Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers forPercy Jackson and the Olympians.
With its two-episode premiere,Percy Jackson and the Olympiansrestores a sense of rightness to the universe. RememberthoseLogan Lerman-led movie attemptsin the early 2010s? Their sins, so far, are nowhere in sight. The Disney+ adaptation is giving a fandom almost old enough to vote the adaptation it deserves,following the books quite closelywith natural deviations occurring, well, naturally, given the always-precarious territory associated with translating words into a visual medium. Other than condensing events, the show’s most notable yet organic changes involve Sally Jackson (Virginia Kull), the mother of protagonist Percy Jackson (Walker Scobell). Already a beloved force of nature in authorRick Riordan’s series,the tweaksPercy Jackson and the Olympiansmakes to Sally and her relationship with Percy do what every reworking of a text should: enhance the existing material. It’s also sleek, smart adaptation work in action that uplifts the story’s core and sets the stage for future events to have an even more compelling impact.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Demigod Percy Jackson leads a quest across America to prevent a war among the Olympian gods.
What Is Sally Jackson Like in the ‘Percy Jackson’ Books?
EveryPercy Jacksonreader knows the name Sally Jackson by reputation. Percy’s mother is the series' unsung MVP and practically a goddess in her own right. InRick Riordan’s written universe, Sally is a devoted, intuitive, and ferocious mother who’s emotionally attuned to her son’s needs and staunchly protective. Percy, who adores his mother, introduces her as “the best person in my world,” followed by, “which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck.” Young Percy isn’t far off the mark. After losing her parents when she was five years old and her uncle to cancer when she was a teenager, Sally dropped out of high school and in so doing surrendered her dreams of becoming a writer. Her love for Percy’s father, the Greek god Poseidon (Toby Stephens), was likewise doomed from the start, leaving Sally a single mother with all that entailed: tender parenting, financial provision, and keeping her son safe from the mythological monsters intent on killing demigod children. She never raises a word of complaint or resentment.
In some ways, Sally’s selfless tendencies seem too good to be true. Riordan, however, ensures Sally rings as human as any mortal while still championing an overlooked demographic. For twelve years, she keeps Percy close instead of moving him inside Camp Half-Blood’s magical borders. Percy inherited his “rebellious streak” from Sally, in what’s less a character flaw than a delightful quirk. When necessary, she’s handy with a shotgun. Sally is the perfect parent without being upheld to unrealistic gendered motherhood standards. Her purpose within Riordan’s framework, i.e., her generous spirit, echoesPercy Jackson’s manifold themes: suffering need not burn away people’s kindness, kindness doesn’t equal weakness, and most heroes don’t reflect traditional heroic imagery.
So, of course, Sally doesn’t hesitate to sacrifice herself to protect Percy from the Minotaur’s deadly attacks. She’s already spent years doing a variation of the same; she married Gabe Ugliano (Timm Sharp), an exploitative abuser she doesn’t love, simply because his pungent mortal stinkmasks Percy’s telltale demigod scent. In no uncertain terms, Sally Jackson is the greatest and most legitimate of heroes. Thankfully, despite expectations laid out by the first book’s opening chapters and assumptions based on decades of media, Rick Riordan never forces Sally into the dead parent trope. AsPercy Jackson and the Olympiansreveals at the end of Episode 2, during her encounter with the Minotaur, Hades (Jay Duplass),god of the Underworld, plucks her from the brink of death and holds her captive to use as leverage against Percy. Sally rescues herself from the Underworld, turns Gabe to stone using Medusa’s head, and decides to truly live for herself for the first time. The god Apollo eventually describes Sally as an equal to the gods. Canon has firmly established that messing with Sally Jackson is off the table. How does one improve upon such an unassailable law? With increased assertiveness, agency, and clarity.
How Does ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ Improve Sally?
Percy Jackson and the OlympiansEpisode 1 immediately, and rightfully, prioritizes Percy’s relationship with Sally. From here spring all improvements, just like all roads lead back to Sally Jackson’s greatness. An entirely new flashback scene between Sally and Percy explains his namesake but exists to establish their mother-son bond. In the books, Percy discovers his heritage in bits and pieces during the frantic car ride to Camp Half-Blood and from other children at the camp. The Disney+ adaptation recontextualizes these early revelations into a quiet, vulnerable conversation between mother and son. It’s obvious that Sally, an expert on the gods, has been teaching Percy about Greek mythology as a way to prepare him for this eventuality. The more Percy’s armed with semi-normalized knowledge about his birthright, ideally, the less shock it will be; and it reaffirms his worth in every respect. Being a demigod technically makes Percy unique, but he’s special first and foremost because he is Sally Jackson’s son.
Which is exactly why Sally stands her ground with confidence grounded in the earth’s core. She’s assertive with Gabe (who reeks of emotional abuse even ifhe isn’t physically abusive in this adaptation). Grover Underwood (Aryan Simhadri) is tasked with protecting young demigods, but Sally’s sheer devotion demands that he switch from a panicked young adult into Percy’s sworn protector. Just like every loving parent sending their child out into a cruelly indifferent world, when the Minotaur appears, Sally realizes she’s reached the end of her power. No longer is she capable of adequately protecting her son. Entrusting Percy to others is a terrifyingly obvious choice and another sacrifice: by giving up Percy, his mother surrenders her last scrap of happiness.
Who Is That Shadowy Dream Figure in ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’?
There’s something sinister lurking in the son of Poseidon’s mind.
By the time the Minotaur sequence hits, Percy and Sally’s relationship has been foreshadowed up and down the block. Still, when she tells her beloved son to “hold fast, brave the storm,” Scobell and Kull’s vivid performances lend the obvious plot development the emotional weight it deserves. Most importantly, when a distressed Percy calls himself “broken,” Sally responds with a line lifted straight from every good parent’s heart: “You are not broken. You are singular. You are a miracle, and you are my son.“Rick Riordan wrote thePercy Jacksonseriesfor, in his words, “my own son to feel seen and represented because he had learning differences.” The intentions behind Sally’s words aren’t new, but verbalizing them in new ways matters. It remains viscerally necessary forevery neurodivergent childto hear that they aren’t deficient or disappointing, especially from their loved ones.
Finally, Sally steals a move literally out of Percy’s book. InThe Lightning Thief, after Percy sees Sally dematerialize, he waves his red jacket at the Minotaur. InPercy Jackson and the Olympians, Sally knows monsters hunt demigods through smell. She directs the danger onto herself by taking Percy’s jacket, but that isn’t enough; she taunts the creature by shaking the red clothing. The Minotaur of the book attacks Sally almost by accident. In the series, Sally Jackson puts her body in front of an ancient mythological creature and her worthless husband with the same fierce clarity. Comparatively, this gives Sally greater autonomy and all the crucial dramatic heft.
Sally Is ‘Percy Jackson’s Greatest Hero
Episode 2’s ending deviates fromThe Lightning Thiefeven more significantly. There, Percy doesn’t discover Sally’s alive until after he’s embarked on his quest to retrieve Zeus' (Lance Reddick) thunderbolt.Percy Jackson and the Olympianshas Percy learn the truth from Grover and accept the quest as a means to an end. Not for the glory craved by other campers, and certainly not because Dionysus (Jason Mantzoukas) and Chiron (Glynn Turman) demand his obedience. Percy’s hero’s journey begins just because he loves his mom — the only parent he recognizes, and the woman he prays to while ostensibly making an offering to his father. The alternate decision strengthens Percy’s motivations, grounded as they are in established emotion, and infuses the series with instant, character-based momentum.
According to Rick Riordan, there’s more series-exclusive material on the way for Sally Jackson. “It’s been really fun to go back and tell the story faithfully, but with additional nuance and additional depth,“he told Today. “For instance, how did Sally and Poseidon interact with one another when Percy was young? What was that like? And you get a glimpse of that in the series.” With Sally, the writing team (which includes Riordan) isn’t correcting mistakes from an older, faulty story. Combined with how the wistfully resilient Virginia Kull steals the first episode away from her impressive co-stars, they’re elevating substantive content to spectacular effect. The Sally Jackson new viewers meet is her original self times tenfold.
Percy Jackson and the Olympiansis available to stream on Disney+.
