Siren season 2 finale review: When siren meets The Handmaid’s Tale

Well folks, we are at the Siren season 2 finale and this has been one heck of a season to say the least! So where are we going into tonight’s finale? Ryn was ready to be implanted with one of her embryos and one of them was stolen and implanted in another woman in the mermaid cult. Ian the reporter saw Ryn turn into a mermaid, captured it on video and then kidnapped her to bring back to his boss for a cover story. Is Ryn going to be exposed to the world or are Ben and Maddie going to be able to get her back and find a way to keep Ian quiet? How far would they go to keep him quiet is maybe a better question.

As Ian is driving away with Ryn she sees that he’s about to run down Ben and grabs the steering wheel causing them to both drive off a cliff and into the ocean. Ben has a choice to leave Ian down there to die or save his life, and instead he saves his life and with that Ian promises to keep quiet… but he doesn’t. Instead he puts Ryn’s video on the news and exposes everything causing a widespread panic about mermaids and about Ryn.

Two months later…

Ben, Maddie and Ryn are on the run while Bristol Cove is under Marshall law and two other sirens have been caught. The government has put more sonic canons under water trying to draw more of them out for study as well as to put on display in zoos. Blood tests have been developed to figure out who has siren blood in them and the army has found Helen and has her in a detention camp along with a bunch of other people. They are keeping them as prisoners and are using them for tests.

While Bristol Cove is looking to use and abuse the mermaids, Canada is offering refuge for any sirens that need help and Ben, Maddie and Ryn are looking to head there in hopes that they can live peacefully there. Does anyone else feel like we are suddenly watching an episode of The Handmaid’s Tale?

Ben’s dad gives him money and Xander gives him a gun, so they at least have a bit of leg up to get to Canada, but it’s not without an eye opener to Ben when he learns that Xander is helping to hunt mermaids down for a big pay day. After everything that Xander has been through with the sirens and how much we thought that he had grown this was beyond disappointing. We get that the pay day is huge, but we were honestly enjoying the growth in Xander – this was a bummer to watch. Especially when Xander and Calvin help a group catch a mermaid… and it’s Donna’s daughter. Xander, we were all rooting for you!!!! He sells her to a rich jerk who puts her on display in a small tank in his mansion.

Our trio on the run

They were making good progress at first but Ryn has been out of the water for 2 months now and she’s starting to deteriorate. Not only that but someone has recognized them. The military shows up with the help of Ben and Maddie’s dads right before they got across the border. Maddie gets shot and killed as Ben and Ryn are taken away.

Related – Check out what’s we know about Siren season 3!

CarterMatt Verdict

So did any of this really happen?

Nope! This entire finale was a “what if” situation…. what if Ben saved Ian and he talked and it all played out like this? Instead we learned that Ben had the chance to save Ian and left him to die to protect the women that he loves. We circle back to that question we posed at the beginning – how far are they willing to go to stop Ryn from being exposed. The answer is they are willing to kill for it.

This show has always been bold when it comes to showing the problems that America is facing with the environmental crisis and over fishing of the oceans, but this felt like a hard shift into how divided America is at the moment over race. While we understand why they wanted to tackle this subject matter, there are plenty of other shows doing that at the moment. We love that this show is focusing on environmental issues and it made sense given the subject matter of the mermaids and oceans, but this show doesn’t need to be everything to everyone. The over fishing of the oceans and oil drilling issues are problems that don’t get nearly enough focus and it’s what made this show stand out.

This is one time that we are thankful for the old TV trope “it was all a dream”.

What did you think of the season 2 finale Siren? Leave us a comment in the box below (Photo: Freeform)

This review was written by Jessica Carter. Be sure to follow her on Twitter.