Siren - On The Road - Review

I think Siren may very well go down as the biggest surprise of the 2017/2018 TV Season. It’s such a quality show in terms of storytelling, directing, visual effects, and acting for a show on Freeform. We’re 4 episodes in and every episode is better than the previous, always moving at a lightning fast pace, with no room left for filler and it’s brilliant.

‘On The Road’ was all about the search for Chris and Ryn’s sister. The Sheriff & Ben’s brother had cameo appearances as the Sheriff’s hunt for Ryn continues, and he’s now suspicious that Maddie is lying to him, but the bulk of the screen time was spent on Chris, Ryn’s sister and of course the Military dealing with the aftermath of their escape.

Chris comes across Ryn’s sister in a hallway, but I don’t think he quite realizes that she is what the Military have been experimenting on. He obviously knows the Doctor who was treating him so he’s not mistaking her for Ryn’s sister, but I think he may have thought she was just another Doctor. He was very much confused by the fact she couldn’t talk, and how she was reacting with curiosity to her surroundings, so I very much doubt he realizes she’s a mermaid.

From their experience at the marine centre, dealing with underwater creatures comes part & parcel for Ben and Maddie. As soon as they realized what Ryn was, they put her through the tests and were able to reach an understanding with her. Chris unfortunately isn’t about to do that with Ryn’s sister, and it was quite an interesting parallel for the show to make. Ryn’s sister has been experimented on, she’s untrusting of everything and everyone around her except for her sister. When Chris reached the sanctuary in the woods, you could see he was beginning to feel frustrated by Ryn’s sister asking for water, because obviously he didn’t realize she was talking about sea water instead of tap.

Given the amount of time she’s spent on land again, Ryn was obviously beginning to feel the effects and Ben, Maddie & Helen knew she needed to get back into the water. Despite how ill she was, Ryn was very much refusing to do this. At first it seemed like simply stubbornness, but then she explained to Helen that her sister was captured following Ryn who was hunting for food. Obviously she blames herself for the whole predicament, and therefore her refusal to go back to sea until she righted her wrong was extremely understandable. It’s also a very human reaction to have, and it’ll be interested to see whether the show explore the subject of Ryn’s humanity at some point.

Ben & Maddie joined up with Xander and Calvin to search for Chris as that was the best bet of finding Ryn’s sister. They went to the Doctor’s house to search for clues and were interrupted by the Militaries clean-up squad. Automatically they knew this had to mean something bad had happened at the base, and the Doctor probably wasn’t alive anymore. Unfortunately Calvin jumped the gun a little bit and assumed that Chris must’ve been in one of the body bags. He shot off to investigate with Xander joining him, and it honestly wasn’t his smartest move. It’s also interesting to note when Ben suggested going to the base beforehand, Calvin shut him down, clearly still deeply mistrustful of him.

Whilst Xander & Calvin shot off, Ben and Maddie left them to go to Ryn who was very much beyond getting worse. Just as they were reluctantly persuading her to go back into the water & with a tracker so they could keep an eye on her, they received word that Chris had been found. As Ben & Maddie went to assist him, Ryn saw her sister walking away and raced off to join her. Her sister didn’t quite see Ryn and so when they were down by the sea, she was forced to let out a cry to alert her sister to her presence.

It was a rather heart-warming moment as they were reunited. Both trying to fish each other out, before her sister took Ryn into her arms and led her into the sea. They were watched by Maddie & Ben, both of whom had sadness in their eyes. They’ve taken Ryn under their wing, to an extent mothering her, and as much as they knew they would eventually have to let Ryn go, it was still obviously hard for both of them to do.

Xander having overheard a bit of Ben’s conversation with Dr. Abbott didn’t seem to be completely buying Ben’s claim of trying to help a volunteer at the marine centre. He made a comment about beating Ben up if he did cheat on Maddie, and though it was probably said in jest, it wouldn’t surprise me if somewhere down the line their relationship does encounter trouble.

The military base is burnt down in the aftermath of Ryn’s sister and Chris’s escape. Decker (the military Doctor) realized a bit too late that the so-called bonding he thought he was doing with Ryn’s sister, was actually her studying him. As Helen previously noted, mermaids are extremely intellectual creatures.

Unfortunately, Decker has to live with the consequences of that, and the deaths of all the military personnel will weigh down on him thanks to Admiral Harrison squarely placing the blame at his door.

Obviously Ryn being reunited with her sister and swimming away isn’t going to last long. We still have 6 more episodes to get through, and next weeks promo has already given parts of it away.

‘On The Road’ was another fine episode, and hopefully if the ratings keep going the way they are, a renewal won’t be too far away.