‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ Season 2, Episodes 1-5 REVIEW/RECAP: An Exciting, Bigger and Bolder Second Season

The first season being based on the first book “The Lighting Thief” was a massive hit with both critics and audiences, including fans of the book series by Rick Riordan telling a faithful adaptation with some strong worldbuilding and excellent performances from the ensemble cast.

The same could be said, having watched the first five episodes of season 2. A faithful adaptation that’s bigger, bolder, exciting, and much more adventurous than the first season.

With this review and recap, there’s gonna be some spoilers from the show and from the second book as well.

Season 2 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians is based on the second book,”The Sea of Monsters” where we have 13-year-old Percy Jackson having nightmares that his friend Grover is in trouble during his Pan Quest and that Camp Half-Blood is in danger with Thalia’s tree poisoned so his mission is travel to the Sea of Monsters and get the Golden Fleece to save not just his best friend Grover, but the camp as well.

In this season, we meet some new characters that include Tyson, Percy’s half-brother who’s a Cyclops, the Gray Sisters, Tantalus, the Camp’s new activities director, the sorceress Circe, the Goddess of Wisdom and Annabeth’s mother, Athena, Zeus’ daughter Thalia Grace, and the guardian of the Golden Fleece, Polyphemus the Cyclops.

Right from the start of Season 2, we see Percy (played by Walker Scobell) dreaming of Grover (Aryan Simhadri) on a quest but ends up getting caught by the sea-eating monster Scylla and taken to the island of Polyphemus.

Right from the get-go we meet Tyson the Cyclops, played by Daniel Diemer, who’s a scene-stealing character this season. Already it’s acknowledged that he’s a Cyclops because Percy’s mother found him on the streets and wants him to watch over Percy.

This is a departure from the book because it didn’t take until Percy chapter 4, that he learns that Tyson’s Cyclops because of the mist, but here in the first episode we know right away that quickly sets up the adventure for the two characters.

Diemer’s performance of Tyson is truly incredible. He brings so much heart and intelligence to the character and that makes fall in love with him immediately when he shows up and the VFX for the one-eye since he’s a Cyclops is pretty noticeable from the marketing, but the show makes up for it and doesn’t come across as creepy.

Both Percy and Tyson attend Meriwether College Prep just like in the book but we really don’t see them in the school that much especially the monsters dodgeball sequence in the book.

As Percy and Tyson head to school, a taxi comes to their way and who shows none other than Percy’s best friend, Annabeth Chase (Leah Chase Jeffries), pointing her dagger at Tyson since he’s cyclops and in her view she’s doesn’t trust him because of who Tyson is. She warns Percy that Camp Half-Blood is in trouble and is being driven there by the comedic Gray Sister trio owns the taxi.

As they arrive, Percy, Tyson, and Annabeth are chased by a group of menacing monster human-eating giants called Laestrygonians. They are saved by Clarisse La Rue (Dior Goodjohn), the strong and determined daughter of Ares and Percy’s arch nemesis.

Goodjohn really shines in this season after having a small role in the previous season. We see so many layers with Clarisse as she’s the one to have the quest this season and does what she can in order to impress her father Ares which adds a lot of pressure to the character of Clarisse even tho Ares doesn’t truly cares for any of his kids as he claimed in season 1.

As soon as the main characters arrive Camp Half-Blood, we see Luke Castellan, the son of Hermes stabbing Thalia’s tree with poison. Thalia Grace is the daughter of Zeus and was turn into a tree by her father after sacrificing herself in order to save Luke, Annabeth and Grover when they first arrived to Camp Half-Blood from brutally fighting monsters including Cyclopes.

We even see flashbacks of Thalia played by Tamara Smart who perfectly captures the fierce character and her punk rock goth look just as she was described in the book and we even get to see young Annabeth played by Leah’s real life cousin, Marissa Lior Winans who’s adorable in the role.

As Luke escapes on a flying Pegasus horse, the new activities director Tantalus, the king god, son of Zeus and a spirit of punishment orders for Tyson to be killed until Poseidon claimed him which makes Tyson- Percy’s half-brother.

Tantalus is played by Timothy Simons. He perfectly captures the mean spirited king who’s punished from revealing the secrets of Olympus and is cursed to eat and drink for eternity.

At first, Percy questioned Poseidon but then we see the brotherly bond between the two and it’s very wholesome to see that Tyson is a Cyclops that makes him a monster but he’s a really nice guy. The performances from Scobell and Diemer really sold their brotherly love and friendship.

Chiron the centaur who was the director of the camp last season was expelled for being the son of Kronos and told Annabeth not to tell Percy about his future aka the Great Prophecy where the child of the Big Three decides to fate of Olympus when they turn 16.

During the unassigned quest adventure, Percy, Annabeth and Tyson aboard a cruise ship called Princess Andromeda, that’s owned by Luke.

As soon as they aboard, they meet him and Luke tells them his plan is bring Kronos back alive and destroy Olympus since they don’t care about the half-blood demigod children and even claims that he did Thalia a favor by poisoning her tree to free her and thinks if she was alive, she would side with Luke.

It upsets Annabeth a lot because she loves Luke like a brother and kudos To Charlie Bushnell’s performance as Luke. He brings a lot of evil but complex energy where it makes feel so much hatred for him but want to see where he’s coming from.

After escaping Luke, our trio encounters Clarisse and her team where they decided to help her with her quest since Percy knows the sea, Annabeth’s wisdom and intelligence and Tyson being handy with building and repairing things.

There’s a really nice moment between Clarisse and Percy talking about the mission and helping each other out, but classic Clarisse still reminds him that their not friends which very reminiscent to the book as well.

The gang ends up in the Sea of Monsters fighting Syclla and Charybdis until a thermos incident causes a cyclone and Clarisse’s ship to desintegre, separating her, Tyson, Percy and Annabeth.

One of the highlights of the season so far is the character development between Percy and Annabeth.

The two of them ended up waking in some kind of a beautiful spa resort which is run by the sorceress Circe played by Rosemarie DeWitt, giving a very charismatic and intimidating portrayal of the character.

They assume that Clarisse and Tyson is dead but must continue to their quest but Circe wants them to stay for a while because outside resort at the end are Siren creatures that can hurt them.

In this whole sequence we even get Percy and Annabeth dressed up in stunning Greek like-outfits.

There’s a pivotal moment with Percy where looks in Circe’s mirror and sees Tyson and one of his fatal flaws is the caring and loving relationship with his friends.

He tells Annabeth about how he will burn it all down and feels he’s brings danger to everyone including her and Grover because of the human choices he makes and doesn’t at all feels like a demigod child.

This scene is a much more needed moment for the fans who love Percy and Annabeth so we can see a more human side for both of them even for Percy because he’s not a perfect person but only a kid.

In this show, Circe is treated more like a therapist compared to the book because of course she owns the spa but we really don’t see her do much in the book except being a threat to Percy that’s a very good change so we can spend more time with her.

Just like in the book, Circe infamously turns Percy into a guinea pig but in this show she uses her magic that she blows in his face because he confronted her about how she helped other heroes to get pass the Sirens by giving them beeswax to ignore their singing and the training is scam but in the book she actually gives him a strawberry milkshake that he drinks that turns him into the pet after seeing a cooler version of himself in the mirror.

Another big change from the book is the moment between Annabeth and Circe.

Annabeth already knows that Circe is a sorceress and so does Percy because their parents taught them about the Greek gods but in the book she realizes Circe when she finds out that knows everything about her and will teach her magic and sorcery.

Even when Percy is a guinea pig, he uses a water tub in the cage to make a tornado so Annabeth knows that he’s a turned into a pig and even saw his Riptide pen on Circe’s desk.

One of things to appreciate about this show is how smart these kids are when they’re dealing with Greek gods by already knowing who they are, what they do and how to stop them but in the books they slowly build up the suspense by making them seem that their not smart until they found out who their dealing with and personally, the show does it better.

After using vitamins from Hermes to bring Percy back to human form and even Blackbeard the pirate and his crew who were also cursed by Circe, Annabeth and Percy escape the spa and are ready to face the Sirens by using the wax until Circe stole it back with her magic.

Annabeth uses herself as bait to go against the Sirens until she see hers mother Athena, goddess of wisdom played gracefully by Grammy winner and Oscar nominated actress Andra Day comes to her rescue and tells her thag she always watched her.

Emotional Annabeth touches her hand until in reality it was actually the Sirens that did manipulated her and Percy came to her rescue and nothing successfully fled with their new boat.

A big shout out to the crew for making the Sirens so scary from the way their design of having a terrifying form of being made out of coral, seaweed and rocks to show much scary they can be in Greek mythology.

Percy and Annabeth sees the Island of Polyphemus from a distance as they head there.

Speaking of the island, Clarisse arrived at the island after the disaster losing her shipnand crew and ended up captured by the Cyclops Polyphemus getting ready to be eaten by him and his “wife” who is actually Grover in the disguise wearing a wedding dress (like in the book) covering his face with the veil.

Grover tries to help Clarisse escape and get the golden fleece but were unsuccessful when Polyphemus figured out their plan and confronts them.

It’s up to Percy and Annabeth to save Grover and Clarisse from the Cyclops and get the Golden Fleece to save the camp but are unaware to what wait them in the Island of Polyphemus.

Overall with the first five episodes of this second season so far, it captures the spirit and faithfulness from The Sea of Monsters book but makes so good changes that keeps the show engaging with how action heavy its getting, the amazing development from old and new characters, a bolder tone and gorgeous striking visuals like the first season while even be very fast-paced to get the story going.

3 more episodes to go to see what happens next.

The first five episodes of Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2 are currently airing on both Disney+ and Hulu.