Ben tags along with Xander and his crew on the North Star as they go in search of the mermaid Xander saw disappearing into the water, but can they find the mermaids before the military trawler, and what will Ben do if they do? Meanwhile, Ryn’s capture causes issues for Maddie.

I’m going to start this one with a nitpick – at the end of the last episode we saw a deputy corner Ryn before she could escape, and this episode starts with her being brought in. We know that Ryn, for all her diminutive stature, is phenomenally strong (she threw a man twice her size out of his car through the windscreen) yet a female deputy and two male assistants manage to bring her in and she is kept secure by standard handcuffs – maybe it’s just that she’s less feral now and therefore less inclined to violence, but it stands out as an oddity.

That said, it’s literally my only issue with this instalment of the show. Xander and his two buddies decide to take the North Star out and chase Donna, who Xander saw leaping into the water and transforming last time out. Of course, Ben knows that the military are out there in a trawler, having starved the merfolk, and looking to grab some. Therefore, he decides to tag along, in the hope that he can do…something when the time comes.

But this being Siren, it really isn’t all that straightforward at all. Planning to run in the wake of the trawler and cut its nets to prevent the military taking their prize/capturing one of Ryn’s people (depending on who you ask), various setbacks make for choppy waters (pun intended). Xander’s father being on the boat is one (having been asleep when they took it) and the Merfolk themselves are another – turns out is isn’t just Ryn and Donna out there and Mer-folk aren’t by any means defenceless.

Back on land, Sheriff Bishop has a word with Ryn, who, not knowing any better, mentions Ben and Maddie having helped her. This of course leads to some tension between Maddie and her father, because as far as he’s concerned she’s lied to him about a murder suspect which understandably upsets him a bit.

The tempo of the episode is fantastic, cutting back and forth between the action on the water and the quiet tension of the exchanges on land, meaning neither ever gets the chance to feel boring and giving both the attention they deserve. There are great performances all round and once again that television FX budget is used to maximum effect, giving us everything we need and not a bit more, ensuring that what we see on the screen always looks good (and oddly believable).

By the time the credits roll, the whole shape of the plot has subtly shifted again. We are now in a much bigger story than the original ‘lost mermaid girl in a small town’ idea with which we started, and not only is the show not running out of ideas, but at this rate I could easily see another series.

Verdict: A TV show about mermaids shouldn’t be this much fun, nor able to encapsulate so many genres. Honestly this is starting to feel like one of the better X Files Monster of the Week episodes, fleshed out into an entire series, and I don’t say that lightly. 9/10

Greg D. Smith