H2O Just Add Water
February 19, 2025
Dear watchers,
In the show H2O Just Add Water, produced by Jonathan M. Shiff, three teenage girls, Cleo, played by Phoebe Tonkin, Emma, played by Claire Holt, and Ricky, played by Cariba Heine, all meet on accident, due to a surprise boat ride gone wrong. After an engine failure, they were required to paddle to a strange offshore island surrounded by sharks. As they are making their way onto land, Cleo accidentally falls down into a slippery cave. Ricky and Emma go after her and while they're finding a way out, they stumble upon a small blue pool right under an old volcano cone. Since now swimming out looks as if it’s the best option, they jump in the pool just as the moon shines straight through the cone above. The water starts to sparkle and the three have been unknowingly transfigured into mermaids.
Soon enough after returning back to the Gold Coast they realize what had happened. After getting sprayed with a sprinkler, Ricky finds out. Emma finds out while trying to go for a swim, and Cleo finds out while taking a bath. 10 seconds after touching water they form an orange tail, making them unable to do anything but swim. The only thing left to do is avoid water at all costs.
Water is a very big and common part of life that is hard to avoid. Another big thing is keeping it a secret from everyone, parents and friends included, as they don’t want to be studied forever or turn into science experiments. Each one of the girls has a different power to control water. Emma has the ability to freeze water
Immediately, Cleo can move water, and Ricky, who finds hers out last, can immediately boil it. Their powers come in handy at many different points.
All of this action is held within the first episode, Pilot. However in the second episode, Metamorphosis, their secret is already escaping. Cleo rides her bike to a pool party and a few school bullies toss her into the water and she transforms. And One of Cleo’s good friends, the geeky but trustworthy Lewis who was passing by at the moment, finds out that all three of his best friends are mermaids, and helps Cleo out of the water as Ricky and Emma arrive. Ricky dries Cleo off quickly with her interesting heat power, and Emma then freezes the door shut so that no one from the party discovers their secret.
The rest of the first season consists of getting in trouble, helping each other out of it, and navigating through being mermaids.
In the next season, a new character is introduced, Charlotte. Her grandmother was a mermaid as well and she soon found out that she too was a mermaid and had all three of the same powers as Cleo, Emma, and Ricky. She causes a lot of trouble and eventually loses the ability to be a mermaid.
In this series the three main characters deal with life problems and meaning well with their powers. They’ve stayed dry and out of the water to fit in when necessary. Their powers were assistive in the case when an employee of Cleo’s father was catching turtles with illegal nets in episode 3. Or when Ricky saves Emma’s little brother from drowning. Their powers also come with their downs, like how Cleo can’t be a dolphin trainer, or how Emma had to give up being a pro swimmer and breaking her streak of going to practice every day.
There are a few different moments when having powers are a recipe for humorously awkward situations like when Emma accidentally ruined her father's birthday party. Another example is when Cleo showed up for a pool party dressed more appropriately for a snow storm. They learn that having the ability to move water and have powers does come with its ups and downs.
The three actors, Heine, Tonkin, and Holt did such a wonderful job especially since they had to act in and out of the water with a fishtail on.
This show is appropriate for anyone zero to one hundred can especially enjoy one of the most famous quotes from it, “sometimes you gotta swim against the tide” which symbolizes them working together through the hard things and not giving up when it gets rough.
A fun, easygoing, and entertaining watch, one of the main themes in this series was no matter how hard something is, perseverance is key. They had the chance to give up their tails more than once but kept working through the hard things to keep them. That is what has brought over 250 million people together to watch one of the best shows!
Best,
Luna Ergen
