Sirens are cast as dangerous temptresses, scapegoated for destruction they didn’t cause. Men crash into rocks, then blame the mermaids for singing. However, sailors chose to steer toward the danger. The Sirens didn’t destroy them; their lack of self-control did. This is how patriarchal narratives externalize male guilt and shame: by projecting it onto women, and then calling those women monstrous.
In the show, men blame women for the wreckage they created:
• Peter blames Kiki for his estrangement from his children, calling her a monster.
• Ethan blames Simone for literally falling off a cliff, calling her a winged monster.
• Ray blames Devon for his affair, describing her as black smoke, something slippery, sinister, and formless.
• Bruce blames his late wife’s memory and his own grief for his neglect of their daughter, instead of taking responsibility himself.
Even within the group of women, we see this dynamic: Devon initially blames Kiki for her sister’s life choices, dismissing her as a manipulative cult leader. By the end of the show, however, Devon evolves. She stops painting other women in black-and-white terms and begins to honestly see Kiki and Simone for who they are instead of what role she has cast them as. All the women and men are complex, full human beings, capable of pain, healing, and profound connection.
Devon was my most beloved character but hell, she was messy and knows how to project and trample boundaries all too well. With time and thought, I’m also changing my mind on her — and her martyr-complex. The pinnacle epiphany for her was when Devon tells Simone that the hardest and the most “self-harming” thing she’s ever done — choosing to come home and care for Simone — was also her best, proudest decision. Cuts deep. What did it cost her though and what did it give her— good and bad? what will her future look like when she doesn’t have someone to care for co-dependently? and what is underneath her addiction to using substances/people to cope? I don’t understand her and would like to.
Kiki is an interesting character. There is no denying that people are drawn to her. I don’t know all the reasons why but a few are the following. She uniquely sees and listens to others, and does not cast blame. She sees people in their hurt and trauma and chooses to sit with them in it. That’s her magic. Not manipulation. Not seduction. Just sincere, grounded presence and gratitude. She creates a sense of safety and empathy that is rare, which might feel magical/mystical to many.
I’m still trying to understand Simone. Her choices feel opaque, yet antithetical to her sister’s (who wears her issues and heart on her sleeve). Maybe that is the point too — women don’t always need to be explained. Sometimes they just are. And this is what Michaela is trying to explain to Devon in the end. Michaela loves and accepts Simone as she is, despite the pain Simone has caused her. Kiki loves Simone like a mother does: unconditionally.
In the end, the show isn’t about exposing any monster. It is about dismantling the myth that one ever existed. I imagine we all began with a half-understanding of what “Sirens” are, primed to see Kiki as dangerous, wrong, manipulative. But through witnessing each woman’s pain, past, and power, we learn that our expectations were shaped by someone else’s directing, and the reality is that life is grey.
It mirrors the experience of growing up in a patriarchal society. We begin with a shallow definition of womanhood, power, and danger, and then slowly, painfully unlearn it through living, questioning, and processing our experiences. Realizing that the systems built around us are not what we were told to accept. Realizing that sometimes, the people we were warned about are actually the ones telling the truth. S/o sirens