This article is about the first season of the H2O: Just Add Water series. To view the first season of Mako: Island of Secrets click here and to view the first season of H2O: Mermaid Adventures click here.
- Next season: Season 2
The first season shows three girls named Emma Gilbert, Cleo Sertori and Rikki Chadwick, who were regular girls. Zane Bennett plays a prank on Cleo and traps her on his boat. However Rikki jumps onto the boat, fixes the engine and the two manage to run off with Zane's boat and pickup Emma along the way. They end up on the open sea with the Zane's boat after they run out of fuel. They decide to paddle to an nearby island called Mako Island. When they arrive, Emma tries to make a call, but she can´t get a signal, so they decide to go to higher grounds to get a signal.
When they're passing by a brook with some rocks and waterfalls, they have jump to the other side of the rocks to continue their way. But Cleo doubts, slips and falls into a cave. After a minute, Cleo calls out and says that she's ok. However she can't climb up because it's too slippery. Emma decides to go down and help Cleo. Emma is soon followed by Rikki, to the irritation of Emma who thinks that Rikki should've stayed outside to throw a rope or something. They're trapped, follow the cave and end up seeing a pool inside a vulcano crater. Emma sees tidal rings and jumps in to see if there's a way out. When she returns, she confirms that there is really a way out. Cleo has to swim, but she admits that she's afraid of the water and she can't swim. Rikki convinces Cleo and when Cleo jumps in to swim out, the pool begins to bubble and they see the full moon shining through the vulcano crater. Surprized by the phenomenon, they Eleventually swim out of the cave and are found by the local water police.
The next day, Emma is having a swim at the beach and suddenly gets a tail. She's in total panic. Next, Cleo is shown sitting in her bathtub with her tail. Cleo can't believe her eyes. Rikki is walking along the river on a grassfield when a sprinkler makes her wet. Rikki transforms into a mermaid, falls onto the ground and is shocked. After their discovery, the girls all go to Cleo's house to talk about what has happened to them. While the girls are talking about their problem,Lewis McCartney, another friend of Cleo, enters Cleo's house as he has an appointment with her. Cleo cancels the appointment and sends Lewis away. She only asks him one thing: if he knows anything about mermaids. To the dislike of Rikki and Emma. His answer is no.
Cleo decides that she doesn't want to be involved with any of it. However Rikki and Emma decide to test out their new powers. As Rikki and Emma are doing this, Cleo meets up with Lewis at a café, finding out that Lewis was searching for information about mermaids. They decide to have a walk and are disturbed by Zane during the walk. Zane is angry with Cleo about her adventure with his boat. Cleo feels threatned and unknowingly uses her powers on Zane and blasts him away with a strong water beam. Lewis doesn't understand where the water beam comes from and is shocked, so as Cleo is and she runs away.
After that, the three girls go to Emma's house and Cleo tells the girls what she can do. Cleo can control the shape and volume of water. She shows this to Emma and Rikki, and when the water that Cleo controlls is about to fall on Emma, Emma freezes the water by accident. This is when Emma finds her power to freeze water. However, when Rikki also tries to use her power, nothing happens.
While Rikki is talking to Lewis at a café, she discovers that she's able to heat up his drink after Lewis makes her irritated. Later that day, Rikki tests her power again on the beach, and confirms her water boiling power. Lewis eventually finds out about the three girls secret when Cleo goes to a pool party at Miriam's place and Cleo is thrown into the water by Zane and his friends. Lewis was actually warned ealier that day by Rikki and Emma that he has to protect Cleo at the party. However he's too late and while all the others are inside, Cleo transforms in front of Lewis' eyes. Cleo begs him to help her. He doubts if he should help her, but decides to help her. Rikki and Emma arrive too and admit that they can't help Lewis with pulling out Cleo or they will get tails too if they get wet. When Cleo is out of the water, Rikki shows her power to Cleo, Emma and Lewis by drying Cleo's tail with her powers. Lewis decides to join the girls and help them.
In this season, the girls mostly have to deal with problems such as the full moon, annoying siblings, not getting wet in public and keeping the secret a secret. Lewis helps then with that. Also an old lady called Louise Chatham helps the girls with learning about their powers. She's a former mermaid.
Louise firstly meets Cleo at Cleo's work when Cleo gets wet and Louise throws a dry towel to Cleo and they do have a strange conversation. The second time Cleo sees Louise walking at Cleo's work and Louise confirms that Cleo is wearing a necklass of a former mermaid called Gracie, a long lost friend of Louise.
Louise then meets Emma at the harbor where she's living. Zane causes trouble which lures Emma's attention. Meanwhile Emma and Louise are having a drink, Zane calls the harbor master. Zane claims that Louise damaged his jetski with her boat. As the harbor master is about to seize Louise's boat, she collapses and is sent to hospital with heartproblems. At returnal, Louise doesn't have a home anymore and is invited at Emma's place, while Emma's mother calls a retirement home for Louise.
At night, Louise sneaks out and runs off with her boat, damaging Zane's jetski even more. Emma and Zane go after Louise and she collapses again due to heartproblems when Zane and Emma arrive. Emma and Lewis escort Louise to the main land while Zane stays on Louises boat, searching for valuable things. However there's an explosion which knocks out Zane. When he wakes up for a moment, the boat is almost under water and Zane can't get out. Emma saves him from drowning while he was blacking out, however he saw half of her tail, which makes him searching for 'the monster' that saved him unstopable. However no one believes him. He sees Emma again as a mermaid during a dive to Louise's boat, but didn't recognize her because she has red hair due to an hair paint accident.
Rikki and Zane become a couple, but Rikki only agrees if he stops searching for the mermaid that saved him. Zane stops searching.
Lewis also meets a marine biologist, Linda Denman. He's a huge fan of her, but only wants to use her equipment to do research on a skin sample from the girls. He succeeds, but is caught by Linda and send away. Lewis forgets to destroy the sample and Linda finds out about it, which shocks her. Lewis eventually destroys the sample and Linda leaves the Gold Coast.
As well at the end of season 1, Linda returns. She claims to Lewis that she only came to do research on the fish population around Mako. However, she finds the moonpool at mako during a dive and a fish scale too. She takes the fish scale to study it and sets up camera's around the underwater entrance to the moonpool. Linda discovers the girls when the camera's near the moonpool underwater entrance make pictures of the girls in mermaid form and their faces. Also she has seen the results of the fish scale before. Linda shares the results with her sponsor, Zane's father. Linda locks Lewis onto her boat and they use Lewis to lure in the girls into the moonpool and lock them into the moonpool by placing a fence before the underwater entrance. Denman wants to do research on the girls. Zane finda out about the girls, frees Lewis and they together free the girls by removing the fence with Zane's boat that locked the underwater entrance. The girls meet up with Lewis and Louise. Louise advices them to give up their powers and that this is only possible with the upcoming full moon. The girls agree and rush to Mako to give up their powers. They're followed by Denman and her team. The girls use their powers one last time to shook off Denman's team members, leave Denman unharmed and jump into the moonpool when it starts bubbling. They give up their powers and explain this to Denman. Denman leaves the Gold Coast and the girls are save.
The next morning, Rikki gets a tail when she touches seawater at the beach with her toes. Cleo is bathing when she gets a tail and Emma is swimming into her pool at her house when she was surprized by her tail. Lewis then arrives at Emma's place, explaining that the moon took their powers away for only 12 hours. Lewis also explained that Louise didn't want him to tell this information to girls because the girls had to believe that everything was gone forever in order to make it believable. The girls are furious and take revenge on Lewis by letting him hang onto a water arm, created by Cleo.
This is the end of season 1.
Trivia[]
- It first screened on Australia's Network Ten and ran in syndication on channels in over 120 countries and has a worldwide audience of more than 250 million.
- It was filmed on location at Sea World and other locations on the Gold Coast.
- During pre-production, each girl that would be a mermaid during the season would get a molding done of her legs so they could make the mermaid tails for the scenes where they are in mermaid form. Before they were able to swim with the tails on, they had to go through a rigorous training process to get their bodies ready for the extra weight of the tails. They also learned breath holding exercises to help them with holding their breath underwater for long periods of time.
- This season's "villain" is Miriam Kent although Dr.Denman is the big bad of the season. Zane's more like a bully in the beginning and a hero in the end.
Episodes[]
| Image | Title | Original Airdate | Episode | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Metamorphosis | July 7, 2006 | 01 | 1.01 | |
| Emma and Cleo meet the newcomer to the city, a girl named Rikki, the three girls, find themselves stuck on Mako Island where they are transformed into mermaids. As well as growing tails, the girls find they have powers over water. | |||||
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Pool Party | July 14, 2006 | 02 | 1.02 | |
| Annoying Miss Popularity, Miriam, is having a pool party and the girls want to go. But being around water is risky, especially when Zane tosses Cleo into the pool. Lewis is the only one around to help so he finds out their secret. | |||||
 |
Catch of the Day | July 21, 2006 | 03 | 1.03 | |
| When Emma and Rikki save a sea turtle from a fishing trawler's net, they are mistaken for sharks. A shark hunt ensues. Cleo, getting over her fear of water, saves another turtle, but she is trapped. Also a big truth about a fishing boat of Cleo's father comes out. | |||||
 |
Party Girls | July 28, 2006 | 04 | 1.04 | |
| Determined to live a normal life, Cleo encourages Emma to have her annual sleepover. Cleo gets splashed, causing her to have to hide her tail in a sleeping bag. Cleo meets a mysterious old woman who seems to know their secret. | |||||
 |
Something Fishy | August 4, 2006 | 05 | 1.05 | |
| Kim reads Cleo's diary and finds evidence of mermaidness. She spies on the girls and decides Miriam is the head mermaid. Miriam and Cleo enter the Queen of the Sea contest where Kim makes a huge blunder. | |||||
 |
Young Love | August 11, 2006 | 06 | 1.06 | |
| Rikki gains an admirer, Emma's younger brother Elliot, when Rikki saves him from drowning. Rikki disappoints him and he runs away. Rikki has to run for her life when she finds him. | |||||
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Moon Spell | August 18, 2006 | 07 | 1.07 | |
| The spell of the Full Moon turns Emma into a carefree, wild mermaid. At her father's birthday party she's a total blunder. Can the other girls stop her before all is revealed? | |||||
 |
The Denman Affair | August 25, 2006 | 08 | 1.08 | |
| A charismatic newcomer, Dr. Denman, tempts Lewis with the promise of scientific fame and fortune. Will he abandon his friends and risk their secret, all in the name of science? | |||||
 |
Dangerous Waters | September 1, 2006 | 09 | 1.09 | |
| Rikki uses her abilities as a mermaid to earn some quick cash. But when she accidentally becomes involved in a fish smuggling operation she sets out to get her revenge. | |||||
 |
The Camera Never Lies | September 8, 2006 | 10 | 1.10 | |
| Zane tries to impress his dad by entering in the local film competition, filming his attempt to break his Dad's windsurfing record around Mako Island. He gets into trouble with sharks. Will he survive? | |||||
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Sink or Swim | September 15, 2006 | 11 | 1.11 | |
| Emma trains Byron for the swimming competition. A romance between the to rises. The training negatively influences their plans. Will their romance continue and will Byron win the competition? | |||||
 |
The Siren Effect | September 22, 2006 | 12 | 1.12 | |
| full moon strikes Cleo, turning her into a magical siren, attracting all the young males in the vicinity. Cleo enjoys the attention and is encouraged to sing for them, but a concert at the JuiceNet Café as the moon sets reveals her truly awful voice. | |||||
 |
Shipwrecked | September 29, 2006 | 13 | 1.13 | |
| When the mysterious old woman's boat and home is declared unseaworthy Emma, invites her over to stay. Zane gets trapped on the sinking boat and Emma tries to save him but he sees a tail... | |||||
 |
Surprise! | October 6, 2006 | 14 | 1.14 | |
| Cleo's dad plans an embarrassing surprise party for her birthday so she escapes to Mako Island. Zane and Lewis almost spot her there on their expedition to catch the "sea monster". | |||||
 |
The Big Chill | October 13, 2006 | 15 | 1.15 | |
| Emma is put in charge of managing the juice bar. Miriam decides to cause trouble and cuts the power to the cool room, then is unwittingly frozen by Emma who uses her powers to fix the freezer. Will the girls be able to thaw Miriam out? | |||||
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Lovesick | October 20, 2006 | 16 | 1.16 | |
| A dolphin at Sea World Marine Park will only eat from Cleo's hand and when she has to sneak out to feed him, everyone thinks she has a boyfriend. | |||||
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Under the Weather | October 27, 2006 | 17 | 1.17 | |
| A rainy day traps the girls inside. In an effort to "play sick" the girls create a situation where their families become part of a dire medical emergency. | |||||
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Bad Moon Rising | November 3, 2006 | 18 | 1.18 | |
| Under the effects of full moon Rikki goes crazy, boiling dry everything. She runs away to Mako where she meets Zane and kisses him. | |||||
 |
Hurricane Angela | November 10, 2006 | 19 | 1.19 | |
| Cleo and Kim are fighting like crazy and Cleo is pushed to breaking point. Then cousin Angela comes to stay and things just get worse. Cleo realizes there are more challenging things than an annoying sister. | |||||
 |
Hook, Line and Sinker | November 17, 2006 | 20 | 1.20 | |
| Emma and Cleo help Lewis catch a huge fish in the fishing competition leading the judges to suspect he's a cheat. Meanwhile Zane and Rikki are stuck together on a balcony of a fancy hotel where after much argument, they kiss again. | |||||
 |
Red Herring | November 24, 2006 | 21 | 1.21 | |
| Zane thinks Miss Chatham holds the key to the sea monster. Emma needs a change so dyes her hair red. While Zane gets closer to the secret, he also gets closer to Rikki. Zane dives to Miss Chatham's boat and sees a mermaid! | |||||
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Fish Out of Water | December 1, 2006 | 22 | 1.22 | |
| Emma and Cleo find out Zane and Rikki are an item and force her to choose - him or them. When Zane appears to side with Harrison over the Mako Island development Rikki's decision is clear. Now it's Zane's turn to make a choice... | |||||
 |
In Too Deep | December 8, 2006 | 23 | 1.23 | |
| The girls discover a necklace for sale identical to Miss Chatham's. Miriam causes a stir by buying it - then throwing it in the water. Rikki faces a choice whether to take the necklace and reveal her mermaidness to Zane. | |||||
 |
Love Potion #9 | December 15, 2006 | 24 | 1.24 | |
| Lewis thinks he's found a way to control the girl's mermaidness. The South Coast High School dance brings all our heroines' "boy issues" to the surface. | |||||
 |
Dr. Danger | December 22, 2006 | 25 | 1.25 | |
| The return of Dr. Denman means trouble for the girls. Meanwhile, Emma is having family dramas of her own. With Zane's unwitting help, Denman's research at Mako Island uncovers the girls' secret! | |||||
 |
A Twist in the Tail | December 29, 2006 | 26 | 1.26 | |
| Dr. Denman has discovered the girls' secret and trapped them on Mako Island. Their only chance to avoid being exposed is to use the lunar eclipse to give up their powers forever! | |||||