Thalia’s Twist And The Biggest Changes From The Book

Warning: Spoilers ahead for Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2, Episode 8.

The action-packed Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2 finale is now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu. The episode delivers a surprising twist involving Thalia that deviates from Rick Riordan’s original mythology and sets up a grim reality for Percy as a looming war against Kronos approaches in Season 3.

Throughout Season 2, both Percy’s allies and enemies race to track down the Golden Fleece, a powerful magical artifact known for its healing abilities. Percy needs the fleece to save Camp Half-Blood after Luke poisons Thalia’s pine tree, weakening the protective barrier and allowing monsters to breach the camp. Meanwhile, Luke and his fellow rebel demigods fall under Kronos’ influence as the Titan manipulates them into helping resurrect him.

When Luke arrives at camp in Episode 8 alongside the other traitors, he reveals another plan for the fleece: using it on Thalia’s tree, after Annabeth revealed earlier in the season that she saw the fleece heal Thalia in a dream. Luke believes that Thalia would become a powerful ally in his fight against Olympus, convinced that her resentment toward her father, Zeus, would push her to join his cause.

Annabeth reassures Percy that Thalia would never side with Luke or Kronos. But Percy isn’t so sure. He reminds her that when Thalia awakes, she’ll be forced to choose between two of her close friends, Annabeth and Luke. After watching the finale, it becomes clear that Annabeth could be very wrong about where Thalia’s loyalties lie.

Percy Jackson Season 2 Ending Explained

On the drive to Camp Half-Blood, Percy keeps replaying the prophecy in his head: a child of the Big Three (Zeus, Poseidon, or Hades) will face a choice at age sixteen that could either save the gods or destroy them. Percy and Annabeth are holding onto hope that the Golden Fleece can bring Thalia back, easing the weight of the prophecy on Percy.

On their way to camp, they spot Blackjack stranded in the road. They learn Clarisse ditched her ride and is going to Thalia’s tree on foot with the fleece. Percy, Tyson, Grover, and Annabeth leave Sally behind and head out to try to find her. Meanwhile, back at camp, King Tantalus is more focused on resuming the chariot races than fighting the monsters. While he’s ranting about how the teens haven’t seen a real siege, a fireball comes flying toward him, killing him.

Luke and his rebels arrive in trucks with even more monsters. Percy and his squad overhear Luke’s conversation thanks to Tyson, and they learn that their plan essentially is to burn camp to the ground. Luke also wants to free Thalia with the fleece, convinced she’ll join their side in taking down Olympus.

The teens are captured by the other demigods and brought before the acting camp director, Dionysus, following Tantalus’ death. Percy warns the camp that Kronos has returned and delivers an inspiring speech, reminding them that no one is coming to save them.

When she approaches the camp, Clarisse encounters traitors within its ranks. Grover and Annabeth come to her rescue, protecting the fleece before it can fall into the wrong hands again. Just as Luke uses his demigod status to open the barrier near Thalia’s tree, Percy and Tyson show up, along with an army of demigods, ready to fight.

Luke knocks Percy out, and just as he’s about to kill him, a trident appears. It’s Tyson, who throws Luke and saves his brother. Annabeth is struck by an arrow, while Allison tries to chop down Thalia’s tree to let the other monsters in for backup.

What Happens When The Golden Fleece Hits Thalia’s Tree?

Percy hands the fleece to Clarisse. “Finish your quest,” he tells her, as she throws the fleece, attached to a spike, onto the tree. The tree immediately begins to glow and come back to life. Thalia emerges from it and yells, “Never!” Then a lightning bolt strikes Percy, knocking him unconscious. He wakes up in a dream in which his father, Poseidon, and his brother, Tyson, appear.

Poseidon tells Percy that the incoming war is inevitable, and he asks Tyson to help him craft weapons for the upcoming fight. Before letting him go, Poseidon tells Percy never to underestimate himself. Percy recalls the word Thalia shouted, “Never,” and asks his father what it means. “Brace yourself,” Poseidon responds, hinting at what’s to come.

Percy wakes up in the infirmary with Thalia still unconscious. They have been there for three days. Annabeth and Grover tell Percy that Chiron has returned, Luke has vanished, and the monsters and rebels have been driven away from the camp.

What Really Happened To Thalia?

When Percy, Grover and Annabeth find Chiron, the centaur tells the teens that they deserve to know what happened the night Thalia was turned into the pine tree. Annabeth doesn’t want to relive the memory, but Chiron warns her that the story she remembers didn’t end the way she thinks. He was there and saw “everything.”

Chiron explains that as he prepared to defend Thalia, the Furies — the monsters who serve Hades — approached her but did not attack. When the Furies spoke “too much,” a lightning bolt struck from the sky, destroying them. That’s when Thalia’s father, Zeus, appeared. The Furies had delivered a message from Hades, one designed to drive a wedge between father and daughter.

“It’s too late. I heard what they said,” Thalia tells Zeus, who insists that what the Furies told her was “all lies.” The Furies warned Thalia that Zeus wanted her to fight a war for him to fulfill the Great Prophecy. Zeus finally admits the prophecy is real and insists she must be on the right side of it.

He wants Thalia to stay at camp, protected and “idolized” by the other demigods. She pushes back, saying the only demigods she cares about are the two she brought with her. When Thalia threatens to leave, Zeus tells her she can’t walk away from him. She admits she doesn’t want to be his daughter and declares that she will “never be a weapon.” That’s when Zeus uses his powers and turns her into a tree.

Why Did Chiron Lie About What Really Happened?

Chiron recalled that six years ago, Zeus ordered him to lie and say that the Furies had mortally wounded Thalia and that Zeus spared her life. All along, Kronos planned to use the power of the Golden Fleece to raise “his champion”: Thalia. While Chiron once feared that the champion would be Percy, it was Thalia all along.

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning strikes, and Thalia bursts through the door. Annabeth embraces her old friend, while Thalia asks where Luke is. When no one answers, Thalia and Percy lock eyes. Which demigod will the Great Prophecy refer to, and which side will they choose: the Olympians or Kronos?

“You guys get nightmares, right? Not like mine,” Percy’s voiceover says in the final scene of Season 2. “Because mine just woke up.”

How Does Season 2’s Ending Of Percy Jackson Deviate From The Books?

There are several deviations between the Disney+ series and The Sea of Monsters, especially in Episode 8. For example, the entire battle at Camp Half-Blood is original to the series and does not occur in the book. In the novel, the story instead concludes aboard the Princess Andromeda cruise ship, where Luke is tricked into confessing to poisoning Thalia’s tree, clearing Chiron’s name. Also, Luke is not motivated to use the fleece on Thalia’s tree in the book. Rather, his focus is on using it to resurrect Kronos.

In the series, Thalia emerges from the tree in a dramatic moment, shouting “Never” before bolts of lightning knock both her and Percy unconscious. By contrast, the book handles this scene very differently. After the fleece is placed on the tree, not with a spear, but simply hung on it, the group discovers the next day that Thalia has been resurrected.

The show also introduces a major twist regarding Thalia’s fate and how she became a tree. In the series, she does not sacrifice herself to save her friends, but is instead turned into a tree by her father, Zeus, as punishment for refusing to serve as his weapon in the coming war. In the book, however, Thalia’s story remains as Luke, Annabeth, and Grover originally remember it: she fights off monsters so her friends can reach Camp Half-Blood safely. After being mortally wounded, Zeus transforms her into a pine tree to save her life.

Walker Scobell, who plays Percy, described Thalia’s twist as something that “ramps up” Season 3, which will be based on The Titan’s Curse, the third book in Rick Riordan’s series.

“I think it’s one of those things that as a book reader, I see that and I’m not like, ‘Oh, that changes everything!’ Because it does change everything, but it’s not one of those things that is vital to the story,” he told The Wrap. “It just makes it a lot — I’m looking for a different word than dramatic, but it kind of just ramps it up for Season 3.

All episodes of Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2 are streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.

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