Sirens Boss Molly Smith Metzler Reveals Where She Thinks Devon, Simone, and Michaela End Up

Warning: The following contains spoilers for Netflix's miniseries Sirens. Read at your own risk! 

The new limited series thriller Sirens entered the Netflix catalog this Memorial Day weekend, and it's another splashy good time. Meghann Fahy and Milly Alcock play estranged sisters, Devon and Simone, forced to reconnect over a holiday weekend when Devon tries to convince Simone to quit her luxurious job as a personal assistant to help take care of their ailing father. When Devon arrives on the private island of Simone's billionaire boss, she realizes her sister may be in over her head and needs saving herself. 

The problem is that Simone doesn't want to be saved. She's gotten very close to her boss, Michaela (Julianne Moore), and her husband, Peter (Kevin Bacon), and is determined to carve out an affluent life for herself, far away from her dark past and her family secrets. Old wounds are reopened, and closet skeletons are excavated as Devon puts all of her energy into freeing Simone from Michaela's clutches, only to find herself also under the heiress's spell. 

However, in the fifth and final episode, it was Michaela who needed saving from Simone when the young woman usurped her place at Peter's side to save herself from having to return to the home where she was abused and neglected as a child at the hands of her father. It's a life-changing weekend for all three of the women, the titular sirens, by the time the series is over. TV Guide spoke to Sirens executive producer Molly Smith Metzler, who loosely adapted her play Elemeno Pea to create the Netflix series, about the enigmatic end of the series and where she thinks the eponymous women will go after the end of the series. 

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There is a strong metaphor connecting the women of this show to the Greek myth of the sirens, and some of the men who fall under their spell do have close calls with death. Was there any version of the scripts or brainstorming in the room about having any of them die falling off the cliff or drowning in the ocean?
Metzler: Yes, sure. We're trying to have fun and poke a little fun at the idea of it. The mystery of the gossip we hear about Michaela was an engine, but it was in the intention of having fun. I will say that I wonder how audiences would feel if Ethan had actually died. It seems to me that it would have been a very different show altogether and not a show that I would like. 

How would you define Simone and Devon's relationship at the end of this series? 
Metzler: The sisters know each other really well and love each other deeply. There's an honesty that's very apparent between these two. I think they both have had a long journey this weekend and discovered a lot about themselves, and each other. When these beautiful actors read the scene, and when we filmed it, it played as a very sad, kind of breakup scene. I don't think these two are going to see each other the same way again. I think something has been fractured there. 

I was going to say, it felt very much like a breakup before Devon got on that boat. 
Metzler: Yeah. When Millie Alcock gets all choked up and says, "I'm going to see you again really soon," it's because she knows she won't. I really felt the truth of that when we were shooting it. This weekend has changed their relationship forever. 

Two people I never expected to end up closer by the end of the weekend were Devon and Michaela, but they are riding off into the sunset together, kind of. What do you imagine their relationship is going forward?
Metzler: The show itself comments upon innocence and experience. We watched Simone really change in the show from almost a little girl into a woman. I think Devon and Michaela at the end are veterans. They are experienced. They're leaving the island almost like soldiers returning from war. They've been through something. They understand and have clarity that Simone does not. They see each other and connect at the end. I think that friendship is a strong word. I don't think they're going to do a spa weekend, but I think they're both going on a journey and they have more in common than they thought. 

I love that comparison, and Simone is about to start her journey "at war" with this relationship with Peter. Do you think there are real feelings between them or is it a mutual relationship of survival? 
Metzler: That is a question I hope I leave the audience with, for them to debate and decide. I think how you feel reveals a lot about you. I like that the show offers that to the audience to answer for themselves. For me, I think their feelings are genuine. I think we tell ourselves stories too. We can talk ourselves into a lots of different things in order to survive and I very much understand what Simone does at the end. It's a mixture of genuine feeling and desperation. 

I thought it was a survival situation for Simone and Peter's feelings were…optimistic if not entirely legitimate. 
Metzler: Yes. I think there's truth in it, for sure. How much truth is something only they know. 

Why did this feel like the right conclusion for Simone's journey, to have her sort of usurp Michaela instead of going home or starting a whole new path and breaking the cycle? 
Metzler: It's to raise the question of what is a siren, really? What does it mean to be a monster? I'm aware that we are asking that question at the end. I think there are people who are going to find her actions to be a little monstrous. I think people are going to think she's been the victim of her circumstance. I'm interested in the question of sirenhood. We cast these women in these roles as a monster. With Simone stepping into Michaela's role, everyone in town is going to call her a siren. Is that fair? What does it mean to actually be a monster? 

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Someone who really tries to break that mold over the course of the weekend is Devon. What are your hopes for her as she returns home?
Metzler: This weekend changed Devon a great deal. I believe her when she says she's going to get her own apartment. I think she's going to make steps to start to take care of herself and heal herself. I imagine someday she's going to be in a place where she will leave Buffalo and she will be in a relationship with someone really lovely, like Jordan. 

I was rooting for that to be real and not just a coping mechanism for her. 
Metzler: Me too. I think it was more than that for her, she just isn't there yet. She isn't willing to leave the things that are holding her back yet, and I understand that. 

Sirens is now streaming on Netflix.