Ben, Maddie, Helen and Ryn continue their efforts to keep the mermaid pack safe and isolated, but the resistance of one may cause problems. Ryn gets a few more lessons in acting human. Xander worries about how to make ends meet.

I feel like maybe I owe Siren an apology from last week. Though the show didn’t feel anything like as assured as it had in the previous season’s finale, what has to be borne in mind is that this is the start of a whole new story – or at least a new chapter in the overall story – and that means groundwork needing to be laid.

The love triangle between Maddie, Ben and Ryn continues to be perhaps the most fascinating part of the whole show, mainly because it seems to be taking a very distinct approach with all three characters. For Ben, there’s an obsession there with Ryn that he can’t quite be sure is entirely down to the effect of the Siren song on his brain. For Maddie, it’s clear that she both understands Ben’s being under Ryn’s spell but also that she resents it – it dovetails quite neatly with the issues of abandonment she carries from her mother, and the show cleverly exploits that here in a couple of ways just for those who weren’t keeping up (myself included) last time out.

But it’s from Ryn’s perspective that things really start to become intriguing. It seems obvious that she harbours affection for Ben (largely because the show spends a lot of time with him and that’s how he feels) but it’s also been apparent for those paying attention that she’s equally fond of Maddie. What remains unclear is whether that fondness extends beyond friendship to something else for either or both of them, or whether it’s even a thought that occurs to Ryn at all. What it almost seems we have here is a deep exploration of the idea of two people’s separate and conjoined obsessions with a third who is so alien to them and their way of thinking that she equally embraces them while not really understanding them. The tale of the Siren song is as old as storytelling itself, but this seems a deliberate and thoughtful re-working of the details.

Because this is a TV show and they don’t want people being scared off by deep philosophy, there’s also some laughs. Mainly these come from Ryn in some (pun intended) fish-out-of-water scenarios as Ben tries to help her pass more easily for human. These actually are welcome because they show Eline Powell’s range and also help keep things fresh.

The Mermaid pack are the real issue here though – all but one are submissive to Ryn, but that one seems intent on causing trouble at every turn. The various misadventures of the pack are perhaps a little obvious and stuff we have seen before, but it does all add to the tension of what exactly might happen if this secret gets out.

And there’s Xander, still not seeing the obvious truth of who his latest girlfriend is (and I swear, Siren, if you waste the goodwill I have toward you on one of the achingly obvious potential avenues you could take her character down I will be unhappy) and struggling to pay his bills. Seems his father left a legacy of debt and a boat that’s less than shipshape, but I’m sure all that burgeoning resentment that’s building at his position won’t cause any problems if he finds out about the new visitors in town…

Verdict: Solid, nicely balanced between humour and surprisingly nuanced emotion. Once again, I find myself surprised by the little Mermaid show that could. 9/10

Greg D. Smith