Siren Season 3 Finale: The Toll of the Sea

‘The Toll of the Sea’ ended season 3 of Siren on a hell of a cliffhanger and I still refuse to believe it actually happened. 

‘The Toll of the Sea’ saw the death of one of the least likely people, and the disappearance of another, and as the credits rolled, along with the tears down my face, I was completely slack-jawed. 

At the beginning of the week, I tossed some of my theories out there for the midseason finale. Obviously almost none of these happened and I can’t even begin to decide where to dive in. To recap, I predicted that Ryn would go to find Hope, Xander would be transported to the echo chamber, Ben would become a full mermaid, Ted Pownall would cause trouble on the hybrid ranch, and Maddie would find her father.

Some of the ideas I predicted were correct but I didn’t expect Ryn to actually kill Tia and become, essentially, the head of the mermaid tribes. All of them dipping their heads in respect to her seems like she’s become the Matriarch of all tribes. If she’s not the Matriarch, then she’s brought all the tribes together.

Robb brought the echo chamber to Xander in a matter of hours, and thankfully it had the same affect on him that it did on Ben and Maddie. It’s bittersweet that Ryn’s ancestors lost their voices but nice to know that other chambers still exist. With her allegiance with the Northern tribes, hopefully they can bring their dead there.

Maddie’s stepfather’s death wrecked me. I should have expected something like that when Dale stopped appearing as much in the show. Fola Evans-Akingbola, who plays Maddie, is such a great actress and deserves so much praise. His death is going to affect Maddie hugely in season 4 and I’m interested to see how she deals with that when she’s so far away from home with Robb.

I didn’t expect Maddie’s departure to the Philippines to hurt me so badly but her goodbye with Ryn wrecked me, both of them cradling each other, queer as hell and the chemistry exploding everywhere. If I can’t have my triad, just want my girls back together, please, that’s all I ask. 

Speaking of queer, I’m big mad that Annie Brennan never appeared again after showing up at the hospital. I’m still holding out hope for more queer characters in the next season. More queer mermaids! 

Ted Pownall didn’t cause a ruckus as I initially thought he might. He managed to put aside his prejudices against the mermaids and hybrids in order to help the victims of Tia’s song, alongside the hybrids.

The biggest shocker of the finale was the assumption that Ben had died on his mission to rescue Hope from Tia’s prison cell. It had been two weeks since the attacks and Ryn is refusing to give up on him. There’s a strange dream of Ben, Hope, and Ryn as a family, living in a house of white surrounded by yellow flowers. In the dream, Ben’s expression flickers.

I don’t think he’s dead, I think he’s been injured and he’s being cared for by mermaids? Regardless, if season 4 happens, it’ll pick up some time later and will probably focus on Ryn and Ben finding their way back to each other.

Initially, ‘The Toll of the Sea’ was billed as the midseason finale but with TV seasons being postponed, Siren opted for a shorter season, much like season 1, which also had ten episodes. I’m unsure if this was intentional and they just made an error in their marketing, or if they had to wrap up a bunch of loose ends very quickly during the pandemic.

Currently, the show has the highest ratings of any current Freeform show, but its fate is still uncertain. 

Author: Bekah

Bekah has a B.F.A. in Theatre Performance from Anderson University and is the Executive Assistant at Saga Event Planning. She is a frequent convention attendee and cosplayer and co-hosts The Geekiary webcast “The Bitching Dead”.

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