- Airdate: January 9, 2024Corresponding Chapters: 14-16
The quest deepens as Percy, Annabeth, and Grover are tasked with a favor from a fearsome opponent: Ares, the god of war.
"A God Buys Us Cheeseburgers" includes examples of:
- Adaptational Early Appearance: Hephaestus shows up in person in this episode, whereas his book counterpart doesn't properly show up until The Battle of the Labyrinth.
- Adaptational Expansion:
- The Thrill Ride o' Love is given a makeover, with a Greek fire display telling Hephaestus's story. His throne trap for Hera also appears in the ride, and this trap is also where Ares's shield is hidden.
- Scenes of Grover and Ares interacting with each other in the diner are also littered across the episode, culminating in Grover finding out the Lightning Thief's potential identity.
- Adaptational Late Appearance: The Fates have their scene from the beginning of the book moved to this episode. This episode also introduces certain plot elements that were established much earlier in the book, like the camp's visit to Olympus during the winter solstice when the bolt was taken, Gabe painting Percy as a dangerous criminal through the media, and the story of Kronosnote .
- Adaptational Location Change:
- The encounter with Ares and the trip to the Waterland amusement park are moved from Denver to somewhere in rural Missouri, as the trio never got back on the train like they did in the books.
- In the book, the Fates appear to Percy shortly after the incident at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and thus before he's been fully introduced to the mythical world, so he doesn't immediately understand the significance. Here, they appear to Annabeth at the Gateway Arch crime scene, and Annabeth immediately recognizes it as a Portent of Doom for either herself or one of her friends.
- Adapted Out: Hephaestus doesn't use mechanical spiders as part of his trap, thus Annabeth's (and all other children of Athena's) fear of them is not yet established. Per
a Threads post
from Rick Riordan, he and the production team decided that it would be too difficult to depict on-screen and that it would have distracted more than it added. - An Offer You Can't Refuse: Ares threatens to kill the trio if they don't accept his offer to retrieve his shield in exchange for a ride closer to LA.
- Being Evil Sucks: After freeing Percy, Hephaestus admits that he doesn't really enjoy being part of the backstabbing politics of Olympus.
- Big Damn Hug: Percy tries to explain himself to Annabeth and Grover after climbing out of the river, but Annabeth shuts him up with a long hug.
- Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: Discussed between Percy and Annabeth. The Olympians are a Big, Screwed-Up Family and terrible parents, and that trickles down to the demigods as well. Annabeth says she originally thought Percy's mom was unfair to him by hiding his heritage, but the more she interacts with Percy, the more she realizes that Sally keeping him away from them helped Percy grow into a better person who wouldn't make the same mistakes. With his example, Annabeth starts to change and refuses to sacrifice Percy for glory and her mother's approval, which makes Hephaestus realize he doesn't care much for it either and let Percy go with no strings attached.
- Everyone Has Standards: Hephaestus says that Athena allowing Echidna to hunt Annabeth in St.Louis was extreme, even for her.
- Friend-or-Idol Decision: Percy sacrifices himself to Hephaestus' trap but Annabeth refuses to leave him behind and ignores Ares' shield in favor of trying to free him. Hephaestus himself appears and offers her passage out, stating if she completes Ares' quest she'll be on the path to glory as a hero. Annabeth refuses because watching Percy she realizes she doesn't want to be the same kind of person the gods are anymore, backstabbing anyone close to them to get ahead. Hephaestus agrees he doesn't really want to be that kind of person either, and decides to free Percy.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Percy attempts to do this by sitting in Hephaestus's throne trap so Annabeth can obtain Ares's shield. It takes Annabeth proving her worth to Hephaestus for Percy to be set free.
- Hidden Depths: When Ares challenges him on being a fan of his work, Grover names several rather obscure (and bloodless) wars, like the Lobster War, the Turbot War, and the 335 Year War.
- History Repeats: Hephaestus presents his life story in the Tunnel of Love ride in his amusement park, a cynical demonstration of what love has meant in his life. It ends with him joining the pantheon on Olympus by presenting an ornate throne as a gift to Hera, which was really a trap he only agreed to release her from after being offered Aphrodite's hand in marriage. At the end of the ride is an identical throne trap, the final obstacle before retrieving Ares' shield.
- How Do I Shot Web?: Percy subconsciously uses his water powers to save Annabeth from drowning, as he doesn't know how to control it yet.
- In-Series Nickname: Annabeth calls Percy "Seaweed Brain" for the first time, right before he suggests sitting in the throne so that she can get Ares's shield.Annabeth: This isn't the Arch, Seaweed Brain. You're not pushing me into the stairwell again.
- Nature Is Not Nice: When Grover says that he's a fan of Ares' work, Ares brushes it off, saying that satyrs are vegetarians who worship flowers. Grover responds that satyrs revere nature and nature is brutal, quoting Alfred, Lord Tennyson's "red in tooth and claw".
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Because Annabeth has spent almost all of her life at Camp Half-Blood, she's never seen a movie before. She also doesn't recognize "What is Love?" playing in the Thrill Ride-O-Love. Percy does... but only as something he heard at the dentist once.
- Portent of Doom: In the aftermath of the Arch confrontation, Annabeth spots the three Fates in the gathered crowd, and sees Atropos cutting a life thread. This freaks her out as she explains to Percy that this means someone is going to die soon.
- Spotting the Thread: Grover, of all people, manages to play detective and figure out that Ares knows more about something bigger going on than he's letting on. First, Grover admits that he'd seen Ares on Olympus during the Winter Solstice, which was the day the Master Bolt was stolen. Zeus believes that Percy is the Lightning Thief and Ares mentioned that he has sent other gods to retrieve the Master Bolt, so Ares was most likely ordered to obtain the Bolt from Percy. However, Ares slips that he has already known beforehand that Percy didn't steal the Bolt because he knows that Poseidon's forbidden child wasn't on Olympus the day it was stolen... so that means Ares has likely already found the real Lightning Thief prior to meeting the trio.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: In front of Hephaestus, Annabeth calls out the gods and her fellow demigods for being lying, cheating backstabbers constantly looking for glory, in contrast to Percy who is nothing like that and is starting to change her for the better as well. Hephaestus takes this in stride, frees Percy from his trap, and promises to put in a good word to Athena.
- Taken for Granite: Hephaestus' throne trap completely envelops Percy in celestial bronze, practically turning him into a statue.
- Tunnel of Love: Percy and Annabeth have to go through one to get Ares's shield, since he left it there after he and Aphrodite nearly got caught in Hephaestus's trap.
- You Can't Fight Fate: How Percy justifies his attempted sacrifice, knowing that the Fates cut a string in front of them.
