H2O (and Mako Mermaids) Headcanon #13
Mako Island is Alive
(Sorry, it’s been awhile since I last did this!)
So, for years, I always believed that Mako Island was sentient (or at least alive in some form).
We already know the moon pool was formed from a lunar rock crashing into Earth, that the crystals embedded inside the cave walls help capture the energy released on every Full Moon, and, of course, merfolk creations are the end products (natural and part time)!
But then, I thought about the fact mermaids have supposedly been around Mako for centuries, and yet the H2O girls and 50s mermaids missed them!
Personally, I’ll agree with everyone else that may be the pod was temporarily moved away from the island during the 50s and didn’t come back until the 2000s girls had left. And that them returning was completely coincidental.
But here’s my thing: I think Mako Island is alive.
See, Mako Island has always had this “presence” about it that, when certain events come up, the timing or coincidences that follow seem aligned.
Almost like an agenda.
If two lunar rocks crashed into Earth before life began, once hit first, pieces of it splitting off around the globe and landing in various, unknown locations. Each piece was particularly large, but one landed on a soon-to-be island, which who later be called: Mako.
To put it forward: Mako Island is a nature preserve where anyone can get on the island. Between the coral reefs offshore from the beach, the abundance of land, and aquatic wildlife, it’s no surprise why people would want to go there…except it has an eerie history of shipwrecks, whirlpools, and mysterious disappearances.
But in hindsight, it can easily now be believed that the island’s supposedly “eerie” history is likely the work of the local mermaid pod that resides there to protect the island from intruders. At first, I guessed that Mako’s consciousness is made up of dead merfolk (and still believe so), but decided to focus on what Mako Island was “thinking” over the years.
But assuming they’ve been gone for a hundred years (1950s +2000s), and the fact that in S1 of H2O, the very first episode, it was stated no one goes on the island. Yet by the end of H2O S3, a total of 7 girls have, not only managed to get to the island but be changed there as well. Why?
There’s no pod there, so the mysterious reputation should have degraded by then and been consistently getting visitors.
So that means the island’s eerie behavior continued long after the pod left, enough that its relevance was still apparent in the 2000s. But when the OG H2O trio got on the island, it was rather easy. Not to mention the type of humans (good and bad) that would start coming forward either.
So, my only reasoning behind why an island, that was warded from letting humans taking a single step on the beach, suddenly let people in only happened because…
Mako Island itself willed it so.
That island is a magic hotspot, so the idea that it’s alive in some way wouldn’t be so far off. When you think about it, it makes sense!
Say, Louise, Julia and Gracie were a trial run. The Pod must’ve been gone for a while now. We never knew how they’d come to be on the island, but not only did they get there, but they found the moon pool and became mermaids. So far, they’re good mermaids. Perhaps Max Hamilton being able to get on the island was a gift to them. But then, since it’s the 50s, it no doubts their human responsibilities were kicking and their sense of loyalty and trust began to waver. Julia was betrayed by Karl and Max’s experiments on the moon pool more or less (MORE) drove Gracie to give up her tail. Louise and Julia were the only remaining mermaids left, with a fractured bond which, over time, just seemed like too much.
And so, if the 50th Moon cycle already passed for Gracie and happened to appear again for Charlotte, and S1 confirming that Julia died - hence how her locket went up in an estate sale - and Louise in a nursing home, making them too old by the next said cycle:
How did they give up their magic prior?
Simple: Mako Island took them away.
The 50s mermaids were a good first try, but couldn’t handle the Secret and what it costs. So, it slowly drained their powers away until their tails were no more.
But wouldn’t Louise had mentioned that? Why say she gave them up?
Because how would you explain to the next generation of mermaids (that you’re more or less trying to groom to be like your old friends) that your powers might fade away with time? It’s quite possible that that Louise herself didn’t know of Mako’s consciousness and that saying she gave her magic up was easier than saying it had slowly gone away. And her knowledge on certain moon phases could just emphasize that stories she hadn’t told….yet.
(Or in simpler terms: She was too stubborn and prideful to admit that the magic fades and wanted to mold the new mermaids to be like her friends while convincing them that the magic lasts! BUT THAT’S MY TAKE!)
Now, almost 50 years later, it’s the 2000s, and the island is using its defense mechanisms (whirlpools, wrecks) while awaiting the next set of mermaids to come. And here, it’s Rikki, Cleo, and Emma who surprisingly get to the island by rowing on the stolen motorboat, and none of those defense mechanisms are in sight! Like their predecessors, they find the moon pool and become mermaids. This time, Mako watches as these modern girls, so like the 50s mermaids, make different choices regarding the Secret. Add in Louise (whom you suspect might’ve had some bond with the island) gives them advice and they flourish where the last trio didn’t.
But of course, it wouldn’t be so simple. Considering that the island itself was once guarded by multiple mermaids, a 4th mermaid isn’t as surprising. But it would be if that mermaid was the grandchild of one of the 50s mermaids, specifically the one that returned its “gift” first (rather than draw away like the others). It was an interesting, and unique choice. One that could even be seen as selfless in its own right.
So regardless of how the magic from the 50s trio came back, that didn’t mean there weren’t traces of it left. And Charlotte Watsford carried such traces in her.
And if Mako was capable of speech, perhaps it would have said it was impressed. The new mermaid handled her powers quite astonishingly. If it had human eyes, it wouldn’t miss the curiosity, wonder, and strength only comparable to the ones that once fiercely guarded it. But Mako is only a conscious island and it knows:
It knows that its currents mermaids were getting bold with their powers, perhaps unintentionally, but still abused them in their way. It knows their human flaws are causing them to make mistakes where there should not be. And it knows perhaps if it had emotions, it was saddened that such mistakes caused the mermaids, in a roundabout way, to repeat their predecessors’ errors and forcefully return a “gift” as well.
(But if there was emotion in that island, perhaps its wishful thinking, that Gracie’s descendants will return and try again. For just like grandmother, and grandchild, the magic left behind will always find will always find its way home…)
Soon after that, one of the island’s “children” travels far from home. But long before its time to send the warning, a sinister danger befalls Mako and the Earth’s existence. A comet is heading to Earth, its composition is the same as the very core the makes up it’s own consciousness.
It’s a sibling, really. Trying to join its many relatives on Earth as it was unable to do eons ago. But its larger, more dangerous size threatens all life on the entire planet and must never collide as long as life exists. For the first time, Mako allows its consciousness to make a physical appearance, calling upon a creature, an extension of itself, to gather its children to the island in preparations. But nothing is easier said than done when its remaining “gifted children” are resisting its call, only able to interact on a Full Moon, the source of its power, and the mermaids not understanding and even fearing the Water Tentacle, the “living” appendage of the island.
So, when Bella Hartley entered Mako’s core, it recognizes its magic trace…and something else. Not from Mako itself, but from the sea caves of Ireland, the location of another moon pool, a sibling-consciousness, that had held off the comet from hitting Earth centuries prior, but at the cost of its “only child” of that period. However, it was not completely connected with the ocean as its many siblings were. So Bella’s gelatin powers, so obscure, so unique, was a new addition. If the island were a human, Mako would recognize her as a niece or distant cousin arriving just in time. But it senses something else in Bella, something older, but something…familiar. Like a child coming home from so long ago.
Of course, it shouldn’t had been a surprise that Rikki, the temperamental mermaid wielding its heated “gift”, was the first to befriend the Tentacle. Like Charlotte, she too had the strength and curiosity of a natural mermaid. So discovering and befriending it paved the way to discovering the blue hidden jewels inside the island, the moon-charged keys to revealing the comet’s impending arrival and intentions.
But alas, if Mako Island was capable of regret, long acknowledging humans with less-savory intentions would come around, chose the night of the comet to destroy it’s core, intentions of stealing the crystals, severing its magical connection and rendering the Water Tentacle useless to aid the mermaids. Thankfully, the mermaids answered the call and defend the Earth without its help after all. And for a splitting moment, before the consciousness of Mako Island disappears, if it had eyes, it would see another soul tied to Bella’s, recognizing a lost “child”, Ireland’s child, once named Eva, finally laid to rest.
