H2O: Just Add Water

H2O: Just Add Water
File:H2O- Just Add Water.jpg Logo for H2O: Just Add Water
Genre	Children's television series
Created by	Jonathan M. Shiff Productions
Directed by	Colin Budds (2006) Jeffrey Walker (2006)
Starring	Cariba Heine Claire Holt Phoebe Tonkin Angus McLaren
Theme music composer	Shelley Rosenberg
Opening theme	"No Ordinary Girl"
Composers	Ric Formosa Ricky Edwards Danny Beckerman
Country of origin	Australia
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	52 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Jonathan M. Shiff Kay Ben M'Rad (2006)
Production location	Gold Coast, Queensland
Cinematography	Bruce Phillips (2006) Zenon Sawko (2007)
Editors	Geoff Lamb Strutts Psyridis
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	30 minutes
Original release
Network	Network Ten
Release	7 July 2006 – Present

H₂O: Just Add Water is an Australian television programme for teens, preteens, and children that is filmed on location at Sea World and other locations on the Gold Coast. It first screened on Australia's Network Ten in 2006 and later on Disney Channel Australia, and currently runs on channels in over one hundred countries worldwide. The show's premise revolves around three teenage girls facing everyday teen problems with an added twist: they're mermaids with powers over water. The theme song "No Ordinary Girl" is performed by Ellie Henderson in series one and by Kate Alexa in series two.

The series was nominated for the 2007 Logie Award for "Most Outstanding Children's Program", as well as a 2007 Nickelodeon UK Kids' Choice Award for "Best TV Show".

Although planned for only two seasons and a total of 52 episodes, executive producer Jonathan M. Shiff has confirmed a third series will be produced for airing in early 2009, saying that "there is lots of potential for a third season with normal teenagers who have super powers," and that open water filming may be an option in addition to the filming done at Sea World and the Broadwater.

Plot

Emma, Cleo and Rikki are sixteen year old girls growing up on the sun-drenched beaches of the Gold Coast. Emma is confident, brilliant, responsible, and athletic, Cleo is slightly insecure, sweet, and awkward while Rikki is the aloof and rebellious new girl.

The girls find themselves stranded at sea one day, floating towards the mysterious Mako Island. The three girls explore the eerie jungle-covered island before becoming trapped in an ancient cavern under a volcano. Discovering an underwater channel, they decide to swim to safety. As they enter the pool, the light from a full moon illuminates the water, creating a mysterious glow.

Emma, Cleo and Rikki get off the island as fast as they can and back to "normal" life. However, the girls discover life is never going to be normal again; ten seconds after they touch water, they turn into mermaids. After further experimentation, they find they have supernatural powers; Emma can freeze water, Rikki can boil water and Cleo can manipulate the amount and shape of water.

The girls enlist the help of their friend Lewis, who considers himself a scientist, and he attempts to discover the secret behind their transformations.

Everyday situations turn tricky as the girls struggle to cope with their new-found powers, which have numerous advantages and disadvantages, while also trying to keep them a secret from everyone else.

Characters

Main

• Emma Gilbert (Claire Holt) - The oldest of the three, Emma possesses the ability to transform into a mermaid upon contact with water just like Cleo and Rikki. She is a confident, organised, competitive and driven individual, as evident in her dedication to regional swimming, which her power precludes her from competing in. She first became a mermaid while swimming at the beach. Though she is often the most conscientious and considerate of the girls, at times she can be pedantic and controlling, once even suggesting that she considers chewing a prescribed number of times before swallowing as a normal practice. Her ideas for organisation and control sometimes brings her into conflict with Rikki, who is Emma's polar opposite. Emma, like all of the girls, has a special power over water. She has the ability to freeze any object or liquid containing water. She also, with the help from Rikki & Cleo has the power to summon on a hurricane like storm, after gaining new advanced power. During season two she has the power to create Blizzards. She also has a younger sibling, Elliot.

• Rikki Chadwick (Cariba Heine) - The middle child of the three, Rikki is a mermaid as well. She is the new girl in the neighbourhood and is considered 'different' and rebellious. Rikki first became a mermaid when she was hit by water from the park sprinkler system. She is contemptuous of the social hierarchy at the local high school she and the others attend, and frequently speaks her mind without euphemism. Rikki has a strong adventurous streak and is the first to fully embrace the possibilities of the girls' new powers. Rikki was the last to gain her powers. Her power is the most volatile and dangerous of all three. Rikki is able to heat up water or anything containing water. In season two, Rikki develops extra powers that give her the ability to start fire and summon lightning.

• Cleo Sertori (Phoebe Tonkin) - The youngest of the three, Cleo is also able to become a mermaid like Emma and Rikki. While initially afraid of swimming and her new powers, her friends help her overcome this hurdle, and she is later able to embrace the changes she has undergone. She first became a mermaid while taking a bath. In contrast to Emma, she is often awkward, insecure, and a little shy. She is the most "girly" out of the three next to Emma and is well intentioned and empathetic. Cleo has the power to turn a drop of water into a bucketful and mould it into any shape as well as being able to control and manipulate it to her every whim. In season two Cleo, like Emma and Rikki, develops a new power, in her case the ability to control the wind.

• Lewis McCartney (Angus McLaren) - Lewis has been Cleo's friend since they were five, and following the girls' transformation, also becomes friends with Rikki and Emma. He is academically gifted, thinks of himself as a scientist and has a passion for fishing. He discovers the girls' secret early on in the series and becomes determined to find the cause.

Supporting

• Charlotte Watsford (Brittany Byrnes) - Charlotte is the new girl in town and is the girls' rival during series two. She enjoys various forms of art, appreciates the sciences and 'becomes' Lewis's girlfriend. She hates Cleo as well as Rikki and Emma who hate her back, a dislike made even stronger after she becomes the fourth mermaid late in series two, armed with the powers of all three girls. Charlotte is eventually revealed to be the granddaughter of Gracie, one of the original three mermaids who 50 years earlier gave her powers up to the 50 year full moon. In the end of series two she becomes increasingly jealous of Cleo and asks Lewis to stop talking to the other girls, out of this Cleo feels abandoned and alone and runs away which leads to Lewis dumping Charlotte and returning to Cleo. Charlotte gets revenge by planning Emma, Rikki and most of all Cleo to lose their tails and powers, so Lewis would only care for her, but in the end she is the one who loses everything, including her mermaid abilities and her friendship with Lewis, due to the 50 year full moon.

• Zane Bennett (Burgess Abernethy) - Zane is the local bad boy, and seems to think that he can get away with anything because his dad is rich. He appears to be arrogant, but has been seen to have a softer side. He desperately wants to impress his father, local land developer Harrison Bennett, who is more arrogant. Zane is an excellent swimmer. After becoming trapped on a sinking boat, he is rescued by Emma, and sees the end of her tail before she is able to slip away. Because of this, Zane becomes obsessed with finding the "sea monster". This later has Zane gets Cleo to have him do some research at the Marine Park where she works. Zane and Cleo are with each other when Lewis, Emma, and Rikki see them. Cleo's parents think Cleo has a boyfriend and they have Kim find something to support this. Kim takes a picture of Lewis and Cleo hugging. Kim later lies and says that Zane and Cleo have eloped. Zane and Cleo are discovered at the marine park when they are trying to help a sick dolphin. The parents and friends find out that Cleo and Zane haven't eloped. Later on in series 1 Zane and Rikki develop feelings toward each other. While they later break up due to being "too different" from each other, they rekindle their relationship in series two after Zane discovers the girls are still mermaids. Zane becomes more of a supporting boyfriend in series 2.

• Miss Louise Chatham (Christine Amor & Teri Haddy (young Miss Chatham)) - Louise Chatham is a mysterious elderly woman whom Cleo meets while working at the Marine Park. She hints to Cleo that she knows the girls secret and warns them about the effects of the full moon. Later, her boat is declared unseaworthy and Emma invites her to stay at her place. However, Miss Chatham sneaks out at night and sails off with her boat. After an altercation on the boat with Zane, she suffers a heart attack and is taken to a hospital by Lewis. Before going to a retirement residential home, she reveals to the girls that she once was a mermaid too, but that "the burden became too great, so she had to give it up", hinting that there is a way to give up their powers.

• Byron (Christopher Poree) - Byron is a swimmer and the love interest of Emma during series one. While under the effects of a full moon, Emma kisses Byron, almost leading to him finding out her secret.

• Miriam (Annabelle Stephenson) - Miriam is the girls' rival in series one. She also finds herself as the princess of town.Later in the series when Miriam finds out about Zane and Rikki she feels that she is in competition with Rikki to win Zane back with her jealousy towards them. Also, while Emma was under the effects of the full moon, her and Zane's lips were frozen together, thus preventing them from leaving each other's feelings...literally.

• Kim Sertori (Cleo Massey) - Kim is Cleo's little sister. She finds her sister weird, and after discovering Cleo's diary she attempts to figure out what is going on. This leads her to figuring out that the girls are mermaids and she tries to expose her sister as one. The girls are eventually able to come up with a plan to convince her that Miriam is a mermaid instead. With the help of Elliot, she is always keeping an eye on things.

• Elliot Gilbert (Trent Sullivan) - Elliot is Emma's little brother. The two are very close and Emma makes many references to the fact that they have never had any secrets between them. After being saved from drowning by Rikki, Elliot develops a crush on her, though she is quick to reject his feelings.

• Wilfred (Ariu Lang Sio) - Wilfred is the owner of JuiceNet. Emma also works at the JuiceNet, so he is also Emma's boss. When he is away, he usually leaves Emma in charge of the juice bar.

• Dr. Linda Denman (Lara Cox) - Dr. Denman is a Marine Biologist who finds one of Cleo's mermaid scales that Lewis left behind. She tries to get Lewis to tell her where he found the samples, however, he refuses to reveal the source. In the end, she asks Lewis to travel with her for her work, but he decides to stay with Emma, Cleo, and Rikki. In the series one finale, she returns and sets up underwater cameras around Mako Island, eventually discovering the girls' mermaid secret. But in the end, she beleived they lost their powers after going into the Moon Pool during a lunar eclispe. Though in truth, they only lost their powers for 12 hours.

• Ash (Craig Horner) - Ash is the current supervisor of JuiceNet due to Emma's disappointment at first (Emma wanted the job). Ash is a keen horse rider, and has worked as a riding coach. He and Emma have formed a relationship and have gone out on a few dates. In the episode 'Moonstruck' of season 2, Emma was affected by the full moon (with Cleo and Rikki) and almost revealed her secret by calling him into the bathroom when she was wet with a tail. Luckily, Lewis steps in and stops him. During the series two finale, Emma reveals that she is a mermaid to Ash, and all he says is "Cool". In the beginning Ash likes to wind up Emma because he discovers that when he does this Emma feels more attracted to him.

• Max Hamilton - An elderly man (who is a scientist like Lewis), he was a friend of the original mermaids. His first appearrance was in "The Gracie Code" when Lewis discovers his old research that he conducted on Mako Island. He reveals that he truly loved Gracie like Lewis truly loves Cleo and that he created the three lockets that the girls wear for the three original mermaids. He gives Lewis all his old research and pictures of the original mermaids. He also revealed that the 50 year moon lines up with all the planets and will possess enough power to take away a mermaid's powers forever with no chance of ever regaining them back (probably because of his experience with Gracie).

Complications

The majority of the series deals with the girls having to cope with their new-found abilities that more often than not complicate their regular teenage-girl activities. A number of complications arise, most prominently as the girls have to hide their powers for fear of the consequences of being found out.

Discovery

Although the girls make every effort to keep their secret safe, there is the constant danger as they can transform 10 seconds after being touched by the slightest drop of water. Because of Zane's efforts to find out about the "sea monster" that saved his life while aboard Miss Chatham's sinking boat, their secret is revealed to a few people: Zane, his father, Dr. Denman, and her men. They manage to convince everyone that their abilities have disappeared after entering the moon pool during a lunar eclipse which conveniently happened in the "mermaid discovery" time range.

Cleo's diary

In "Something Fishy", Cleo's sister Kim finds Cleo's diary, which contains all the details of her, Rikki and Emma being mermaids. The diary has all the details of their powers and even drawings of their tails but it is all in code. This leads the suspicious Kim and Emma's brother Elliot into believing that her sister is a monster of some sort. She plots with Elliot to expose Cleo on stage at the Miss Sea Queen Pageant that Cleo enters to try and spite the girls' arch-enemy Miriam. Eventually, Kim's plan backfires spectacularly with Cleo using her powers to protect herself from a water hose. Cleo tells Kim that the diary is an English assignment and therefore is fiction. In the end of the episode, Cleo destroys the diary by hiding it at the bottom of the moon pool, making the pages unreadable.

Lockets

The three lockets were made by Max Hamilton for the original three mermaids, (Louise Chatham, Gracie and Julia). Emma discovers the first one at the bottom of the moon pool on Mako Island. Later Emma gives it to Cleo to keep after Miriam almost manages to steal it. She gives it to Cleo and says, "Anyone who can hide a mermaid tail deserves this more than I do." Cleo is later told by Miss Chatham that this locket belonged to Gracie. Near the end of Season 2, Cleo fights with Charlotte and Charlotte steals Cleo's locket saying "This was my grandmother's and now it's mine". In the end of Season 2, Charlotte returns the locket to Cleo.

The second belonged to Miss Chatham, but unfortunately sank with her boat due to Zane's mishap. Miss Chatham was devastated after it was lost because it was the 'treasure' that she had spoken fondly of. Emma, feeling sorry for her, went down to the wreck of the boat, found it and gave it back to Miss Chatham.

The third, belonging to Julia, is found by Rikki in a jewelery store after Julia dies when she's with Zane. Rikki tries to find the money to pay for it, but Miriam gets there first and buys it. She teases Rikki with it and leads her to start a fight. Later Miriam, who's fed up with the locket, tries to get Zane back by telling him to kiss her while Rikki is at the cafe. After being brutally talked too by Zane, Miriam throws it in the Broadwater next to the JuiceNet café. Zane dives into the water to find it before Emma can get there, and gives it to Rikki. But Emma hints that she will get a tail if she touches it as it is wet. Rikki realizes this and pretends to drop it so she can heat it up and keep it. Rikki however feels it is selfish to keep it, and returns the locket to Miss Chatham. Miss Chatham gives the locket back to Rikki, and gives hers to Emma, saying "It feels right they are all together."

As stated by Max in "The Gracie Code", all three are slightly different, most noticeably in the crystals at the top of the lockets: Emma has a white stone, Rikki has a red one and Cleo's is purplish blue. On the back of the lockets is what seems to be waves represented by 3 wavy lines.

The moon

The moon is the source of how Cleo, Emma and Rikki receive their powers in the pool on Mako Island. The moon also affects each of them differently, and different moon cycles affect them differently as well.

Effects of the full moon

During the series it is revealed that a full moon has very strange effects on the girls. These effects are explored over a number of various episodes. These effects only last for 12 hours after being affected or as long as the full moon is in the sky. During a full moon, the moon pool on Mako Island some times protects the girls from the moon's strange effects (This however is not really explored to much throughout the series), allowing them to be normal again. Sometimes they do not remember what happened when they were under the influence of the full moon. In episode 39, it is found out that when there is a full moon, the girls turn into monsters.

Emma is the first to fall under the effects of the full moon, which turns her into a wild and carefree mermaid--exactly the opposite of her normally organised self. In this state, she freely tells everyone exactly what she thinks of them, regardless of whether it would offend them or not. It also causes her to change into a mermaid, unable to transform back, and draws her to Mako Island. While under the effect of the full moon, Emma feels inexplicably drawn to water and develops a craving for fish as well as a craving for Byron. By the time the moon is completely gone everything is once again normal but Emma remembers nothing during the influence of the full moon.

By the next full moon, the girls are better prepared; however, Cleo accidentally sees the moon's reflection in a sink full of water and falls under its effects. She does not turn into a mermaid, instead becoming a siren, attaining a beautiful singing voice which causes all the young men who hear it to fall in love with her, including Zane, Lewis and Byron, right after a bad kareoke performance. She is also recorded and played on the radio. However, it seems to have no effect on older men like her father, who merely tells her she sounds good. Then when the moon is gone she regains her voice back but remembers everything.

Rikki is the third to experience the effects of the full moon, which causes her power to overload. Instead of merely heating liquids, she begins to heat up the air and set fire to objects around her. During this time, Zane comes to Mako Island to try and find the "sea monster", and discovers Rikki sitting amongst a circle of flames. Rikki kisses him, causing Zane to quickly overheat and pass out, becoming dehydrated and appearing sunburnt. The girls realise that Rikki's power is the most volatile and must be tightly controlled. So, they take her back to Mako island and she regains contol of her powers.

In the first episode of the second season, all three girls are affected by the full moon, which causes them to swim to the moon pool on Mako Island. Because of a particularly rare planetary alignment which was taking place at the time, their powers are enhanced, and they use their new abilities to attack and blow away Lewis, who followed them to make sure everything was okay. Following their reversion to their normal state, the girls struggle to control the effects of these new powers: Cleo creates a storm while upsetting a glass of orange juice her sister is carrying, Emma manages to freeze the entire kitchen bench as well as the fridge and freezer, and Rikki manages to set her favourite pair of pants on fire while trying to dry them. She repeats this later in the episode with Lewis's pants.

The next full moon is on the same date as the camping trip for the Sertori family. Their choice of location could not have been any worse: Mako Island. To ensure that none of the girls fall under the spell of the moon, Cleo brings Emma and Rikki along. Lewis joins the trip as well, bringing Charlotte at her insistence. Even though the girls sleep in a "moonlight-proof" tent, Cleo is affected once more when Kim opens the tent. When Lewis warns the other girls of this, they decide that they have been afraid of the moon for too long, and venture outside to rescue their friend despite the danger. Both are instantly struck by the moonlight, but somehow manage to channel the effects so as to help them find Cleo. Rather than exhibiting ridiculous or flamboyant behaviour, they become single-minded and emotionally indifferent, as well as being somewhat vicious in their reaction to threats. Charlotte follows Cleo to the moon pool and is about to touch the water, but Emma freezes it just before she does, preventing Charlotte from becoming a mermaid.

By the following full moon, the girls have finally sealed off the house completely. Things are spoiled when Ash pays a surprise visit to Emma, and Cleo catches a glimpse of the full moon, causing her to become giddy and childish in her behaviour. While Emma has her "date" with Ash, Rikki keeps Cleo locked up in the bedroom because she has been 'moonstruck'. However, Cleo causes Rikki to see the moon as well by pulling down the cardboard covering the window, and the second mermaid falls into a similar state of giddiness. Together they lure Emma into the bathroom, toss her in the bath and make her see the moon as well. They plan to let Ash see Emma as a mermaid, and he is on the verge of entering the bathroom when Lewis, being called earlier by Emma, bursts in and stops him. Later on in the episode, Emma finally admits her feelings for Ash and the two kiss.

By the next moon, Charlotte has become aware of her grandmother's past and uses the moon pool to become a mermaid herself. The other girls are unaffected by this moon. Somehow however Charlotte also acquires the enhanced moon powers as this is only supposed to happen on the special planetary alignment.

It seems, however, that the full moon's effects can be resisted, as when camping at Mako Island, the girls seem to be semi-resistant to its effects. While their behaviour seemed to be affected, they regained enough consciousness to focus on their goal and regain memories of this later. In the final episode of Season 2, they are well resisted the full moon. When they looked straight at it, they exhibited no effects, other than enchanted powers.

Effects of a lunar eclipse

In the series one finale, "A Twist in the Tail", it is revealed by Miss Chatham that the girls are able to lose their mermaid powers while they are in the moon pool of Mako Island while a lunar eclipse takes place. The girls, knowing that Dr. Denman and her men would not let them rest until they got what they wanted, decide to take this oppurtunity and fight off Dr. Denman's men just before jumping into the pool and letting the moon draw away their powers. This helps the girls trick Dr. Denman into believing that they are no longer mermaids. Lewis later reveals that Miss Chatham told him that their powers are only lost for twelve hours, not forever, and that Miss Chatham did not tell them so that even the girls would believe they had lost their powers.

The 50 year full moon

During the last episode of season 2, "Finale", Max reveals to Lewis that every 50 years a special full moon occurs, during which all the planets are aligned with the moon and earth, making its effect extremely strong. Strong enough to take away a mermaid's powers forever if they enter the moon pool while it is in its active state. However, this moon also enhances a mermaid's powers and makes them much stronger, as shown during this episode when Charlotte suddenly develops a fit of anger, and uses her powers to make the plumbing and water system of Emma's house go haywire, out of spite toward the girls.

It is also revealed by Charlotte that this is how Gracie, her grandmother and one of the original three mermaids, gave up her powers forever at the last full moon 50 years ago.

At the end of this episode, while the moon is over the moon pool, a big show down begins at Mako Island. Charlotte tries to nudge all three girls into the moon pool while it is active, in attempt to make them lose their powers forever, so that she will be a "true mermaid". However, they then use their powers all together to fight back and win, making Charlotte fly into the air and drop into the moon pool, resulting in her losing her powers forever.

Power advancement

At the beginning of series two, the girls are once again affected by a full moon. After entering the Mako Island moon pool during a rare planetary alignment, the girls' powers advance to a new level. Although the girls can still do what they could before, new and more powerful abilities begin to form. Cleo can now control the wind; Rikki can create fire at will and summon lightning; and Emma can freeze any object regardless of the presence of water by using the water in the air and create blizzards, and in "Control" is shown having some control over the weather. and when all three girls use there powers together they can create storms. At first, the girls had difficulty controlling both their old and new powers, but by the end of "Fire and Ice" had regained some discipline.

When Charlotte becomes a mermaid there is a normal full moon but the strange thing is that not only does she have all three original powers (which is probably because the moonpool divides the powers amongst those in it, so if there is only one person in it, she will acquire the three powers) but for some unknown reason she develops the additional powers as well.

Production

Mermaid tails

The mermaid costumes took six months to build, with the tails made from body casts and comprising individually hand-crafted scales. The finished product weighs between 12 and 15 kilograms. Once in costume, the girls have to be lifted into the water. On-screen, the zip on the mermaid suit is visible from the back, though attempts were made to minimise this, such as adding extra scales and crafting a ridge of material around the length of the zip. The tail fin itself was designed with a foot pedal to assist the actresses with swimming. This, along with the fin, adds two feet to the length of the costume.

There are three different types of tails: the tails the girls swim in,the "floppy tail" used for bath and shower shots and the "hard tail" for stunts.

Due to the recently developed third season the creator of the show says "Thank goodness we saved those mermaid tails in a preservation storage!" Because originally the show was supposed to be only two seasons.

Episode list

Main article: List of H₂O: Just Add Water episodes

DVD releases

Five DVD sets have either been released or announced for Australia. Each set features four or five episodes and bonus feature.

Title	Release Date	Episodes
H2O: Just Add Water: Volume 1	12 September 2007	1."Metamorphosis", 2."Pool Party", 3."Catch of the Day", 4."Party Girls" Special features: series trailer, profiles of main characters
H2O: Just Add Water: Volume 2	12 September 2007	5."Something Fishy", 6."Young Love", 7."Moon Spell", 8."The Denman Affair" Special features: photo gallery of series one
H2O: Just Add Water: Volume 3	5 March 2008	9."Dangerous Waters", 10."Sink or Swim", 11."The Camera Never Lies", 12."The Siren Effect" Special features: character profiles of Emma, Cleo, Rikki, Lewis and Zane
H2O: Just Add Water: Volume 4	7 May 2008	13."Shipwrecked", 14."Surprise!", 15."The Big Chill", 16."Lovesick" Special feature: H2O quiz game
H2O: Just Add Water: Volume 5	9 July 2008	17."Under the Weather", 18."Bad Moon Rising", 19."Hurricane Angela", 20."Hook, Line and Sinker", 21."Red Herring"

References

• "Media Kit (Series 1)" (PDF). ZDF-Enterprises.de (Press release). Retrieved 2007-10-17.

External links

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H₂O: Just Add Water

• H₂O: Just Add Water - Official website
• H₂O: Just Add Water - ZDF Enterprises promotional website
• H₂O: Just Add Water - Official Channel TEN website
• H₂O: Just Add Water - Australian Television Information Archive
• H₂O: Just Add Water at IMDb
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