‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’: Which Friend Betrays Percy? Here’s What the Book Says

Episode 3 of ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ allowed us to see how Percy’s judgments were affected by one of the things that he learned earlier. He basically learned that one of his friends would eventually betray him on his quest, and that means that he had to choose the right people to accompany him on his journey to recover the master bolt and save his mother from Hades. But who is the friend who will betray Percy?

The Oracle’s prophecy

Back in episode 2 of ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians,’ it was revealed that Percy Jackson was the son of Poseidon and that he was the only hope that the world had in relation to a war that could break out between the gods. That’s because it was believed that a child born out of the Big Three was the one responsible for stealing Zeus’ master bolt.

Percy was sent on a mission to recover the master bolt because he was the one who was framed for its theft despite the fact that he had nothing to do with it. But the only reason why he even agreed to take on the quest was because he heard from Grover that his mother, Sally, was still alive and had been stolen by Hades, whom Chiron and the others believe was the one who was responsible for stealing the bolt.

Episode 3 opened up with Percy going to the Oracle of Delphi to ask for a prophecy because no quest would ever be official without a prophecy from the Oracle. The Oracle told Percy about where he should go and what would happen during the quest. But the one thing that stood out from the Oracle’s words was that one of Percy’s friends would betray him.

So, when Percy chose the allies that he would bring along with him on his quest, he made sure to make his choices according to the prophecy of the Oracle. The first one he chose was Annabeth, who was the finest warrior in Camp Half-Blood. 

At first, one would think that Percy chose her because she was the best warrior but the truth was that Percy chose her because he never thought that he would ever be friends with Annabeth due to how rough the start to their relationship was. Since the prophecy says that a “friend” would betray Percy, he chose a person he thought he would never befriend.

The second choice was Grover, whom he knew would always have his back because they’d been best friends for a while already. Of course, Grover promised Sally that he would protect Percy, and Percy knew that his friend would keep that oath. As such, Percy realized that Grover would never betray him no matter what.

As episode 3 progressed, the relationship between Percy and his allies became a bit tumultuous because the prophecy was always lingering at the back of the hero’s mind. He was always guarded because he believed that one of his allies could betray him at any given moment. But when both Grover and Annabeth noticed Percy’s strange and odd behavior, he finally told them what the Oracle said and even revealed the reasons why he chose them as his allies.

It does appear that Percy had already accepted that neither Grover nor Annabeth would betray him during their quest together because they had already proved their loyalty and devotion to the cause. However, the truth is that the Oracle’s prophecies almost always come true.

The traitor is not one of Percy’s companions

Of course, the live-action series is yet to reveal who the traitor is but what we do know is that this series is going to try to be as true to the book as possible. That means that the traitor is none other than Luke Castellan, the son of Hermes. The possibility of him being the traitor is high because his identity as the demigod traitor is one of the most important parts of Rick Riordan’s entire book series.

Luke had befriended Annabeth and Thalia before they went to Camp Half-Blood. However, when they lost Thalia along the way after she was turned into a tree by Zeus to spare her from death, Luke’s fate in the gods diminished. In the books, he loses fate in both his father and the other demigods of Camp Half-Blood after he fails his own quest and feels that the other half-bloods pitied him.

That was when Kronos, the titan Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades defeated long ago, called Luke in his dream and recruited him to join him in his quest for revenge against the Olympians. Since then, Luke has been secretly working for Kronos as his agent.

As we saw in the first three episodes of ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians,’ Luke was one of the first people in Camp Half-Blood to befriend Percy, even offering him his winged sneakers to help him on his quest. This means that Percy did indeed look at Luke as a true friend during the events of the storyline.

In the books, Luke eventually reveals to Percy that he was the traitor all along after he recovered both the master bolt and the Helm of Darkness. Luke decided to try to assassinate Percy to make sure that he would never interfere again.

Although the assassination attempt was unsuccessful, people back at Camp Half-Blood were surprised to learn that Luke had betrayed them long ago. Annabeth even noticed that he had been acting strange ever since he failed his own quest.

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