The fantasy adventure series on Disney+, Percy Jackson & The Olympians, inches closer to the finale of its 2nd season, as the protagonist and his friends finally get their hands on the plot device, which is the Golden Fleece in this case. However, there are a few more twists to ensure that two more episodes can be pumped out, and the magical Fleece ends up in the hands of the villains, obviously just for the time being. Season 2 episode 6 also has Tyson returning to the scene, and in a rather heroic fashion, as he comes to the rescue of Percy and his friends.
Spoiler Alert
What is Percy’s plan against Polyphemus?
After Percy and Annabeth had safely made it past the Sirens back at the end of the previous episode, they continued on their journey towards the island of Polyphemus, where the fabled Golden Fleece could be found. But before embarking on their next difficult mission, Percy has a strange nightmare featuring Kronos once again, seemingly for the first time in a while, since he had been getting these on a daily basis back in season 1. This time, Percy sees himself back at Camp Half-Blood, although it is an extremely morose scene, as hundreds of dead demigods, all students of the camp, lie dead inside the hall. As Percy stares at them with grief and shock, a hooded figure appears at the gate of the hall in a highly dramatic fashion, and there is no doubt that this is Kronos himself.
But there is a new twist, as Percy gets to see the face of Kronos for the first time, and it happens to be that of Thalia. Waking up from the nightmare, Percy narrates it to Annabeth, but she is not really surprised by the detail at the end, and in fact, Annabeth guesses the whole thing even before Percy mentions it. This means that there is a high chance that Thalia has now become Kronos. Maybe it is more plausible that Kronos took over Thalia’s body and appearance after her death, simply because the teenager was extremely powerful and gifted and was even believed to be the hero mentioned in the Great Prophecy.
Annabeth tries to console herself and Percy by stating that demigod dreams can sometimes be tricky and misleading, but the protagonist is not convinced. His mother had always taught him that, no matter how convoluted and indirect dreams are, they always tell the truth, and he too had experienced the same. Therefore, there will possibly be a grand revelation at the end of this season about the real identity of Kronos, but for now, Percy and Annabeth must focus on more pressing matters. They must plan ahead of trying to face Polyphemus in order to rescue Grover and also get hold of the Golden Fleece safely.
Right after waking up from his nightmare, Percy panics about having to urgently get hold of the magical Fleece before it can be used to revive Kronos, and so he wants to immediately step out of the boat and head towards the Cyclops’ cave. But this is an extremely dangerous plan, for it would take away the little advantage that he and Annabeth have over Polyphemus. Although the Cyclops is blind or has very little vision, he is known to have an extremely strong sense of smell, meaning that in the dark, the demigods would not be able to use their strength of vision, but would get caught because of their odor. Therefore, Annabeth stops Percy from further considering this idea and instead diverts his attention to the plan that they had already made.
According to this plan, the duo would hide somewhere on the island and wait for Polyphemus to leave his lair to graze his sheep, as he frequently did. They would then sneak into the cave, and as per the information gathered by Percy through his previous nightmares, the Golden Fleece would be hanging on a tree right above the opening of the cave. The next day, Percy and Annabeth leave their boat to carry out this difficult mission and are able to find themselves the perfect disguise. Using sheepskin to conceal their demigod bodies, the two friends hide among the sheep and even occasionally bleat to fit in. As Polyphemus leads the herd out of the pen and takes them to graze on the hills, Percy and Annabeth slip out, just as they had planned, and head straight to the cave mouth.
Why does Annabeth have to distract the Cyclops?
Soon, Percy and Annabeth spot the Golden Fleece hanging from a branch of a tree directly over the opening to the cave, and as the protagonist goes to fetch it, he sees both Grover and Clarisse held captive inside the cave. Grover and Clarisse had been found by Polyphemus in the previous episode, and the monster had tied their limbs and mouths to keep them trapped in his cave. Although it had seemed like the monster had done so in order to dine on the satyr and the demigod later, the reality is that Polyphemus is intelligent enough to know how to set bait. It is revealed in this episode that Pan, the god of nature, had himself visited the island and brought the Golden Fleece to the place, which was when Polyphemus had learned about a certain characteristic of the magical item.
The Fleece smelled exactly like Pan, and the Cyclops was clever enough to take advantage of this characteristic in order to arrange a steady flow of food for himself. All satyrs are bound to set out on an adventure to look for their missing god Pan, just like Grover had done earlier after having proved himself worthy of such a task. Therefore, Polyphemus used the odor from the Fleece to bait satyrs into coming to his island so that he could trap, kill, and eat them whenever he wanted. He had trapped Grover in a similar manner and now uses Grover and Clarisse to set up bait for a more lucrative catch—Percy Jackson himself. Polyphemus had learned how Percy always put his friends’ lives ahead of his own, and so had realized that the protagonist would obviously rush in to save his two friends after Grover had communicated with him through their connected dreams. This would automatically bring more food to the Cyclops’ doorstep and make life even easier for him.
Thus, as Annabeth soon realizes, the Golden Fleece hanging from the branch of the tree is not actually real, but is simply just some fleece from an ordinary sheep, painted to look shiny and golden. By the time Percy is informed of this, he is already climbing down a rope into the cave to rescue Grover and Clarisse, and this gives Polyphemus enough time to respond. The Cyclops comes running to the spot and cuts down the rope, trapping Percy in the cave as well. It is only because the highly intelligent Annabeth had not immediately rushed in to help her friends or snatch the Fleece that the group still stands a chance of surviving.
Annabeth soon uses her cap of invisibility to distract Polyphemus so that Percy and the others can come up with some way to escape the cave. Although Clarisse had already managed to cut the ropes that had been used to bind their limbs and mouths, escaping the cave seemed almost impossible. Meanwhile, Annabeth uses her invisibility to attract the attention of Polyphemus, who keeps swinging his arms around blindly in the hopes of attacking the demigod. At this time, another demigod also arrives at the island, as Luke walks out of a portal in order to try and retrieve the Golden Fleece for his team.
Only some time earlier, Luke had used what seemed to have been a magical communications portal to speak with Annabeth and warn her of the dangers of walking into Polyphemus’ cave. While Annabeth had been momentarily swayed by this conversation and had been reminded of her bond with Luke in the past, Percy had made her change her mind, as he believed that Luke was only trying to take advantage of her situation. It is now proven that Luke had really just been trying to find out the positions of Percy and Annabeth and whether they had found the Fleece so that he could just come in through the portal and get hold of it for himself.
How is the real Golden Fleece found?
Noticing how Polyphemus is busy trying to fight the pesky Annabeth, Luke rushes to the tree and climbs it to steal the Golden Fleece. He does not immediately realize that it is fake but eventually understands after his hand gets covered in a coat of golden paint. Back inside the cave, Percy, Grover, and Clarisse discuss their next move, when the latter states that they are basically being given time by their friend outside to find the real Fleece, which the Cyclops must have hidden in his lair. This is when Grover’s terrific ability to smell things from a distance comes in handy once again, as he tries following the same odor of Pan that had brought him to the island. It does not take him long to find the real Golden Fleece, which had been carefully hidden inside a small hole in the cave. But as he removes the magical item from its place, Polyphemus automatically realizes what’s happening and immediately returns to the cave. By this time, the three teenagers had already started trying to pry open the entrance of the cave using a long piece of wood, but to no avail. Finally, as Polyphemus arrives and is about to open the cave, he is once again pricked by Annabeth. But unlike before, the Cyclops is able to respond right away, and with a strong blow of his hand, he throws Annabeth back, and the impact of the fall is enough for her to lose consciousness and start bleeding profusely from her head.
Is Tyson still alive?
Just as it seems like Percy, Grover, and Clarisse will be in further trouble with Polyphemus, another Cyclops enters the scene heroically, and this happens to be Tyson, who had seemed to have died after the Ironclad had been destroyed in the Sea of Monsters. In fact, at the very beginning of Percy Jackson & The Olympians season 2 episode 6, we see how Tyson had survived the crash. After falling into the sea and panicking for the first few minutes, Tyson had realized he was able to breathe underwater, as the skill had been passed on to him from his biological father, Poseidon. Then, the small bracelet that Luke had gifted to Annabeth many years ago, which he had called the Charm of Kellogia just to make the girl believe that it had magical powers, came to his rescue.
As Annabeth had thrown the bracelet into the water earlier, Tyson now found it out of sheer coincidence, and although the bracelet did not really have any magical powers, its shiny nature did have the ability to attract the Hippocampi living in the sea. One of these creatures, named Rainbow, had been seen for a brief second back in season 2 episode 4, as it had returned the bracelet to the deck of the ship. Now, the same hippocampus and its friends helped Tyson float back to the surface and then travel to the island where all his friends were. Thus, at just the right time, Tyson enters the scene and bravely fights off Polyphemus, throwing him into the water for a fierce battle, at the end of which he triumphs over the evil Cyclops.
How does Luke end up getting the Golden Fleece?
With Polyphemus out of the scene, Percy wants to escape the cave at the earliest, just so he can help the terribly injured Annabeth survive and recover. But he is unable to budge the stone covering the entrance and has to resort to taking help from Luke, who arrives at the clearing just outside the cave. Although Clarisse understandably does not want to hand over the Fleece to Luke, as that would clearly mean giving it away to the villains so they can use it to revive Kronos, Percy does not even want to discuss the matter. Just like he has claimed countless times throughout the Disney+ series, Percy cares most about saving and protecting his friends, for which he is ready to risk the safety of the gods and their abode on Mt. Olympus. Thus, he snatches the Golden Fleece from Clarisse and hands it over to Luke.
It is slightly surprising that Luke does not go full evil and immediately scamper away with the magical object but actually takes the time to heal Annabeth with it. Only when she is mostly recovered does he carry the teenager away, with the Golden Fleece still covering her. This confirms that, despite their recent differences, Luke does still care for the girl. But as Tyson returns after defeating Polyphemus and frees the protagonist, Percy, Clarisse, and Grover must go after Luke to both get hold of the Golden Fleece to save Camp Half-Blood and also to protect Annabeth from being turned onto the evil side.
