I watched Sirens fully expecting the women to be the sirens and it turns out Kevin Bacon was the siren all along (a sentence I never thought I would say or write) more specifically the fake safety that comes with being a rich guy's trophy wife fake because you're only safe as long as Peter Kell or whatever rich guy you gave up your whole life for deems you worthy of being safe and the second he doesn't anymore you fall off the face of the earth and he'll even let you think you have power and joke about how his family's house is no longer his but really nothing not even yourself belongs to you but you'll see a rich wife's life and you'll be hypnotised and dream of having it anyway because the combination of capitalism and trauma makes the alternative look so bleak and you have to be strong as a rock to resist that siren song and keep choosing you with all the shit that comes with it
Which is why i still liked Devon's ending she chose to go back and build her own life not disappear into Morgan's life or rely on her sister's new fake power for however long it lasts she saw what it did to Michaela and drew the right conclusions
ok. i just finished sirens. totally get why you're obsessed with michaela because damn. thought the ending was good but still pissed simone ended up with HIM because they had zero chemistry and JULIANNE MOORE was right. there. hating men rn (morgan was chill tho, liked him)
plus i kinda feel like they moved away from michaela/simone's codependent relationship halfway thru the show or it just felt so much less later on (even before the finale stuff) which was annoying cuz i got invested in it.
inally i just kept mentally comparing simone and michaela to cate and indira??? obvs the origin of the mommy issues is pretty different but just the way simone clung to her and michaela comforted her in that one scene??? also the grief on michaela/indira's front, the loss of a child (or miscarriage)
sorry if this is rambly, my brain is buzzing a lil bit rn
sirens spoilers
tldr; sirens was was always going to end that way because it is a commentary on the patriarchal structures so deeply entrenched that even now in a so-called postracismpostsexiam post blah contemporary society women cannot escape the narratives men write for them.
phew while (obviously) i did adore simone/michaela's extreme codependency the way the plot went wasn't a chemistry thing and the move was very intentional on the writers' part.
neither of them love that man (though michaela did, once). it is the security he brings. that heady hit of "quit your job, just let me take care of you." michaela's character is a symbol of just how shaky that security is. the duplicitous nature of it, and how draws you in, without realising a woman is giving up her agency to obtain it. it's the age-old hegemonic narrative driven to our heads since before fairytales even came to be was that a woman's teleological endpoint was to marry a man. happily ever after! get married, have babies, die. a woman's life simply ends after she marries a man. that's where she should be most happy.
of course, then. you are entirely dependent on him and his name and his wealth. your identity is consumed into his, michaela becomes just 'mrs kell' and she hates it. he loves it (cite: "i love you, mrs kell." and michaela's strained smile) because that is all she is worth. this is why the fantasy of transcending social castes through "marrying rich" is so dangerous. you become nothing but his wife - and you better be prepared to be grateful for the rest of your life.
that's why!! michaela who loves simone rawly and truly and wants to protect her; does the absolute most to stop her from marrying the first rich guy to bend a knee. its why she spent so much time breeding her for a highpaying job out in new york. because she knows simone is especially vulnerable - craves that life for herself and escape from her horrible fucking childhood and michaela doesn't want simone to make the same mistake as her to get it. she wants simone to keep her agency. to not give up herself for it.
that's also why!! when michaela discovers the photo she says!!! "i can never have anything for myself." because the point that this show is making is that a wife is only that—her husband's posession. and possession is not allowed to possess anything of its own. he takes simone from michaela because everything that is hers is his. michaela casts simone out because (deep and rueful sigh) she herself is afraid to lose the little power she holds. simone runs back to him because in that moment - when she's lost everything. her future, her present; michaela. then her abusive father turns to her and says "it's just you and us, now." and understandably spirals her into a panic attack. when she runs into kevin freaking bacon's arms it's not because she's in love with him some bs like that. it's her last ditch effort to save herself from her past. and she falls into the same trap michaela once did.
the pointiestpoint of this show is how women are always blamed for men's faults and made out to be these wicked alluring creatures that tempt men to commit all their terrible or simply stupid actions so any consequences are the fault of the womens. pandora's box. eve and the apple. sirens.
