The Secret of Mako Island is the first episode and the series premiere of H2O: Mermaid Adventures.
Synopsis[]
Cleo, Emma and Rikki get stranded on Mako Island and fall into a magic pool where their lives change forever.
Plot[]
Cleo Sertori, Rikki Chadwick and Emma Gilbert are out for a walk. Cleo talks about her dream to work as a volunteer at the Oceanic Center with her friends, she tells she's worried about the interview and fear they won't accept her at the aquarium. Rikki reassures her, as she already has knowledge of all things from the ocean, including creatures and plants found around their lives.
During their talk, Cleo notices seagulls gathered around something on the beach, the girls runs into and found a hermit crab without a shell. Cleo suggests to find another one preventing him to getting hurt by birds, Emma found a little toy car at her feet, letting the hermit crab go back into the water. Lewis McCartney quickly joins them and asks Cleo if she's ready for the interview, Rikki apologizes for not being able to come with them, as she already promised to go with Emma to her swimming training.
At the Oceanic Center, Cleo is still stressed for the interview. Mr. Lambert sees how interested she was for the job and lets Jeff ask her few questions about her knowledge. He asks her to name six species who lives in the bay, she starts to answer but panic when he asked for more exotic fishes' names, which ends the interview. Cleo explained this to her friends at the café, telling them that because of this, she's failed it. Lewis comforts her and tells her to not lose hope. Later, he talks to Mr. Lambert to convince him to give Cleo another shot. He pretended she was sick but instead of canceling, she came anyway and asks him to not penalized her for that.
Thanks to Lewis, later that day, the director of the park calls Cleo for another interview in three days. But Cleo is still worried to fail again and she has to study, Lewis tells Cleo to relax as she already knows all the answers and suggests a skin diving trip with the girls at Mako Island. After the tour at the reef at Mako and seen many species, Cleo is happy, says she never forgets that. Emma suggests getting back before sunset.
Later, Lewis's boat motors gets flooded. Cleo wants to call her father, so he could get them with a coast guard boat, but has no signal. Rikki tries too, but nothing, she says the island is too far away to connect to a network. Lewis says they have to spend the night here but Cleo is afraid of sleeping outside with wild animals and tell them that their parents will be worried too. He says he's not sure they won't have a problem tomorrow but they don't have a better solution. The night falls, and the girls find it hard to sleep with Lewis snoring, Emma angrily say he sounds like he swallowed an airplane motor. Rikki notices a glowing cave, wondering if somebody could be here. Cleo wants to tell Lewis where they're going, but Rikki says to let him sleep and they don't always need boys to take care of themselves.
Rikki, Cleo and Emma at the front of the cave
At the entrance of the grotto, Cleo finds it amazing and Rikki, who want to see more, enter in it, Cleo tell her to be careful but Rikki slips over and fall into, she's quickly joining by Emma and Cleo who fell too, worried. Cleo asks if everyone are OK and find it strange that the grotto is so bright, Emma says that the grotto is covered in a sort of phosphorescent moss that glows in the dark. Rikki says she has seen enough for one night and try to climb up but fall as it too steep, she says they have to find another way out. Emma suggests getting out by the pool because it must be linked to the ocean and may be a way out.
Rikki, Cleo and Emma Metamorphosis
The girls dives into the water but Cleo thinks she can't do it, Rikki tells her they've no choice as nobody know where they are and that if they stay there, no one never finds them. To reassure them, Emma wants to go first and have a look then come back to the girls, she points out its piece of cake as she can do 30 meters underwater in her training. At that moment, the full moon appears over the top of the volcano and bathes the girls in its light with the pool, glows and starts to make bubbles. Three lights go towards the girls, transforming each of the girls' legs into tails.
Cleo's get in shock with her sudden change, she didn't want to turn into fish, Rikki tells her to stay calm down and everything will be fine. Emma returns to the surface and tells the girls this is a way out, she says to Cleo to not be scared as they're going in all together. They dive and took the passage. Emma points out that they don't have to hold their breath, they can breathe normally and talk underwater.
The sun rises, as Lewis should sleep, Rikki tells her friends to not let him see them like this. The girls get out of the water on rocks, and they soon realize it's quiet, which is not normal since Lewis should be snoring. Lewis appears behind the rocks, he tells to the girls he was worried and gets surprised when he sees their tails. Rikki quickly tell him to do something and help them instead of just stand here. The girls explain what's happened as he pulls them up into the beach. They all quickly heard the coast guard are there to find them, after Cleo's father warns them seeing they didn't show up the last night. The girls try to find a way to hide their new changes but before they can do something, theirs legs came back. Rikki tells them to not talk about it in anyone, especially their parents. Lewis point out to the girls that the good side is that someone came to get them but Cleo sarcastically answers she won't be around any longer to enjoy it when she sees her father's face.
At Cleo's, her parents tell her that she should have told them before going somewhere. Kim comment how hard it is to be responsible before being taken back. Cleo gets up to wash her cutlery and washes her hands. Meanwhile, Emma promise to her mother it's the last time she goes on the sea without warning her. Elliot appears and answered if he can go the next time with her before he automatically gets stop by Lisa and they both leaves for the diner. Emma yell to Elliot to close the door so he came back and does it violently which spills Emma's water bottle on her. In Rikki's side, her father tells her he has to go to work but he will come back discussing about her punishment, after that he leave before she could say anything. Behind her Zane Bennett gets Rikki’s attention and sprays her with his jet ski then leave, happy of what he has done. The three girls see their hands glowing, then transform into mermaids in a few seconds.
Later, back as their normal selves again, the girls joins Lewis describing their experiences. Cleo observes that everytime they touch water, they turn into mermaids. Rikki point out what they are going to do, as water is pretty much everywhere. Emma realizes at this point her dream to become a championship swimmer is over. Rikki say to Lewis it's the time to prove that science can explain everything, Lewis gets hesitant because he's never believed in mermaids until now but Cleo encourages him. Lewis warns the girls if anyone found out, they would probably end up as scientific experiments. Emma worries than the town quickly learn about this if they really transform everytime they touch water, he answered that they not sure about it so they have to do some tests. Rikki ask him what kind of test, Lewis tell her they have to reproduce whats happens at home. After these words, he splashes on them a bucket of water. Cleo, Emma and Rikki, instinctively, puts their hands up to fend it off, and suddenly, Cleo able to moves it, Emma to freeze it and Rikki's to evaporate it. Surprised, the girls find out they got powers over water and try to learn them with some tests. At this point, even with powers, they still don't know what happened, so Emma suggests returning to Mako Island where is all started. Lewis agrees and asks to take a sample of the pool's water, even if Emma isn't sure of the result.
The three mermaids heading back to Mako, amazed by theirs news abilities, they're getting call by a clownfish, named Ziggy, he noticed that the girls are new in the reef, so proposed himself to serve as a guiding tour for them and start to follow him. They quickly attract the attention of species around and get followed by them, so Ziggy introduced to the girls, a school of sardines, the seahorses, Marcel, a grouper, the jellyfish Carlotta and the twin dolphins named Bobbie and Robbie. Robbie says the girls probably already heard of them, as he is calling themselves as the biggest stars in the bay, Cleo ask them what species of dolphins they are and start to guess to be common dolphins. Bobby answered if she is kidding as they're spinner dolphins, Robbie adds they're better than the pathetic common dolphins. Emma interrupts them and tells to the girls they have more important do to and go toward the island, leaving their news friends behind.
The girls start to get lost in the reef but found the hermit crab saved earlier on the back of a short-finned eel chased by three creatures, a moray eel, hammerhead shark and an octopus. Seeing they are in trouble, Rikki leaves to help them, followed by Cleo and Emma, they intervene and tell them to not touch these two, the shark start to peek a fight, because, according to him, they must learn some manners. Emma reacts quickly and uses her power, followed by Rikki and Cleo. She created a little whirlpool to blind them temporary with sand, they swim toward the hermit crab a go further away to a safe place. The hermit crab thanks them and introduces himself, Bernie and the eel, Zita, Cleo answered they already know as they save him before of the beach, he realizes it's true and noticed they changed, the girls explains what happened on Mako and got lost when they try to head back so he led them with Zita to the island. Bernie sees the vandals followed them, but Emma recognises the place and enters into the underwater entrance to the pool where they hidden, Emma says to their news friends to watch over the entrance.
At the pool, Rikki mentions that she doesn't see anything special, just a plain old cave, Emma point out it's maybe the water, like Lewis' said, she fill the tube with the water and Rikki jokingly adds if she thinks found mermaids molecule in it. Cleo asks to the girls if they can go, she feels scared now because the last time, the full moon give it magical feels but now she just finds it gloomy. After these words, Rikki realized it maybe the full moon, Cleo wonder if it's possible. They look up to the crater and join Bernie and Zita.
Bernie asks them if they found something but Emma says no, so he leads the girls to someone who could help. They join a manta ray named Sue, she says she already knows why they're here, Emma asks if it's happens because of Mako, she answered that Mako is a mystery, it's said that the island is magic and when the moon is full, creatures born from that. She asks her how they can go back to how they used to be, to break the spell but Sue say it's not a spell but the will of the universe, that no one can alter the laws of nature, after that, she leaves and tells to the three mermaids she will see them again. Rikki what she's talking about, she said there is nothing natural about turning into mermaids but Bernie adds that Sue is trustworthy.
Later on the reef, the Vandal Gang appears and stop the girls. They wanted to get revanche. Rikki says to her friends that they have no choice to fight, Bernie warn them about how dangerous and sneaky they are, Emma reassure him it's nothing to worry. Burke swim toward them and Emma freeze him. Danny, the octopus, do the same and confront Cleo, he clings to her with its tentacles, she turns on herself and knock him out. Murray runs to Emma who dodges him, in that time, the ice around the shark melt then she tells to Rikki to use her power, she boiled to water who raises Burke. Cleo do the same to Danny creating a whirlpool and throw him to Murray who was coming behind Emma. After their defeat, the gang leaves and the three girls all laugh.
On rocks, back to their humans forms, Cleo says she never be so scared, Rikki in her side, find it fantastic, as the most amazing adventure she never had, she adds with their powers, they can do anything, Emma confirms with what happen with the bullies. Rikki point out that now. Cleo is ready with her interview which she forgot about. In the Oceanic Center, Cleo talks about the rich ecosystem that there is in the bay, probably because of the coral reefs which attract many species and quote one of them, such as spinner dolphins, manta rays and the hammerhead shark. The director confirms about the shark and, with Jeff, get surprised about her knowledge about this species. Later on, at the Juicy Bar, Lewis reveals that it's just normal sea water and considers that Sue was may be right, it's magical but he quickly realizes what he said as he won't believe in it, he wants to continue is research, he says it may be reversible so he'll find a cure. Rikki thinks that there is nothing to cure, Emma adds they're mermaids now and that it doesn't matter what happens, quote Sue, and says that no one can alter the laws of nature. Cleo, worried, receives a call of the Center and gets hired, Emma and Rikki adds it's thanks of the mermaids of Mako, at this, they all laugh.
Trivia[]
- This is the only episode wear Emma doesn't wear a coverup with her bikini, which has bottoms matching her top. A redesign of this outfit would be used more prominently in later episodes.
Credits[]
- Cleo Sertori
- Emma Gilbert
- Rikki Chadwick
- Lewis McCartney
- Donald Sertori
- Kim Sertori
- Bev Sertori
- Lisa Gilbert
- Elliot Gilbert
- Terry Chadwick
- Zane Bennett
- Mr. Lambert
- Jeff
- Bernie (Hermit Crab)
- Sue (Manta Ray)
- Carlotta (Jellyfish)
- Murray (Morray Eel)
- Danny (Octopus)
- Burke (Hammerhead Shark)
- Teddy (Sea Turtle)
- Marcel (Grouper)
- Bobbie (Spinner Dolphin)
- Robbie (Spinner Dolphin)
- Zita (Short-Finned Eel)
- Ziggy (Clownfish)
Quotes[]
Cleo: "But where... Where are my legs? What's going on? This is crazy we're..."
Rikki, Emma and Cleo: "Mermaids!"
Cleo: "What's happening to us? I don't want to turn into a fish."
Emma: "Cleo, you don't need to hold your breath. Just breathe normally."
Cleo: "This is crazy. We're breathing and talking underwater."
Rikki: "Well don't just stand there with your mouth hanging open. Get over here and give us a hand."
Bernie: "Aw thanks. Lucky for you were there. they get their kicks picking on us. Oh, by the way, I'm Bernie and she's Zita."
Cleo: "We already met. Don't you remember? On the beach. You'd lost your shell."
Bernie: "Oh yes, of course. You save my life infact. So i guess that makes it twice now. But... But you were different."
Emma: "Uh... Yes, we've changed a bit. been this way since we went to Mako Island. We trying to get back there, but we got lost."
Bernie: "Well I'll um... Take you there. Come on, Zita, let's go. We're off to Mako Island."
Rikki: "You think he'll find mermaid molecules in it?"
Cleo: "You and me, marshmallow. (as Danny wrap on her) Talk about clingy Let go of me."
Cleo: "Ha! I've been hired at the oceanic center!"
Emma: "And all because of..."
Rikki: "The mermaids of Mako."
Gallery[]
