Does ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ Have an End-Credits Scene?

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’

The Big Picture

• The end-credits scene in Percy Jackson and the Olympians reveals the divorce of Percy’s mother and the death of Percy’s stepfather, Gabe.
• The show changed Gabe’s death from the book to align with his character in the series.
• Gabe’s death is seen as a consequence of his own actions, rather than an intentional act by Sally, and signifies his removal from Percy and Sally’s lives.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians took the audience on a monster-filled ride as Percy (Walker Scobell), Annabeth (Leah Jeffries), and Grover (Aryan Simhadri) went on a quest to recover Zeus’ (Lance Reddick) missing Master Bolt. Fortunately, by the end of the finale, the trio completes their quest by getting the Bolt back to its rightful owner and discovering the identity of the thief. This success results in a hopeful ending despite the impending rise of Kronos (Nick Boraine) as Percy returns to his mother for the school year. Meanwhile, Annabeth gives her father and his family another chance, seeing them for the first time in years, and Grover sets out on his quest to find Pan, the long-missing god of the wild. Though Percy still has nightmares, the danger seems to have subsided for now. However, that is not the complete ending.

Throughout the series, each episode had a trailer for the next one after the credits. Yet the finale, “The Prophecy Comes True,” has nothing to advertise, especially considering Season 2 is not yet confirmed. But rather than an excuse to have nothing there, the show sees this as a few extra minutes to work with and adds an end-credits scene instead of a trailer. While Percy’s story is wrapped up in the episode, the scene features Percy’s stepfather, Gabe (Timm Sharp). Gabe played a small role in the series, but the events of the end-credits scene will change Percy’s life. Like the rest of the series, Gabe’s story is based on Rick Riordan‘s novel Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, but there are distinct differences. However, the end-credits scene concludes Gabe’s story in a similar place to the books.

What Is ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’s End-Credits Scene?

The scene reveals two important pieces of information despite being so short. As it begins, Gabe is on the phone with a lawyer on his way to the apartment door. His discussion proves that Sally Jackson (Virginia Kull) is divorcing him, much to his frustration. She even changed the locks, so he could not return to her apartment. This officially removes Gabe from Percy’s life, much to the demigod’s relief, as he and Gabe never got along. More importantly, it is because of the lack of Gabe that Percy and his mother can share the happy life seen in the episode’s conclusion. But the divorce is only a small part of the scene compared to Gabe’s death.

As he realizes his key doesn’t work, Gabe picks up a package for Percy left by the door. The audience should instantly recognize this as the box with Medusa’s (Jessica Parker Kennedy) head that Percy impertinently sent to the gods, now with a “return to sender” label. Greedy and unaware of the world Percy is a part of, Gabe opens the box and sees the monster’s head, which turns into stone in the middle of the hallway. The show doesn’t provide a way to save Medusa’s victims. Considering Grover leaves Uncle Ferdinand as a statue in Medusa’s basement and begins to mourn him, it seems unlikely that there is one. This death makes Gabe the first non-monster death in the show, and as monsters regenerate, he is the first to truly die.

‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ Had to Change Gabe’s Death

Though Riordan’s book has Gabe turn to stone, it isn’t the same. In the book, Percy realizes Gabe has been hitting his mother. In his anger, he discovers the returned Medusa’s head in his room and plans to kill Gabe. Sally stops him, insisting that this is a problem she must handle. She later writes Percy a letter at Camp Half-Blood revealing that Gabe had “disappeared” and that she sold her first and only sculpture, “The Poker Player,” to an art gallery. Sally uses the money from the sale to enroll at NYU, and that is the last anyone hears from Gabe. Oddly, the murder attracts no attention, and Sally doesn’t face consequences. This certainly removes Gabe from their lives, but the plotline is dark and out of character for Sally.

The show had to change Gabe’s ending because his character was different. While the book version has some justification for Sally to take action (though it admittedly goes to an extreme) the show doesn’t. Percy Jackson and the Olympians made Gabe a lazy jerk rather than the abusive figure he is in the books. This distinction was the first step in cleaning up the storyline for a younger audience, but it required a change to his ending. The books focus on his unpleasant odor, which Sally used to cover up Percy’s demigod smell from monsters to keep him away from Poseidon’s (Toby Stephens) world as long as possible.

This demonstrates what she would do for Percy, but the show didn’t go into this and instead gave Sally and Gabe a better dynamic. Though they are far from loving, Sally talks back to him rather than flinching away, making him slightly less of a threat than the book version. Sally intentionally kills him and sell his remains for a profit, which is even worse. So, Gabe’s death was changed to be a result of his own actions rather than Sally’s choice. Sally and Percy are still free of him, and the show nicely side-stepped the murder of it all.

Does Gabe’s Death Impact ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’?

Since the result of Gabe turning to stone is the same, this change has little impact overall. However, it has inspired theories. There’s a chance Gabe’s death wasn’t accidental at all. The show focuses more on Sally’s relationship with Poseidon through a flashback in Episode 7 and Percy and Poseidon’s conversation in the finale. This confirms that Poseidon still cares for Sally. As one of the gods to whom Medusa’s head was sent, there’s the chance that Poseidon sent the package back ahead of Gabe, expecting him to open it. Certainly, murder is not out of character for a god, but this method seems like a lot of trouble for Poseidon.

Whatever the case, Gabe’s death is not intentional on Sally’s part, as it is in the books. This makes the plot significantly less dark, especially as the show frames his death as a consequence of his attempt to steal from Percy. In this way, Gabe’s ending sticks to the book while cleaning up the story for a young audience. Turning to stone makes it permanent, but the most important implication of the scene is that Gabe is no longer a part of Percy and Sally’s lives.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians is available to watch on Disney+ in the U.S.

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