Siren season 2 episode 10 review: Will testing change Ryn?

One of the biggest mysteries that the second half of Siren season 2 has introduced revolves around Rick’s sister Beth. She has been estranged from her brother for years and after he blurted out that they are related to mermaids Helen hustled him out of Beth’s house and tried to smooth it all over. At a rest stop Beth had some guy nab Rick and Helen and we are more then just a little bit curious as to why?

What’s Beth’s deal?

Beth already knew that their lineage is connected to mermaids and the man that kidnapped them (Brian) is also part of the mermaid lineage. For some reason Beth couldn’t talk to them about it at her house and instead had Brian nab them and bring them to his house to talk. Are people watching her?? Turns out there’s a larger group of people with the same lineage then Helen ever thought and they all meet up.

At one of these gatherings Helen meets a man that starts to shed a bit of light on what happened to Helen’s mother. Her understanding (according to Beth) was that her mother left the group because she was a bit of a free spirit and was always on the move, but this man tells Helen that her mother left the group at around 30 (before Helen was born) and then goes on to apologize to her about what happened to her parents. Beth steps in to move the conversation in a different direction leaving us still very suspicious of her and what she’s actually trying to do with this group of people.

Ryn wants to help Ben’s Mother

Ben’s mother is getting worse with her paralysis and Ryn wants to help continue Decker’s research to hopefully find a way to help Ben’s mom. The experiments are painful as the dozens of lab techs are flashing cameras in her face as she’s painfully transforming from mermaid to human. Ben can’t handle watching her in so much pain and it was quite frankly difficult for us to watch too – we just want to give Ryn a huge hug! Ryn on the other hand wants to do what it takes to help and if there is some pain involved she’s willing to go through it. The bigger issue is that they need more stem cells and Ben knows how painful that was for Donna (and they don’t know what the effects would be on Ryn long term) and isn’t willing to put Ryn through that for anyone.

When Ryn hears that Ben’s mother will get worse and might die she goes back to the lab alone and tells Nicole that she wants to give the stem cells needed to help. After putting Ryn under (so the extraction is less painful) Nicole surprisingly calls Maddie to let her know what Ryn is doing (of course only after they’ve taken the stem cells). Maybe Nicole isn’t all bad and just kind of bad?

Ryn’s stem cells are in perfect condition and will help, but they are still months away from human testing. The doctor does tell Ben that if the patient is willing to basically sign away their life that they can go to human trial on that person sooner. It’s incredibly risky, but if you are facing death’s door what do you have to lose?

When Ben’s mom hears about the trial she says she’s too tired to fight any more and just wants to enjoy her last bit of time with her family. Ben’s not giving up and it gives her the encouragement she needs to go through with the trial. After Ryn’s stem cells are injected the doctor’s are optimistic and after a bit of recovery time Ben’s mom is feeling less pain and regaining feeling in her arm.

So how is Ryn doing after all of these tests? Not well. We saw her become more aggressive with someone in a supermarket for no real reason and later when Ryn, Maddie and Ben are in bed together Ryn starts to strangle Ben. Has something from this testing process brought out Ryn’s predatory side in a way that she’s unable to control? Seems to be that when they extracted the stem cells it triggered a hormone that’s causing Ryn to feel that stress that humans feel – the fight or flight response. Ben and Maddie try to contain Ryn, but she’s just too powerful and runs off.

Related – Check out what’s coming up next time on Siren!

CarterMatt Verdict

One of the more interesting struggles we are excited about is seeing Ben torn between helping his mother and helping Ryn. His mother will need more stem cells, but it’s clearly hurting Ryn in very unexpected ways and changing the woman that he loves. This is an impossible ask for Ben to have Ryn do this again after seeing what it’s done to her – at the same time his mother may die without Ryn’s help. Easily the storyline we are the most invested in and this is going to give Alex Roe some really meaty material in the second half of the season.

What did you think of Siren season 2 episode 10 and do you think Ben is going to push Ryn into giving more stem cells to help his mother? Leave us a comment in the box below. (Photo: Freeform)

This article was written by Jessica Carter and you can follow her on Twitter here.