‘Percy Jackson’ Stars Explain Percy & Annabeth’s Luke Fight & Book Twist (VIDEO)

[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2 Episode 6.]

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2 created its own version of the siren scene from The Sea of Monsters novel in Episode 5. The series delivered another big book change in the fight with Polyphemus in Episode 6, which came out on January 7 on Disney+ and Hulu.

Percy (Walker Scobell) and Annabeth (Leah Sava Jeffries) fought the cyclops Polyphemus (Aleks Paunovic) to save Grover (Aryan Simhadri) and Clarisse (Dior Goodjohn), but they flipped the book’s script on who fought the monster using the same tactic as Odysseus in The Odyssey. Before the battle, Percy and Annabeth had a difficult disagreement about Luke (Charlie Bushnell), who would later arrive on the island and swoop in when Annabeth was struck down in a fight. Here, the stars explain their characters’ feelings in this pivotal episode.

In the book, Percy fights Polyphemus with the use of the “Nobody” trick that Odysseus used against the monster ages before. Annabeth suggested the trick, but in the show, she’s the one using it and doing the fighting.

“With the Polyphemus fight, first of all, it was the best thing ever. It was so cool,” Jeffries shares in our Percy Jackson after-show video above. “[Walker asked] if I was excited to do this, and I was nervous because you still want to keep it in the accurate version of how Percy does it.”

“The Polyphemus Island episode was one of my favorites to film,” Scobell previously told us. He thought the Annabeth twist was “brilliant.”

“It all follows the same plot as the book, and every episode centers around a couple of chapters,” Scobell said. “Every episode, something’s a little bit different. Not completely different to throw you off, but just a little bit to keep you interested.”

The presumed-dead Tyson (Daniel Diemer) returned and stopped Polyphemus from killing Annabeth, sending them both off a cliff to do it. That’s when Luke arrived. Percy, Grover, and Clarisse were trapped in a cave but could see Annabeth and Luke through the cracks. Percy gave the treacherous Luke the Golden Fleece, trusting that he still cared enough about Annabeth to save her life. Earlier in the episode, Percy felt betrayed that Annabeth did so much as accept an iris call from Luke, who’s like a brother to her. She’s been struggling to accept Luke siding with Kronos all season long and is determined to save him. Percy thinks he’s beyond saving.

Disney / David Bukach

In an interview conducted before the Season 2 premiere, Scobell and Jeffries explained Percy and Annabeth’s conflicting perspectives about Luke to us. They said these differences make Percy fear that Annabeth doesn’t actually care about him, which you can see on Percy’s face in the episode after he makes Annabeth hang up her iris call.

“[In Season 1] After Percy figures out that everything was Luke’s plan in a way, his being the lightning thief, the relationship completely changes,” Scobell told TV Insider. “Percy looked up to him so much, and then he’s just completely betrayed. Luke put his mother in danger, put his friends in danger.”

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'Percy Jackson' Stars Explain That Major Percy & Annabeth Scene & Ironclad Battle

Scobell said that Percy and Annabeth’s fatal flaws are hurting their ability to understand each other.

“Percy, he is loyal to a fault for a friend. He’d burn the world down for one of his friends just to save them. He would do insane things to save someone he cares about,” Scobell explained. “Annabeth’s [fatal flaw] is pride. It’s hubris. She wants to fix everything, and she likes feeling like she can. The whole Luke thing is hard for her because she can’t fix it.”

Jeffries put it bluntly: “Percy does not like Luke,” she said. “He wants him to go away and never come back. Annabeth just can’t do that. She has a certain love and respect for Luke, even though what he did was crazy; that is still someone she cares about. Percy and Annabeth’s relationship can be a little rocky because he’s like, ‘You are friends with someone that tried to kill me, and yet you’re still seeing good in them.’ You either go here or you go there. You can’t be in between. She’s making the ultimatum for herself, but then they’re also giving her the ultimatum. So whenever I’m talking to Luke, he might be like, ‘Come with me, and you will see why I want to do this.’ If I go with Percy, it’s like, ‘Do you not understand that if you go with him, you’re dead? If you come with me, I will save you from that.'”

“Since Luke tried to end Percy, and Annabeth still has this love, it’s almost like there’s a little thing behind Percy’s mind that’s like, does she really care?” Jeffries continued. “This person literally tried to get me away, and you’re still like, ‘It’s fine.'”

Disney / David Bukach

In the video above, Simhadri and Goodjohn debate whether Grover and Clarisse are more inclined to agree with Annabeth’s perspective of Luke or Percy’s. When it comes to Grover’s plot in Episode 6, he had one of his most chilling moments of the series so far when Polyphemus mimicked the voices of satyrs he killed and mocked their decaying skulls.

“Polyphemus, his cave is a huge roadblock that a lot of satyrs eventually had to come up against [on their quests to find Pan],” Simhadri told TV Insider. “None of them have come back alive. It’s a cool dynamic to see Polyphemus making light of the fact that Grover shows up in his cave. To Polyphemus, Grover is just another snack. To Grover, this is his whole life. Seeing him step on satyr skulls and bones strewn all over the place, it’s a traumatic position for Grover to be in.”

Learn more about Percy Jackson Season 2 Episode 6 in the full video above.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Wednesdays, Disney+ and Hulu