TL;DR: Percy Jackson and the Olympians season 2, episode 5 smartly reimagines Circe, elevates the Sirens into psychological horror, and sets up Polyphemus as a genuinely compelling threat. Strong performances, improved production design, and thoughtful book deviations make this one of the best episodes of the series so far.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians season 2
I’ll admit it right up front: by the time I hit play on Percy Jackson and the Olympians season 2, episode 5, I was braced for disappointment. Not because the show has been bad, but because this is one of those sacred cow sections of The Sea of Monsters. Circe. The Sirens. Polyphemus. This is peak Rick Riordan myth remix territory, the stuff every book fan has mentally storyboarded a thousand times. If Disney+ fumbled it, there would be no hiding place.
Instead, episode 5 doesn’t just survive the adaptation gauntlet. It thrives in it. This is Percy Jackson and the Olympians confidently rewriting mythology with purpose, empathy, and just enough spectacle to remind you that this isn’t a CW teen drama in cosplay anymore. It’s a fantasy series finally flexing like it knows exactly what it is.
I’ve been harsh on this show in the past, especially during season 1’s uneven pacing and oddly restrained visuals, but season 2 has been on a clear upward trajectory. Episode 5 is where that climb starts to feel intentional rather than accidental. This isn’t just another solid episode. This is the creative team understanding the assignment and then scribbling notes in the margins.
The biggest shock, and I mean that in the best way possible, is how much the episode reconfigures the Circe storyline. In the book, Circe is a pit stop villain. Memorable, yes, but largely there to move Percy and Annabeth along the mythological conveyor belt. Here, Circe becomes the thematic spine of the episode, and that change pays off in ways I genuinely didn’t expect.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians has always been at its best when it interrogates mythology instead of just reenacting it. Season 2, episode 5 does exactly that by reframing Circe not as a mustache-twirling sorceress, but as a deeply lonely god-adjacent being whose cruelty is rooted in abandonment issues rather than cartoon villainy.
Rosemarie DeWitt’s Circe is the MVP here. She plays the role with a warmth that feels almost dangerous. You trust her. You want to trust her. And that’s precisely why the betrayal stings. The spa setting, which could have easily tipped into parody, instead becomes a psychological trap. This isn’t about pigs and potions anymore. It’s about heroes being reduced to their insecurities under the guise of self-improvement.
As someone who’s read these books more times than I’ll publicly admit, I loved how the show merged Circe’s island with the Sirens. It’s a smart, economical adaptation choice that also deepens both mythological elements. The Sirens aren’t just monsters singing sailors to their doom. They’re an extension of Circe’s philosophy, a final exam for heroes who think they’ve conquered their fatal flaws.
Annabeth’s Siren sequence is easily one of the most effective scenes the show has ever produced. Leah Sava Jeffries sells the quiet horror of temptation without turning it into melodrama. This isn’t a loud scene. It’s a whisper that crawls under your skin. Seeing Annabeth confronted with a vision of a perfect future hits harder than any sword fight ever could, because it weaponizes something Percy Jackson has always understood: the most dangerous monsters know exactly what you want.
Walker Scobell continues to prove that his Percy is growing in tandem with the material. There’s a confidence to his performance now that season 1 sometimes lacked. Percy doesn’t just react anymore. He observes. He questions. He challenges authority, even when that authority comes wrapped in soothing tones and Greek marble aesthetics. Watching Percy navigate Circe’s manipulation feels like watching a kid level up in real time, not because the script says so, but because Scobell earns it.
The episode’s biggest structural win is how it balances intimacy with scale. Circe’s island feels lived-in. The production design finally leans into the mythological grandeur the books always promised, without drowning the characters in CGI noise. The architecture, costumes, and practical sets do a lot of heavy lifting here, grounding the fantasy in texture and detail. This is the first time since the Lotus Casino in season 1 that the show truly feels expensive in a meaningful way.
Then there’s Polyphemus. In the book, he’s memorable but simple. Big cyclops. Big rage. Big sheep-related problems. The show wisely decides that simplicity isn’t enough for episodic television. This version of Polyphemus is smarter, more calculating, and far more unsettling because of it. The blend of practical effects and VFX gives him weight, presence, and a sense of menace that doesn’t rely solely on size.
What really works is how the episode uses Polyphemus as a looming consequence rather than an immediate spectacle. He’s not just a monster of the week. He’s the embodiment of what happens when heroes fail to grow beyond their flaws. That thematic throughline, tying Circe, the Sirens, and Polyphemus together, gives episode 5 a cohesion the series has occasionally struggled with.
Grover and Clarisse also benefit from this more focused storytelling. Clarisse, in particular, continues to be one of season 2’s strongest supporting arcs. Her anger feels purposeful now, less like a character trait and more like a survival mechanism. The show is quietly doing the work to make her more than just Ares’ loud kid, and I’m fully on board with where that’s heading.
What surprised me most is how emotionally grounded the episode feels despite juggling so many mythological elements. This isn’t spectacle for spectacle’s sake. Every creature, every setting, every deviation from the book serves a character-driven purpose. That’s the difference between adaptation as obligation and adaptation as evolution.
From a pacing perspective, episode 5 is tight without feeling rushed. Scenes are allowed to breathe. Conversations matter. Silence is used effectively, especially during the Sirens sequence. It’s confident storytelling, the kind that trusts its audience to engage rather than constantly explaining itself.
If there’s a critique to be made, it’s that the episode occasionally leans too heavily on exposition during Circe’s monologues. Some of that could have been visualized rather than verbalized. But that’s a minor nitpick in an episode that otherwise demonstrates real narrative maturity.
By the time the credits roll, Percy Jackson and the Olympians season 2, episode 5 feels like a mission statement. This is what the show wants to be. Thoughtful. Mythologically playful. Emotionally resonant. It’s not afraid to change the books because it understands why those stories mattered in the first place.
For the first time since the series premiered, I found myself genuinely excited not just for the next episode, but for the future of this adaptation as a whole. If this is the standard season 2 is aiming for, Percy Jackson might finally be stepping into the legacy it’s always deserved.
