Ron Does Stuff

Happy New Year, everyone! Let’s jump right into it so I’m all caught up by the time the next episode airs!

At the end of the last episode, it looked like Percy, Annabeth, and Clarisse were done for. But of course, they couldn’t possibly be since two of those people are the leads. So what happened?

If we’re going to believe the ~concierge~ that Percy and Annabeth meet once they wake up, everybody else is dead. They’re stuck on an island that is supposedly the only sanctuary in the Sea of Monsters, but I’m guessing that this is Circe’s place and that’s who CC is. CC is positioning herself as the only way to get past the Sirens, whose depiction here I really like. I thought they would go the sultry seductress route but this is still a children’s show, after all.

We then find that Clarisse is still alive, but she’s gotten herself captured by Polyphemus. She thinks Percy and Annabeth are dead, but Grover doesn’t believe it because he does have that empathy link thing with Percy. But with Clarisse now with him, Grover can at least put his escape plan to motion.

Over on the island, Annabeth’s quickly figured out that CC is Circe after she performs actual magic. Now, I don’t want to be that guy, but I’m going to be that guy. Isn’t Circe pronounced like Kirki or something? Also, having read Madeleine Miller’s Circe back in 2018, I kinda prefer that more and I wish this Circe just owned that turning Odysseus’ men into pigs thing.

Percy stands before Circe’s mirror as he tries to find out what his fatal flaw is, and it’s something that ties in to the Great Prophecy — he’s willing to burn it all down for his friends. And he knows that he’ll do it too! Also we find out that Percy is still 13 here? I’m sorry, but they need to shoot this whole thing quicker because Walker Scobell does not look like a 13-year-old anymore. BUT back to the actual show, Percy realizes that he really might just be the worst person to send on this quest and that maybe he should stay out of it.

Back at Polyphemus’ cave, Grover and Clarisse’s first attempt to escape and get the Golden Fleece isn’t exactly successful. Clarisse knocks herself out while climbing out, while Grover gets exposed as not a cyclops and now has to get away from Polyphemus. How he’s going to do that? I don’t know!

Meanwhile, Percy is starting to realize that CC hasn’t exactly changed from her previous ways and is still stranding people on her island, except through this New Age-thing of self-reflection and introspection. He confront her about it, and tries to blackmail her into helping out Annabeth, which doesn’t end well for Percy. Now he’s a guinea pig!

Clarisse, while still very much a human, is giving up hope inside Polyphemus cave. Grover’s still alive, at least, but locked inside a wardrobe. Grover tells her not to give up hope, but then is revealed to be a fake when he tells Clarisse that Ares is merciful. It hasn’t been Grover that Clarisse has been talking to, but Polyphemus, who apparently can perfectly mimic other people’s voices. He tells Grover that he’s blind, not dumb, and he’s know all along. So what’s the bigger plan here? Is he going to kill Grover and Clarisse? Or is he gunning for a bigger prize?

At least things are turning out better for Percy and Annabeth. Thanks to her being observant and being a child of Athena, she figures out that Percy has been turned into a guinea pig, and using the gummies that Hermes gave Percy to turn Luke back to his “old self”, manages to turn Percy back to his old self. They get the beeswax from Circe’s drawer and sail off her island. BUT! There isn’t enough beeswax for the both of them! AND! Circe uses her magic to take back the wax after Annabeth’s tied up Percy to the mast of the ship. How will Annabeth resist the Sirens’ call?

I thought she was resisting, and that she got a late assist from Athena, but as it turns out, it was still the effect of the Sirens? She gets saved by Percy, and she confesses what the Sirens made her see. And then she asks what it was that Percy saw, and he admits that all he saw was her. He says that maybe the two of them needed to be here to get past the Sirens, and I gotta applaud the connection that Walker and Leah have established over the course of the two seasons. There’s chemistry here!

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