Siren episode 9 review: Donna in danger, Ben’s feelings for Ryn grow

Siren season 1 Donna

We only have 2 episodes of Siren left and they are gearing up to be pretty intense. After the sirens won the battle at sea against the humans, Donna is back on land and this time she’s brought company… including the merman that killed Xander’s father. Why are they back on land? Let’s find out together.

Donna’s search for Ryn

Donna and her crew showed up at Helen’s shop and we were curious to see what side of all of this Helen was going to land on. We know that she is a siren in some form (we are thinking possibly the baby of a siren and Ben’s grandfather) and we know that she holds a lot of anger about the genocide that happened against the sirens in the past, but Sean was her friend and after the calculated attack against them, Helen isn’t as open to Donna as she once was. That being said, the humans are seemingly forgetting that this all started because a boat of humans from the government were out there trying to capture them and put them into small watery prisons for a life time of experiments. Would Donna or her crew really know the difference between those humans and Sean who she’s never met before?

Donna claims she is back because she is looking to bring Ryn home and after a warning from Helen, Ryn worries that she does not have a choice. If she doesn’t go back, the sirens will start hurting people. When all of the sirens meet up, Ryn concedes that she will go back making Donna happy, but the other sirens are still agitated – they aren’t really there to bring Ryn back, they are there to kill her. Donna had no idea that was the agenda of these two other sirens and once their motive is known Ben is able to escape with Ryn and Donna leaving the two rogue sirens behind.

Why do they want Ryn dead? She has spent too much time with the humans and she recounts a story about another siren who spent so much time with the humans that she ended up having a baby with one of them (presumably Ben’s grandfather), but because the baby didn’t look completely normal the human father took the baby into the woods and allegedly killed them. Heartbroken, the siren returned to the sea and the father so distraught at losing her gathered up a group of humans to go and wipe the sirens out. This, we assume, is the siren genocide history involving Ben’s family.

Xander’s vengance

We weren’t sure how Xander was going to cope with knowing about Ryn and that Ben and Maddie kept this secret from him all this time, but now that he’s sober in the light of a new day his one thought is on vengeance – not against Ryn, but against the merman that killed his father. After Ryn proves herself as the dominant siren of the group, the two rogue sirens concede to her and everything seems like it’s going to be okay… that is until Xander shows up with a gun. He still wants to kill the merman for what he did to his dad, but when Ben tackles Xander and the gun goes off, it hits Donna. Is Donna going to die and is Sibongile Mlambo leaving the show?

While Xander is being carted off by the police (just for a night to cool off, no charges being laid), Helen and Ryn get Donna back to her apartment. The gunshot wound is really bad and getting worse. Not knowing where to turn (they can’t exactly bring her to a hospital) they call the one person that could actually help her – Decker.

Are Ben’s feelings for Ryn changing?

If you are still hoping that the Ben, Maddie, Ryn dynamic will turn into a polyamorous relationship the show played around a little more with that tonight. We’ve seen Ryn crawl into bed with them to sleep, kiss both Ben and Maddie on separate occasions and even say “I love you”, but in many ways she was just mimicking Ben and Maddie’s behavior towards each other thinking that this is the way she should act towards them too. What we saw that was different in this episode is that Ben is starting to have more sexual dreams about Ryn after she sang to him once again and that his thoughts are now bleeding into real life. Is Ben really attracted to Ryn or is it the call of the siren song that’s drawing him into something he otherwise wouldn’t entertain?

This episode really showed Maddie where his loyalties lie and just how invested he is in Ryn. All season long, Maddie and Ben were a team working together to help Ryn, but now Ben is willing to do whatever it takes to save Ryn, including becoming a bit of a vigilante. When there was a choice to be made to be with Ryn and Donna after she was shot or staying with Maddie and her father who was also injured in the siren battle Ben chose Ryn. Lines in the sand have been drawn.

Related – Check out our preview for the Siren season 1 finale!

CarterMatt verdict

After everything that happened to Donna we never thought that she would come around to liking humans in any capacity and really who could blame her after what happened to her, but we saw a shift in Donna tonight when the sirens turned against Ryn. The bond between Ryn and Donna is strong and her time with the humans has clearly shown Donna that there are differences between humans just as there are differences between sirens – not everyone thinks and acts the same. Right now though we are mostly just worried about losing Donna from the show and are hoping that Decker can save Donna and help to make up for what he did to her.

What did you think of Siren episode 9? Leave us a comment in the box below and share your thoughts. If you want to keep up to date with all of our Siren coverage then be sure to join our CarterMatt Facebook page. It’s a great way to connect with other fans of the show and get all of our latest news on the show. (Photo: Freeform)

Love TV? Be sure to like Matt & Jess on Facebook for more updates!