For the Fans of "H2O" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Chile

In 3.05 "Big Ideas", Will said that his family stopped off in Santiago, and that he rode in the Andes mountains. This proves that the Santiago he is referring to is in Chile.

That was your warm-up question.

Answer: Pelican

In 1.19 "Hurricane Angela", Cleo's young cousin Angela was a royal pest, and she insisted on going body boarding, which of course Cleo could not do with her. Angela fed a wild pelican in a park and it followed her home. So Angela left this pelican in Cleo's bathtub to keep her busy.

As Angela knew she would, Cleo blamed Kim. Interestingly, she says to Kim, "How can you possibly prove to me that you didn't steal this bird?" and Kim is in full denial.

When Cleo is caught by Mitch bringing the bird into the park, he thinks she is stealing it, and almost the same line ensues. "How can you possibly prove to me that you didn't take this bird?" Cleo is now struck in conscience. She falsely accused Kim, and now she is being falsely accused. "I can't," she says to Mitch.

Answer: A cowboy

Don Sertori just couldn't accept that his girls were growing up. Every year he threw an elaborate, very juvenile party for Cleo.

In 1.14 "Surprise!", it was Cleo's sixteenth birthday, but as usual, the party was themed for a six year old. And sure enough, as Emma predicted, Cleo's dad was dressed up as a cowboy.

In 3.11 "Just a Girl at Heart", Cleo brings in a clown costume, stating that her dad used to wear it for her birthday.

In 3.24 "Too Close for Comfort", her dad made a popular pirate show act at the marine park. An observant viewer here will notice that he accidentally sent Cleo off the plank into the water, yet he paid no attention to her in the water. In the first episode, Cleo told us that she couldn't swim. Surely her dad would know that she couldn't swim, so how could he be so completely unconcerned with Cleo falling in deep water? Obviously he never saw her standing there.

Answer: Cleo and Sophie

In 2.25 "Sea Change", Kim picked up a picture of Cleo and said, "She looks really pretty in this one."

This contradicts Kim's earlier statement to her mother that Cleo was "so ugly". Cleo is the only character who was ever described as "ugly", and by her bratty little sister.

In 3.06 "Secret and Lies", Isabella described Sophie to Cleo and Rikki as "really pretty".

Piece of trivia on the side here: The three sibling couples are: Cleo and Kim, Emma and Elliot, Sophie and Will.

Answer: Less than 20 meters

This is in 2.11 "Treasure Hunt". While the actual salvage depth is not specified, it is clear in watching the scene that it can be no more than 20 meters, and definitely nowhere near 40 meters deep.

It is proven by the fact that Zane did a free dive to rescue Rikki from the bottom. Even for such a strong swimmer as Zane, a 20 meter free dive would be challenging, and a 40 meter free dive would require special training.

In 3.14 "Mermaid Magic", Zane did a free dive to 10m, and lied about having dove to 40 meters. He actually only did the dive half-way, for he took a breath from Nate's pony bottle while Nate's buddy released the 40m marker. Zane safely exhaled it on the way back up. Incredibly, neither Will nor Sophie noticed the tell-tale open circuit scuba bubbles on the surface! (Only a rebreather can eliminate the bubbles.) When Will failed to surface, Sophie tried to persuade Zane to dive back down to 40m to look for him, but he couldn't do it. Rikki would later perform the most beautiful rescue yet seen in the series.

Since Zane cannot free dive to 40m, there is no way that Rikki was salvaging the statue at 40m depth. (It is certainly interesting that Zane's free diving lie was actually the maximum allowable depth for recreational scuba diving.) With a scuba unit, Zane could have performed the rescue at 40m.

Will blacked out trying to free dive to 60m without adequate preparation. He had sunk to 70m when Rikki rescued him. With plain air in a scuba tank, 56m is the deepest a diver "can" go, with about 63m being the absolute limit. Beyond that depth with air puts the diver in imminent danger of seizure.

If Rikki had been 70m down, and Zane had a scuba unit, given the emergency at hand, it is probable that he would have taken the risk and attempted the rescue, but it would have been thoroughly impossible for Zane to free dive to 70m.

While there is little doubt that Rikki could free-dive beyond 100m, there is no possible way Zane could have rescued her at that depth without specialized dive gear and decompression.

The deepest mermaid dive performed in the show by the end of Season 3 is generally attributed to Isabella in the opening scene of 3.10 Revealed. (Although it couldn't have really been all that deep since the refracted water ripples from the surface were projected onto the bottom sand where she picked up the shell.) She jestingly said the shell came from the Octopus' Garden, which was probably the truth. Will looked at her strangely, presumably knowing that it was a deep dive site.

Answer: Harley-Davidson

In 2.08 "Wrong Side of the Tracks", we are finally introduced to Rikki's home life. She lives in a trailer park with her single father. In the opening scene, Nate and Zane come upon this Harley-Davidson hog parked outside, and Nate vandalizes it by stealing the emblem.

Rikki's dad had been working on this bike for several months. Zane tried to return the emblem, and noticed what was needed to finish the repair. Zane managed to later earn the respect of Rikki's dad by fixing his bike and getting it started.

Answer: Sea Turtles

Cleo was convinced that her father was trapping sea turtles in his fishing nets. But her dad stated that he was using regulation commercial fishing nets, and in legitimate off-shore waters.

Cleo's determination to see for herself got her into the water as a mermaid for the first time. Actually, it was one of her dad's employees who was fishing in protected areas, and Cleo personally got trapped in the net. Rikki and Emma had to get her untangled.

Answer: Gracie

In 2.19 "The Gracie Code", Part 1, Max Hamilton is standing on Mako Island, remembering Gracie, and talking to himself and Lewis. He had never forgotten his beloved Gracie, and he longed for her. "She was so beautiful...so beautiful."

The elegance of the scene is that as Max says "so beautiful" the first time, the scene changes to Cleo swimming underwater, and he says "so beautiful" a second time. Max is speaking Lewis' thoughts about Cleo.

In 2.14 "Cleo vs Charlotte", Rikki made Cleo admit that she missed Lewis and that she had made a mistake to push him away. While Lewis had sadly accepted her wishes, here in 2.19 "The Gracie Code", Part 1, Max counsels Lewis to not let Cleo push him away, and not to let her go.

Mistakes were made fifty years ago, that disrupted the friendship and romance that could have been. In both cases, Max and Louise are picking up the trail of history repeating itself and trying to correct in the present, what neither could correct in the past.

It is interesting to note that while Rikki egged Lewis toward Cleo, it was really Max and Louise who made him realize that he was in love with her.

Answer: Neil, Cleo, Lewis, Rikki

The four birthdays actually celebrated over Seasons 1 - 3 are:

1. Neil Gilbert, who turned 50 in 1.07 "Moon Spell". Emma had planned the party on her dad's squash night (to be sure he'd be home late), and was subsequently the first to get moon fever. Where Emma is normally very self-controlled, she lost all of her self-control under the effects of the full moon: speaking every careless thought on her mind, kissing Byron, and pigging out on fresh seafood.

2. Cleo Sertori, who turned 16 in 1.14 "Surprise!" Don Sertori just couldn't grasp that his first-born was growing up. As he always had before, he set up an elaborate, very juvenile surprise party for Cleo. And Cleo always dreaded her birthday for that reason. And her dad just couldn't figure out why Cleo wasn't thrilled. Here we learn that Emma has known Cleo since at least her sixth birthday, and Lewis has been to them all. Lewis' surprise party for Cleo at the JuiceNet occupies the top-left picture in Cleo's photo album.

3. Lewis McCartney, in 2.24 "Three's Company". Charlotte planned the party, and while Lewis was a good sport about it, he just couldn't connect. Cleo and Emma faithfully attended for Lewis' sake, but Rikki wisely distrusted Charlotte and boycotted. Rikki's insight as usual paid off, for Charlotte betrayed Cleo and Emma, trapping them in the pool filter room, with a leaky pipe to keep both them and the floor wet, and them in mermaid form. Zane and Rikki saved the day.

4. Rikki Chadwick, in 3.12 "Crime and Punishment". Cleo and Isabella made Rikki a mermaid figurine out of hardened water. Zane, in cahoots with Lewis, Cleo and Isabella, planned a surprise party for Rikki at the moon pool. However, two criminals paid for their take-out with two counterfeit $50 bills. Rikki went alone to their houseboat to try to get a legitimate payment, and was taken hostage. In order to learn where Rikki was, Cleo and Isabella had to tell Will that all three of them were mermaids.

After Rikki texted Cleo for help, and Cleo tried to call her back, the criminals smashed her phone. Zane coincidentally got Rikki a new cell phone, which was just what she needed. This made four gifts in total that Zane gave Rikki: a dress, an inscribed mp3 player, a business partnership, and a cell phone. Technically there was also the locket, which he negotiated from Miriam, and then retrieved from the bottom of the canal.

Answer: April 19, 1990

It's a girl! Don and Bev Sertori are proud to announce the birth of their first child, Cleo.

Cleo is the only character for whom an exact birthday is certain. In 1.14 "Surprise!", Cleo has her birthday blacked out on her calendar, and we know it is her sixteenth birthday. We can read the month is April. The year is hard to read, but the show was made in 2006, and the April 2006 calendar matches the one Cleo has, with the first day being on Saturday. Therefore, the blacked out day is April 19, 2006. Since that is her 16th birthday, she was born on April 19, 1990.

We can backtrack some dates a bit here. The previous full moon, when Cleo was a Siren, was Fri Apr 14. This implies that the full moon before that, Wed Mar 15, was Neil Gilbert's birthday, pinning him down to March 15, 1956. If that is true, the they became mermaids on the night of Mon Feb 13, 2006.

It is tempting to try to guess Rikki's exact birthday.

In 3.12 "Crime and Punishment", Rikki's birthday is said to be on the 12th. No calendar is visible in the episode. We do know that it is significantly after Christmas.

We do know that the first episode of season 3 was a full moon and as Cleo stated, "School is at least two weeks away." In Australia, summer vacation is from mid-December to the end of January. There are four terms, with a week or two break between each term. Therefore, we can safely assume that the season opens on the full moon in January.

The production skipped a year, but it is uncertain if the storyline also skipped a year.

If we assume that the first three full moons are covered, and...

If the storyline is 2008, then we have these dates:

Wed Jan 23 - 3.01 "The Awakening"
Thu Feb 21 - 3.08 "Kidnapped"
Wed Mar 12 - 3.12 "Crime and Punishment"
Sat Mar 22 - 3.16 "The Dark Side"

If the storyline is 2009, then we have these dates:

Sun Jan 11 - 3.01 "The Awakening"
Tue Feb 10 - 3.08 "Kidnapped"
Wed Mar 11 - (unshown full moon)
Thu Mar 12 - 3.12 "Crime and Punishment"
Fri Apr 10 - 3.16 "The Dark Side"

The age difference in Kim implies that the storyline skipped a year, thus favouring 2009. Cleo's two weeks for school favours Jan 11, 2009. The full moons fit better with 2008, and the storyline fits better with 2009.

Therefore, the best guess for Rikki's birthday is March 12, 1990.

It is a guess at best, since the storyline implies that 3.16 "The Dark Side" is further along than the 3rd full moon, and our date of Mar 12 is dependent on it being the 3rd full moon. 3.22 "Mako Masters" is implied to be the last set of exams in the school year, and 3.26 "Graduation" naturally requires that the school year be completed, which is in or after December.