle and callous, even to their own children. And when Luke is making his impassioned speech to Percy, you can see Percy realizing that there is some truth in what he says.

But Luke is still painfully naïve. To believe that anything would be better under Kronos? To espouse this idea of utopia, as though Kronos wouldn’t be just as bad, or even worse? This lah-di-dah “we’re all friends here” attitude goes against the very nature of the beings he’s talking about, and that’s without factoring the fate of humans into the mix.

There’s a quote from The Mummy that I think works well here: “It’s better to be the right hand of the devil than in his path.” I think that perfectly describes Luke. Or perhaps, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” He very much gives off a “burn the world down” vibe. And I love his styling; it’s so prep school bully.

What “We Board the Princess Andromeda” does a good job of is showing that this isn’t just a black and white situation. As with every conflict, there is some nuance in the discussion. They’re also really hammering home the notion that Percy and Luke are two sides of the same coin. Because I feel like Percy potentially would be receptive to what Luke is proposing, if he hadn’t had Sally as a role model.

But you can see the hesitation there. Percy looks at how Tyson is being treated on the ship and understands that not everything about their current world is sunshine and roses. We’ve already seen Tyson being treated poorly by the demigods, yet being welcomed by the Laestrygonians.

I really love how much they’ve improved Tyson’s character. I remember him being very much like a giant toddler in the books. Show!Tyson, on the other hand, is innocent, but he’s not stupid. He’s extremely competent in his own way, and I love how he just casually makes a bomb to get them off the Andromeda because Percy and Annabeth were in danger. He knows that he would have been better off with Luke and the others, but his friends were in trouble, and you’re supposed to help people in trouble.

Speaking of the Andromeda, I love that it really felt like they were on a cruise ship. I am a little disappointed that, during the fight scene, Percy didn’t use any water tricks. I was so expecting him to use a wave to knock Allison off the ship. Instead, he just let her fall over the railing.

I mentioned last week that I hoped we would get to see more of Clarisse this season, and this episode has really expanded her character in some interesting ways. In Sea of Monsters, we don’t see her again until Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson encounter her on the ocean. I like getting to see the lead-up to that. Her struggling to connect with her crew when she is 1) woefully inexperienced in battle and 2) a teenage girl was fantastic. The emphasis is very much on her desire to prove herself, both to herself and to Ares.

Also, I love that her instinctual reaction to the Oracle was to take off her head. It fits with her character. Oh, and an interesting thing about the Oracle is that it appeared to Clarisse as herself, yet it appeared to Percy as his stepfather. I saw someone speculate that the Oracle appears as the person you hate the most. I wonder if we’ll ever get an explanation for this.

Something else that I like is that Clarisse’s crew is made up of a variety of soldiers. In the book, her ship is manned by Confederate soldiers, because it’s a Confederate ship. I love the detail that her crew is filled with such a wide range of sailors, from British and French soldiers from the same era (who would have fought against each other), to Vikings, to that random casualty of the streaming wars. (I legitimately cackled when I saw the Blockbuster uniform.)

I’m really enjoying this season so far. The pacing is working nicely, and the episodes don’t seem quite as formulaic. But honestly, Daniel Diemer is a standout as Tyson. He’s my favorite.

Author: Jamie Sugah

Jamie has a BA in English with a focus in creative writing from The Ohio State University. She self-published her first novel, The Perils of Long Hair on a Windy Day, which is available through Amazon. She is currently an archivist and lives in New York City with her demon ninja vampire cat. She covers television, books, movies, anime, and conventions in the NYC area.

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