A new quest is about to begin on Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
It’s been nearly two years since the young Percy (Walker Scobell) first discovered he was the forbidden (and hunted) son of Poseidon (Toby Stephens), and a lot — seriously, a lot — happened during his first summer at Camp Half-Blood. So before the Disney+ series returns for season 2, the Oracle of Delphi (a.k.a. Entertainment Weekly) has chosen stars Scobell, Leah Jeffries, and Aryan Simhadri to honor the gods (and fans) with a quest: recap everything you need to remember from season 1 in the video above.
The action kicks off immediately in the series premiere when teen misfit Percy discovers that all the stories in Greek mythology are actually true, and he’s a half-blood child of the gods. The way in which he learns this life-altering news could have been less chaotic, since his algebra teacher Mrs. Dodds (Megan Mullally) turns out to be a Fury who attacks him during a school field trip. Percy slays his first (but certainly not his last) monster by using a pen that turns into a sword, given to him by his Latin teacher, Mr. Brunner (Glynn Turman), but he doesn’t get a hero’s reward. He’s expelled instead. Brutal.
The hits just keep on coming when his best friend Grover (Simhadri) accidentally reveals he’s a satyr — half-human, half-goat — who’s been assigned to protect him this whole time, and his mother Sally (Virginia Kull) is seemingly killed by a Minotaur while taking them all to the safe haven of Camp Half-Blood. Percy, enraged, slays the Minotaur, but passes out after the battle.
Disney/David Bukach
When Percy finally regains consciousness, he’s shell-shocked by the loss of his mother. But he doesn’t have much time to grieve, because he has to learn all about his new home, Camp Half-Blood, run by his Latin teacher who turns out to be legendary centaur Chiron. He also meets his first god, Mr. D. a.k.a. Dionysus (Jason Mantzoukas), the god of wine, and immediately learns a valuable lesson — the gods shouldn’t be trusted — when he lies and says Percy is his son. But he’s not, so Percy is sent to stay in the Hermes (Lin-Manuel Miranda) cabin with all the other unclaimed demigods.
As he gets settled, Percy meets his first camp friend Luke (Charlie Bushnell), who is a son of Hermes. He also meets his first adversary, a camper named Clarisse (Dior Goodjohn). As the daughter of Ares (Adam Copeland), Clarisse tries to fight Percy with her crew of bullies, but he surprises them all when he overpowers them by mysteriously controlling water.
Another camper, Annabeth (Jeffries), a daughter of Athena, had been spying on Percy this whole time, and was impressed by what she saw. So she recruits Percy for her team for the camp-wide Capture the Flag competition. From Luke, Percy learns that he and Annabeth are so close that they’re like siblings because they went through a lot when making their way to camp together with a third demigod, Thalia (Tamara Smart), who didn’t make it.
Disney/David Bukach
During Capture the Flag, Percy is shocked when his sword wounds heal when he’s in water, and Annabeth realizes that Poseidon has claimed Percy as his son, making Percy a “forbidden” child of the Big Three gods: Zeus (played by Lance Reddick in season 1 before his death, and by Courtney B. Vance in season 2), Poseidon, and Hades (Jay Duplass). And the shocking revelations keep piling up. When Percy is accused of stealing Zeus’ Master Bolt, which will start a war between the gods if it’s not returned in a week, he is sent on a quest to find and return the Master Bolt to Zeus, but he only agrees to it since Grover tells him that his mother Sally isn’t dead — he believes she was actually kidnapped by Hades and can be saved from the Underworld. Since they all believe the Bolt is also in the Underworld, that makes his destination.
Percy chooses Grover and Annabeth to join him on his quest, but he’s also wary after the Oracle of Delphi gives him a prophecy warning him that a friend will betray him. Before leaving camp, Luke gives Percy a parting gift of winged shoes. That’s super nice of him, right?
As the trio journeys west toward the entrance of the Underworld (which is in Los Angeles), they battle and defeat many mythological threats, including the Furies on a bus, Medusa (Jessica Parker Kennedy) who is more of a victim of the gods than an actual villain, and a Chimera unleashed by Echidna (Suzanne Cryer) on a train.
But after Percy gets poisoned by the Chimera, he tries to go out like a hero, sacrificing himself to save Annabeth and Grover. During the intense battle, he falls from the top of the St. Louis Arch, and is once again saved by water. He learns he can actually breathe underwater, and later reunites with Grover and Annabeth.
The trio continues on their quest, and they meet Ares, the god of war, who forces them to retrieve his shield from Hephaestus’ (Timothy Omundson) theme park and gives them a backpack with useful supplies. Percy almost dies again trying to save Annabeth, and Grover believes that he figured out who actually stole Zeus’ Master Bolt: Ares’ daughter Clarisse.
They then make it to Las Vegas where they meet Hermes, but he doesn’t help them on their quest. And they’re shocked when they realize they’ve lost days trapped inside the Lotus Hotel, a casino where all who enter forget why they are there. They finally escape five days later, meaning they missed the solstice deadline and the gods are preparing to go to war.
But Percy, Grover, and Annabeth continue on their quest anyways. They eventually enter the Underworld with four pearls that will allow them and Sally to safely return to the world above. But Grover accidentally loses his pearl almost immediately, and Annabeth gets trapped in the Fields of Asphodel and has to use her pearl to escape early.
The situation goes from bad to worse when Grover is dragged toward the pit of Tartarus by the flying shoes Luke had given Percy, just as Percy discovers the Master Bolt is actually in the backpack that Ares had given him. All the pieces start to fall into place for the young demigod when he and Grover make it to Hades’ palace, and the god reveals his own Helm of Darkness is also missing, because it was stolen to then be used to steal Zeus’ Bolt. Hades believes Percy stole both the Helm and the Bolt, so he offers to return Sally to the land of the living if Percy returns the Helm.
Disney/David Bukach
Percy finally realizes that someone else has been manipulating the gods this whole time: Kronos (Nick Boraine), the father of the gods and the king of the Titans, the shadowy menace who had been haunting Percy’s dreams all season long. Percy also realizes that Ares has been helping Kronos to secretly start a war between his siblings — because that’s what the god of war always wants.
Percy and Grover agree to the deal of returning Hades’ Helm for Sally’s life, and they use their two remaining pearls to leave the Underworld. Back on Earth, Percy challenges Ares to a duel, where the first to draw blood wins both the Helm and the Bolt (since Ares has the Helm). Percy not only holds his own during the battle, he actually wins — and it’s safe to say that Ares is going to hold a grudge about that for a long, long time.
Percy immediately returns the Helm to Hades, and decides to take the Bolt straight to Olympus himself — which is on the 600th floor of the Empire State Building. But when Percy gives the Bolt to Zeus and alerts him of Kronos’ plans, he’s shocked when Zeus doesn’t immediately call off the war. In fact, Zeus is actually about to kill Percy, until Poseidon steps in to save his son’s life by surrendering to Zeus.
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After Poseidon’s sacrifice, Percy finally meets and talks to his father, and the two share a surprisingly emotional moment. Then Poseidon and Zeus agree to work together to face the impending threat of Kronos. As for Percy, he is sent back to camp, where he realizes that Luke was the true thief all along.
The betrayal is made even worse when Percy learns that Luke has been working for Kronos to frame Percy and start a war between the gods. Luke tries to convince Percy to side with him in the battle to come, but Percy refuses, and the two demigods fight, but Luke escapes.
On the last day of camp, Percy, Annabeth, and Grover say their goodbyes, but they promise to reunite at camp the next summer. Percy heads home to reunite with his mom, Annabeth reveals she plans to reconnect with her human family, and Grover wants to begin a quest of his own to find the missing god Pan.
Back at home, Percy finally finds his mom, but the season ends on an ominous note when Kronos delivers what Percy thinks is a threat but is actually a very scary warning: Kronos’ return depends on Percy’s survival. We’ll have to wait until season 2 to find out what that means …
For more on Percy Jackson season 2, check out EW’s full cover story. The series returns this December on Disney+.
