'Percy Jackson & The Olympians' Season 2 Episode 5 Recap: What Happens To Grover And Clarisse?

The Disney+ fantasy adventure series, Percy Jackson & The Olympians Season 2, is turning out to be even more childish and ineffective than the already bad first season, with the same few points being repeated every episode. This week’s iteration is no different, as Percy and his friend Annabeth find themselves to have magically survived the disastrous double attack of the sea monsters, only for the protagonist to once again nag about his sheer determination to protect his friends at all costs. Season 2 episode 5 also updates us on the satyr, Grover Underwood’s whereabouts, as he is still trapped at the cave of Polyphemus, where he is suddenly visited by an unexpected friend.

Spoiler Alert

Where do Percy and Annabeth find themselves at present?

At the end of the previous episode, Percy and his friends had been caught up in a terrible whirlwind created by the sea monsters, and their ship, or rather Clarisse’s ship, had been totally destroyed. Although it had seemed like the kids might have died in the accident, Percy Jackson & The Olympians is obviously not that sort of a show, and so the protagonist now wakes up inside a mysterious room, completely safe and healthy. His clothes do not even seem wet, as they should have been had he really fallen into the water, and his attempt to move out of the room is immediately stopped by Annabeth, confirming that she too has survived the ordeal. She states that she had woken up just a few minutes before Percy, inside the same room, and so has no idea what is really going on. But the two are soon greeted by a young woman, who introduces herself as Hylla, a concierge specifically assigned for them, and things gradually start to fall into place.

After Clarisse’s ship had crashed, Percy and Annabeth were luckily found on a raft and saved from drowning by some fishermen who work for CC’s Island Resort and Spa, the same place where the protagonists now find themselves. CC’s Island Resort and Spa is owned and run by Circe the sorceress, who is known in the legends to have lured men into her trap and turned them into pigs. It happens to be the only safe sanctuary, or place to stop, in the entirety of the Sea of Monsters, where travelers stop for rest and sometimes end up spending years, even decades. One of the primary reasons behind this unusual practice is the presence of the Sirens, who guard the exit to the Sea of Monsters. In order for travelers to reach their destination, they must first pass the Sirens, who are basically monsters that lure travelers close to themselves and then kill them, particularly by making use of the fatal flaw in the respective traveler. 

Therefore, it is extremely dangerous for one to venture out of CC’s Island Resort and attempt to cross the Sea of Monsters by themselves, and this is where the owner of the resort comes into play. Circe is a renowned sorceress who uses real magic to get things done, and she also suffers from a fatal flaw, which makes her try to help people in every way possible, even if doing so ends up hurting her own life. Therefore, Circe now runs a facility to train travelers who stop at her island resort and spa to control their respective fatal flaws and prepare for their encounter against the Sirens. While many travelers take the matter very seriously, many others pay no heed to it and feel like Circe is only wasting their time, since there is no fixed time limit to her training routine. One such character appears at the very beginning of the episode, as a warrior named Stavros chooses to disregard Circe and her team’s warnings about the dangerous Sirens and decides to face them head-on.

Stavros steams out of the resort, in front of Percy and Annabeth, and takes his boat towards the open sea, totally disregarding the presence of the Sirens. But the magical allure of the Sirens is such that one cannot dispel them at any cost. The creatures make Stavros think or dream of a favorable situation and manage to get him to their island, where they ultimately strike and kill him. Seeing the Sirens in action for the first time is definitely quite intense for the protagonist and his best friend, but they are still quite unsure about whether CC’s resort and spa is actually a friendly place for them or just another distraction on the way to their quest. Getting introduced to Circe also does not help their confusion, as the woman is definitely intelligent and charming but also seemingly has something that she hides from the world.

Why does Circe turn Percy into a guinea pig?

Despite having confusions about what Circe’s intentions are, Percy and Annabeth agree to let her start helping them by at least making them realize what their respective fatal flaws are. Circe has a special mirror in her room, standing in front of which makes one see their fatal flaw. This is all part of the preparation for the imminent face-off against the Sirens, for knowing one’s fatal flaw is extremely crucial. Annabeth admits that hers is actually extreme pride in herself and her knowledge, which is not very surprising considering that the character has always been presented as an oversmart kid. But when Percy stands in front of the mirror, he can only see his closest friends—Tyson, Annabeth, and Grover—and then sees various scenes from seasons 1 and 2, in which he had tried his best to protect them and keep them safe. Thus, it is revealed that Percy’s fatal flaw is actually his tremendous level of love and affection for his friends and his habit of always prioritizing his friends over himself.

This has obviously become very apparent by now, and a bit too repetitive if you ask me, as Percy naggingly keeps wanting to quit the quest for the sake of his friends, even at the beginning of this episode. Upon realizing that only he and Annabeth had survived the storm, and Tyson and Clarisse were possibly dead, Percy immediately wanted to quit the quest for the Golden Fleece and go out to search for his missing friends. It is therefore very obvious that even after getting to know his fatal flaw, Percy does not want to face the Sirens, as he does not want to continue the quest and supposedly intends to stay on at the resort as long as necessary, but wants to ensure that Annabeth gets to safely leave the place and get hold of the Golden Fleece so that she can go on to save all his other friends at Camp Half-Blood.

But in order to do so, he has to convince Circe to help Annabeth get past the Sirens, and he chooses to do so in the most questionable manner. Percy had known about the classical hero, Odysseus, who had crossed the Sirens by simply sealing his ears shut with special beeswax from Aristaeus’ personal hive. Combining this information with the fact that every year a select few travelers do manage to make it past the monsters, Percy figures out Circe’s secret and confronts her about it. Circe actually has a personal stash of beeswax at her disposal, which she secretly gives to the finest students at her resort so that they can get past the Sirens and spread the word about how good a teacher she is. Percy promises to not tell anyone about this secret, as long as Circe helps Annabeth with her journey.

However, Circe is a sorceress who has far too many tricks up her sleeve to be intimidated by a teenager like Percy, and so she decides to punish him for the audacious request. She knows that if she gives Annabeth the beeswax and helps her pass the Sirens without even a day of training at her resort, then more people will suspect some foul play in the whole matter, and she will end up losing her reputation. Thus, she pretends to agree to Percy’s deal and then turns him into a guinea pig, a slight adjustment to the legend about her turning men into pigs. This confirms that the numerous animals and reptiles in her study are actually humans whom she has turned into beasts with the help of her powerful magic. Percy Pig, as the protagonist’s guinea pig form is named in the subtitles, is put inside a small cage, along with a group of other guinea pigs led by one named Edward, who later is revealed to be Blackbeard.

How does Annabeth rescue Percy?

With the protagonist having been turned into a guinea pig, the whole quest seems to be in danger. But if Percy’s incessant efforts to prove that he values the safety of his friends over everything else have been a constant factor this season, what has been equally consistent is Annabeth’s overwhelming desire to ensure that he does not stray from his path and ends up finishing the quest. Therefore, when Annabeth walks into Circe’s study a few minutes later, she initially seems to be just looking for her best friend. She even tells the sorceress that she is in search of Percy, as she wants to leave the resort soon. With Circe lying about lack of knowledge regarding the matter, all hope seems to be lost, until Annabeth notices a strange spiral forming in the water casket close to the guinea pig cage.

This spiral instantly reminds her of the very similar spiral that was forming just some time earlier when Percy was trying to figure out his fatal flaw in front of Circe’s mirror. This spiral in the water is actually symbolic of Percy’s love towards his friends and his special ability to link and communicate with them, at least in the faintest of forms. But this is enough for Annabeth to figure out what is going on, and she quickly distracts Circe to throw in some vitamin pills into the guinea pig cage. As a result, Percy and the other guinea pigs, who were actually pirates, are turned back into humans, and this creates enough commotion for the teenagers to slip out of the resort. Percy crucially takes Circe’s personal stash of beeswax along with him in order to use it against the Sirens.

What Happens To Grover And Clarisse?

Meanwhile, Clarisse washes up on the island of Polyphemus and heads straight towards the Golden Fleece in order to get hold of it. But she steps into the trap of the monstrous Cyclops on the way and ends up being held hostage at its lair. Polyphemus instructs his wife to cook the demigod for him, and this wife happens to be Grover, who has been hiding under the veil pretending to be a Cyclops himself. Thus, Grover and Clarisse are reunited, and as the latter cuts herself free from the trap, they immediately set about trying to climb out of the cave and reach the Golden Fleece. But the rope gives way, and Clarisse falls to the ground, losing consciousness. Ultimately, Grover is also caught by Polyphemus, who now reveals that it had been aware of the satyr’s ploy since the very beginning but had played along only to bait Percy Jackson to the place. With both Grover and Clarisse in extreme danger, it is confirmed that Percy will come to help them out, and this is seemingly what Polyphemus has been planning all this time, for the Cyclops is most likely working with Kronos, who wants to get hold of the protagonist.

Did Percy and Annabeth safely cross the Sirens?

As Percy and Annabeth leave CC’s Resort and Spa, they realize that Circe’s jar hardly contains sufficient beeswax to keep one person safe, and so they make a quick change to their plan. Annabeth is to use the beeswax to protect herself from the Sirens, while Percy is to tie himself to the mast of the boat so that he cannot go towards the monsters even when they lure him towards them. But this plan does not work either, as Circe uses her magic to retrieve her jar at the right time, leaving Annabeth completely vulnerable to the Sirens. She is naturally lured in by the monsters, who appear like her closest friends, Grover, Percy, and Luke. She witnesses them fighting amongst each other before being promised that with her intervention, all their arguments will come to an end.

But Annabeth seems to have been prepared for this kind of a false scenario that would take advantage of her desire for peace among her friends, and it looks like she had prepared a bait for the Sirens. Thus, she now quickly starts to defeat the monsters, and when cornered by the rest of them, her mother, Athena, rushes into the scene to protect her. Athena claims that she is proud of Annabeth for having been so brave as to trick the monsters that the rest of the world is scared of, and this is when it is revealed that Athena is actually a creation of the Sirens’ fantasy. Annabeth’s fatal flaw was actually her desire for validation from her mother, Athena, which the Sirens now use to lure her in and almost kill her. But seeing Annabeth left vulnerable to the Sirens’ attack, Percy had immediately cut his hands free from the mast and had intentionally lunged forward towards the monsters’ island. Despite knowing that he too could be caught up in the magic and killed, he still risked his life to help his friend, and he does ultimately save Annabeth from certain death. He also reveals that Sirens had not shown him anything unusual or unexpected, as he had simply seen his friends reuniting once again. With the Sea of the Monsters crossed, Percy and Annabeth finally reach their destination, the island of Polyphemus, where the rest of the season will play out.

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