REVIEW: Siren – 1.06: “Showdown”

You, sir, are someone I never thought I would come around to. But here we are.

This episode, “Showdown,” is very much a family matter. Or family business I should say. We saw a huge aspect of Ben’s family especially that completely changed my opinion of them. From their current state to the brief hints of history that we got, I loved it all!

Take Ben’s father, Ted Pownall, for instance. We were first introduced to him as an almost greedy seafood business owner, that was so far gone in his snobbish ways that Ben couldn’t stand seeing him. But come to find out that he wants to push past all their history and keep Ben around for good. You, sir, are the Don Setori of this series. He even tried to get to know Maddie! And with the brief bit we heard between them of his friendship with Dale Bishop, I was all, “Oh tell me more!” (Maddie’s Dad was absent this episode helping a family member in Forks. I giggled over that possible nod at the actor’s role in Twilight, to be honest)

You have nothing on Dr. Denman, Decker!

My opinion of Ben’s Mother, Elaine Pownall, hasn’t necessarily changed – she’s still rude to Maddie – but I’m empathetic to her given her now-known struggles with treatments on being able to walk again. I don’t think we ever got a timeline of when it occurred. It could’ve been only a year ago for all we know. And I don’t think we’ve yet to find out what the accident was? I’ve seen a lot of theories that Elaine could be a mermaid as well. While she’s not my favorite character, I’m still very interested to continue to learn more about her. Maybe she also knows that Helen’s a mermaid because she’s one as well?

Just merhug it out you two.

Speaking of mermaids, we also saw a great familial aspect to Donna and Ryn’s relationship. These two spent the majority of the episode trying to convince the two that humans were either bad (Donna) or good (Ryn). Both have very different experiences of meeting humans obviously. Seeing how Ryn got discovered by the deputy, she just might have a different opinion of humans come next week’s episode. I’m interested to see how Donna will act towards humans once she’s fully acclimated to them like Ryn.

Lastly, the scientist Decker made his presence known in the town of Bristol Cove and I can’t tell if he’ll eventually become a friend or foe. We saw him striding into Elaine Pownall’s event and dangle his mermaid experiments in front of her, to see if she’d be interested in using their stem cells in order to walk again. But thanks to our mermaids and Ben’s blackmail tactics, they made sure Decker was the one that was really on the hook. With every main character now in the know on the military’s intentions, I wonder if Decker will switch sides and work to help them stop their interest in mermaids alongside Ben and Maddie. I still can’t really figure this guy out. What are some of your opinions of him?

What did you think of Siren‘s 1.06: “Showdown”?

Siren‘s 1.07: “Dead in the Water” airs next Thursday at 8/7c on Freeform.

The trailer for it can be viewed below.

*Gulps* Looks like we’re going to see a character death in next week’s episode. Who do you think it is? I think it’s either Chris or Calvin; both are minor characters. And I could definitely see Xander throwing their bodies overboard as some sort of fishermen ritual (unless that’s a mermaid?).