Where's Captain Planet When You Need Him?
The Gaea in this book isn't anywhere near as nice and kind as the one voiced by Whoopi Goldberg in Captain Planet. This Gaea is a titan, and would be voiced by someone like…Barbara Walters. Just saying.
Here's the deal: titans hate the gods and, by extension, their children…and pretty much all humanity. They just want the whole planet back. So our gang is not a fan of the plan to resurrect Gaea. But of course, by trying to stop it, they end up starting it.
The rise of Gaea, however, turns out to be very anticlimactic. Goddess barely lasts a chapter. She rises out of the ground in human form, turning the ground to sludge—which is awesome by the way, and a special effect we can't wait to see in the inevitable movie—but is quickly plucked away by Leo and a flying mechanical dragon.
And earth titan and the sky don't mix. The farther she gets from the ground, the weaker she is, and when Leo blows her up, well…no more Gaea: "Dispersed and powerless […] she could never again form a consciousness" (54.5). Leo ends up resurrecting himself and reuniting with his love, Calypso.
Oh, just one thing: all his friends think he's dead.
Pretty much everyone else ends up with his or her significant other—Jason and Piper, Frank and Hazel, Percy and Annabeth, Nico and Will (maybe?). Reyna will be forever alone, but Piper, who has a boyfriend, reminds her that that's okay because she has plenty of friends.
Kumbaya, Shmoopers.