Freeform’s Siren
3×03: “Survivor”
Directed by Aprill Winney
Written by Sarah Wise

* For a recap & review of 3×02, “Revelations” – click here
* For a recap & review of 3×04, “Life and Death” – click here
Ryn continues to recuperate but she wants to be out of bed. She’s having trouble healing. She wonders if being human too long has hindered her regenerative capabilities. Helen tells her about seeing Sarge again and his message about war. Ryn knows the message is about Tia, and she needs to prepare whatever comes next. Ryn is going to train on land with Hunter to get herself back in shape while Katrina guards the ocean and Eliza makes medicine. Meanwhile, Maddie’s still hanging out with Robb and weirdly exploring a potential relationship with him, even though she hasn’t quite severed herself from Ben or Ryn. She feels weird about it, yet isn’t closing herself off to the possibilities.

We see more of Xander doing police training for the sheriff’s department. He’s having trouble with a standoff exercise because he keeps flashing back to when he accidentally shot Donna. We also see more of Elaine’s therapy that seems to be going well. At least until she’s left alone a minute and tries standing in the pool, slipping under the water. Ben and Ted are busy arguing over the stem cell treatments when they see Elaine in the pool. But Elaine’s just fine— probably a side effect from those mermaid cells. Oh, shit. They want to test Elaine to see what may be happening with her lungs and the numbers show she has the capacity of an “Olympic swimmer.”
Not only is Ryn getting herself back in ass kicking shape, she’s likewise determined to continue becoming more human, too. It’s as if her war with Tia has made her realise, even more so than before, the benefits of what humans have to offer. Plus, it’s just another way for mermaids to survive if they can learn the same things humans do.
Solid plan, all around.
But what about Meredith and her growing baby? Her contractions connect to Ryn. Maybe that could explain why Ryn’s feeling especially rough following her fight with Tia. Maddie brings Ryn to the doctor, Leena— the same one helping Bryan treat Meredith. The doc sees Ryn’s “uterus is contracting” yet she isn’t visibly pregnant. She knows what’s going on. She tells Ryn her baby is actually alive, growing in Meredith.

In the forest, Helen and Eliza are gathering items like old man’s beard and other things. They talk of the coming war, which the full-blooded mermaid anticipates will bring many dead. Helen talks of missing Sarge, and Eliza says there’s another way to “visit the spirits.” It’s dangerous for anyone not wholly a mermaid. Eliza promises some sea herbs. Will it be like a vision quest?

Below the ocean, Tia’s starting more trouble, killing another mermaid tribe’s leader.
She’ll gather the tribes and unite them, by force if necessary.

“You’ve gotta move forward”

Ted is determined not to let his wife be a “guinea pig” for military science. He doesn’t want Elaine being pumped full of mermaid cells, no matter how good they are for her. Simultaneously, Elaine is desperate not to let the trial be over. She doesn’t want to go back to how life was before, now that she knows all the benefits of those injections. It’s Ben who’s caught in the middle. He’s left to do the only thing he can think to do: go back out to a mermaid grave and start digging. He takes the corpse back to the dock warehouse and gets concocting in his makeshift lab, hiding the body in a freezer. Yeah, because THAT won’t cause any problems in the future! He’s even injecting himself, too.

On the beach, Helen eats the herbs to take her to the “spirit world.” She’s whisked away suddenly to another place, finding herself in a dense forest. She calls out to Sarge, then she’s transported to the middle of an empty, eerily silent Bristol Cove. She sees Donna standing before her, and the mermaid starts to decompose in the wind, blowing away into tiny bits of flesh.

After discovering the baby is alive, Ryn and Cami go looking for the child themselves, leaving Maddie in the wind. The two mermaids arrive at the house Ryn remembers, and they hear Meredith’s moans. Leena urges them to go, but Ryn refuses to let Bryan have her child: “He will not touch this baby.” The unborn baby calms in Meredith’s belly when Ryn lays her hands on it. When Xander and Maddie get there they see Cami has already cracked Bryan’s skull open on the bathroom floor.
Beneath the waves, Tia’s gathering those mermaid forces.
Another great episode. This season has been moving fast in its opening chapters, so it’s going to be a wild ride. Most importantly, how will Ryn’s baby change things? A revolutionary moment, for a lot of reasons.

“Life and Death” is next.