REVIEW: Siren – 2.08: “Leverage”

Here’s to more Raddie (& Bryndie) scenes in the future!

I knew I was going to love this episode, but I didn’t know I would be on the edge of my seat the entire time! From beginning to end, I was hooked! And talk about a cliffhanger episode! Since “Leverage” was all about devising a plan to stop Klesco, I figured that would be the perfect way to format this review to keep my feelings and ramblings in check!

The Plan & the Farewells: Right off the bat in the episode, Ben, Xander, and the merfolk are working on a plan to stop the oil company, Klesco, from succeeding. I loved that everyone played a role in it! From Xander and Carl being in charge of the North Star and removing the oil drill, Ben making sure the water is safe for the mermaids, and Helen making sure the partygoers are looking at the TV monitors to see Klesco’s plan fail. Even the merfolk have a job! They have to blowtorch the actual drill off! The fact that they were able to do this was incredible, especially in the water! And the underwater scenes are always so stunning and magical to watch, but I’ll get to that in a bit.

With the plan almost in action, every character is practically walking on eggshells. What if this is the last time they’ll see each other? They have to make these last few moments count.

Helen and the mermaids visit Ric one last time, and I’m generally sad that he’s sad about missing them. I didn’t think he felt that strongly about them! I hope in S2B we learn more about their auto immune disease and see more of Ric in general. Could there be more hybrids out there, too? Speaking of Helen, she gives Sarge a necklace to remember her by and these two are too precious! They’re not the only couples saying their farewells. Carl said “I love you” to his girlfriend, Xander confronted Nicole (who I actually feel for and hope she helps Ryn, Ben, etc.!) and then there’s Bryndie *swoons*

I heard about their potential farewell scene, and was very nervous about it. Would this be the end of my favorite trio? My favorite trio that I didn’t even think would happen in the first place?! When Siren first mentioned that they were going the polyamorous, I was very worried that this was going to be a brief storyline and that would be it. But Bryndie’s farewell scene confirmed that this trio is endgame. I don’t want to go into too much detail since I plan on writing about just them in the future, but how that scene was executed? I was so happy with it, I cried!

“Good luck down there, Ryn. Do your thing.”

The Execution & the In-betweens: As plans and parties go, there’s a lot that can go wrong and falter everything. I think that’s why I like these type of episodes, actually. You have a big party or an event that’s usually in a controlled setting and has everything planned out to the minute. It’s a great way to keep your characters on their toes. While the execution of Ben’s plan worked in the beginning (same goes for the Klesco party), that’s not at all how it ended.

But I think the highlight of the execution of the plan/party was seeing everyone actually working together to make it a reality. Ben allowed it for the mermaids to head into the water, they were able to blowtorch the heck out of the drill, Xander and Carl have control of the boat. Over at the party, the champagne was flowing, small talk was made, and they thought everything was going swimmingly. Little did they know. In all seriousness though, before everything went haywire for all parties involved, it was great to see them interacting. Like Helen and Ben’s Mom, who both have made a sort of truce in realizing they can relate to each other in their illnesses/disabilities. And seeing Xander and Ryn share some last bit of encouragement was so sweet. I’d love to see more of them!

Please be okay, Xander & Carl!

The Inevitable Unexpected: The mishaps started out simple, Helen found out that Klesco had a surprise camera by the oil drill – right where the mermaids were going to be. But bring in Ric to remove camera’s signal, and one crisis averted. Too bad that couldn’t be said for the rest of the problems. A mishap for Klesco is Ben’s plan working, but that’s what we wanted. What we didn’t want is for Sarge to die! Ever the protector, as the hook came loose from the drill, he sacrificed himself for the mermaids. I knew we were going to lose a mermaid/merman in this episode, but I didn’t want it to be Sarge! How’s Helen going to react? That loss aside, it was nice to see a mermaid’s interpretation of a funeral (since it was hinted way back in season 1).

The ending of “Leverage” had me completely in hysterics and I can’t stop thinking about it! When Alex Roe mentioned the mid-season finale was going to be explosive, he wasn’t kidding! Thanks to Cami (who unfortunately made it out safe), the North Star went up in flames and we have no clue if Xander or Carl survived! I’m crossing everything in hopes they made it out alive, but it’s not looking good for either. I guess we’ll just have to impatiently wait and see.

And that was the mid-season finale! Anyone else having difficulty waiting for the new episodes? Fortunately, right after the episode a teaser was released, debuting a general premiere date of July. So at least we don’t have too much of a wait!

Click here to see the teaser of Siren S2B.

Meet you guys right back here in July!

Looking for some mermaid recommendations to get you through this Siren hiatus? I’ll be re-watching H2O (as usual), then there’s the new-ish Netflix series Tidelands. In terms of books there’s Lost Voices by Sarah Porter, and then I’ve heard amazing things about To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo, which I’m definitely going to try and get my hands on!