#Pownall Massacre

[siren-theories]

Repeating the past - Ben and Ryn as modern parallels to Charles Pownall and his mermaid?

When I wrote my previous post about the Pownall Massacre I noticed just how many parallels between the massacre and our trio exist, especially for the characters of Ben and Ryn. In fact, I saw so many parallels that I started writing the following as the last part of my analysis. But I soon realized that this was too large and merited an article of its own. 

If you are unfamiliar with the story of the Pownall Massacre feel free to read my previous article on it (or alternatively you can just accept my conclusions at face value).

Gifs in this post are either taken from the official freeform site, Crayonboxhearts, koortega or sirensource. 

Due to the characters involved in the Charles Pownall story this analysis has to mainly focus on Ben and Ryn. I apologize beforehand if it seems as if I am ignoring Maddie. You will understand why once you get to the last part of this article. 

Hypothesis: The story of Charles H. Pownall and his mermaid might be repeating itself in the form of Ben and Ryn (and to a certain extent Maddie).

(Polymarine fans upon reading the previous sentence)

The looming threat of Ben turning into his ancestor and Ryn into the original mermaid is always present in the show and adds drama and spice to their relationship. A huge part of what makes their relationship worth watching is experiencing how they overcome the past - or not - and how they make different choices than their respective families / societies. This piece will examine how the show creates parallels and in which way they differ from the original characters. 

Part I: The Parallels

There are multiple obvious parallels between the story of Charles and his mermaid and our trio, so many in fact that this is very unlikely to be coincidental. 

1. Charles Pownall was the first of the Bristol Cove community to meet a mermaid and became entranced with her and her song

(ELAINE: “I*m curious, how did you and Ben become friends? RYN: Ben almost hit me with car.”) 

Likewise, Ben is the first person in close to 150 years to meet a mermaid and he too becomes entranced with her song in Episode 101: “The Mermaid Discovery”.

2. Both Charles and Ben were already in a committed relationship when they met the mermaid. 

Charles was married to an unnamed woman (presumably Bens great-great-great-grandmother),  Ben was dating Maddie for several months until Ryn arrived on the scene. 

(Player 3 has entered the game) 

As with Charles, the new presence complicates the existing relationship, to the point that Ben and Maddie break up for a short while in Episode 110 when he (under the influence of the song) consistently put his need to protect Ryn over communicating with Maddie. 

3. Charles and the mermaid lived together on land. 

(”Ryn choose[...] I stay on land with Ben and Maddie”) 

Ryn too lives with Ben and Maddie on land, As of 209, she wants to stay on land permanently even though it might put her in danger. 

4. Charles Pownall suffered from alleged mental illness due to the song.

Likewise, Ben and Maddie experience visions and exhibit poor impulse control after being exposed to it. This ranges from visions of Ryn being in danger to a unique way of telling your prospective inlaws about the nature of your relationship with their son and the “friend from Finland”. 

5. Charles tried alcohol to cope with the effects of the song. 

(Episode 209 “No North Star” and Episode 211 “Mixed Signals”)

Maddie and Ben start drinking alcohol whenever missing Ryn or daydrinking when under the effect of the song.

6. Charles started to act abnormally when his mermaid was gone.

Ben and Maddie also act abnormally whenever Ryn might have left them for good. Ben takes risky trips to sea at night in Episode 105 "Curse of the Starving Class" , both Maddie and Ben self-medicate with the song in Episode 209 "No North Star".

7. As with Charles the song causes brain damage in Ben and Maddie.  

(“My song do this? Make Heads go dark?” - from Episode 211: “Mixed Signals” )

8. It is likely that Charles’ mermaid was the one initiating the sexual part of the relationship. 

"I have a dream. About Ben.[...]Maddie says it is because I want you."

While Ben and Ryn discussed having feelings for each other before, it is Ryn who pursues him in 204 “Oil and Water”. 

Ryn is the first to kiss both Maddie and Ben (mimicking human behaviour in episodes 105 and 106 with first true kisses happening in episode 204). It is Ryn who first states the wish to have sexual relations with the other two.

All subsequent sexual encounters we see depicted on the show happen with Ryn being the one initiating them. 

(Episode 208) 

(Episode 209) 

(Episode 210)

(Episode 213)

9. According to other humans the mermaid was a woman of ill repute, even slandered as a tavern prostitute after her disappearance.

Likewise, Ryn is seen as a drug addict, murder suspect and person-who-holds-wild-orgies-at-the-cabin-with-Ben by elements of the police force. The look on Deputy Marissa Staub's face when Ryn appears besides Ben at the Cabin in Episode 203 “Natural Order” speaks volumes.

(Tfw you discover the local prince is way too intimate with the local druggie, offending conservative sensibilities everywhere.  Oh the humanity.)

Marissa also likely views Ryn as a home-wrecker (considering she knows Maddie is dating Ben and is close to Dale), much the same way other humans would have viewed Charles mermaid.

10. Charles and the Mermaid had a baby

One thing missing at this point in the show is the presence of a hybrid baby but that might (and I think eventually will) change in the following seasons. There were multiple scenes in Episode 213 where both Ben and Ryn clearly exhibited signs of wanting to have children with each other and one scene in particular where they both had to force themselves not to do so within that episode.

[Sidenote: The acting in Episodes 213-216 was on point.] 

Wwhether there will be a baby in the relationship due to Ryn getting her full-blood baby back (although I think it more likely that one - if it survives - will end up with the other sirens in the sea) or a hypothetical future hybrid baby she might have with Ben (something I personally thnk will be the direction the show will eventually take in the penultimate, maybe ultimate season) the massive anvil sized hints the writers dropped in 213 are too huge to ignore.

[Sidenote: Would Ben and Ryn need IVF to conceive? Probably not. As the tests showed in Episode 213 "The Outpost" there was nothing wrong with Ryn. I believe the problem with getting pregnant was firmly on the male side as infertility in apex predators (and humans) is most often a male problem and the procedure they used is typically used to fix low sperm count in male humans. More on that maybe in a later article.]

11. There is persistent symbolism associated with Charles Pownall, Ben and Ryn in Season 1

In Episode 109 “Street Fight” the most tragic event of Season 1 (Donna getting fatally wounded) happens right near the statue of Ben's Ancestor, with the camera panning over to the statue multiple times to make sure the audience gets the hint. 

It also featured a storyline of Ben acting increasingly irrationally (albeit in a very mild manner compared to Charles) while trying to protect Ryn from Katrina. 

 Conclusion: 

So there you have it. The Siren trio is just a retelling of the Charles Pownall story adapted for modern times, destined for the same tragic ending. After all, the parallels are there. Charles = Ben, his mermaid = Ryn. 

(Polymarine representatives gather near the author’s house to register their difference of opinion, 2019, decolorized) 

Maybe not.

Or rather, this is not the same story and the show tells us that they are not reliving the past.

B) Differences

Whereas the story of Charles Pownall was that of a tragedy and eventual separation, the story of our trio is not. In fact, what the writers are going for seems to be the kind of story that shows that people in similar situations might act in a different manner than their ancestors and thus that similar situations might have different, better outcomes.

Let us take a look at the ways the show differentiates the trio from the Pownall story and also the ways the show outright tells us that this is not the same story.

1. Ryn and Ben’s motivations are different than those of their ancestors

Unlike the mermaid which helped Charles find material wealth, Ryn's initial motive is to find her sister, then stop the overfishing, then safeguard her pack, then save her species from extinction. This of course is accompanied by the motive of Ryn to stay with Ben and Maddie, a motive which might even have taken priority if Ryn leaving her pack to stay on land permanently in Episode 209 is any indication. 

The initial motive on the actions of Charles were profit (and maybe fame), which is definitely not the case with Ben who seems to not care much about material wealth as evidenced by Episode 108 where he declines a new car.

ELAINE: "Your car is disgusting." BEN: "I like my car" ELAINE: "We could buy you a new one, you know. One of those electrics....good for the environment."

Ben could easily become famous and have a huge career boost by "discovering" Ryn and publishing his findings but he does not. Instead his main motive seems to protect both humans and Sirens from harming each other - something that Ryn comes to eventually share as well.  

2. The characters act as a bridge between the cultures, not as dividers

The show sometimes attaches imaginery to fit that purpose, as in Episode 203 “Oil and Water”.

(Let's just look each other in the eyes for 30 seconds while the merpack safely sleeps between us and hope that the viewers are not too distracted by the sexual tension to not notice the symbolism) 

The writers further bring up the idea of characters (specifically Ryn) acting as a bridge between the cultures in Epsiode 206.

RYN: “Shapeshifter like me” DALE: Yes. And in those stories, the ones like you often represent the idea of two worlds coming together. [...] But maybe that is your calling, to lead my kind and your kind to a peaceful existence in this new world.” 

In 208 Ben reveals his hope that eventually the two species can live together (again) in harmony (something that Ryn, Maddie and Ben already practice on a smaller scale).

3. When facing a choice between their respective societies/families and their relationship the trio consistently chooses the relationship

After becoming Alpha in Episode 109 "Street fight" Ryn still choses to leave her pack behind to stay on land.

In 207 Ryn decides to volunteer as a military test subject in order to get Ben out of jail. 

This was a very risky choice - she had no reason to trust the military, no reason to believe they would ever let her go and she also risked her entire pack's welfare by placing herself in the hands of the military. Yet she still did it for Ben. 

In episode 208 Ryn leaves her pack to spend the night with Ben and Maddie and in episode 209 she reveals she permanently wants to stay with them no matter the costs or risks attached, even though it might expose her to capture by the military and thus risk her colony. The vehemence with which she defends her choice is telling. 

RYN:"Ryn hurt inside. Need Ben and Maddie" BEN: "We need you too. There is a woman looking for you". MADDIE: "She's with the military. RYN: "Yes. I help her." BEN: "Why?" RYN: "She get Ben out of cage." MADDIE: "You agreed to work with her to get Ben out of jail?" RYN: "Yes." BEN: You shouldn't have done that" RYN: "Ben is love" BEN: "Look you shouldn't have put yourself in danger for me." MADDIE: "We think it's better for you to go back to the water. Just for a while." 

At this suggestion, Ryn gets visibly angry.

RYN: "Ryn choose...Military was bad to sister, but good to Ryn."   MADDIE: "For now. But we don't know what they want to do to you." RYN: "I stay with Ben and Maddie."

Ben likewise rejects his family business and refuses to follow in the footsteps of his ancestors. When presented with a "dark" vision of himself in Episode 214 he rejects it with horror. He consistently lies to his family to keep Ryn safe  and to help her. Most importantly at the end of Episode 215 “Sacrifice” he puts Ryn’s safety above the health of his own mother, who might very well die because of this choice.

Kyle, slimeball extraordinaire and commander of the military facility had previously told Ben that his mother would need another injection of Ryn's stem cells soon in order to continue healing, leading to the following conversation:  

MADDIE: “As soon as he finds out what we did, that'll be the end of our relationship with him.” BEN: “Yeah. This is what matters right now. For Ryn and her species. All the rest we'll just have to figure out.”

Maddie likewise choses to protect Ryn and breaks a solemn vow to her father to do so in Episode 107 “Dead in the water” . While maybe not on the same level of the above-mentioned sacrifices made by Ryn and Ben there is not a single reason to doubt that she too would choose her two mates over anybody else.

4. The human families of the trio are not openly hostile to them being together with Ryn 

Charles Pownall's family was hostile to the mermaid with the Hawkins being permanently ostracized by the Pownells.

The human families reaction to the relationship between Ben, Ryn and Maddie are different from that. Maddie's mother, Susan, is concerned - but not about the nature of the relationship, instead she is concerned about Maddie getting hurt. We do not know what Dale thinks about the relationship or if he even knows about it though I find it hard to believe Maddie would keep it from him. Thus I would argue he at least tolerates it). 

Ben's father seems completely unfazed by his son being in a polyamorous relationship. If anything he seems more amused by the display Maddie made when she announced that she, Ryn and Ben were in such a relationship instead of the fact itself.

HELEN: "That was quite the show" TED *laughs* : "That's one way to put it. I just hope those three figure it out, whatever it is." 

Elaine was shocked but that might have been more due to the nature of the announcement - she certainly did not have any problems with Ryn kissing Ben in Episode 209 despite knowing that Ben was with Maddie. 

There are a few caveats to the above. Nobody except Dale knows Ryn’s true nature. Ted's reaction might very well be different and even hostile in the future considering he is on the verge of finding out about Ryn. Of course the Sirens having something to do with the boat accident that crippled Elaine or that Elaine might suffer more in the future due to Ryn having to withhold stem cells from her might also cause Ted and Elaine to react negatively in the future.  

5.  (Human) society has evolved a bit since the 19th century

Humans in the 19th century would not have reacted kindly to an unmarried woman (the siren) spending time with a married man (Charles) , even if they did not know her true origin,

[Sidenote: If you want to have a “fun” time read up what people did in the 19th and early 20th centuries to sabotage relationships that were considered abnormal. In the infamous example of Virginia Woolf this even involved a plane chase across two countries.] 

When the trio's human friend Xander learns about the relationship, his reaction is one of surprise and shock. (You can watch the scene here). However a discussion between him and Maddie in Episode 212 confirms that this is not due to a rejection of the nature of the relationship but more about Xander's worry that the Siren song is controlling Maddie. After being told this is not the case, he drops that objection and while he certainly does not like the relationship he is not taking active steps to sabotage it unlike 19th century people might have 

In fact it seems as if nobody in Bristol Cove much cares about the relationship the three have. There must by now be a considerable amount of people seeing the trio interact in public like this: 

(Yes officer, this scene right here)

And multiple people in the anchor saw Ryn and Ben dancing together in 204 in a manner that was way too intimate to just be friends.

(Taking bets on the number of gaskets Deputy Marissa will blow when she hears about this happening.) 

Especially in a small town like Bristol Cove where everybody knows each other the gossip mill must already run wild about the trio. However nobody seems to mind. 

This of course is a major difference of today's society to the 19th century society of Charles and his mermaid. Today's society cares much less about things like adhering to strict heterosexual norms and two-person relationships. Unlike in the 19th century where even marrying below your station would be considered a betrayal and seriously threaten your standing in society,  the acceptance of sexuality and relationships as fluid concepts is at an all-time high.

There is only one person who openly is hostile against Ryn spending time with Ben and Maddie in the show and that is Deputy Marissa. However Marissa also believes that Ryn is a drug addict, possible dealer, possible murder suspect and person-who-holds-wild-drug-orgies-at-the-cabin-with-Ben. No wonder she is hostile to Ryn given that it is her duty to protect Bristol Cove from bad influences - which her inaccurate version of Ryn definitely is. 

If anything it seems that the Siren society is less accepting of the relationship than humans are (at least Cami and Katrina are appalled by it). But as long as Ryn is Alpha then what are they going to do about it without risking an immediate beatdown by an enraged Ryn? 

[Sidenote: At this time I feel it is my solemn duty to link you this great video of humans reacting to the trio, edited by Koortega.]

6. The reactions to the Siren Song might be different from those of Charles

This is more speculative than the other parts of this post because we do not know the specific reactions of Charles Pownall to the song. Yet so far - and speaking strictly about the effect of the song on the relationship - whenever the song is used it does not have negative effects with regards to threatening the relationship. 

Ben's visions are not about domineering or being possessive about Ryn, but ultimately about protecting her (Episode 110 “Aftermath” and to a lesser extent Episode 203 “Natural Selection”), realizing he might hurt her through his behaviour and reaffirming how much he loves her (Episode 214 “The last mermaid”).  

Likewise Maddie, despite being exposed to the more harmful defensive variant of the song only wants to tell the world about how much she loves Ryn and Ben. 

[Sidenote: There is also the unlikely possibility that the relationship between Charles and his mermaid was solely based on the song, which in any case is not true for our trio.]

A cure for the brain damage due to the song also exists and the experience of obtaining that cure together brings the throuple closer together. 

(From Episode 212: “Serenity”)  

So there you have it. There are enough differences between the trio and Charles Pownall and his mermaid to not have them go down the same dark path. But in this case the show goes even further. 

C) The events of the last episodes of Season 2

The writers themselves tell us in no uncertain terms in the last four episodes of Season 2 that this is not the same story because Ben and Ryn are not their respective ancestors. 

In Episode 213 and 214 as the Pownall massacre as well as Ryn’s mating drive and her unilateral actions based on that drive put the relationship to its hardest test. 

It is important to note that the writers used multiple contrivances to arrive at this point. For the biggest example, Ryn seems to have suddenly developed complete memory loss with regards to her knowledge about Ben being a Pownall. Which is more than a bit contrived considering Ben and Maddie discuss his father owning Pownall’s two meters away from her while she is clearly listening in Episode 106 “Showdown”. 

This was not something Ryn overheard considering later in the same episode: 

DONNA: I see his face. In that place take our food. RYN: That was not him. That was his father. Writers of Episode 213: FAKE NEWS.

Oh and if there was any doubt left there is also that time Bens father was called Mr. Pownall in front of Ryn in Episode 108. 

(WRITERS: “You saw nothing.”)

In Episode 110 Helen explicitly names the father of the hybrid baby as “Charles Pownall” and also confirms that Ben and her are related through Charles. This is done while Ryn is listening and participating in that conversation (I have transcribed the whole conversation in my previous post about the massacre)

Ryn also seems to have paid no attention at all to her surroundings while living with Ben and Maddie for months (c’mon, does that sound anything like the hyperobservant, inquisitive and highly intelligent mermaid we know?). Anybody who walks around a modern human name would shortly know the name of the homeowner. Given all these factors, her not knowing before Episode 213 makes no sense at all. 

So why the contrivance? 

Of course one possibility is that the writers were too incompetent to remember what they wrote a year ago. But I do not believe this to be the case, especially with how few contradictions there are in the show otherwise and the great attention to detail the writers usually have. Maybe they  wanted to score cheap drama? But there already was enough drama with Ryn trying to save her species from extinction (plus the effect this had on Ben and Maddie) and it seems odd to go to such great lengths just for that. Therefore I would argue that the Pownell revelation was (at least partly) included here to make a specific point.

What point would that be? Let us recap what happens in those episodes, especially 214. 

After “suddenly discovering” (excuse me while I go grind my teeth in the corner) in Episode 213 that Ben’s last name is Pownell Ryn gets very upset and concerned, culminating in the following exchange in Episode 214: 

BEN: "Charles." RYN: "He loved one like me and his love turned bad. It makes him angry. He killed my people. And it starts with love. Like *crying* Like Ben love Ryn."

Ryn is clearly concerned about a repeat of the original Pownall story. And in this episode Ryn (and the audience) is explicitly told by Maddie that Ben is not his ancestor - just as Ryn is not hers either. 

MADDIE: "You know my mother, Susan?" RYN: "Yes" MADDIE: "Remember I told you how she was? The pain she caused me?" RYN: "Yes. She was weak and sad." Maddie: "Am I like her?" RYN: "No. You are strong." MADDIE: "Just because your family thinks or acts a certain way doesn't mean you have to repeat that. Ben's ashamed of what his family did. And many in your colony don't trust humans. They want to fight them. But you came on land, you trusted us, fell in love with us." RYN: "Love can be good or bad." MADDIE: "Yeah. But I trust Ben. I trust you. I trust that our love is good."

(Take ALL the Applause Maddie, you earned it.)

Ryn accepts Maddie's argument. The speed at which she does so as well as her obvious concern for Ben when he disappears during the episode seems to indicate that she was more conflicted about her own feelings than anything else - like Ben himself in that episode one might say. When Ben finally reappears, Ryn is visibly relieved at the sight of him and the following exchange happens: 

RYN: "You are okay?" BEN: "No. Not okay." RYN: "Angry with me?" BEN: "Confused. About myself." RYN: "Ben. I know you would not hurt me. I know you are different from your family. Those who kill. BEN: "I want to believe that." RYN: "I believe. Our love is good." BEN: "You trust me?" RYN: "I don't want you to feel any more pain."

The relationship between her and Ben survives the stress test and trust seems to be fully restored through Ben’s following actions in Episode 215 (some of which have already been mentioned before). 

The relationship seems to have been fully repaired by the end of 215 but if there was any lingering distrust I think Episode 216 would have dispelled that as Ryn is clearly willing to move forward with the relationsip at the end of Episode 216. Letting Ian drown might have been taken by Ryn as a display of trust, especially as she knows that it took a toll on Ben.

This of course is a parallel to another Season 1 episode. In Episode 106 “Showdown” Ben steps in to prevent Ryn from killing another antagonist that was a threat to her (Aldon Decker). Her reaction to Ben refusing to let a human die to keep her safe is one of anger and feeling betrayed.

RYN: "Why you help the bad man?” [Ben refuses to let Ryn kill Decker by placing himself between them] RYN: You choose him. You should choose me."

In Episode 216, Ben does so. He clearly chooses Ryn and her safety over the life of a fellow human.

Even without that choice it was in my opinion already clear from the looks they share at the end of Episode 215 that they will move forward with each other. 

(Protip to a happy life: find yourself a relationship where the persons involved in said relationship can still look at each other like that even after they just finished putting each other through hell for several days). 

Due to all the factors involved in Episodes 213-216 (Ryn unilaterally deciding for much of the storyline and expecting the others to go along without giving them a say, the whole fertility crisis amongst the Sirens and of course the Pownall “revelation”) this probably was the worst stress the relationship could ever be under at that point. 

I therefore posit that if the relationship between Ben and Ryn would be “Charles Pownell 2.0″, this would have been a fracture point instead of a successful stress test.

And the relationship between Ben and Ryn surviving is of course in no small part due to the largest stabilizing element in the relationship, the one element that was missing from the story of Charles and his Siren.

D) The third element

Imagine how different the story of Charles and his mermaid might have happened had they lived with the Haida - people who knew how to deal with human-siren relationships, how to help hybrids and who were most likely used to that kind of relationship happening. 

The present-day relationship the show is depicting has such a large stabilizing element to it. I am talking of course about the one person I have so far criminally neglected in favour of focusing on Ben and Ryn (because they are the parallels to charles and their mermaid and also because this allowed me to give this post a better structure).

Maddie might not be Haida biologically, but she is a Haida in the cultural sense of the word. She was raised by a Haida man and one of the first stories she tells Ryn to calm her down in Episode 102 “The Lure” is a Haida story. Now of course Maddie is not the solution to all the problems the trio faces. She does not have any Haida knowledge on how to deal with hybrids or Sirens.

However, she is by far the largest stabilizing element in the relationship as evidenced by episode 214 and the episodes before. Whenever Ryn and Ben are acting out of character or have communication issues (either between them, others or with Maddie), Maddie appears as the mediator that manages to get through to the other two and makes them see reason. Even when she initially fails (as with Ben in 110 and with her first discussion with Ryn in 214) she still manages to have enough of an impact on them to get them to reconsider their actions, change their behaviour and attempt to fix the situation. 

Her second long dialogue between her and Ryn Episode 214 (which is quoted in the segment C of this post) is the best example of Maddie’s exceptional communication skills. It probably is one of my top 5 Maddie scenes of the show and highlights just how integral Maddie is for the story of the trio. The way Maddie (without recriminations) manages to make Ryn understand that she got the wrong impression of Ben, the way she focuses the communication on the love that is the basis of the trio relationship is unbelievably on point.

Or to put it more bluntly: The story of Siren is not the story of Ben and Ryn alone. It is the story of Ben, Ryn and Maddie. It is a story about the unique love and trust that develops between the three. 

And this is why I firmly believe that we are not seeing a repeat o the CharlesPownell story here. Instead, what we are seeing is how the more enlghtened and more evolved characters of Ryn and Ben and Maddie make different choices than their ancestors. In short, just because History might look similar, it does not - and will not - repeat itself in this case.

Does that mean there will be no challenges to the relationship in the future? Of course not for otherwise there would be a lot less in the show. We already see the groundwork for multiple future stress tests of the relationship being laid  (Ted having footage of Ryn underwater, the Sirens attacking Ted in the water when Elaine had the boating accident, the reaction by some sirens like Cami to the relationship, Ben letting Ian drown, him and Ryn keeping this from Maddie etc.) 

But there is one certainty the show tells us over and over again, even chosing it as the end screen for season 2.

They are love. 

And on that note, we shall end the analysis of the parallels between our throuple and the Pownall Massacre. Thank you for reading and for sticking with this rather long post until the end. I shall endeavour to make the next post a little shorter, I promise. Alternative interpretations, additional info or critique are always welcome.  

[Final sidenote: Anybody wishing for the trio to become a duo (whether it be Ben/Ryn, Maddie/Ryn or Ben/Maddie) is asking for the show to be a lot poorer in terms of character interaction, to be less inclusive and to have fewer opportunities for future storylines.

Could the story work with just Ryn and Maddie or just Ryn and Ben? Yes, the love between each of them might be strong enough to survive without the third.  But such a story would not be Siren, it would be another star-crossed-lovers story that has been done countless times before. 

And this is why it was immediately clear that Episode 216 was a giant fake-out as soon as Maddie was fatally wounded in it.]

#siren freeform #Pownall Massacre #polymarine #analysis #long post #i swear the next one will be shorter #Ben #Ryn #Maddie #siren #freeform siren

[persephoneofhades]

Why are you so overly critical of ben?

1. If you don’t like my opinions on the show or the character, you are welcome to block and mute me so you don’t see them.

2. I don’t really have an answer to that question because I don’t think I am OVERLY critical of Ben.

In fact, I REGULARLY talk about how Ben is completely addicted to the Song and how it’s affecting everything he does. But if the show wants us to believe that his feelings for Ryn are real and not just created by the Song, then the Song cannot be a catch-all excuse for his behavior. It’s amplifying the things that are already there in Ben, including the part of him obsessed with helping his mother find a cure (something mentioned MORE THAN ONCE in the show by other characters who know him).

I’ve also said MORE THAN ONCE that Ben’s actions do stem out of love. His love for Ryn and mainly Maddie is what caused him to let Ian die. His love for his mother is what prompted him to exhume a grave and inject himself with mermaid stem cells (although his motivations for that seem more selfish now).

Ben is a person who cares a LOT and is willing to go the extra mile for the people he loves and cares about. Unfortunately, the Song is making that particular facet of his personality push him into doing things that are Not Okay and that he may not have done pre-Song. Like letting a man die or dig up the body of someone who mattered to his girlfriend and use it for a science experiment. Neither of those things are excusable actions if he didn’t have the addiction to the Song coloring his actions and the only reason he may be able to come back from those two actions IS that he’s addicted to the Song and HE NEEDS HELP.

He NEEDS Ryn and Maddie to realize he’s addicted again, that the cure that worked for Maddie did NOT work for Ben and to look for another cure, something, ANYTHING. He NEEDS someone to keep an eye on him and hold him back from doing reckless stupid shit like injecting himself with stem cells in a warehouse.

Ben is a great guy with a history of obsession and impulsivity, those are the two main flaws the show has given him. He loves with everything that he is and he is so clearly adores Ryn and Maddie and I love him for that. I love how smart he is and how quick he is to put himself in harm’s way to save the people he loves. The man jumped into the ocean to save his father (who likely would not have done the same for Ben) from a mermaid he KNOWS will kill them both without a second’s thought.

And I don’t think Ben is anything like Charles Pownall. I don’t think there is any world, even under the Song’s addiction, where Ben turns on Ryn (or Maddie) and goes on a massacre as revenge against one of them. His love for them isn’t tainted by the Song, it’s AMPLIFIED by the Song and it leads him to do things FOR them that aren’t so great. That’s my opinion on Ben. If you think that’s being overly critical of him, you’re welcome to leave.

#ben pownall #siren #siren freeform #polymarine #ryn fisher #maddie bishop #siren spoilers #Anonymous

[halfemptygirlrps-archive]

Feelings about the most recent episode of Siren and the SS Polymarine update:

So I am late on this but I had a lot of feelings to articulate and sort through. These posts are not important to anyone but me but they make me feel good so I will keep making them.

Maddie. 

SIGH. I know Fola has no say in the writers room but she’s really feeling more and more ooc. It’s not about not listening to Ben it’s about not thinking about the secret she is meant to protect. Even Xander has risked a lot to keep it safe and for Maddie to bring Robb to the warehouse was really careless. People are gonna be like HOBOY MORE MADDIE HATE I BET SHE’S A RYN/BEN SHIPPER and not that I need to justify myself to anyone but I care so much because since episode one Maddie and her amazing smile that makes my heart explode and her melodious laugh has been my favorite character and they opened up more of her personality and history in season two only to kinda undo it now. You wanna see a new guy? Fine, explore even though it breaks my effing heart and my ship but dont trust him so easily. Also a few episodes you said you still love Ben and Ryn but now you’re acting like she’s just your friend which I hate cause those idiots who have been saying they’re like sisters are getting what they want now. I hate seeing just Ben and Ryn together and it’s like... I know you kissed her on the lips but are we going to see Ryn spending the night with just you at your place any time soon or are they really legit phasing you out? They’ve always given Ryn equal time with Maddie but now it’s like they hired the writers from Supergirl and much like Kara “forgot” she told James she loved him and fought for him so hard and was like lol we’re better as friends and I wanna date a white slave owner they’re making Maddie act really strange considering she outed them as in love. I also don’t like that she’s yet to tell Robb that she kinda has a gf which is unfair to him. Even if I dont care about him it’s just the rules of being poly to disclose that. It’s not “private information”if you’re getting involved with someone because that this point they’re dating and she knows he likes her and is setting up shop to be closer to her so she owes it to him to say something about Ryn unless she really is ending with Ryn too and only being her friend which again MAKES ME SO ANGRY. I said it from the beginning that Ben didn’t need to have a gf if the goal was Ryn , and they also didn’t need to do a while season about them being in love and making people get attached and feel seen and heard only to rip it away from us. I wish they wouldn’t be so cheap about drama like this but I hope the three of them find their way back to each other as a unit and not whatever the hell they are now because it was the core of the show.

Ben. 

Boo if you can’t see that you have a problem idk what. He’s acting like a straight up junkie and people are like noooo but you clearly haven’t seen junkies in movies cause this is it. Shoot up mermaid cells and running tests on yourself alone? Are you insane? You don’t know the side effects and you already experimented on your own mother and yet none of this is setting off any alarms. We already see that Ben has obsessive tendencies and rather than seek help he’s doing whatever to himself instead of trying to focus on Ryn and Maddie and his father about to start a massacre. I get that he’s a scientist but there’s a time and a way for that and he should no better. Maddie’s been helping Ryn 10 times more lately while he’s turning himself into the merman Mr. Hyde and he’s the one getting all of Ryn to himself while side eyeing Maddie when he should be trying to help them deal with this crisis called Tiamat and not trying to become a hybrid. I’m just so over him at this point and it’s just like in season 2 where he jumped to try to save Ryn in the tank while she fought Katrina. She’s a powerful creature who doesn’t need you to save her like she’s a dainty princess, she needs you to be a rock and emotional support which you cannot do sitting in a bathtub. Everything that the people in your life need you to be, you aren’t being. You aren’t helping your mom like you think you are, you aren’t helping your dad cope and understand and not become a murderer, you aren’t helping Maddie understand why you did what you did and you aren’t helping Ryn by taking the corpse of her family and treating it like an animal the way Kyle did. Just because you didn’t know *that one* doesn’t mean it’s okay. It wasn’t okay for Donna and if Ryn died and the military excavated her body to run tests and used the “well, wel didn’t know her personally and it’s for science” excuse you’re using would you go “oh damn you right “? No you’d lose what little of your mind you had left. Boy if you don’t get your shit together...

Xander. 

Ugh I hated him the first 2 seasons and he’s redeeming himself. I get that he was upset his dad died and had every right to be but to come back from that and not only forgive and befriend Levi but help the mermaids and lie for them and cover up bodies? He’s a better man than Ben is right now. I also love(d) that he made a new lady friend and didn’t pounce on her like a douche. Honestly for a moment I thought “damn a new love interest already?” even though my gaydar was like WEEWOO WEEWOO THERE’S ONE WE GOT ANOTHER ONE, GIRLS and she’s cute af like top me you soft butch stud you  but the moment she saw Katrina I was like I WAS RIGHT AGAIN JUST LIKE I WAS ABOUT MADDIE’S SIDE SHAVE IN SEASON 1 so I was like this is great, another black queer girl and Xander is being chill af with her and them broing out was gold, I loved it but I didn’t see her seeing Levi coming, which shook me cause I didn’t know what was gonna happen and Xander really stepped up and I loved that he risked his future career and a friendship for this as well as her career. When he saw Ryn in the library (and that was such a pretty library) I honestly wish she leaned up to kiss him even if it was just on the cheek cause he did so much for Ryn and the rest and really deserves more credit. Plus I lowkey live for the little moment between them like her holding his hand at Donna’s grave or when she sat with him at the wake because it just shows so much character growth for both of them and I love the trust that they built and that he treasures even though they have had so little interactions. It’s one of those moments that shows bad actions can be redeemed and restores faith in humanity while so many people are out to harm them.

Helen.

Honorable mention for you being the coolest lady. You should have been treated better with Sarge but the fact that you know so much in spite being 1/8 and not in that hybrid colony just makes you so cool. And now you’re out here trying to edumacate daddy Pownall even though he’s crazy as shit and probably gonna try to kill you. You a real one, Helen. 

Ryn.

You poor thing, having to give up your baby. It’s been a rough go for you lately or....the whole series, I guess, and now your colony was attacked and shit. Again she’s done no wrong and is trying so hard to learn and can’t catch a break. The one thing I do fault her for is not knowing that she shouldn’t have said the bit about her baby being eaten and whatnot because she’s been on land a year and change no and should know human habits better LOL. It was still classic Siren humor tho.

This post is long enough so I wont address anyone else and doubt anyone got to the end but UGH.... I just want Polymarine back. I miss them watching movies in bed and being secure and cute and fluffy and I just need that so much right now.

#siren #siren freeform #ben pownall #maddie bishop #ryn #ryn fisher #polymarine

[imaginejolls]

okay but what i'm interested in is, does Ryn have the immediate negative connotation to the name Pownall on it's own OR is it the fact that Beth worded it "descendant of Charles Pownall, the man who murdered our kind"? because Ryn talks about it as The Massacre, no name attached to that

#let's discuss #siren freeform

[fathersonholygore]

Siren 3x06: "The Island"

Siren 3×06: “The Island”

Freeform’s Siren 3×06: “The Island” Directed by Amanda Row Written by Cole Fowler

* For a recap & review of 3×05, “Mommy and Me” – click here * For a recap & review of 3×07, “Northern Exposure” – click here Maddie and Ben are each acting reckless in their own ways. She’s letting Robb get a bit too close to all their secrets which may…

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#Alex Roe #Brendan Fletcher #Bristol Cove #Eline Powell #Fola Evans-Akingbola #Folklore #Ian Verdun #Mermaids #Pownall Massacre #Siren #Stem Cells

[jehilew]

So, here’s a new WIP...

...that I bet none of y’all will read lmao. It’s an epilogue for the TV show, Siren. I absolutely adored that show. Adored. But the ending? 

UUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH.

I like endings with a hint of hope for happiness for the characters, at least. This was just depressing. I wanted to cry. Like, it was a good ending, don’t get me wrong. Just...not my style.

I don’t like my ships busted up and unhappy, goddammit! Break them up if you must, but let them be at peace.

Anyway, so here is the beginning of the actual last episode, the one they forgot to air. This will be the only Siren ff I do, seeing as how this is basically the only thing about the show that really bothered me, but to any other fans who happen to stumble over it who reads it, I hope you enjoy:)

I can feel the Songs.

That's how it's always been, feeling them. Yeah, hearing them is part of it, of course. The vibrations hit your ears, and the nerves translate those vibrations into sounds. That's an oversimplification of the process, but anyway. The Songs, they're never about what you hear. They’re always about what you feel. And more importantly, they’re always about what it physically does to you. Because while they can make you feel all kinds of different ways, they all funnel down to one potentially destructive fact for humans-- they become elusive echoes in our brains forever. 

I say forever; no one actually knows how long they can last upstairs. Could be they’re only good for a year, five years, a decade. No one knows for sure, as all known cases usually died in a dramatic accident or a suicide. 

Those echoes can rot us from the inside. 

We don’t stand a chance.

I’d know all about that. I’d had Ryn’s Song vibrating in my skull for months, and the damage had been significant. Maddie had suffered, too, and it’d nearly killed Xander. Family stories tell it’d been a Song that’d driven my four-greats grandfather, Charles Pownall, to the madness that’d led to the mermaid massacre 150 years ago.

Not all Songs have that affect, though. Case in point, the ones I’m feeling right now, they’re not...irritating. It’s hard to describe, but while Songs individually are all pleasurable to have, there’s still an undercurrent of aggression, an abrasive quality that the human ear can’t isolate. And that undercurrent is all your left with as the echoes fade to whispers, and it itches, it buzzes, it grates, and you just have to hear the rest of the Song to drown that shit out. If you don’t get it, get that fix, it destroys your brain and essentially sends you down a rapid descent into dementia.

However, you get a couple of Songs harmonizing? Ten of them? Hundreds, thousands? Different ballgame. Especially if you get some singers who know what they’re doing, how to sing with others, and what affect their harmony can have on you.

They can kill you. 

They heal you. 

They can cleanse you.

They can save you.

Ryn had once taken us to a cave of her ancestors, where you can hear their Songs. Maddie and I had been in a bad way after Ryn had started singing to us. Neither of us had been upset with her, she hadn’t known the effect it’d have on us, and further, she’d been as drawn to sing to us as we’d been to being sung to. She’d been wracked with guilt over it though, and had wanted to heal us.

Heal us, she had. The Songs had thoroughly healed the damage, cleansed away the echoes for both Maddie and I. It’d been a miracle, it’d been amazing.

Then Tia had blown through, and she’d destroyed not only the recording we’d had of the Songs, but she’d also destroyed the cave. Ryn and her people had been devastated at the loss, thinking the Songs and history of her ancestors gone forever.

Turns out, this is absolutely not the case. They’re still here. After all, what can an explosion destroy but anything physical? Explosives don’t touch the spirit realm, nor do they touch memories, and as long as there are memories, the spirits will remain, and so will their Songs.

#Siren #Ben #Maddie #Ryn #Jehilew fanfic #my fanfic #wip #I loved this show #the ending was a terrorist attack upon my completionistic soul

[siren-theories]

The Pownall Massacre

TL, DR: Too complext to summarise. Sorry, you have to read through this. If you want to, you can skip to Part IV to read what I think really happened.

There is but one certainty with historical events - that they can and most likely will be interpreted differently depending on the eye of the beholder. Our own upbringing, socialization, education, sexuality, gender etc. can all cause us to be biased when interpreting historical events.  There are always different "truths" depending on who you ask.

As a simple example most readers would be familiar with lets take a look at a "great" US President, George Washington. If you would have asked a Native American of the time about George Washington he would have called him a destroyer of native villages who led massacres. If you would have asked a loyalist, he would have considered Washington a traitor to the crown. If you would have asked a member of Washington’s army in the Revolutionary War, he would have hailed Washington as a great hero. And if you would have asked his slaves....

This is no less true for the period of "Manifest Destiny" and westward expansion of the United States during the 19th century. What looks like massive land robbery, ethnic cleansing and even genocide to the outside (modern) observer might also be romanticized as the era of brave settlers and brave cowboys, the era of daring people prevailing against adversity to secure a better life for themselves. Modern Media has (regrettably) largely chosen the later path.

Please keep the above in mind when considering everything that follows in this posts. Also, please note that this is a theory built on evidence from the show - but this theory has not been  explicitly confirmed by any of the show writers.

Part I: The historical context of the Pownall Massacre.

Understanding the historical context is the most important thing when it comes to interpreting past events. 

All sources agree that the massacre happened 150 years before the time the show starts, so somewhere in the vicinity of 1868. By this time Washington State had already been settled by native Americans for close to 14.000 years (thus giving us the earliest possible form of divergence between humans and sirens).

Native Americans hunting ducks, taken from Wikimedia Commons

Native American villages of the time seem to have been mostly concentrated on the coasts and near rivers, being focused on salmon fishing, hunting and gathering berries/roots etc. You can see how Washington is a perfect setting for the Siren story - even before the arrival of the white settlers. The most prominent of those tribes seemed to have formed what is called the Salish language community.

The salish language family (from here). 

The earliest contact between the natives and Europeans happened during the spanish mapping expeditions of the Northern American coast. One such ship, the Santiago, was captained by Bruno de Hecata. You can read a bit about his expedition here.  

Unfortunately this ship also carried a deadly cargo - smallpox. This disease resulted in a harrowing smallpox epidemic which killed at least 30%, if not 50% of the native population (approximately 11.000 - 20.000 people). Even though the introduction of the disease was unintentional (indeed a third of the Europeans themselves died from it) these events proved fatal to the strength of the local populations. This blow allowed northern tribes like the Haida to muscle in on the territory of the local tribes. .

[Sidenote: For those of you who would want to read more about this I suggest Robert Boyd: The coming of the spirit of pestilence. Introduced infectious diseases and population decline among Northwest Coast Indians, 1774–1874 (Seattle 1999). Be warned, it makes for grim reading.]

Eventually, British fur traders and settlers arrived on the scene. In 1790 Spain and Britain reached an agreement that gave the British free reign over the Northwest coast. In 1805 the Lewis and Clark expedition reached Washington and the USA entered the struggle for dominance over the region. Britain however gained dominance due to the war of 1812 and the Hudson Bay Company eventually became the most important fur trader of the region. These early years were characterized by a high rate of intermarriage between fur traders and local women, as well as the introduction of European technology and European goods, most importantly firearms.

However, in the 1840s large numbers of American settlers trekked westwards and started settling Washington State. Soon outnumbering the British fur traders and local natives (who seemed to have fallen into some form of uneasy coexistence), this formed the basis for what was later called the Oregon dispute between Britain and the United States. 

In 1846 the Oregon Treaty ceded Washington State to the USA and settlement began, with all the negative effects this had on the local population - disease, land robbery, ethnic cleansing and genocide. In 1862 another devastating smallpox epidemic broke out, again killing roughly one-third to half of the remaining indigenous population.

If the massacre happened in 1868 then it would have happened during a time which was filled with strife. The boundary dispute between England and the USA had not been fully resolved yet (it would only be resolved through the mediation of the German Empire in 1872). The community of Bristol Cove would have been at best a few decades old (and probably was significantly younger, maybe only having been formed in the 1850s). There might have been bad blood between ex-British and American members of the community.  The native population would have suffered from the devastating smallpox epidemic only a few years earlier and I highly doubt the natives had surrendered the prime fishing grounds willingly. 

The settlers and fishers of Bristol Cove themselves would have been hard men who had suffered through the deprivations of the long trek westwards. The fact that most of them would have been adventurous young white men without many suitable marriage prospects is also problematic as historically a surplus of young males has nearly always led to conflict. Judging from the town's football team being called the whalers and the harpoons being found in Helen's shop it seems that Bristol Cove primarily was a fishing and whaling town - two profession that require men that are comfortable with killing what they perceive as animals.

In short it does not require much imagination to view the Bristol Cove of 1862-1870 as a powder keg waiting to explode. All it needed was the right man to lit the fuze.

(Enter Charles H. Pownall, aka literally Hitler)

Part II: The sources covering the massacre

Let's look at the sources covering the massacre and try to decipher what they are telling us about the massacre and the reasons for it.

a) The official human version

The official version of what happened during the massacre is that essentially no massacre happened at all and the entire story is presented as a fairytale for small children. It is used as the centerpiece of the annual mermaid festival, being used to draw in tourists and bored college students looking for an adventure.

(Tfw your family history gets appropriated by college girls looking for an excuse to paaartaaaay.)

The Timestamp for the official human version is 4:35 - 5:10 of Episode 101 "The mermaid discovery".

(how lovely, a play about genocide. With Children in it. What could go wrong?) 

NARRATOR: "It was more than a 150 years ago when a local fishing captain, Charles H. Pownall, fell in love with a mermaid in these very waters, enchanted by her beautiful siren song." POWNALL: "I love you fishermen" SIREN: "I love you mermaid" NARRATOR: "But one day, he went to the bay, and his mermaid was gone, back to her home in the sea, never to return." NARRATOR: "And that is how thanks to Charles H. Pownall, Bristol Cove became the Mermaid Capital of the World"

(Is it my mermaid that I see there on the horizon? No, just a giant whitewash,)

The depiction of an episode of violence against other populations as a fairytale is not a new idea. For example, take the story of Pocahontas. Popular knowledge focuses on the fairytale aspect of this historical story (native Powhatan "princess" Pocahontas rescues brave white explorer John Smith) but nearly all popular retellings omit the continuation of that story - how the brave explorer John Smith continued to raid the food stores of the Powhatans, how the white colonists massacred the Powhatans, took their lands, assassinated their leaders and drove them into pitiful reservations. (Put THAT in a movie, Disney).

As such, this story fits the archetype to a T. And yet there are a few facts in the official version that merit a mention:

The official human version claims that Pownall was enchanted by the beautiful siren song (which would mean that the siren would have taken the initiative to make contact with Pownall)  

The mermaid in question disappeared without a trace, leaving Charles to look for her with no success

b) Helen's books

Another take is being presented in one of Helen's books aptly titled "An Illustrated History of the Mermaid", which features the mermaids of Bristol Cove in a chapter. Sadly the chapter is truncated and we only see the first page of it in detail - while other pages also show text, freeze-framing and enlarging them sadly showed them to be taken from a book on schooners and a book about the Napoleonic wars - a common trick by TV shows to save valuable time writing those props.

The page dealing with the massacre is shown in Episode 102: “The Lure” as follows:

(Pls Maddie move your hand a bit lower? Pretty pls?)

I have transcribed the visible text:

The Mermaids of Bristol Cove Being a true account of the bitter and broken heart of a Fisherman and the retribution that was exacted by Men of the Land upon the Maidens of the Sea

The proud men of Bristol Cove were renowned up and down the western coastline of the Americas for their craft and Bravery upon the waters of the Pacific Ocean. The men abord Captain Pownall's ship were especially known for their prowess upon the waves and their seemingly supernatural ability to find and capture more fish than any other craft. This ability was attributed to more than mere craft. It was whispered, in certain coastal taverns, that Captain Pownall himself was responsible for his own share of the bountiful harvest. It was rumored that the captain was [illegible text] a mermaid and that it was [illegible]and the deep that had resulted [illegible] his curious [illegible] five years[illegible]

This text is really short on details for its length. What we get out of it is a timeframe (five years) and a lot of fluff about the skilled and brave men of Bristol Cove - and that the relationship was also based on mutual fishing cooperation. However, the headline already tells us what interpretation the story will use here - that Pownall and the mermaid fell in love, she then broke his heart and the "brave and skilled" fishermen exacted retribution by massacring them. I was expecting some brazen apologia but not one this brazen. Yeah, some eeeevil woman(tm)  hurt you by leaving you, go murder her relatives in revenge. That makes you "brave and skilled".

Excuse me for a second while I find the nearest container to throw up in.

[Sidenote: Painting genocide as a tragedy while also arguing the victims deserved getting massacred is par the course for colonial apologia of the 19th century. Even in the 20th century Turkey for example justified its genocide of the Armenians by arguing that it was "just" a relocation that got out of hand due to Armenian banditry. This text fits well into all the other 19th century texts that allegedly deplored violence against indigenous people while similarly arguing that this could all have been avoided if the darn natives had not been so unaccommodating. Feel free to imagine a lot of fake pearl clutching as a side dish to all that juicy victim blaming.

I commend the writers of Siren for actually writing such a text for it shows their attention to detail but this was infuriating to read.]

c) The Pownall family history

Lets hear it from the direct descendants of Charles "stil literally Hitler" Pownall. Ben confronts his father after meeting a mermaid himself and nearly becoming the evening snack of said mermaid (no, snack is not used euphemistically here.) The conversation takes place in Episode 102: "The Lure" from 19:00 - 20:40.

(...So...uh...about great-great-great-great-grandpa...)

I have transcribed the relevant parts:

BEN: "I wanted to ask you something. I remembered that you and Grandpa used to talk about Charles Pownall, about what really happened back then." TED: "You really came here to ask me that?" BEN: "Yeah.” TED: "Why the sudden interest in the family history?" BEN: "I ran into Helen Hawkins.” TED: "Oh, c'mon." BEN: "Dad? Maybe I'd show up to more family events like the statue unveiling if you told me the real story about our family." TED: "All right. Look, Charles might not have been exactly who we make him out to be. I can't say for sure, but there might have been some mental illness, maybe even schizophrenia. Long months at sea, a constant stream of booze and, uh, well, he was seeing things. [chuckles] Mermaids? You know this. You did the play in school. That's how the town got its folklore. Now, as for Helen and her stories, well, we all know she's got a vivid imagination." BEN: "That's it?" TED: That's it."

Additional info about the Pownall Mermaid is delivered to us in the form of a conversation between Ben and his father in Episode 110: “Aftermath”. It starts from 21:30 and ends at 23:00.

(Don't mind me getting defensive here about not giving you all the information you asked for earlier)

TED: "Look, Charles had an affair with a woman in town, okay - she worked at a local bar...a brothel." BEN: "Wait, so she was a prostitute?" TED: "You can imagine...an extramarital affair, a child born out of wedlock with a woman in that profession - these aren't things people talked about back then. Every family has its secrets, Ben." BEN: "This isn't some kind of ancient history, dad. I have a relative living in town that I've known my whole life." TED: "You know our family Ben. This kind of history, nothing they'd want out there. Why dwell on the ugliness? Okay, Charles was a troubled guy. We talked about that. From what I understand, he had a lot of demons."

From these two conversations we get not only a lasting impression that Ted is knowing more than he lets on but also a lot of relevant information:

Charles Pownall suffered from alleged mental illness, maybe even schizophrenia - or something that made it appear as if he did.

Charles liked his booze, maybe too much

The mermaid was according to Charles family a woman of ill repute

Charles was already married when he met the mermaid and when the baby was born

The Pownall family has been paying Helen's family off to keep quiet.

d) The Siren sources

In Episode 209 “Street fight”, Ryn tells Ben the Siren side of the story.

(”Story? No, not story. Real”)

The conversation starts at 11:50 and ends at about 13 minutes.

RYN: "There was one of us who spent time with a human long time ago. She lived with him on land. Together they had little one." Ben: "A child?" RYN: "Yes. But the child was not normal, not look normal. He took it away from her into the woods. He killed their child. So she went back home in the water. But this made him angry. His head-bad. He brought many men, and they killed us. So many of us that...the water was red with our blood. Ben: "Helen told me that story. Not about a child though." RYN: "Story? No, not story. Real." 

It is interesting that as much as the human sources place the blame on the Sirens, the Siren side of the story places the blame just as squarely on the humans. What we can take away from this version is:

The mermaid lived with Charles on land and they had a child together.

The baby was deformed and thus Charles took it into the woods and killed it.

The mermaid left Charles whose head then went “bad”.

Charles took his men and slaughtered them in the water.

e) The Hybrid sources

Perhaps the most important tidbits of information come from Bristol Cove's resident mermaid expert, Helen Hawkins, in Episode 110 "Aftermath". The conversation starts at 16:12 and ends at around 18:50.

(Lemme just drop some knowledge on you children...)

HELEN: "She was the first. She was the daughter of Charles Pownall and his mermaid." BEN: "The baby is buried here? Ryn told me that Charles killed his child."  HELEN: "Oh no. [to Ryn] That may be what your colony believes, but that's not what happened. The baby was born in transition and appeared deformed, a soul caught between two worlds. Charles knew that the doctors of Bristol Cove would see her as an abomination and refuse to treat her. The Baby was gonna suffer and die. So he took her into the woods." MADDIE: "To put her out of her misery?" HELEN: "No. He brought her to bigger minds than the doctors of Bristol Cove. To people who weren't afraid of shape-shifters." MADDIE: "The Haida" HELEN: "Yes. BEN: "She lived?" HELEN: "The Haida helped her to complete her transition and she lived for a very long time. I am her last living descendant." BEN: "You*re one of them?" HELEN: "That's right. One-eigth to be exact." MADDIE: "Ryn, did you know this?" RYN: "Yes. I sense she is one of us. But I did not know the child lived."

Helen claims that:

Charles took his daughter to the Haida to find help for her

The Haida were able to help the hybrid daughter

The daughter lived for a long time in Bristol Cove among humans, eventually dieing there

Part III: Literally Hitler? The trouble with Charles H. Pownall

(Look at him. He is just standing there. Menacingly.) 

Much of how we view the massacre is dependant upon how we assess the character of Charles H. Pownall himself. It is easy to think of him as a typical machismo of his day, a ruthless conqueror who was blinded by his own sense of superiority, who could not handle rejection and committed genocide in revenge. There might be some truth to that interpretation - after all, the people who settled Washington were not exactly enlightened liberals.

And yet we know some facts which are unquestionably true (because otherwise Helen would not exist) that paint a different picture of Charles H. Pownall. When faced with the problem of his daughter's life being in danger, Charles acts rationally and decisively. He seeks out help from the only people who know how to deal with hybrids, the Haida. Doing so was not a small task considering the troubled times the Haida were facing due to the arrival of the white men and such an endeauvor might have easily ended with Charles being killed. But he persevered, the Haida managed to save his daughter's life and when returning to Bristol Cove Charles he took great care to safeguard his daughter's future. 

He organized regular funds to be paid to her and her eventual descendants and concocts a story to tell his family as to where this mysterious daughter suddenly appeared from and why they needed to pay her to keep her quiet (her being the alleged daughter of a prositute he had relations with). Admitting to a child born out of wedlock in those days had the potential to ruin a man's career and honour and thus his place in society so this was not a trivial thing to do.

Those two brave actions mentioned above are hardly those we would expect from a bloodthirsty genocider only concerned with himself.

Yet how do we reconcile this image of a at least somewhat caring father with the image of a madman slaughtering Sirens on the water? There might have been a logical reson for Charles turning into a monster. 

Both the Siren version of events and the Pownall family history mention that Charles suffered from mental problems which Ted characterizes as schizophrenic behaviour, seeing things and acting besides himself. What do we know of in the show that causes visions and causes people to act as if they are suffering from mental illnesses? In fact these are the exact symptoms people suffering from the Siren Song (Ben) or people suffering from withdrawal symptons (Chris) exhibit. Without having access to the song anymore and the only recourse being self-medication with alcohol (psychology was not exactly a practiced medicine back then, nor did MRIs exist), is it any wonder that his mental state deteriorated? It might be that the Charles H. Pownall that perpetrated the massacre bore little resemblence to the Charles H. Pownall that his mermaid fell in love with.

This might be a way too charitable interpretation of events. After all, not everybody suffering from an addiction and brain damage starts to commit genocide. However, at the very least Charles should be considered more than the black hat as which he appears in the Siren version of events (the sirens perception of him is also colored by him allegedly murdering his daughter which which never happened). Him being more of a grey character would also be in line with all the antagonists we see depicted in the show so far. Take for example Nicole, the main antagonist of Season 2 - while she lies and manipulates everything around her in order to get Ryn to cooperate with the military she is not entirely devoid of compassion. I think that therefore the interpretation of Charles H. Pownall as a more grey character fits better with this show.

This of course does not excuse his genocidal actions in any way. But it might serve as an explanation for them.

(Maybe not quite Hitler after all)

[Sidenote: I still hate the submissive pose the Pownall family chose for the statue of the mermaid, even if it fits the story the humans are trying to tell.]

Part IV: An attempt at reconstructing the events leading up to and including the massacre

As mentioned in the intro to this post, every group involved in an important and traumatic event has their own versions of the truth. This does not mean that each group necessarily lied or had a hidden agenda/hidden truth. Each version of the story (except for the two human apologia pieces already mentioned) might have been honest conclusions based on incomplete information.

So what are the facts of the story which we can reconstruct while trying to reconcile all the different pieces of information and using all information that we know not to be demonstrably false?

In the years between 1863 to 1868 Charles H. Pownall met a Siren. It might be that this Siren was actively looking for somebody to live with or to cooperate on fishing with (possibly due to the indigenous populations she used to fish with being decimated by the devastating smallpox epidemic of 1862).This cooperation led to Charles H. Pownall becoming the most renowned and wealthiest fishermen of Bristol Cove and might have continued for five years in total.

[Sidenote: The reasons for those cooperation might have been similar to those that causes other ocean predators to cooperate with humans in reality. See for example the Australian “Law of the tongue” or the Brazilian dolphin-human cooperation.]

Some time during this cooperation the mermaid and Pownall fell in love. Maybe she sang to him from the start, maybe she only sang to him after she realised she loved him. (Note that no version at all mentions that Pownall caught her so the approach was most likely consensual. Especially considering how forward Sirens can be I find the idea of the Siren initiating contact - and maybe even intiating the sexual part of the relationship - believable).

[Sidenote: In previous human-siren interactions - as the ones I postulated for the Haida in my earlier piece - this relationship would not have been a problem. The Haida and Sirens knew how to interact with each other as well as the dangers that could happen from exposure to the Song - as did the Sirens. The mermaid most likely thought the settlers would have knowledge of the problems as well. It might have been an innocent mistake to assume that. But the culture of the settlers would have been anathema to such a relationship. Having a female co-captaining a ship in the 19th century would have caused great offence, especially if she was sleeping with the married(!) captain to boot. As such, society would have almost certainly put trememndous pressure on the relationship even if the wider settler population might not have known that she was a mermaid.]

The Siren and Charles conceived a child together. The pregnancy resulted in a difficult birth with the baby caught halfway in transition. To the settlers the "deformed" baby was considered an abomination, maybe even a punishment from god for breaking the vows of marriage.

In desperation, Charles takes the baby to the Haida. He successfully pleads for their help only to discover his mermaid missing when he returns.

[Sidenote: Had the Haida been the dominant population at Bristol Cove at that time the birth of a hybrid would not have been a problem. Guess ethnic cleansing does come back to bite you in the behind after all.]

The Siren, assuming that Charles went into the woods and killed their child, had left for the water during his abscence, never to return. 

[Sidenote: This part is the one which I find hard to reconcile. I find it hard to believe that Charles would have known to take the baby to the Haida without his Siren telling him. In any case, I find it hard to believe that he just left Bristol Cove with the Baby without telling her what he was intending to do.

Or maybe there is another explanation. Maybe she assumed that the baby was dead because people told her so? There were certainly plenty of people with motivation to get rid of her. Charles' human family, moralists opposed to children born out of wedlock, competing fishermen trying to rid Charles of his competitive advantage, religious zealots or plan old racists and bigots - and those are just the human factions. There might also have been Siren factions opposed to mingling with humans - imagine a 19th century version of Katrina - do you think sirens like that would have shied away from sabotaging such a relationship or even shied away from making one of their own disappear?]

Alone and with no access to the song - nor to any cure - Charles’ mental state deteriorated to the point of no return, his condition worsening due to self-medication with alcohol. It is quite likely that he did not understand what was happening to him. 

[Speculation: Eventually - maybe with some "assistance" from some of the anti-Siren factions mentioned in the previous sidenote - he started blaming the Sirens for his mental problems, maybe even for taking away the siren he had fallen in love with.]

In 1868, after an unknown period of suffering excarbated by alcohol abuse, Charles H. Pownall, with the help of his shipmates surprised the sirens near the surface and massacred them.

The Sirens subsequently severed all human contact and went into hiding, forbidding any Siren to go on land and teaching their children to avoid the land.

(”Land bad. I learn this.)

The Hybrid daughter of Charles and his mermaid lived and prospered, despite being shunned by the rest of the Pownall family for allegedly being the daughter of a local prostitiute.

(”She was the first....”)

Acta est fabula. Clamate.

Addendum: The observations about the parallels between Ben and Charles and Ryn and Charle’s mermaid can be found here. 

#Siren #siren freeform #freeform siren #charles pownall #long post #analysis #Pownall Massacre #ryn #Ben Pownall #helen hawkins #when you write about a massacre and realize the story was probably more heartbraking than you thought in the first place #I think I need a drink #jeez this was grim #pls excuse spelling mistakes I am le tired

[siren-theories]

The question of children

Note: ICYMI here is an updated post with all my analysis/thoughts so far.  DIsclaimer: The following includes spoilers of up to and Including Episode 309 “A voice in the dark”. This post was prompted by the following question:

Thank you very much for sending that one in.  I have to admit that this is a question I have asked myself many times, mainly driven by the parallels of Ben, Ryn and the story of the Pownall massacre. And Episode 308 has given those thoughts new form as they exchanged vows at the end of Episode 308. After all, children quite often follow such vows in human relationships. But children are quite a hassle for a TV show. Child actors are problematic to work with and once they exist, they often only waste screentime while bringing very little to the plot. And as they grow up, there is the question of time - having child actors more or less forces the show to use time in a linear manner as the child actors grow up. Though Siren already left itself a loophole with Hope and her growth spurts, this is still problematic for a show that has covered a period as short as a few months in three seasons. (I really need to update the timeline post soonish). 

  A). Can they actually have a child together?

We know that Sirens and humans can have children together as evidenced by the whole existence of Helen and the hybrid cult. 

However, we do know that Ryn has struggled with fertility issues before, which was a major plot point of the later half of Season 2. I do believe however that the fertility problems were mostly related to the males of her species. As the tests showed in Episode 213 “The Outpost” there was nothing wrong with Ryn herself 

(Leave it to the always body-positive Ryn to be proud of such a fact). 

And as soon as they could isolate viable sperm from the male, fertilization of her eggs was no issue at all in Episode 215. Biologically, there should be nothing preventing her and Ben having a Baby.

B). Will they have a child together?

With Ryn was not being in her mating drive during the recent episodes, we probably can rule out any pregnancy as a result of those scenes OP mentioned (unless her change into a human has progressed much further in those episodes, which is possible but IMO very unlikely). However, what happens when her next mating drive occurs? I think this can be safely answered within the context of the previous scenes in the show. There were multiple scenes in Episode 213 where both Ben and Ryn clearly exhibited signs of wanting to have children with each other and one scene in particular where they both had to force themselves not to do so within that episode.

And in 308 Ryn clearly states her wish for having a family with him, during the kitchen table discussion.

Ryn: “I will live on Land. With you.” Ben: “On land. You mean, stay human?” Ryn: “Yes. Here. Together. Human.” Ben: “What about Hope?” Ryn: “She can be with us. As a family.” Ben: “I can’t ask you to do that.” Ryn: “It is my choice. When it is time, I will be human with you.”

After figuring IVF works there is also no reason for Ryn to have more pureblood children just for the sake of her species considering there are plenty of willing alternative candidates (this would also be much better for the future genepool of her tribe).

So therefore, I do believe there is a high chance of them having more children, possibly as soon as Ryns mating drive kicks in again. By now you probably already figured out what the persistent qualifier “more” is referring to. I believe that for all intents and purposes they already have a child together - Hope.

C) Hope as their first child

While Ben is not the biological father, this is no hindrance to Hope being their first child. After all, under the law of many first-world nations Ryn would also not be considered the biological mother since she did not conceive Hope, nor did she carry or give birth to Hope.

Siren is no stranger to these constellations - after all, the best father figure in the whole series, Dale Bishop, is Maddie’s stepfather.

(Sidenote: Contrast how awesome Dale is as a father with Ben’s parents and Maddie’s mother. The show makes the point very early and very often that biological relations are not what determines who your “real” parents are,)

And for all intents and story-telling purposes, Ryn intends for Ben to be Hope’s father. This was signalled multiple times this season, even as early as Episode 305 and seems to be a role Ben wants to take up as well. 

In Episode 305, Ryn returns with Hope to land after her first transformation. And the very first thing she does onscreen is to hand Hope over to Ben in a manner very reminiscient of a mother handing over her child to its father.

(They look very much like a family in that scene, don’t they?) Then, we had Ben saying that he already views her like his own daughter in the same Episode. (Sidenote: rushing into things is a steeple of their whole relationship so this was in character for them).  

Ben: “It’s weird man. Feels like she’s mine. I*m going to help raise her.” Ryn of course also expressed the wish for Hope, Ben and herself to be a family in Episode 308:

Ben: “What about Hope?” Ryn: “She can be with us. As a family.”

And with Hope’s reintroduction in Episode 9, this dynamic was reinforced multiple times - especially and crucially from Hope’s side. And even more important was that Hope’s actions were completely unprompted by Ryn. 

1. Despite Ryn saying in Episode 305 that Hope will not remember her time as a baby, it is shown in Episode 309 that she does remember Ben, signifying the close bond the two already have

Episode 305:

Ryn: “When we meet again, you will be grown. You will not remember this time with me. So I will remember for us both.”

309: 

Hope keeps glancing at Ryn and Ben Ryn: “She remembers you. From when she was a baby.” 

2. And of course, later in the same episode Hope seeks physical contact with Ben - the image projected here is one of Family again.

And Ryn is again very happy about her daughter doing this. For whatever reason there seems to exist a strong, reciprocal bond between Hope and Ben already. 

So as it stands right now, Hope already is their (first) child in my opinion. The writers IMO could not have made that any more clear, especially not with those scenes in 309. 

Assuming she survives the finale (which I very much wish for), I would argue that any other children during the run of the show will be unlikely from a storytelling and logistics perspective. Even should Hope not survive (or have another prolonged period of absence for whatever reason) I do not think there will be another child shown onscreen. In addition to the usual problem with children in tv there is another one in play here: As strapped for screentime as Siren is, I would assume the writers do not intend to introduce further children unless they serve a dramatic purpose. 

D) Children and the Pownall family arc

One such arc where a Baby might prove beneficial for dramatic reasons however is the Pownall family arc.

As I have written at length before, there are parallels between Ryn/Ben and Charles Pownall/his unnamed siren. And the Pownall massacre happened in part because Ben’s ancestor and his siren failed to raise their child together.

("Seperated from her child, his mermaid lost her mind and went back to the water, never to return. Infected by the song and her abscence, Charles lost his senses. He gathered his crew, trapped the mermaids in a cove and slaughtered them.”)

As such, from a storytelling perspective, It would be very dramatic and enjoyable for Ben to have a child with a Siren and hopefully not mess up raising her. Therefore, should Hope not survive the season the odds of them having (another) child onscreen would increase dramatically in my opinion.

If Hope should indeed die, maybe it will not only be Ben repudiating the mistakes of his ancestor, but maybe also Ryn showing that she is stronger than the unnamed Siren. Maybe she would survive and heal after the loss of a child precisely because she has humans standing by to help her?

(And yes, I would think that would include Maddie). However, I do think Hope will survive. Anything else would be just too cruel to Ryn and also a bit odd considering how much screentime was invested in Hope’s “creation” in Season 2.

Either way, while a child would add drama, it is also not necessarily a conditio sine qua non for the story of the Pownall family. And IMO Ben’s attachment to Ryn is already strong enough (cf their "wedding vows” in 308). Therefore, a child would not be needed to prompt him to chose Ryn over his family (a choice he also already made in Episode 215 and which you can read more in detail about in the previously linked post).

Conclusion:

Do I expect them to have more children onscreen, over the course of the series? Probably not, given the above arguments. 

Do I expect them to have more children in the future (including a hypothetical time period after the series finale)?

After the series ends (and assuming some kind of happy end for them) they would probably increase their family as early (or as often) as Ryn’s mating drive and other factors permit. At this point in the story, they clearly want to have a family together and there would be nothing to stop them from enlargening their already existing family should they so choose. 

So I would tentatively argue that yes, they eventually will have more children.

#Freeform Siren #Siren #Ben #Ryn #Ben/Ryn #siren freeform

[siren-theories]

Siren-human cohabitation before the Pownall massacre

NOTE: The following is a theory. It is an argument based on evidence by the show but has not been confirmed by the writers or any episodes of the show.  

Obligatory TL, DR: I believe the show depicts  Sirens having regular contact with humans (at least with the Haida) up until the time of the massacre.

One of the biggest questions that arise out of Freeform's Siren is when exactly human and mermaid paths diverged. Biologically speaking the Sirens and Humans are closer to each other than Horses are to Zebras. Whether they share a common ancestor or whether Sirens evolved directly out of the human species is an imposisble question to answer due to a lack of evidence, though I favour the latter theory given the close similarities between humans and sirens.

Just for how long did the two species coexist peacefully together after the biological divergence though? This is the main question of this post and although we never get an explicit answer I do believe there are several scenes in the show that allow us, the viewers, to form an opinion about this subject. 

Evidence 1: The Siren Song

The mere existence of the Siren Song is by itself a strong piece of evidence for continued Siren-human interaction as the Song itself only works when in proximity of humans. 

As Donna demonstrated in Episode 101 “The Mermaid Discovery” the more powerful and more harmful "defensive" variant can be sung even when there is no visual contact with humans (she sang it from inside the hold of the north star in the premiere). The less harmful "love" variant can only be sung when in visual contact (and close proximity) with a human, as confirmed by Ryn in Episode 203 "Natural Order". 

Ryn sings to Ben in Episode 101 “The Mermaid Discovery”. 

Evolutionary changes in human or near-human species take a lot of time, especially when such a change manifests in different body physiques. This is especially true regarding such complex changes (in this case changing the vocal cords and surrounding area to be able to use so many frequencies). This alone tells us that they had enough prolonged contact with humans to develop these abilities. Furthermore this also suggests a very close, maybe even an originally symbiotic relationship between humans and Sirens because otherwise there is no reason such an ability would ever be favoured by evolution. 

Evidence 2: Cave paintings

Further evidence of a harmonious, maybe even symbiotic earlier relationship arrives in episode 207 "Entrapment". In this episode Katrina leads the group to a cave where they discover cave paintings made by native americans and the Sirens. Eliza (who seems to be the groups intellectual), Levi and Frank help Helen translate them.

The cave paintings in Episode 207

According to their translation, the original message was: "We live here in harmony, tribes of land and tribes of sea"

And after all, it would make sense that those that evolved into Sirens would stay close with their human cousins and that this continued even after different societal structures had formed in the two tribes. Did this cohabitation continue into a timeframe close to the time of the arrival of US settlers in Bristol Cove? I would argue that it did, based on the following. 

Evidence 3: The Haida knew how to help hybrids

In Episode 110 "Aftermath" Helen reveals her ancestry to the Trio, namely that she is the last descendant of the daughter of Charles Pownall and "his" mermaid. She explicitly mentions how the British settlers did not know how to deal with the Baby being born in mid-transformation. Charles then brought his baby to the Haida people, who helped the Baby complete her transformation. 

Helen dropping some knowledge in episode 110

The question though is how the Haida knew how to deal with this? It might have been simple trial and error based on what Charles would have told them. Yet I find this unlikely considering that it was a life-threatening situation that would not allow for a slew of experiments and that time was most likely in short supply.

A more logical explanation would be that the Haida of Bristol Cove knew about hybrids precisely because they had interacted with the sirens before. Charles' daughter probably was not the first hybrid either given that Sirens and humans were literally living together (see above). I would therefore argue that the Sirens probably lived with (or at least had regular contact with) the haida right up until the time the British arrived. Otherwise, it would have make no sense for the Haida to help a hybrid born from a British man and people they had no contact with. Nor would they have had any reason to pass on such knowledge of how to help hybrids complete their first transformation in the first place. 

Evidence 4: Eliza can diagnose human medical problems

In Episode 212 "Serenity" Ryn decides to get help for Ben and Maddie. She eventually returns with Eliza, the mermaid healer. After placing some resonating chrystals in their hands she hums a few tones at them and then immediately (and accurately) diagnoses both the problem and prescribes the cure.

(Eliza the sonic brain scanner hard at work in Episode 212 “Serenity”)

When I first saw this scene, I was so impressed with Eliza and how routine this seemed for her. If you would ask any human doctor today to diagnose a brain problem in a near-human species he would probably tell you that he is not qualified to do this and that you should go to a specialized vet. Yet for some reason Siren physicians are able to do so. Not only do Siren healers have knowledge of human anatomy but they also have knowledge of the effects of the song on humans. This knowledge must have passed on to successive healer generations even after the massacre as Eliza was not alive back then (the oldest merm we have seen so far was Frank and he was not hostile at all against Ben or humans and thus most likely not involved in the massacre). Again, it makes no sense to pass this knowledge on unless it occupied a significant and useful part within their reportoire of their medical knowledge.

[A caveat: It might be that Eliza only knew the problems with the brains because human and Siren brains have a similar structure. Yet this does not explain why she knows the problem with the song's effects as the song is a feature reserved only for the human-siren interaction.]

Evidence 5: The massacre itself

A human-made depiction of the massacre from episode 102 "The Lure"

The mere fact that fishermen armed with with harpoons, primitive nets and ships that were unable to go faster than ~14 knots (20 km/h) were able to slaughter many Sirens is unbelievable on its own unless one assumes special circumstances. 

Sirens can run as fast as a deer on land, break steel bars with one hand, swim faster than sharks in the ocean and have a unique defence mechanism that can turn humans into thralls that are entirely at the mercy of the Siren that is singing the song. Plus the massacre by all accounts happened on the water where Sirens enjoy even greater advantages than on land over humans. 

The only way the whole story of the massacre makes sense is if the Sirens and humans were in close proximity and if the Sirens did not consider humans a threat, thus allowing surprise attacks to work. Which would in turn require the Sirens being used to a human presence in their lives. Maybe there was a long history of cooperation with (some) fishermen. After all, how else could Captain Pownall not only gather more fish than anybody else but also have regular contact with "his" mermaid? 

This of course would also mean that the Pownall Massacre not only dealt a severe blow to the Siren population (maybe even one they never recovered from) but also ended hundreds, maybe thousands of years of cooperation and cohabitation. 

Based on the above evidence I would therefore argue that Sirens had regular contact with humans (at least with the Haida) up until the time of the massacre.

Speculation: It would not surprise me if there are more hybrids besides the hybrid cult we see on the show. There might even be pureblood siren families who have lived for decades and centuries among humans and have gone undetected for all this time. 

As always, feel free to drop a comment, rebuttal or additional information / different interpretations. Thank you for reading. 

#siren #siren freeform #freeform siren #analysis #long post #siren-human interaction #Pownell Massacre

[siren-theories]

Okay, yes

This is where I will post some of my theories and wild speculation about the freeform show Siren. 

So far I have posted the following: 

My own work: 

Do Sirens have body hair? 

Siren-human cohabitation before the Pownall massacre

The Pownall Massacre 

Repeating the past - Ben and Ryn as modern parallels to Charles Pownall and his mermaid?

The Siren Song Maddie Bishop’s treatment by the writers in Season 3 The question of children

Reblogged analysis from other authors: 

Siren timeline by @imaginejolls

#moretocome #siren #siren freeform #freeform siren #analysis

[fathersonholygore]

Siren - Season 2, Episode 13: "The Outpost"

Siren – Season 2, Episode 13: “The Outpost”

Freeform’s Siren Season 2, Episode 13: “The Outpost” Directed by Amanda Tapping Written by Cole Fowler

* For a recap & review of the previous episode, “Serenity” – click here * For a recap & review of the next episode, “The Last Mermaid” – click here Journalist Ian Sutton (Luc Roderique) is looking into the Clesco Oil footage. He’s…

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#Bristol Cove #Eco-Terrorism #Eline Powell #Fertility Test #Mating Season #Mermaid Embryos #Mermaids #Michael J Rogers #Pownall Massacre

[fathersonholygore]

Siren - Season 2, Episode 10: "All In"

Siren – Season 2, Episode 10: “All In”

Freeform’s Siren Season 2, Episode 10: “All In” Directed by David Solomon Written by Heather Thomason

* For a recap & review of the previous episode, “No North Star” – click here * For a recap & review of the next episode, “Mixed Signals” – click here In the Navy lab’s tank, Ryn (Eline Powell) swims in true form. She’s brought out of…

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#Eline Powell #Human Testing #Mermaids #Pownall Massacre #Rena Owen #Sistren of Tide and Time #Stem Cells #Thrupple