Maddie and her mother turn to the only person they think can help them in the wake of Ryn’s actions. Katrina continues to gather the pack to her by whatever means necessary so she can challenge Ryn. Ben confronts his father about the meeting with the oil company.

So, Ryn killed a man again. He was an unambiguously bad man, but that doesn’t change the impact that this action has on the lives of Maddie and her mother. Faced with a dead drug dealer’s body and the potential of an awful lot of questions they’d rather not answer, they call the one person they think can help them out of this predicament – as if his recent sojourn to do a psych evaluation as part of his current leave wasn’t stressful enough.

Two things immediately stand out here. First, Dale is a man to whom nothing is more important than his family. His lack of hesitation in acting, and the lengths to which he is evidently willing and able to go reaffirm that. Second, he is as much an unambiguously good man as the dealer was a bad one. His acceptance of the situation, and more importantly his acceptance of Ryn (and her implied new relationship status with his daughter – remember he doesn’t know the whole tale) are big neon indicators of that. He’s also no fool, and that comes across loud and clear later on in the episode.

Elsewhere, Katrina is rounding up as many members of the pack as she can by whatever means necessary. That not all of them go willingly is a testament to how much respect Ryn has earned with her brothers and sisters, as well as how attached some have become to their new human friends. Many different things get explored through this, not the least Xander’s complicated relationship to the mermaids generally and Levi in particular. Xander is many things – not necessarily that bright, quick to anger, and prone to act before he thinks. But he’s also a fundamentally decent person, who likely isn’t as murderously vengeful as he might like to think he is.

Ben’s confrontation with his family doesn’t really give us much. To be honest, the whole Pownell family saga is the least interesting bit of the show because it continues to be just one extended tease with no real resolution. It’s not surprising that Ben’s father is courting the oil execs, and neither are any of his arguments in favour when confronted on it. In a show that does so much else right, this just feels extraneous and a little two-dimensional.

Katrina meanwhile, brings much of the dynamism of the episode, with her ongoing drive to re-take control of the pack and return to the ocean. Her double crossing of Xander is predictable, what is less so is the range of responses from the pack itself. Some actively oppose her, some ardently support her and others – well to say more would spoil certain elements of the episode’s unfolding plot. Suffice it to say, as flat as the Pownell nuclear family unit is, the pack continues to be rich, diverse and never less than interesting.

Verdict: It’s not without its issues (mainly the dullness of the Pownell family plot chugging along in the background) but it’s another lively and tense instalment of the show. No humour this time round, but then it didn’t really need it. 8/10

Greg D. Smith