H2O - relationships

During the first season the main story arc in H2O: Just Add Water involved the reformation of Zane and his relationship with Rikki. At the end of the season they broke up but stayed friends.

In the second season the main story arc concerns the relationship between Cleo, Lewis, and Charlotte. I'll have more to say about that also.

In the first season Emma had a mild relationship with Byron but that never amounted to much. She got a new boyfriend, Ash, in the second season. Their relationship is typical of a show aimed at teens. When Emma first meets Ask she resents him without much reason. In their second meeting, Ask has been hired as the new assistant manager of the juice bar that Emma has been working at for a year. On his first couple of days he changes things around completely, angering Emma who expected the manager's job. Eventually he fires her unjustly. Later he apologizes, hires her back, and asks her for a date. With material like that to work with, I can see why the actress who played Emma left the show after the second season.

Rikki and Zane's romance is featured in three episodes and they are an example of great writing. The relationships seem real and the episodes are based around established personality traits.

Rikki is the most reserved of the mermaids. If she thinks that someone will disapprove of something, she hides it. This is central to these episodes.

In The One That Got Away, Rikki runs into Zane on his new dirt bike. He wants to get together but she declines. He still thinks that she lost her mermaid abilities and she doesn't want to start hiding that from him.

But, she is still attracted to him and starts hanging around a dirt bike track to watch him. He gets suspicious after tossing her a drink from a cooler and seeing her dodge it (the bottle is wet). He is also convinced that she still cares for him.

Later she is talking with Zane at the dock and Zane's friend Nate revs the motor of Zane's boat and covers her with water.

A suddenly terrified Rikki asks Zane to help her. He distracts Nate while Rikki dives into the water.

Zane catches up with Rikki in the Moon Pool and convinces her that she can trust him. Also, unlike his 1950s counterpart, he doesn't care that she is a mermaid. She agrees to start dating but only if he keeps it secret.

In The Wrong Side of the Tracks, everything comes to a head. Rikki is ashamed of where she lives and has been hiding it from everyone. She hasn't told anyone that she is dating Zane or that he knows that they are still mermaids. She has gone so far as to have Zane walk her to a house in a nice area to hide where she really lives.

Things start to go wrong for Rikki when Nate sees an old Harley in a trailer park and pries the emblem off of it. The owner sees them and blames Zane. Zane later takes the emblem from Nate and returns it but the owner catches him and accuses him of stealing more parts. Zane reverts to spoiled boy mode.

It turns out that the Harley is owned by Rikki's father and that he has been working on it for the last year.

Deciding that Zane would reject her if he knew where she really lived, Rikki breaks up with him and swims off.

Zane goes to the other girls, tells them that he knows that they are still mermaids and that he is worried about Rikki. They finally realize that they don't know anything about Rikki (it only took them 32 episodes to notice).

She decides to show Zane where she really lives. He doesn't care and kisses her - just in time for her father to show up and forbid her to see Zane again.

So Rikki is still miserable.

But Zane fixes things. He stays up all night and secretly fixes the Harley, finally getting to start. Zane and Rikki's father bond and a beaming Rikki invites the other girls and Lewis to her house for dinner.

The episode In Over Our Heads concerns trust. The mermaids are not sure that they can still trust Lewis since he is dating someone else now. He points out that he is the only one who knows their secret but they tell him that Zane also knows.

In the meantime, Rikki learns that her father is having money troubles and that they may need to move someplace cheaper. Typically, she doesn't tell anyone.

Zane approaches Rikki about an opertunity. A yacht with a priceless statue on it sank. There is a substantial reward but he knows about it first. He figures that a mermaid would have a better chance of finding the statue than a regular diver but they only have one day before the area will be full of treasure hunters. Rikki agrees to help if they split the reward 60/40. Zane says that he is mainly in it to be a hero, anyway (still trying to impress his father?).

The area is too large for Rikki to search so she enlists the other two mermaids but does not tell them about the reward. She simply appeals to their good nature. She plans on splitting her share of the reward with them and Zane decides to do the same thing.

During the search, Emma hears Rikki and Zane talk about the reward. They blame Zane and leave. Rikki continues the search, exhausting herself. She still has not told Zane why she is so driven.

She eventually finds the statue and uses a rig that Zane designed to lift it. Unfortunately, use used a cheap caribiner. It breaks and the statue falls on Rikki, knocking her unconscious.

Zane rescues Rikki and Lewis applies first aid. The girls decide that they can trust Zane and Lewis after all.

Lewis improves Zane's design for lifting the statue and the two recover it first thing the next morning (we already know that both are divers). They give the check to Rikki figuring that she earned it for finding the statue and getting hurt.

I am impressed with Cariba Heine, the actress who plays Rikki. All three of these episodes have quick flashes where you totally accept the emotion she is feeling. She she is splashed with water she really looks panicked. When she invites the others to meet her father she is glowing with happiness, and when Zane complains that she is pushing herself she really looks exhausted.

While I started watching the show because of mermaids with superpowers, episodes like this got me hooked (so to speak).