The search for the Sea of Monsters rapidly turns dark and ominous in Episode 6 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2. Anointed “Nobody Gets the Fleece,” the Disney+ drama suddenly loses the lighthearted tone evident in the first few episodes to present a much darker scenario: a moral crisis that highlights Percy Jackson‘s biggest flaw to put the future of Olympus in the balance.
Picking up where the diversion to Circe’s Island left off, this episode sees our heroes reunited once again: this time, it is Percy, Annabeth, Clarisse, and Tyson who find themselves in the lair of Polyphemus. Initially set to be a routine battle with another monster, this episode is shaped to be, so far, the most pivotal one in this season, with the Golden Fleece revealed not as a prize but as a tool for changing destiny itself.
The return of the “monster” brother
It picks up from last week’s cliffhanger and addresses the fact that Tyson had indeed survived the attack on Clarisse’s ship. This is short-lived. Percy finds himself dealing with a nightmare vision of Camp Half-Blood’s destruction. In a rather dramatic twist of misdirection, he discovers that his tormentor is not Kronos but Thalia Grace herself. This is a clear indication that having the power of the Fleece might be rather dangerous.
In Polyphemus’s island encounter with the Cyclops, the action-laden part of the episode is delivered. Polyphemus gets to be better crafted in terms of intelligence than in the novel. However, the real emotional importance rests with Tyson. When Polyphemus presents the case for brotherhood amongst monsters, Tyson promptly sides with Percy. Their fight culminates with Tyson pushing Polyphemus off a cliff.
The turning point in the story comes when Annabeth is critically injured and falls into a coma. It is a situation where his canonical flaw of personal loyalty is thrown into focus.
Realizing that the Golden Fleece holds the key to curing Annabeth immediately, Percy makes a desperate decision. Just as Percy decides to act, Luke Castellan appears, intent on getting his hands on the Fleece and using it for Kronos’ resurrection. Percy ignores Clarisse’s warnings and hands over the Fleece. Luke Castellan holds true to his word and rescues Annabeth, but he takes both the Fleece and Annabeth with him.
This choice has major repercussions beyond the island itself. Both Walker Scobell and Charlie Bushnell exercise complex hero-villain holds, starting to make Luke feel ominously real and justifying all the prophecies surrounding the character. As Circe prophesied, Percy would go to any lengths to save the person he cares about.
The episode ends on a hopeful, tentative note. Armed with the help of a bracelet, which Tyson used to recover from the sea, a gift from Poseidon, he is able to summon a group of Hippocampi, whom the heroes set off in pursuit of Luke’s ship, the Princess Andromeda.
Although the novel has Polyphemus’ island as an obstacle to be crossed, the changes made to it for the Disney+ show alter that. In Rick Riordan’s book, Luke is introduced when it is already past the retrieval of the fleece. Inclusion of Luke at the exact location of Annabeth’s injury changes the fleece to a bargaining tool of morals. What becomes apparent is a more defined and quicker journey regarding the emergence of Percy’s weakness, leading to the Great Prophecy—but this time around, the price for heroism is well defined, and proven in episode 6 to be the fact that saving one could be the cost for saving them all.
