#I let my English muffin sit in the toaster oven for like five extra minutes after it dinged to finish this post

[bisexualpercyjacksons]

no wait wait wait hear me out about how the four beads is a truly devious and smart addition

so starting off with four beads from the dryad establishes a few things:

1. getting out of the underworld wasn’t something they really thought about yet (too many steps ahead, I also have ADHD I get it)

2. poseidon HAS thought of that problem and has made the beads in preparation to protect them

3. poseiden thought about rescuing sally when planning how to get everyone back safely, not just percy and his friends

2 & 3 plant the seeds (a long with the dryad’s words and hermes’ comments) that poseiden really does care about percy (and sally!). yes I know I know, bare minimum to care about your kid etc. but considering this is a show and we don’t get percy’s internal monologue it kinda makes sense to have a little more details that make poseiden seem better to the audience

[read more break to not clog up the tag. I promise I get into the angst shortly]

all these little bits that imply poseiden really does want to be there for him but can’t, that he’s been watching from afar because he didn’t want zeus to find out he broke the pact and take his anger out on his son and former love (yes, love! this is the man/god that wanted sally to be his queen with him in his underwater kingdom!!!). I actually really like the idea of those posts about how he has been helping out in little ways over the years because. let’s be real for a second. NO WAY does sally afford that apartment AND have the ability to send percy to specialized boarding schools with the salary of a CANDY SHOP EMPLOYEE. I get it I get it, the gods are deadbeats, but I’ll admit I kind of like the idea that he’s been doing what he feasibly could without getting caught by making extra money appear in sally’s bank account or sm

making him seem (and possibly be) more sympathetic is another reason that fuels percy to change the system rather than join luke to tear it all down. he knows the system is bad but he sees hope and truly believes it can be changed for the better. that is something that can be saved, not destroyed

4. this is kinda irrelevant but I like that it is the dryad that agrees to give percy the pearls after poseiden says for him and his friends to go back to camp because she wants him to have a chance to change things. gives her a little bit more agency. (also y’all she’s SO pretty in gay but moving in)

so. four beads.

if we want to keep the dilemma and character growth that comes with there only being three beads and someone having to make a sacrifice, something needs to happen: one of the beads breaks or someone loses it

is it percy? who has realized they need four beads for EVERYONE to come back and is horrified that they now only have three, meaning either he himself or one of the most important people to him has to be left behind in actual hell in order for the world to be saved? think about the dread and self-loathing that would come from that

or is it annabeth or grover? where the horrifying realization is the same but now there is a gut reaction from percy to be upset with the person who loses/breaks it. he loves his friends and can’t stay mad at them but now they are in this impossible dilemma to choose who stays behind and it’s killing all of them. the impossibly guilt of the person who breaks/loses it knowing that it’s their fault someone doesn’t get to go home, someone has to stay behind in the underworld

and when does this happen? early on, and we spend the episode watching them all try to figure out the dreadful problem of who gets left behind. looking at each other thinking, I can’t leave them behind, I can’t. they’re my family. but we can’t leave percy’s mom behind either.

or does it happen right before they have the chance to go, and they all think everyone is going to make it and sally is in percy’s grasp only for everything to fall apart and now everyone is looking at each other thinking, who is going to have to be left behind? who has to be the sacrifice?

anyways, I think there is something truly devious about them KNOWING there NEEDS to be four beads and HAVING THEM only to have something happen and the option of everyone going home safe being ripped from their grasps

#I let my English muffin sit in the toaster oven for like five extra minutes after it dinged to finish this post #everyone being like FOUR BEADS IM WORRIED and I’m like NO THINK OF THE POTENTIAL #percy jackson and the olympians #percy jackson #pjo #pjo tv #pjo tv spoilers #pjo 1x06 #pjo speculation #grover underwood #annabeth chase #sally jackson #not sure how else to tag this #mine #I haven’t read the books in a decade so I’m slightly rusty on lore but like guys this is how we can still win #yes I know deadbeat parent gods yes but have you considered this makes things more spicy #adds more flavor #also yall this man wanted to make sally his queen you gotta admit that on some level he cares