The Merfolk are on
land and everyone is still obeying Ryn and there’s lots of interesting ways in
how they show dominance and submission - I have to say how good they are at
conveying very non-human creatures here. Ryn is in control and continues to
teach the others how to speak English and react with the world.
Katrina, her rival,
is not a fan and keeps challenging her, but the rest of the group backs Ryn and
Ryn pays special attention to Donna’s daughter.
Helen is watching
over the merfolk and one man especially seems to accept her. The injury from
the wolf bite isn’t great - but there’s another problem: her skin is already
degrading with lack of access to the ocean (can’t they run a bath and put in a
lot of salt? No? Apparently not). Going back to the ocean is a problem because
the oil explorers blasting the sea with mega sonar are going to be doing this
for months on end. This is a problem they can’t possibly wait it out. They
consider going to another part of the ocean but merfolk are territorial and
they’ll be attacked by other merfolk bands for invading their territory
Ben starts looking at
the safest place to get the mermaids into the ocean and while he does Maddie
agrees to watch the merfolk… Ben is clearly wary and insists she take a shot
gun. Which turns out to be useful to drive off a wolf - Katrina pushes the
merfolk to disobey Rynn and gets Donna’s daughter injured when she decides to
lead them out of the cabin and gets attacked by a wolf - much to everyone’s
surprise. Wolves don’t generally attack humans, but merefolk apparently are
different. This doesn’t make Katrina popular
We get a lot of
building moments with the merfolk learning a bit more about humanity, language
et al. Maddie and Ryn move closer which kind of helps chip away at Maddie’s own
wariness towards Ryn after what happened to Ben. We also get some nice moments
of Ben teaching Ryn to drive and trying to explain laughter to Ryn which is
quite hilarious - and I say again, shows just how very good this show is at
depicting how alien mermaids are
And Ben and Maddie
are growing closer together as Maddie realises Ben is trying to sort himself
out, even attending addiction counselling to try and deal with his obsession
with Ryn and her voice. Maddie approves because he is trying. But there’s also
that difficult moment when Ben, while talking to Ryn, wonders whether he’s
actually bonding with her and attracted to her and it’s not just the song
which… is less ideal. Also for some reason the people at this addictions
meeting didn’t smack him one for standing up and announcing what, to any
non-mermaid experienced watcher, sounds like someone who needs either
relationship counselling or a restraining order calling his bad relationship an
addiction.
Another complication
of this is that Maddie’s mother, Susan, who also attends this meeting for much
more conventional reasons, notices that Ben is there. She is both very worried
that Maddie is dating an addict since she’s already aware of how much her own
addiction has really hurt her daughter and also a little irritated that Maddie
is so apparently accepting and supportive of his addiction but so very angry
about her own
Dale advises her that
things are waaaaaaay more complicated than this and if estranged mother Susan
wants to rebuild her relationship with Maddie she really really OH MY GODS
REALLY shouldn’t try to split her up from her boyfriend. She actually listens,
thank you all that is sensible
Maddie and her mother
do have a continued strained relationship with Susan generally accepting of
Maddie’s anger and coldness but occasionally getting frustrated with Maddie
making some concessions and generally being polite but also making it clear
that after quite a laundry list of badnesses Susan’s pulled, she doesn’t just
get to swan back into Maddie’s life and have everything be hunky dory without
earning her redemption first. It’s painful but it’s also real and it’s also
quite kind: neither party wants to hurt the other and it’s clear they’re both
trying to various degrees but Maddie isn’t going to dispense with the past
either. Maddie is also very self-conscious around the town, feeling judged for
her past
Another unexpected
conflict is Helen who realises that if they’re going to keep 6 merfolk on land
for a while they’re going to need more money - so she goes to Ted Pownall
(Ben’s rich dad) to have access to the trust fund his family set up to keep
Helen (the shameful, naughty branch of the family) quiet. She wants to draw on
it, arguing that she’s the last of her line so what’s she saving it for? Ted
accepts this. Ted’s wife, Elaine, is much less accepting as she doesn’t know
the story and has severe doubts that Helen is related at all… she steals a cup
to try and prove a lack of familial link by DNA I’m guessing
This also brings us
to Xander and my growing belief we have far too many characters. Xander is
still being manipulated by undercover agent Nicole, but also is trying to get a
loan to fix up his boat. Which doesn’t go well because it’s not exactly
financially viable. What’s especially galling is seeing Ted praise him for
following his father’s footsteps in keeping the company (Ted’s company) going
and clearly having more than enough money to help Xander, conspicuously not
doing so.
Xander goes to a bar
to drink (which seems to be a habit) along with pretty much the rest of the
town, all attending a mermaid themed night. Which is awkward because everyone
gets drunk and decides to go down to the shore at night
The same beach where
Ben has sneaked all the merfolk to to get in the water in this sheltered cove.
We’ve seen before that merfolk in the water become very aggressive and
instinctual and everyone is about to get eaten. They cobble together a hasty
plan to get everyone out of the water, aided by Dale who still has the town’s
respect even if he isn’t sheriff any more. But in doing so Susan realises
something is up and Xander learns that the mermaids are present
And that Levi, the
merman who killed his father, is among them. Predictably he freaks out and
attacks Ben, they have a brief fist fight before breaking it up. This will not
end well
And Rynn notes that
humans stay angry. I get this is a call back to last episode where she made it
clear that mermaids move on and don’t hold grudges. Which would make more sense
if we didn’t have Katrina giving Ryn angry eyes. She seems to have stayed angry
as well
Speaking of, as the merfolk leave the beach (and cause more than a little chaos in a shop which gets reported to the police which will definitely cause trouble) Katrina again insists they stop hiding because they’re stronger than humans. Ryn dismisses this because Katrina is not stronger than her so needs to do as she’s told
Instead Katrina
leaves… and when she returns the next day she has the dead wolf slung over her
shoulders. This looks like a very clear challenge to Ryn
