Ben and Ryn confess the truth about Ian’s death to Maddie, leaving her uncertain as to what to do. A new Mermaid arrives in town looking for Ryn, but can she be trusted?

After a brief recap of the important stuff from last season, this new season kicks off with am action-packed opener which leaves us in no doubt that new character Tia is both incredibly smart and incredibly dangerous. It’s a surprising kind of set piece for the show (possibly evidence of an increase in budget as it hits its third season) and it does a great job of establishing the new character.

Meanwhile back in Bristol Cove, there’s trouble at the Ben/Maddie/Ryn household, as even Ryn’s best efforts at preparing human cuisine (involving some very peculiar combinations of food groups) can’t hide from Maddie that Ben isn’t telling her something. When she finds out what it is, it causes a rift between them which may take some time to fix, even after everything that they have shared. This shouldn’t surprise, and is consistent with what we know about Maddie as a character – how the show chooses to address it as it goes forward will be interesting.

Helen is having issues of her own, as Sarge visits her in visions which may or may not be simple dreams. Could her lost Merman love really be talking to her from the great underwater beyond? And what might this mean?

Ted is also having issues, unable to shake what he saw in the underwater footage from the drill incident or how it reminds him of what happened to him and Elaine all those years ago in her accident. He’s starting to get obsessive, digging up every possible detail he can find about the night of the accident and poring over what it might mean.

And speaking of Elaine, she’s looking forward to more treatment, but of course the Navy are somewhat reluctant to help Ben out given he and Maddie stole embryos from them. With his clearance revoked and Commander Kyle holding his mother’s condition over him, what can Ben do?

It’s good to have the gang back for this third season. It doesn’t feel like the show has missed a beat and with an exciting new character plus plenty of plot threads started last season to tease out, this feels like it could be the best one yet.

Verdict: Feels like we never left Bristol Cove, in the best of ways. 8/10

Greg D. Smith