S01.E06: We Take a Zebra to Vegas

[Mr. Sparkle]

Percy, Annabeth, and Grover must resist the alluring draw of a casino that feels outside of time.

Premieres Tuesday, January 16th on Disney+. 

[Affogato]

The god of thieves would reward a good pick pocketing. Otherwise Hermes seems kind of wholesome. 

[RachelKM]

8 hours ago, Affogato said:

The god of thieves would reward a good pick pocketing. Otherwise Hermes seems kind of wholesome. 

Yeah, I kinda wonder how much of that is because Lin-Manuel Miranda is physically and constitutionally incapable of not exuding some degree of doe-eye wholesomeness.  I'm a little ambivalent about the portrayal. I liked it, I think; but I was also left uncertain.  Maybe that's appropriate for Hermes? 

This episode was maybe my least favorite and I'm not certain entirely why.  Still a good show and a solid translation from the book series.  I just found the episode sort of empty. It felt like it lacked story movement... although maybe that is appropriate, too, for the Lotus Hotel.

 

[Affogato]

1 hour ago, RachelKM said:

Yeah, I kinda wonder how much of that is because Lin-Manuel Miranda is physically and constitutionally incapable of not exuding some degree of doe-eye wholesomeness.  I'm a little ambivalent about the portrayal. I liked it, I think; but I was also left uncertain.  Maybe that's appropriate for Hermes? 

This episode was maybe my least favorite and I'm not certain entirely why.  Still a good show and a solid translation from the book series.  I just found the episode sort of empty. It felt like it lacked story movement... although maybe that is appropriate, too, for the Lotus Hotel.

 

In the books he is representd as genuinely liking humans and demigods, as opposed to (say) Ares. 

Spoiler

I got the impression he would have been less than an absent father to Luke, if he could have—at least around as much as a long distance truck driver. 

The grover parts of this episode were long and may pay off later, but not in this episode. The hotel didn’t make much impact, it seemed like just a casino. 

[RachelKM]

1 hour ago, Affogato said:

In the books he is representd as genuinely liking humans and demigods, as opposed to (say) Ares. 

I always read Hermes with a little more cheek and mischief.  But that could have just been me. I wasn't against LMM's portrayal. It just felt like his aura of warmth and wholesomeness was coming through and I couldn't tell if it was written, intended, and/or just him.  Could easily be all three. 

Edited January 17 by RachelKM

[Affogato]

4 minutes ago, RachelKM said:

I always read Hermes with a little more cheek and mischief.  But that could have just been me. I wasn't against LMM's portrayal. It just felt like he aura of warmth and wholesomeness was coming through and I couldn't tell if it was written, intended, and/or just him.  Could easily be all three. 

Yes, I agree. More mischief. Earlier, when he was delivering medusa’s head, it looked like he might wnjoy the trouble it would cause. Or so I thought. 

[tkc]

On 1/17/2024 at 1:43 PM, RachelKM said:

I always read Hermes with a little more cheek and mischief.

Yeah, like he’s young, scrappy and hungry? 😄

[Silver-hyren]

So much telling, not enough showing!  I seriously feel like chunks of this episode got chopped off.  Percy info dumping that Hermes told him about the lotus flowers being pumped into the air of the casino was painful.  And when was that supposed to have happened?  During the jump cut between the cafe and the main lobby?  That's . . . a lot for a little jump cut to handle.

But then on the other side of things, Grover recognizes the satyr but it's never explained who he is.  He's also searching for Pan, great - but what is he to Grover?  Relying on the audience to have read the book to fill in blanks isn't fair either.  I have, but it's been years and I don't remember much and didn't want to re-read before watching the series so I could rediscover the story.  

Overall so far I have to say the show is . . . frustrating.

[ursula]

17 hours ago, Silver-hyren said:

He's also searching for Pan, great - but what is he to Grover?

This god was mentioned in a previous episode. When they saw centaurs running from the train, and Grover explained that their numbers were fewer, and Pan was missing and this was caused by urbanization. He talks about his Uncle Ferdinand who went seeking for Pan. Later on, he finds his Uncle Ferdinand who was Seeking (or Searching?) for Pan as one of Medusa's victims. 

I haven't read the books by the way, this is what I picked from the show.

But I agree that there's too much telling and not showing. The episodes sometimes feel like a visual radio drama. They don't engage with their environments enough. This episode could have been in literally anywhere - a shopping mall, a museum, or an indoor playground - and nothing would have changed - they would have just found Grover distracted by something else. It didn't feel that the casino setting was necessary except as a metaphor for distractions but since the kids were not really distracted by the attractions of a casino, and just the lotus flower vapor in the air, any closed space would have had the same effect.

Also how did Percy realize they had spent days in the casino? Now that part feels like something that happened in the books and we were expected to expect - for lack of a better way of saying this - but I didn't actually see anything in the scene that made him realize this.

 

[Affogato]

42 minutes ago, ursula said:

This god was mentioned in a previous episode. When they saw centaurs running from the train, and Grover explained that their numbers were fewer, and Pan was missing and this was caused by urbanization. He talks about his Uncle Ferdinand who went seeking for Pan. Later on, he finds his Uncle Ferdinand who was Seeking (or Searching?) for Pan as one of Medusa's victims. 

I haven't read the books by the way, this is what I picked from the show.

But I agree that there's too much telling and not showing. The episodes sometimes feel like a visual radio drama. They don't engage with their environments enough. This episode could have been in literally anywhere - a shopping mall, a museum, or an indoor playground - and nothing would have changed - they would have just found Grover distracted by something else. It didn't feel that the casino setting was necessary except as a metaphor for distractions but since the kids were not really distracted by the attractions of a casino, and just the lotus flower vapor in the air, any closed space would have had the same effect.

Also how did Percy realize they had spent days in the casino? Now that part feels like something that happened in the books and we were expected to expect - for lack of a better way of saying this - but I didn't actually see anything in the scene that made him realize this.

 

Hermes tells them they are late/too late. T doesn’t matter, Hermes shrugs and looks at watch. Percy hasn’t got time to get to santa monica now.
 

The casino does make more sense in the books, but ai think it is the addictive nature of gambling (and attached hotel rooms) that make it make sense as a location. 
 

the episodes are short, maybe because the young actors are in all the scenes?

 

[Guest]

This was too much of a transition episode for my taste. I did love Percy’ delayed honk at the car that almost hit them.

For the first time ever, this show had me wishing a scene was darker because those carefully placed shadows did nothing to hide Hiro Kanagawa’s distinctive face. It’s not believable to me that Percy wouldn’t have recognized him raised all kinds of questions. 

4 hours ago, ursula said:

This god was mentioned in a previous episode. When they saw centaurs running from the train, and Grover explained that their numbers were fewer, and Pan was missing and this was caused by urbanization. He talks about his Uncle Ferdinand who went seeking for Pan. Later on, he finds his Uncle Ferdinand who was Seeking (or Searching?) for Pan as one of Medusa's victims.

I think the question was who Augustus is to Grover. That heartfelt speech by Grover about how important Augustus was to his family fell really flat. 

[ursula]

10 minutes ago, Dani said:

I think the question was who Augustus is to Grover. That heartfelt speech by Grover about how important Augustus was to his family fell really flat. 

Oh I see my mistake.

I just got the impression that Augustus was another satyr from Grover's family who had gone looking for Pan. Basically Ferdinand 2.0. It kind of begs the question of why Augustus wasn't simply Ferdinand. Finding Ferdinand amongst Medusa's victims hasn't made any difference to the story (so far, from what I can see) but making him and Augustus the same character would have been narratively conservative and made Grover's reunion with him more profound for the audience. 

Or to put it in another way, I don't think the problem was that we didn't know about Augustus... it's that we (or at least I) didn't care about Augustus. But if he'd been the Uncle Ferdinand that Grover had been talking about from the start of the show, this meeting would have had a bigger impact.

 

 

3 hours ago, Affogato said:

the episodes are short, maybe because the young actors are in all the scenes?

 

I don't think it's the time, I think it's bad writing. 

 

Edited January 20 by ursula

[Affogato]

17 minutes ago, Dani said:

This was too much of a transition episode for my taste. I did love Percy’ delayed honk at the car that almost hit them.

For the first time ever, this show had me wishing a scene was darker because those carefully placed shadows did nothing to hide Hiro Kanagawa’s distinctive face. It’s not believable to me that Percy wouldn’t have recognized him raised all kinds of questions. 

I think the question was who Augustus is to Grover. That heartfelt speech by Grover about how important Augustus was to his family fell really flat. 

Yes, but we now have 2 examples of why seekers don’t come back. Grover has chosen a dangerous occupation, but maybe also a futile one. Satyrs are looking for Pan so Pan can fix the broken ecosystem. It may turn iut this is not the best use of their time. 

[Silver-hyren]

On 1/20/2024 at 10:31 AM, ursula said:

It didn't feel that the casino setting was necessary except as a metaphor for distractions but since the kids were not really distracted by the attractions of a casino, and just the lotus flower vapor in the air, any closed space would have had the same effect.

The casino is a modern reinterpretation of the Isle of the Lotus Eaters in the Odyssey.  Odysseus and his men end up on and island where the inhabitants live a life of idyl pleasure.  They've forgotten who they are because of the lotus flowers they've eaten and so can't/won't ever leave.  Casinos are literally designed to keep people inside them playing the games (and losing money).  In the book, the kids don't piece that together until after they escape the casino.

 

19 hours ago, ursula said:

Finding Ferdinand amongst Medusa's victims hasn't made any difference to the story (so far, from what I can see) but making him and Augustus the same character would have been narratively conservative and made Grover's reunion with him more profound for the audience. 

They find Ferdinand at Medusa's in the book, so there's being faithful to the source material at work there.  In terms of the show, it was used for character development.  Percy and Annabeth had been fighting all day over petty things.  Grover points to Ferdinand to show them there are much bigger things at stake than their egos.  After that, they start to warm up to each other and are on much friendlier terms in the next episode.  So yes, narratively Ferdinand hasn't had an impact on the plot, but character-wise he has.  

Also from what I've seen since my original post, Augustus was created for the show.  Given that he doesn't remember who he is, they could have gotten away with Grover flat out telling him (and the audience) who he is without it being forced.  "Uncle Augustus, don't you remember, you left to find Ferdinand after he didn't return" or something like that.

 

 

[ursula]

11 hours ago, Silver-hyren said:

They find Ferdinand at Medusa's in the book, so there's being faithful to the source material at work there.  In terms of the show, it was used for character development.  Percy and Annabeth had been fighting all day over petty things.  Grover points to Ferdinand to show them there are much bigger things at stake than their egos.  After that, they start to warm up to each other and are on much friendlier terms in the next episode.  So yes, narratively Ferdinand hasn't had an impact on the plot, but character-wise he has.  

Just going from show vibes (I haven't read the books), my take of that scene at Medusa's place was that finding Ferdinand affected Grover who got fed up with playing nice and tiptoeing around Percy's and Annabeth's issues, and realized - if I remember this properly - "you need to break things before you can fix them"? Or something like that. Which in turn forced Percy to admit he was nervy because of the "one of your friends will betray me" prophecy.

But ymmv, I didn't think it was necessary for Ferdinand to see his dead Uncle to get fed up with Percy's and Annabeth's bickering when they're been at it all day, and so many things had gone wrong with their mission. He could have just got fed up. And we'd still have the same character development, because the real bonding at that stage wasn't Grover's speech, it was the fact that both Percy and Annabeth had been given opportunities to betray each other, and they didn't. 

 

[tennisgurl]

I really like Lin-Manuel Miranda as Hermes, he always seemed like one of the more affable gods in Greek mythology and this version does seem to care about his family, even if he and Luke are apparently estranged. I swear LMM just magically appears when you say his name three times on a set, every time I turn around there he is. 

I like the Lotus as casino idea but I think that they could have done more with the concept, this felt like mostly a transitional episode. My favorite part was how horrified Percy and Annabeth were at having to drive a car and Percy scraping the car everywhere and honking at the drive who almost hit him after he was already gone. Monsters and gods? Sure. But driving a car? Now that's scary.