- Airdate: January 23, 2024Corresponding Chapters: 17-19
Our main heroes journey across the Underworld and bargain for their safety with Hades, the god of the dead as they discover a more darker revelation.
"We Find Out the Truth, Sort Of" includes examples of:
- Adapted Out: While exploring the Underworld, Percy, Grover and Annabeth only end up navigating through the Fields of Asphodel, with the Fields of Elysium and Punishment never being seen as they were in the books.
- Adaptation Amalgamation: The episode combines the encounter with "Crusty" with DOA Recording Studios, the entrance to the Underworld in the novel.
- Adaptation Deviation: In the book, Annabeth sticks with the boys all the way to Hades's palace and back. Here, she gets trapped in Asphodel and is forced to use her pearl to return to the living world ahead of Percy and Grover. She reunites with them on the beach of Montauk when they activate their pearls.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Hades is a lot more affable here than he is in the novel. His characterization, in fact, seems far closer to how he is in The Last Olympian and The Heroes of Olympus books. (Of course, he does try to take the Master Bolt for protection from Kronos...)
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: Kronos, grandfather of Ares and Percy, plots a war against the rest of his family, in order to retake the throne from his son, Zeus. Even Hades seems terrified of dear old Dad, trying to obtain the Master Bolt when he previously had no interest in it, in order to protect himself.
- Blade Brake: Percy unsheathes Riptide and stabs it into the ground to stop him and Grover from getting dragged into Tartarus.
- Establishing Character Moment: The first time we see Hades, he cordially greets Percy and Grover when they enter his imposing black throne room, establishing him as both far less malevolent than his reputation might suggest and much nicer than his grim, brooding literary counterpart. His ensuing conversation with the boys, meanwhile, cements him as a Reasonable Authority Figure while simultaneously making it clear that he's lost absolutely none of Book!Hades' cleverness.
- Everybody Hates Hades: Defied. After suspecting Hades of masterminding the lightning theft since Episode 2, the Lord of the Dead reveals that he had nothing to do with the drama surrounding the Bolt. He is perfectly content with ruling the Underworld, since it means he's far away from his Big, Screwed-Up Family on Mount Olympus. He only sent his Furies after Percy because his symbol of power, the Helm of Darkness, has also been stolen and he believes Percy took it.
- Flashback B-Plot: While the bulk of the story follows Percy, Grover, and Annabeth making their way across the Underworld, the b-story follows Sally's attempts to get seven-year-old Percy into a special education school. These are the same memories Hermes briefly tapped into last episode, with the same shot of young Percy locking himself in the car.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Kronus is revealed as such, having manipulated everything, including his grandsons, Ares and Percy, to start a war against the Olympians and retake his throne.
- Go Fetch: Annabeth manages to distract Cerberus by tossing the red rubber ball from Procrustes's office down the river.
- Hellhound: The trio encounter and are chased by one of the Trope Makers, Cerberus, after Charon sics him on them.
- Ironic Echo: Hades uses the same line on Percy that Sally used on him in the flashback to get him out of the car in order to demand that Percy give him the Master Bolt. This time however, Percy refuses the demand and uses the pearls to escape, promising to come back for his mom.Sally/Hades: This isn't a negotiation. The only question is how hard are you going to make it?
- Meaningful Echo: As Percy is about to crush his pearl and escape the Underworld he says "Hold fast, Mom", calling back to what Sally said to him all the way back in the first episode.
- Not Me This Time: Hades is bewildered and confused when Percy and Grover accuse him of masterminding the plot to steal the bolt. Turns out he seems to enjoy the power he already possesses.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Percy and Grover have one when they hear a "clank" from the backpack and discover the Master Bolt inside.
- Both Percy and Hades have one when they realize that Kronos, the true Big Bad, is rising and plotting his revenge.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Hades legitimately offers sanctuary to Percy and his mom when he realizes Kronos is planning to make his return, a sign that the Titan Lord is bad news.
- Out of Focus: Downplayed with Annabeth. After spending two episodes bonding with Percy, she ends up escaping the Underworld much earlier to save herself from a Transflormation in the Asphodel fields, essentially taking herself out of the episode's plot altogether and not appearing until the end. This allows Grover, who's spent most of the time sidelined, to venture with Percy to confront Hades.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: In the flashback, Sally mutters that she and Percy "aren't in Kansas anymore". Seven-year-old Percy doesn't get it, and Sally notes to herself to show him The Wizard of Oz. Percy repeats the line when they're on the banks of the River Styx, and Annabeth reminds him they left Kansas earlier that week.
- Red Herring: Last episode, Percy received four pearls for him, his mom and his friends. Here, that becomes moot because Grover loses his when Cerberus tries to eat him. Percy decides to come back for Sally after learning more of the truth of the Master Bolt's theft.
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Charon immediately notices that the trio aren't dead, and summons Cerberus to chase them off when they try to bribe him with drachmas to let them across.
- Spared by the Adaptation: The heroes simply leave Procrustes trapped in one of his rigged beds, rather than decapitating him like in the books.
- Shout-Out: On one wall of his lounge area Hades has a huge portrait of Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights.
- To Hell and Back: As in the novel. The trio find the entrance to the Underworld in the back of a sketchy mattress store in L.A., encounter Cerberus, Charon, and the shades in Asphodel, narrowly avoid being dragged into Tartarus, and finally confront Hades himself before using the magic pearls to return to the land of the living.
- Transflormation: In the books, the souls in Asphodel wander around aimlessly, half-remembering their lives on earth. Here, they are physically bound in place by their regrets. Memories of what they did or failed to do in life manifest as roots and tendrils that gradually turn them into barren trees. The magic even works on a living person, Annabeth, when her own regrets (likely about her leaving her family) resurface, forcing her to leave the quest early before she's trapped forever.
