I Play Dodgeball with Cannibals is the first episode of the second season of Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
Plot[]
Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson race to defend Camp Half-Blood from dangerous forces.
Summary[]
On a tropical island, Grover searches for clues on the whereabouts of Pan. He acquires a set of Reed Pipes from the nearby skeleton of a satyr, unaware he is being watched. Upon playing a note on the pipes, the vines reveal his stalkers: a group of rogue demigods in league with Luke and Kronos, led by Alison Simms. Finding a strand of golden wool on the pipes, Alison demands that Grover reveal where what they're looking for is. When Grover realizes that Luke may be after Pan, Alison declares that he's seen too much and aims her bow at him. Grover plays a quick song on his pipes, causing the surrounding foliage to knock Alison and her troop to the ground as he flees. He gets to shore, but he is soon grabbed by a tentacle that drags him into the sea.
In New York City, Percy rolls out of bed, waking himself up from a very similar nightmare about his friend. In the year since his Quest for the Master Bolt, he has been living with Tyson, a young Cyclops that his mother had found at a volunteer center. Percy and Tyson attend Meriwether College Prep, where Tyson is bullied due to his naive nature. Before they leave for school, Percy tells Sally about his nightmare, and she reveals that she also had a nightmare involving a drachma spinning in a black void, one side displayed a trident and the other displayed Kronos' Scythe.
As Tyson and Percy walk to their last day of seventh grade, the former talks about wanting to go to Camp Half-Blood, but Percy explains that, because he's a monster, Tyson can't enter Camp. When Tyson mentions Grover, Percy tells him that satyrs are nature spirits, similar to dryads or, as Tyson points out, naiads, like his mother. Before Percy can question how his friend knew that, a speeding taxi suddenly pulls up to the curb beside them, and Tyson instinctively picks Percy up to protect him. When Percy asks Tyson to put him down, Annabeth, the taxi's passenger who was invisible under her Yankees cap, reveals herself, threatening the young Cyclops with her knife. Percy stops a fight between the two before Tyson recognizes her from the pictures Percy keeps in his room. Quickly changing the topic, Percy asks what Annabeth is doing in New York, and she reveals that she recently had a dream about Camp Half-Blood being in danger.
As the three enter the Gray Sisters' cab, Annabeth tells Percy that she dreamed of Camp in ruins. When she attempted to Iris Message Chiron's office for help, an unknown man answered, sneered at her, and abruptly hung up. As Percy begins to suspect their dreams are linked, Anger confirms this, much to her sisters' irritation. Wasp, the cab driver, informs Annabeth that they are a drachma short, as she used her last two coins to pay for herself and Percy. While Percy rummages for the drachma his mom gave him, Tempest, who currently has the sisters' shared eye, asks Annabeth if Percy is her boyfriend, leaving her flustered. Percy pays for Tyson’s fare, but before he can ask about Grover, Wasp slams on the gas and speeds toward camp. Percy demands that the Sisters tell him where Grover is, but they refuse until Anger knocks the eye out of Tempest’s socket, which lands in Percy’s lap. Percy and Annabeth threaten to throw the eye out of the car until the Sisters recite a series of numbers: “30, 31, 75, 12.” Before Percy can ask them to elaborate, Anger takes the eye back, and the trio gets dropped off at the road nearest to camp, where everything appears to be fine.
As the three begin walking, Annabeth is visibly uncomfortable, but dismisses it as dizziness when Percy asks. Percy and Annabeth catch up about the past year, realizing their letters haven’t covered everything. Their conversation is soon interrupted by the distant roaring of oncoming fireballs. Annabeth turns around just in time to warn Percy and Tyson, and the trio is forced to run. They race through the forest toward Camp, dodging the barrage. One fireball knocks Percy down, but Tyson shields him from another, revealing that Cyclopes are fireproof. When they finally reach the camp’s border, Annabeth and Percy can enter, but Tyson cannot because of the barrier created by Thalia's Pine Tree. Just then, they spot the source of the fireballs approaching: three Laistrygonian Giants. Refusing to abandon Tyson, Percy draws Riptide to defend his friend, prompting a reluctant Annabeth to allow Tyson to enter. The young cyclops hesitates, allowing one giant to tackle him through the border. As the giant moves to attack Percy and Annabeth, Clarisse intervenes, disintegrating the giant with her new spear. Clarisse’s border patrol attacks the two remaining giants with arrows, forcing them to retreat.
Percy checks on Tyson, and Annabeth starts to wonder why the giants would attack the back of Camp, realizing that they might've been a distraction for the real attack. The three rush to the front of the camp, arriving just in time to see Luke pull Backbiter from Thalia's tree and fly away on his pegasus. Upon investigating, their fears are confirmed: Luke has poisoned the tree. If it dies, the barrier will fall. Annabeth tries to understand Luke's motives, but Percy insists he's beyond saving.
Their argument is interrupted by Clarisse, who believes Tyson is a monster and moves towards him with her troop. When Percy tries to intervene, the man from Annabeth's Iris Message arrives, who Clarisse and her troop treat like a general. The man demands to know who woke him, and when Percy is about to explain, the man recognizes him and reveals himself as Tantalus, son of Zeus and king of Anatolia. Spotting Tyson from behind the tree, Tantalus orders Clarisse to kill him, much to her delight. Percy intervenes to defend Tyson when the cyclops is suddenly claimed by Poseidon, revealing him as Percy's brother.
At the Big House, Dionysus can't help but laugh at the revelation. Annabeth insists that they get back on topic before Tantalus recognizes her from their Iris Message in the office, claiming that the office is his. This confuses Annabeth until Mr. D reveals that Chrion was fired by Zeus because he was a son of Kronos, with Tantalus replacing him as Camp Half-Blood's activities director. Percy finds the reason nonsensical, as Zeus is also a son of Kronos, but Annabeth stops him before he takes it too far. Mr. D goes on to say that the recent attack has threatened to delay the newly revived Chariot Race, but Tantalus insists on keeping it schedule, finding Percy's story about Luke unbelievable. Percy and Annabeth insist on getting a quest to heal the tree somehow and when the son of Poseidon gets confrontational with Tantalus, the king of Anatolia places him under house arrest.
As Percy is escorted to his cabin, the other campers mock his relationship with Tyson. When he arrives, Percy angrily asks Tyson how he knew who his mother was when he had previously said that he never knew his parents. Tyson insists he did not know, and Percy eventually apologizes, overwhelmed by all the new information he’s learned recently. Annabeth comes to visit and asks to speak with Percy on a walk, but because Tyson is afraid of being alone, he asks Annabeth to come inside instead. Still uncomfortable with Tyson’s presence, Annabeth chooses to walk off to assess the damage to Thalia’s tree. Before Percy goes back inside, she asks how he paid for Tyson’s fare when he had written that he had no drachmas to Iris Message her. After he explains that the drachma was his mother's, Percy realizes that Annabeth also never reached out to him for the entire year. When Annabeth says she’s trying to reach out now, Percy asks for a moment alone with his brother, but she simply tells him to rest and walks away.
Percy goes to his bed and Tyson, laying on his bed, says that he agrees with Annabeth, since it's hard to sleep in the street when monsters are always after you. Tyson answers his brother's earlier question, saying that a Sphinx, who attacked him and left numerous scars across his back, told him that his mother was a naiad and his father was one of the gods. To Tyson, being able to sleep means that he's safe. Percy expresses his sympathy before he lays on his bed and attempts get some rest. Meanwhile, Annabeth sits down at the base of the Thalia's tree, promising that she's going to find a way to fix this.
In the Poseidon Cabin, Percy starts having a nightmare. He sees the entrance to a cave by the ocean, where the sea monster that kidnapped Grover drops the satyr off before a boulder seals the exit. Percy, now fully dreaming, finds himself inside the cave, with the only light coming from a hole in its ceiling. Hearing Grover call his name in the distance, Percy follows the sound and finds his friend’s voice coming from a covered mirror. Taking the tarp off, Percy sees his friend in the reflection. As they talk, Grover realizes that they are now connected by an Empathy Link, a rare telepathic bond between a satyr and a demigod that only happens between best friends. He then appears behind Percy and they start to wonder how the link really works.
The ground suddenly shakes violently and Grover realizes that his time is running out. Grover explains that he has been captured by Polyphemus, the legendary cyclops that once fought Odysseus. He also realizes that Luke was not searching for Pan, but for the Golden Fleece, which Polyphemus uses to lure satyrs to his island. The ground shakes once again from the Cyclops' footsteps, and Percy asks Grover where the cave is. His friend responds with the same numbers the Gray Sisters recited that morning before Percy wakes up and falls out of bed.
The noise also awakens Tyson, and Percy realizes his mother's dream was prophetic: what he and Luke want are two sides of the same coin. As he contemplates the meaning of his latest dream, he sees a map on a nearby wall, and an idea crosses his mind. Using the four numbers as latitude and longitude, he pinpoints Polyphemus' Cave to the Bermuda Triangle, known on the map as the Sea of Monsters. With the location in hand and a plan forming, Percy goes to Annabeth to share their new objective: secure a quest for the Golden Fleece to save both Grover and Camp Half-Blood.
Cast[]
Starring[]
- Walker Scobell as Percy Jackson
- Leah Sava Jeffries as Annabeth Chase
- Aryan Simhadri as Grover Underwood
- Charlie Bushnell as Luke Castellan
- Dior Goodjohn as Clarisse La Rue
- Daniel Diemer as Tyson
Guest Starring[]
- Jason Mantzoukas as Dionysus
- Timothy Simons as Tantalus
- Kristen Schaal as Tempest
- Margaret Cho as Wasp
- Beatrice Kitsos as Alison Simms
- Sandra Bernhard as Anger
- Virginia Kull as Sally Jackson
Co-Starring[]
- Ryan Beil as Assistant Satyr
- Ken Godmere as Meriwether Teacher
- Brady Tate as Meriwether Jerk
- Threnody Tsai as Sarah
- Matthew Yanagiya as Rogue Demigod Dean
- Cassandra Ebner as Rogue Demigod Petra
- Marlo Marolle as Mark
- Araya Boyce as Clarisse Cronie
- Mark Gibbon as Joe Bob
- Dan Payne as Marrow Sucker
- Daniel Cudmore as Skull Eater
- Iris Truong as Hephaestus Kid
Differences[]
- Instead of being hunted by Polyphemus himself on the streets of Florida, Grover is abducted at a tropical island by a tentacled monster and dropped off at Polyphemus's island.
- Percy and Sally both know Tyson is a Cyclops from the get-go, whereas their book counterparts are unaware until camp.
- Tyson lives with Percy and Sally at the start of the episode.
- Matt Sloan, Mr. Bonsai, and other Meriwether students and faculty as they were in the book are omitted. However, there is a hallway scene and a classroom scene that both took place at Meriwether Prep in Percy's flashback.
- Annabeth intercepts Percy and Tyson on their way to school. In the books, while she has been stalking Percy outside his apartment, she does not reveal herself to him and Tyson until the Laistrygonians' attack at school.
- While the Gray Sisters share one eye like in the book, they have their own teeth instead of sharing one tooth in the book.
- The Laistrygonians attack Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson on their way to camp. Their book counterparts instead attack at Meriwether Prep.
- Rather than using celestial bronze dodgeballs, the Laistrygonians take large chunks of dirt out of the ground and roll them into balls, which they set on fire before throwing.
- Chiron is not blamed for poisoning Thalia's tree, but he is still forced to leave due to being Kronos' son.
- The Colchis Bulls are completely absent. Instead, the Laistrygonians fulfill the bulls' role of attacking the camp as a diversion while Luke poisons Thalia's tree, with one of them managing to get past the barrier with Tyson before getting slain by Clarisse.
- Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson witness Luke poison Thalia's tree and when Percy tries to explain this to Tantalus, he dismisses it.
Trivia[]
- The title is derived from Chapter Two of The Sea of Monsters, while the episode adapts Chapters 1-5 of The Sea of Monsters.