Ben and Maddie try to discover more about Ryn as they attempt to help her find her sister. Xander and Calvin may be in over their heads as their search for Chris takes an interesting turn. The military’s experiments seem to be having the desired results, but is the mermaid in their custody going to survive much longer?

So, here we are three episodes in on one of the more surprising genre shows so far this year, and things are still super weird.

Ryn is still as enigmatic as ever – even as she is beginning to pick up English from being around humans, she remains unreadable as a creature. Nothing cements this more than an exchange between her and Ben, wherein he begins to think he understands her, and offers an explanation for her behaviour which she casually (and somewhat chillingly) dismisses. It’s a stark reminder that however small and inoffensive she may look, Ryn is a predator several rungs above people in the food chain, and is to be treated with the appropriate respect that deserves.

Elsewhere, Xander and Calvin are continuing their crusade to be the two dumbest members of the local town by attempting to follow the nurse whose phone Chris stole to send them his ‘SOS’ text last time out. They’re actually an endearing (and vital) part of the show when you stop to think about it, because they represent exactly the sort of thing that impulsive people might do when confronted with the sort of extraordinary events the show posits. So of course they track down the nurse and of course they try and follow her to the secret military base they figure she must be working at, all the while arguing about whether or not they should just confront her, and sorting out small domestic details such as respect for girlfriends in the house. It’s exactly the sort of thing the show needs so that it isn’t all about moral crusaders earnestly trying to save the world.

Additionally on that front we have Sheriff Bishop, slowly working his way towards the conclusion we all know about. It’s an understated performance from Gil Birmingham which is again, just what the show needs. Too often the temptation with a show like this would be for the local sheriff to be a gun-toting macho man who’s been waiting for his time to be a hero. Bishop is your typical small-town lawman, bemoaning the sudden uptick in violent crime in his neighbourhood, and approaching it the same way he does everything else, methodically and with patience.

The actual ‘interview’ itself in the title is actually well worth it. Seeing Ryn slowly reveal details about herself in her broken English again lends to that sense of her being something at once otherworldly and highly dangerous. When she later wanders off and is in the middle of a party, there’s a genuine sense of tension as to what might go wrong.

As far as Ben’s family goes – certainly there’s something below the surface that is being hinted at, but I fear it’s going to be either something mundane that detracts from everything else that’s happening or so over-the-top silly that it spoils the balance. Then again, this show has surprised me once already, so I’m keeping an open mind for now.

Verdict: Continues to be a pleasant surprise of a show. Crazy premise carried off by solid execution on every level. I don’t mind admitting, I’m hooked. 8/10

Greg D. Smith