William Red Herring

But on a certain day after an alleged sea monster attacked some fishermen the night before near the mysterious Island of the Sea, Will had an opportunity. He convinced his father to let him come along in order to get close to open water that his sea monster side longs for. But as they were investigating not too far from the Island, Will believed himself to have willingly jump overboard into the water to swim around freely. He even comes across a cave of a shy creature who refused to come out and seen only by the light of its eyes, so Will tried to impress it with some water tricks. But as he was about to breach the water, his father was calling for him. As he pulled himself out of the water, he shook himself dry...or so he thought. Because when Father Antonio turned to face Will, he didn't see his son, he saw a sea monster. No matter how much Will dried himself or tried to speak in English or Italian, to both his father and his suddenly-appeared mother shouting "What have you done to our son, monster?!" Will couldn't convince them it was their son they raised. Mary would tackle the "monster" like a professional American football player. As his father raised his harpoon over the Monster's head, Will woke from his daydream turned nightmare. He never did jump into the water at all. Despite the sequence being Will's mind telling him his parents love him very much to the point of willing to protect him, he's more convinced than ever that his parents must never know. His father, none the wiser, would take him straight home. As they did, Will's subconsciousness was quietly telling him that someone was watching him from under the sea. And unknown to all, there WAS someone watching from an undersea cave after grabbing a few human trinkets: LUCA. The two Sea Monsters never saw even a glimpse of each other, but they would be fated to meet each other and in their own ways would help each other become true to themselves.

The day Luca and Alberto came to town seeking a Vespa to take them wherever they wanted to go, Will witnessed them teaming up with Guilia as the Portorosso Underdogs to compete in the Annual Portorosso Cup near the end of August. Despite not officially teaming up with the Trio, Will would do what he could to support the team that could potentially put the jerky 5 time champion of a bully Ercole Visconti in his place. Will would provide all the pasta for Alberto's pasta-eating training; he would help time Luca on the uphill biking portion of the race; Everyone else is so afraid of Ercole's bullying that Will's actually the only one actively helping the dream team. Although his insecurities make him believe he's not worthy of being part of the team, let alone their friend, he was starting to become more open than just the quiet English preferring boy.

Long story short, Will would learn that there really are other sea monsters besides him when he helped Luca's parents that were almost seen in sea folk form. Ultimately, Will would help Luca and Alberto individually. First helping Luca get the diving suit to town offscreen in the middle of the night and helping Alberto get the Umbrella needed to help Luca. Even when Massimo stood up for the expose Sea boys seeing them as the boys he's come to know and care for, there were still hostility from the paranoid townsfolk, so Will finally gained the courage to reveal himself. His reveal that he has been a Sea Monster raised in Portorosso for 13 years helped to dissuade some but not all the townsfolk from their misguided belief that the sea monsters are as dangerous and unreasonable as sharks.

And as for his parents...in defiance to his nightmare, all it took was a brief look in his eyes for the couple to recognize the boy they raised. Even since his traumatic near drowning experience, they have been trying to get their son to open up and be confident with himself. Sea monster or human, they accept him and they couldn't be happier for Will to finally be true to himself and finally found friends. Giulia even pulled Sea Monster Will into the victory circle non-verbally accepting him as a friend.

Finally, as Luca would be heading off to attend a human school with Giulia in Genova as Alberto is essentially adopted by her father Massimo, I would give Luca my fond farewell gift of gratitude: by breaching the water in open Ocean truly for the first time as Luca would see from the train. Despite the distance between, we would share a smile of mutual friendship as I realized:

Now we can Swim! Now we can run! Now we can be in both sea and the sun!

As good buddies! And I can be, Part of Both Worlds!