To say Percy Jackson (Walker Scobell) has an advanced relationship along with his father can be like calling the Pacific Ocean a puddle.

For starters, there’s the bombshell that his father is none apart from the Greek god Poseidon (Toby Stephens). Then there’s all the bags that comes with that, like Poseidon not with the ability to assist Percy or his mom Sally (Virginia Kull) besides from afar, or legends of Poseidon’s cruelty and mistreatment of mortals similar to Medusa (Jessica Parker Kennedy).

There are additionally moments all through Percy Jackson and the Olympians the place we see Percy join along with his father. When Percy leaps from the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Poseidon sends a water funnel to avoid wasting him. Earlier than Percy completes his quest, Poseidon offers him with 4 pearls that may assist save him, Annabeth (Leah Sava Jeffries), Grover (Aryan Simhadri), and Sally escape the Underworld. And in a flashback dialogue with Sally in episode 7, we see that Poseidon actually does look after Percy in a manner we would not perceive from solely seeing Percy’s perspective.

All of those moments come to a head in Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ Season 1 finale, when Percy and Poseidon lastly meet head to head on Mount Olympus. In a shift from the books, Percy arrives on Olympus after the deadline to return Zeus’ (Lance Riddick) Grasp Bolt passes, that means Poseidon and Zeus are formally at struggle. But when Zeus makes an attempt to strike Percy down, Poseidon will get between them and surrenders — a transfer that feels much less like a prideful Olympian and extra like a father ready to put down his life for his little one.

“It is a sacrifice Poseidon makes for his son, and it is an enormous factor,” Stephens informed Mashable in a video interview. However is Percy conscious of simply how main this sacrifice is?

“That second between Zeus and Poseidon isn’t seen by Percy,” mentioned Stephens. “He does not absolutely perceive what occurred, and I preferred that. When Poseidon turns round to Percy, it is like, ‘You do not notice what you have value me,’ however he isn’t going to let him know that. As an alternative, he is like, ‘You are bother, however I really like you and I am happy with you on the identical time. And I am prepared to avoid wasting you.'”

For Stephens and for showrunners Jonathan Steinberg and Dan Shotz, that real reference to Percy and Sally was essential for understanding the function of Poseidon. “They wished to make the connection between Poseidon, Percy, and Percy’s mother really feel actual, and to have a type of complexity to it,” Stephens mentioned.

That undercurrent of complexity runs by Percy and Poseidon’s total dialog, however particularly within the second when Percy asks Poseidon if he ever goals about Sally. As an alternative of answering, Poseidon takes a silent beat earlier than deflecting. But for Stephens, that silence speaks volumes.

“He is like, ‘Yeah, I dream about her on a regular basis, and it is extremely painful. And if solely I may speak to you about it, however I am not going to try this,'” Stephens defined. “There’s that aspect of our mother and father that’s at all times mysterious. You might be extremely near your mother and father, however there’s an inside life and and inside historical past that you simply can not have entry to. I feel that second [with Percy] opens up the query, ‘What’s that about for Poseidon? What’s going on in there?’ And that is what you wish to depart the viewers with.”

Percy Jackson and the Olympians is now streaming on Disney+.