Maddie does her best to keep Robb from the whole truth in view of his accidental discovery. A group of survivors from Ryn’s colony make it to land and Ben and Xander must lend their help in getting them to safety and away from Tia’s hunters.

If the last episode of Siren was dense, this one is practically loaded with intrigue, suspense, action and surprises. In fact, it may well be the strongest episode of the series to date – doubly impressive when you consider how the previous episode ended on Maddie and new friend Robb finding the dead mermaid Ben has stashed away in a freezer. How the hell, you might wonder, was Maddie going to get out of that one?

Well, not easily, and after her initial attempt at explaining it away as some mysterious ocean creature’s corpse that she and Ben found washed up doesn’t work, she tries a different, slightly cleverer tack of revealing parts of truth to him, maybe hoping that she can break the whole truth to him gently, over time, once he has fully earned her – and Ben’s – trust.

Meanwhile, Ryn has the issue of Cami having returned to tell her that Katrina’s gone over to Tia’s side and her tribe is in great danger. While all they find in the water are corpses, a small group of survivors have made it to land, meaning that Ben and Xander have to get involved in keeping them safe. It’s hard to escape the feeling that this is a little contrived in setting up some opportunities for Ben to show off his new abilities, but it still makes for tense TV, especially when you consider that Cami still has understandable trust issues with Xander, the man who not all that long ago killed her mother.

Speaking of Xander, a chance encounter with Ben’s father Ted leaves him with a whole new set of feelings of conflict. He’s joining the Sheriff’s department to help ensure the secret is kept (and it’s apparent from this episode that the hybrids have their people everywhere, keeping an eye and protecting the secret) but when it comes down to it, where will Xander’s loyalties really lie, and is Tia going to be a factor in pushing him perhaps in a different direction with that choice?

As for Ted, he’s determinedly worrying away at the truth, and this leads him to Rick, an innocent soul prone to being easily outmanoeuvred and who we haven’t seen much of lately. His conversation with Ted is well-meant, but may mean danger for him and his family.

What continues as a thread through all of this is the notion that all our expectations and notions of these characters are being turned on their heads – Ben has become reckless and somewhat distasteful, Xander sensible and thoughtful. The introduction of Tia into the mix means that loyalties may (and do) change all over the place, and there’s a powerful reveal in the episode that really has the potential to set a whole new conflict in motion at the heart of things.

Verdict: Moving into deeper and far more troubled waters, it’s difficult to see how there’s going to be any peace in Bristol Cove anytime soon. 9/10

Greg D. Smith