Molly Smith Metzler: The Siren story is about three women, and they're on an island. They're very, very beautiful, they're seductresses, and they use their song to make the sailors who are passing by in ships crash their boats and die. 

[CLIP] Kevin Bacon (as Peter Kell): It's a little monstrous, actually. The dark current is you. 

[CLIP] Bill Camp as (Bruce DeWitt): She ruined me.

[dramatic music playing] 

Julianne Moore: Even when you think of the reason for the mythology, this idea that men were blaming shipwrecks on these mythological figures, these women that are singing, I think it's sort of interesting. So it's like, "Wait, you crashed the boat, but you said that a minor goddess made you do it?" 

Molly Smith Metzler: It is a great question, because we don't know. We only ever hear the Sirens described by the men. We never hear their point of view, that maybe their song is actually a song of pain, that maybe they're incredibly lonely and misunderstood, that maybe there's a whole other side to this story of why these three women are doing what they're doing. 

Meghann Fahy: Devon is somebody who has been a caretaker for a lot of her life. She had to give up a lot of personal pursuits to take care of her younger sister.

[CLIP] Meghann Fahy (as Devon DeWitt): Simone, I just traveled 17 hours to see you. 

[CLIP] Milly Alcock (as Simone DeWitt): You should've called first. I don't have time for you.

[CLIP] Meghann Fahy (as Devon DeWitt): [scoffs] 

[CLIP] Milly Alcock (as Simone DeWitt): I don't. I don't have time for you today. 

[CLIP] Meghann Fahy (as Devon DeWitt): Who are you? You're dressed like a doily.

[whimsical music playing] 

Milly Alcock: Simone goes through a very big journey throughout the show. As an audience, we see her trauma. It really reels in that question of, like, "Who is your family?" And what do you owe a family that's hurt you? 

[CLIP] Milly Alcock (as Simone DeWitt): Okay, uh, don't touch anything, don't talk to anyone. Uh, don't sit on the furniture, and don't touch the linens. 

[CLIP] Meghann Fahy (as Devon DeWitt): I'll just be right here, festering and decomposing.

[CLIP] Milly Alcock (as Simone DeWitt): Don't you dare sit on my couch!

[CLIP] Meghann Fahy (as Devon DeWitt): One cheek, two cheek.

Molly Smith Metzler: Michaela and the world around her is one of magnetism. Everyone in the show is pulled towards her.

Julianne Moore: She created her own universe and her own rules, and she's made herself the queen of it all. And this power that she has, that she pulls the community around her, she gets people excited about what she's excited about. 

[CLIP] Julianne Moore (as Michaela Kell): Let's go save some wildlife, bitches.

[women laughing]

[eerie music playing]

Meghann Fahy: The scene in the series that is very ethereal, and the audience isn't quite sure, like, is this even really happening, was where Devon hears something and she thinks it's singing, and she comes up, and she's sort of in this trance. She's being “sirened” by Julie's character.

[water splashing]

Julianne Moore:  It's written beautifully, and it's one woman drawing something out of another woman. You know, really, really saying to her, like, "I see you."

[CLIP] Julianne Moore (as Michaela Kell): I see you. [echoing] How special you are. I can help you.

[echoing]

[gentle music playing] 

Molly Smith Metzler: All three of these women are incredibly powerful, but also incredibly wounded.

Julianne Moore: All have experienced profound mother loss, all seem to be in somewhat complicated relationships with men, all of whom have to take responsibility for things that maybe the men are responsible for. 

[CLIP] Kevin Bacon (as Peter Kell): You have systematically discouraged me from knowing my own children.

[CLIP] Julianne Moore (as Michaela Kell): Oh my God, this again? You ruined your relationship with your children. You pursued me. You left Jocelyn. You let them demonize me.

Molly Smith Metzler: For the Greek mythology nerds, if you watch carefully, mermaid images show up. Like, one of my favorites is the tiles around the fireplace in Simone's room. Also, things are in threes. The sirens come in threes. The sculptures are in a set of three outside. There's this trio of different details around the house. And then there's the characters of the Fates, who are Michaela's really good friends. The three of them are dressed exactly the same, and they're often saying things that are predicting the future.

[gentle music continues] 

Meghann Fahy: I think in the end, all three women are sirens. The manifestation of it is very different in all three of them, but at the core, they're actually a lot more similar than any of them are willing to admit.

[music intensifies]

[gentle music continues]

[music fades]