The first season of Clearwater premiered on January 27, 2013 on the Degrassi Wiki. The first eleven episodes were uploaded once a week and called Clearwater: Leave Your Mark. It followed the first semester of the 2012-2013 school year and 18 actors were given main roles.
The following 10 episodes followed the students on their first day back after the Homecoming dance. The slogan for this season is "The students at Clearwater will leave their mark" which is taken from Sadie Carroll's quote from the first episode.
Issues dealt with at the forefront of the season were fitting in, popularity, coming out as transgender and transitioning, dating a bad boy, negative self-esteem and weight issues, parental abuse, coming out as gay, hiding being gay from family, dealing with an overly-obsessed guy, choosing between multiple guys, revenge, trying to break a couple up, anger issues, changing your religion, stress, getting back together with an ex, cheating, seeking attention, spreading rumours, taking drugs, babysitting, responsibility, taking control of your life, and running away from home.
Brittany, Blake, Devon, and Tim all appear in less than half of the episodes of the season despite being regulars.
Devon appears in the least amount of episodes, with 5.
This season features the least amount of regulars with 18.
All regulars from this season return for Season 2 and the recurring characters from this season, Alicia and Eric, are promoted to regulars in the following season.
This is the only season where every regular returns as a regular in the following season.
14 out of the 18 regular characters received a main plot.
Blake, Devon, and Liam have the least amount of plots with 1.
The last regular to get a plot this season was Blake in episode 19.
Throughout the season, it is revealed that Danielle, Ethan, Alicia, Abby, Brad, Leah, and Eric all attended the same middle school together, as did Scott, Brittany, Chloe, Keith, Gina, Moon, Eliza, and Olivia.
The original concept of the series was much less of an ensemble cast, and instead Sophie Clark, Jamie Stellar, Scott Taylor, Ethan Webber, and Olivia Jerl being the main five characters. This was scrapped before production of the first season started, but these five characters all still have a notably larger presence in the first season than much of the rest of the cast.
In the original outline for series, a character named Megan Dill was listed, however, she did not make the final cut for the series. She was to be played by India Eisley and her character description read, "A quirky and nerdy girl who is desperate for a friend and lacks social skills."
Sophie is psyched to start high school, but starts hanging out with the wrong crowd she has to do bad things to impress. Meanwhile, Sadie and Jeremy want to start their own club, but can't seem to agree and Scott has some troubles adapting to high school himself.
Over the summer, Trey decided to change his image to suit his gender, but other people aren't so accepting of it. Jeremy and Sadie take the next steps in creating their club, and Moon wonders if she's the only person annoyed by Sophie.
Eliza points her attention towards boys in order to lift her spirits, but will that just create more chaos and drama for her to deal with? Meanwhile, Ethan ditches his detention to be with Danielle, but will the repercussions keep them from seeing each other? Also, Jamie goes for Jeremy, but might have some unwanted competition.
Caylee starts to worry about her weight after is it brought to her attention by Julia. She wants to change it, but is she doing it the right way? Also, Trey takes a stand against Isaac when he won't accept him for who he is, but maybe he'll take things too far. Meanwhile, Sophie decides to do some undercover work to see what's going on at Olivia's house.
Olivia doesn't want her friends to know about her home life, but as things escalate, she starts to learn maybe she can't deal with it on her own. Meanwhile, Ethan brings out the big guns after he sees Brad kissing Danielle and might jeopardize her new relationship for his own benefit. Also, Sadie makes some fatal mistakes while trying to promote her club. How far is she willing to go to show up Jeremy?
Scott's new feelings drive him to join his school's LGBT club, but could he really like guys? And will his parents keep him from finding that out? Meanwhile, Blake and Eliza are having relationship issues when she can't deal with his double standards. Will he get past his ego and listen to her? Also, Julia and Jeremy get better acquainted, but she can't help but feel guilty for taking Jamie's crush.
Scott rebels against his homophobic parents while trying to figure out himself, but will he just get himself into more trouble and be even more confused? Meanwhile, Eliza threatens to end things with Blake if he doesn't shape up, but does she really mean that? Also, Julia has to pick up the pieces after making a mistake with Jeremy, but maybe everyone won't be so forgiving this time around.
Sophie is being stalked on by Devon and doesn't know what to do while Scott runs into problems when Gina thinks she can turn him straight again. Also, Brittany crushes on Levi, but Moon doesn't think he's right for her and tries to sabotage her advances.
Homecoming is just around the corner and people are starting to scramble for dates. Danielle has to choose between the three guys she has her eye on and Sadie is trying to reel in Tim as her date, but his past memories might come between that. Meanwhile, it's Jeremy's turn to doubt his relationship with Jamie.
Ethan is vengeful after Danielle leaves him for Brad and wants to find a way to get her back. Meanwhile, Sophie starts to feel a weird attraction towards Abby and Olivia can't stand to see Scott with Harley.
Ethan might take his revenge on Danielle a little too far and Liam tries to stop him. Also at the dance, Sophie follows her instincts and takes her friendship with Abby one step further and Olivia spreads lies about Harley to Scott and his friends.
Sadie has her eyes on Jeremy and is willing to whatever it takes to get him. Meanwhile, one of Blake's friends terrorizes Eliza for nudes and Moon sticks up for Devon when people start making fun of him.
Brittany starts to question her religion and finds answers in a new, darker one and Caylee starts feeling sick, so Jamie pressures her to see a doctor. Also, Sophie's friends tell her to stay away from Ethan after he asks her out.
Tim is stressed to the max and it might become too much for him and Scott discovers more about his sexuality. Also, Jeremy wonders if Jamie is worth the wait.
Jeremy tries his best to make things work with Jamie, but he finds it harder than he thought. Meanwhile, Danielle tries to find a solution to end Devon's newly found attraction towards her and Brittany is surprised when Levi asks her out, but wonders how her religion will affect their relationship.
Trey is ready to show everyone the true him...yeah...HIM. Meanwhile, Eliza's brother is getting a sex change out of nowhere and she doesn't know how to react and Liam and Sadie clash at FilmFridayz, how will that affect the group?
Sophie looks for popularity by spreading lies about her friends and Jamie tries to show everyone who the true Sophie is. Meanwhile, Scott takes his rebellious streak even further by trying stuff that even upsets Olivia and Ethan tries to save his relationship with Sophie, but is she even into guys anymore?
Ethan offers to babysit for Jeremy's brother, but might make a crucial mistake while Jeremy does whatever he can to make Jamie stop stalking him. Also, Scott tries to convince Brittany to tell Levi about her religion.
Jamie feels like she's losing control of her life and wants to make everything okay again...but is that possible? Meanwhile, Blake is in danger of getting held back, but will it change his attitude? And Moon's loneliness brings her to want to be closer to her sister.
Olivia's life is falling into pieces and she's willing to do anything to make it better. Also, Sophie's lies have pushed most of her friends away but will this make her stop? And Caylee's too sick to do anything and is gaining weight like crazy, so she'll have to stop that somehow.
Olivia screws up more of her friendships and figures out a plan that will fix everything. Meanwhile, Sophie receives the one thing she wanted all along: attention and Caylee's rapid weight loss makes her happy, but even she knows something is very wrong.
