Upamanyu Biswas
The third and fourth episodes of ‘Sirens,‘ titled ‘Monster’ and ‘Persephone,’ highlight the painful past linking Simone and Devon as things start to heat up in Cliff House. In the previous episodes, we saw Devon forcibly taking up a spot among Michaela’s ranks as a way to get closer to her “cult” and extricate Simone from the woman’s clutches. Things are further complicated by Simone’s stubbornness, seeing her life with Michaela as an escape from the terrible childhood she had in Buffalo, New York. However, despite the seemingly idyllic lifestyle with the Kells, Simone still has to tread a fine line between honesty and secrecy because of Michaela’s hard stance on specific topics. To that end, the girl suffers from a massive panic attack at the end of episode 2 when she realizes her boss knows about her clandestine relationship with Ethan. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Simone’s Alarming Dream Makes Her Desperate For Answers
The episode kicks into gear with a strange dream sequence where a thick fog shrouds Simone while she tries to track down Michaela. As she wades through the mist, she sees Ethan impaled on a tree branch, dying as he bleeds from his wounds. She wakes up to find Devon’s face floating above hers. The older sister explains that she took care of Simone after she saw her on the kitchen floor writhing in a severe panic attack. After realizing that it is pretty late in the morning, Simone is worried that she might be concerned about her job, not just because of her tardiness but also because Michaela knows the truth behind her relationship with Ethan. Although Devon insists that Simone getting fired isn’t the worst idea, the younger sibling rushes out to track down her boss.
After trekking down the beach for a while, Simone eventually runs into Michaela, who tells her that she is well within her rights to take a break. After all, Devon told everyone that she was suffering from food poisoning. However, Simone takes the opportunity to come clean about her relationship with Ethan and her lies to Michaela on the matter. Subsequently, the two women candidly discuss Simone’s past, including the truth behind her mother’s death by suicide and how she also tried to take a young Simone’s life in the attempt. Michaela promises to shower Simone with kindness, moving forward after learning about the incident. At the same time, Devon struggles with her alcoholism, deciding instead to sleep with a gardener on the premises to curb her usual habit.
Devon Drifts Off While Simone Receives a Tailing Mission
At the mansion, Devon finds it difficult to track down either Michaela or Simone. The kitchen staff also keeps their mouth shut from spilling any more information about Peter Kell’s former wife, Jocelyn. Eventually, she is hailed by the billionaire himself, who tells her to come up to the tower’s topmost floor to share another joint. As they share a few hits, he tells her that Michaela has a strange controlling effect on everyone around her, including inducing cryptic dreams in people. Although Peter heads downstairs, Devon continues to smoke the joint and falls asleep in the process. Michaela and Simone return to the mansion after their long jog. The latter is unable to get in touch with her boyfriend, Ethan, despite sending a long string of messages checking up on him.
Upstairs, Michaela compares the box of Magpie Chocolate gifted to her by Peter to the box she ordered herself. She finds a small difference in the ribbon that suggests to her that Peter is lying about his trip to Tokyo, Japan. When he stops by the room for a brief word about Ethan, Michaela confronts him about the Japan trip. He decides to walk away from the conversation rather than give in to the allegations. Michaela orders Simone to follow him out of the house, even though we learn that he is planning on going off-grid for a while. Meanwhile, Devon wakes up from her drug-induced sleep to find that the entire house is seemingly empty. She finds Michaela strangely naked in her bath upstairs, where she has a weird conversation about herself. At the end of the conversation, she finds herself heading for some shopping with Cloe, Astrid, and Lisa.
Simone Spends Some Time With Her Boss’ Husband
The exchange between Devon and Michaela in the bathroom is particularly enlightening because it reveals how much guilt the former feels about the negligence and abuse Simone suffered under their father, Bruce, while she was in college. It illustrates her inner pathology and makes her slightly vulnerable to the love-bombing performed by Cloe, Astrid, and Lisa, who urge Devon to splurge on some extravagant dresses at the shopping center as a way to embrace her inner femininity. In the meantime, Michaela gets in touch with her lawyer, Phil, to figure out the contingencies in her hand in case Peter is cheating on her. At the same time, Simone continues to stalk Peter as he goes about his day on a normal basis. She eventually breaks her barrier of secrecy by stumbling across him on the beach, thereby blowing her cover.
Before long, Peter invites Simone to a few hours of quahogging, which is basically digging for clam shells on the seabed. She is surprised he is not mad at her and uses the opportunity to defuse any tension further. During the quahogging session, we learn that Peter’s trip to Japan was a ruse designed to cover his real plans. He actually visited his son’s home to christen his newly born grandson. He kept it all a secret because of how much Michaela hates him having a relationship with his children. This is because they hate her for breaking Peter’s relationship with his former wife, Jocelyn. At the end of their quahogging exercise, Peter offers Simone a sweatshirt to stave off the cold, eventually using a break in conversation to plant a kiss on her lips.
The Search For Ethan Leads to Some Startling Discoveries
Simone is startled by Peter’s move on her. She immediately leaves as the awkwardness piles up between them, and Peter tries to apologize in a feeble manner. On her way back, she sends more texts and a voice message to Ethan, checking up on his whereabouts. However, there is still no information about him. She also has a phone call with Michaela, hoping that her boss might know where Ethan is. She admits no responsibility in the matter. Elsewhere, Devon has a fun time with Morgan, who shows up at the shopping center, which is a perfect offramp for her to have more playful moments with him. He asks her if she is okay with joining him for a long trip on the yacht, an idea she promises to give more thought to. Their peace is abruptly disrupted when a call arrives on his phone from Simone.
Both Devon and Morgan stop by Ethan’s place, where they surmise that maybe Michaela killed Ethan, just like she killed Peter’s former wife, lending more meat to the rumor. Simone rejects this notion outrightly, even though there is still no sign of Ethan anywhere. Devon insists that they must leave before Michaela kills them all somehow. However, their plan is stopped in its tracks by a returning Ethan, who is alive and well. Shockingly, he is accompanied by Raymond and Bruce, whom Ethan flew over with a grand plan in his mind. Overwhelmed by her father’s sudden arrival, Simone asks Ethan why he brought her father to the island. He gets down on one knee and pops open a ring box, clearly stating his intentions to marry her – a huge leap sending shockwaves through the gathered crowd, especially Simone and Devon.
Simone Makes Her Mind Up on Ethan’s Proposal
We see a flashback scene illustrating Simone’s first trip to the island and how Michaela hired her. The candid interview where Simone talked very openly about her past, finding many common points with her boss, urged her that she was in the right place. Eventually, this feeling was rewarded when Michaela offered her the job. In the present-day timeline, Simone is completely taken aback by Ethan’s marriage proposal. She asks him why he thought bringing her father over to the island was a good way to convince her to marry him. He believed that it would be part of a grand gesture on his part to ask for her father’s blessing when proposing to her. However, it seemingly backfires on him as she walks away. Michaela, who also arrives on the scene, decides to follow Simone while the others try to make sense of everything that just transpired.
In the kitchen, Peter Kell runs into Simone while preparing his famous clam chowder. He brings up his failed kiss attempt from earlier, hoping their relationship is not strained as a result. She consoles him about the subject, even assuring him that she is going to keep it a secret from Michaela. In the meantime, the kitchen staff receives news that Ethan is heading for the mansion with the entire DeWitt family and their friends for dinner. Up in Simone’s room, Michaela has yet another candid conversation with her assistant about Ethan’s marriage proposal, urging her to remain single because marriage will only shackle her in family commitments. Instead, she offers Simone the chance to chair her foundation in New York, an opportunity that takes her entirely by surprise. Simone agrees to take it up, which means an end to her bond with Ethan.
Ethan Receives His Marriage Response From Simone
Downstairs, things get awkward and heated between Devon’s multiple bed partners, who each feel very territorial about their claim over her. At the same time, Ethan is insecure about Simone’s response to his marriage proposal. Only Peter Kell and Bruce remain more interested in the food than the squabbles around the table. In Simone’s room, Michaela asks her assistant if she knows how to break into Peter’s devices through his password protection. Simone suggests using his personal phone as he is bound to keep one of his devices unlocked. Subsequently, Michaela heads downstairs to inform Ethan that Simone is waiting to have a conversation with him upstairs, an ominous invitation that invites a few sniggers around the table. Peter invites Bruce upstairs for a drink and to discuss some “manly” stuff.
Devon leaves the dinner table to sit outside Simone’s room, hoping to find out what transpires in her conversation with Ethan. Raymond and Morgan decide to join her in her vigil. An argument breaks out between Ethan and Simone as the topic of the marriage proposal causes rifts to develop between the pair. The latter tells Ethan that he misjudged matters by inviting her father to the house, especially because he has no idea of the abuse he inflicted on her when she was a child. Simone tells him that she will not marry him, a decision that bruises his ego and leaves him floundering. She then takes Devon aside to have a heart-to-heart talk with her sister. They both bring up painful topics from the past that are difficult to address. However, Simone makes it clear to Devon that she is completely fine and that it is her older sister’s fault for not letting her go.
An Accident Sparks More Chaos While Michaela Discovers the Truth
Hurt by Simone’s admission, Devon heads out of the house, followed in close pursuit by Raymond, Devon, and the gardener who slept with her. They continue to mollycoddle her even though she makes it clear that she wants to be alone. Up in his ivory tower, Peter and Bruce have a candid exchange on legacy, death, and fortune. Eventually, Peter decides to hand Bruce a joint to smoke, which adversely affects the man. He loses control over himself and heads downstairs in a fit. Michaela and Simone try to calm him down but to no avail. Instead, it becomes clear that they need Devon’s help to calm him down and take him away. Simone goes looking for her sister while Michaela uses her charm to soothe Bruce’s frayed nerves, an act that Peter witnesses closely.
Outside, Simone runs into Ethan, who is dangerously drunk, and accuses her of monstrously ripping his heart out. Worried about his state, she follows him to the cliff’s edge. She tries to get him to step away, but it is too late, and he falls down. In the mansion, Peter and Michaela have a candid conversation about their relationship, with the former clearing the air about his Tokyo trip. He tells her the truth about his visit to his children’s family and his grandson’s christening. The exchange alleviates a lot of the tension between husband and wife, who also share a kiss at the end. However, their peace is cut short when they receive news about Ethan’s fall. While heading to the spot, Michaela is flagged down by the Vanity Fair photographer from the previous episode, who has a picture of Peter and Simone’s kiss from earlier.
