Did you spend your weekend binge-watching Netflix’s new series Sirens like I did?
If you didn’t, stop what you’re doing, call in sick and get comfy on the couch for five episodes of drama-infused bliss. If you have already seen Sirens, welcome. I’m so glad you’re here. Let’s debrief what the fuck just happened.
Also, just to be abundantly clear, this article will contain spoilers, so please continue reading at your own risk.
What is Sirens about?
When straight-talking Devon (Meghann Fahy) discovers that her ageing father has been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s, she reaches out to her younger sister Simone (Milly Alcock) for help. But when Simone sends an edible arrangement rather than calling her back or showing up to support her, Devon is incensed.
So, with the edible arrangement in hand, she tracks her sister down to a preppy New England island where she is working as an assistant for a charismatic and incredibly wealthy socialite named Michaela Kell (Julianne Moore).
When Devon arrives at the gorgeous, picturesque property on the Labour Day weekend, she’s shocked to find Simone looking neat, tidy and more polished than she’s ever seen her. She’s also instantly suss by Simone’s super close relationship with her boss — who she exclusively refers to as “Kiki” — and the cult leader-esque way people interact with her.
Simone loves the opulent lifestyle her role working for Michaela provides for her, but Devon is floundering with her pressure of looking after her father and is desperate for Simone to return to Buffalo, New York, to help out. But with their shared checkered past, it’s not as simple as Simone willingly returning home.
You can check out the trailer below.
The juicy ending of Sirens, explained
Throughout Sirens, we’d been positioned to believe that Michaela — the gorgeous, enigmatic matriarch of the Cliff House estate — was the villain of this story. However, during the final episode, it becomes clear that she wasn’t the antihero, nor was she the cult-leading murderer that we’d feared. But before we get to that, let’s go back to what was happening at the beginning of episode five.
We kicked off the final episode with Simone discovering that she’d been fired after a sneaky photographer snapped a picture of her being kissed by Michaela’s husband, Peter (Kevin Bacon). Although Simone promised Michaela that she hadn’t reciprocated, Michaela banished her former friend from the island.
For Simone, the thought of going back to her life in Buffalo with Devon and the father who abused her as a child is incomprehensible, and she becomes willing to do absolutely anything to stay put on the island within her idyllic life at Cliff House.
Heading back to the estate, Simone runs into Peter and decides to tell him everything, revealing that Michaela had been hiding the photo of their kiss in a locked safe.
You see, Michaela had married into Peter’s immense wealth and signed an ironclad pre-nuptial agreement which only granted her a payout if she became a mother or had proof of infidelity. Tragically for Michaela, she was never able to have kids. Knowing that Peter’s eyes were wandering — just like they had for her 13 years prior — she’d started developing a backup plan.
When Peter found out that Michaela was keeping this piece of evidence as an insurance policy, it was the final straw. Standing alone in the kitchen, he told her that he’s “letting her go” and makes her leave the island.
But the biggest twist? Simone seamlessly steps into Michaela’s shoes by joining Peter on stage in her place at the long-awaited annual gala, wearing a silk gown reminiscent of Michaela’s signature style. Despite the recasting of a new Mrs. Kell, no one bats an eyelid.
Meanwhile, after spending years of her life craving time away from her life in Buffalo, Devon has realised that caring for Simone during her time in need is what she’s most proud of in life. So, instead of taking off with hot boat Captain Morgan (Trevor Salter), she willingly heads back to Buffalo to take care of her father.
As Devon heads back to Buffalo on the ferry, she runs into Michaela and they see eye to eye, properly, for the first time. Michaela reveals that she has no idea what she’s going to do next, especially now that she needs to essentially start her life over once again.
Meanwhile, it seems like Devon has finally got a bit of a plan in her life and now seems to accept that Simone is her own person who can make her own choices, even if they’re questionable.
“It’s really the moment that Devon realises she was blaming the wrong person the whole time,” Meghann Fahy, who plays Devon, told Netflix Tudum.
“Simone made a choice to stay and Devon didn’t want that to be true, so she was convincing herself that Kiki was some sort of cult-leading mastermind who was manipulating her sister into staying, that the truth couldn’t be that her sister didn’t want to come home or have anything to do with her family. When she realises that, she realises, ‘Wow, Kiki is a woman and a person and not a monster’.”
As for Ethan (Glenn Howerton), the rich, duckie-blazer wearing playboy? Well, he survives falling off that big-ass cliff and is recovering in hospital. However, he’s convinced that Simone pushed him — a narrative that Peter very quickly encourages him not to spread further.
So, who is the villain?
At the end, the biggest surprise is that Michaela isn’t the cult-leader villain we thought she was. And, while it’s a surprise to see Simone’s dark side, she’s not necessarily the villain of this story.
Throughout the series, we come to learn about Simone and Devon’s difficult childhood. We find out that their mother died by suicide by filling her car up with exhaust fumes while seven-year-old Simone was in the back seat. It was Devon who found them and rushed them to the hospital.
While Simone survived, the death of their mother sent their father into a depressive spiral, rendering him unable to care for Devon and Simone. When Devon eventually left for college, Simone was left uncared for by her father. Underweight and malnourished, she was put into foster care until Devon dropped out of school to take care of her.
“She is someone who’s so incredibly wounded and has been so incredibly hurt by the people who inherently are put there to keep her safe, that she kind of realises that she can’t trust anybody,” Milly Alcock tells Netflix Tudum.
Although Simone’s actions in the final episode could be perceived as heartless and self-serving, her backstory tells us that she is doing anything she can to avoid going back to the life that hurt her so badly as a child.
“We think Simone has lost touch with reality and herself, but, actually, maybe she’s the one speaking the truth the most,” says executive producer Nicole Kassell.
“She does love where she is, and you come to understand why [for her] going back to Buffalo is worse than death. Doing what it takes to survive may leave casualties, but it’s a calculated risk; it’s not indifference. It’s the price she’s willing to pay in order not to go back.”
Ultimately, we find out that while the women are all flawed in their own way, none of them are the villains in this story. It’s Peter who is really the antihero. He’s the one who cheated on his first wife and spent the last decade of his life blaming Michaela for his disconnection with his adult children — despite his own agency to fix his relationship with them.
Now, he’s willing to discard Michaela and upgrade to a younger model.
Is Netflix’s Sirens based on anything?
Sirens is based on a 2011 play named Elemeno Pea which performs the story over 90 minutes.
However, for the series creator and showrunner, Mollie Smith Metzler, much of the story and imagery comes down to Greek mythology, which heavily informed the series.
“It’s such a rude awakening at the end –– that we all work for Peter, and the audience works for Peter, too,” she says, per Netflix Tudum.
“It is certainly a little bit of a nod to Greek mythology, where a woman’s value is very much weighed according to motherhood … So in this world where beauty is a currency, where marriage is a currency, where we all work for Peter, within that structure, her job is not secure.”
“In Greek mythology, the sirens are only described by the sailors. We don’t ever know the sirens’ point of view,” Smith Metzler continued.
“So even a show like this with these strong female roles, in the end, Peter’s point of view is very, very important. It was very intentional on our part, and I think it might cause some fun debate and comments.”
Will there be a Sirens season two?
After five brilliant episodes, season one of Sirens came to an end. While it could be left there, with audiences having to decide for themselves what happens to Simone, Peter, Michaela and Devon, fans are begging for a season two.
As it stands, a season two of Sirens has not been announced. Also, the first season already followed the plot of the original play, meaning showrunners would need to expand on the OG storyline.
It doesn’t look promising, but hey, anything is possible.
You can watch Sirens on Netflix.
The post Fans Are Shook By The Ending Of Netflix’s Sirens, So Let’s Unpack WTF We Just Watched appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
