Honestly, I really hate the “Previously, on Avatar” bits.  I used to only have to worry about skipping the intro.  I think these started in the second disc of Book 2, and they seem to be here to stay.  Oh well.

Just so we’re clear, as of right now, Zuko is at 2 with Mai and Song.  Sokka is at 3 with Suki and Yue, plus Ty Lee since she seemed to think he was cute.  I’d love to add June in for Zuko just for being associated with him, but she never took any interest in him, and that’s the difference between keeping score and being a habitual shipper.  Don’t be a habitual shipper.

To recap, the gang is lost in the desert without Appa.  Oh, and that researcher is probably dead by now.  Even if he roasts the giant owl for meat… he’s kinda out of air.

So, the gang is still lost in the desert and Aang decides to take the opportunity to act like a TOTAL ASSHOLE because Appa’s gone.  He’s especially a dick to Toph, who saved everyone’s lives, because she couldn’t save Appa.  Then when everyone says Toph had to do what she did to save them, he chastises them for ONLY CARING ABOUT THEIR LIVES.  FUCK FRIENDS.  MUH BISON.

Sokka does what he can to make the episode not suck by cutting open a cactus and drinking its cactus, causing him to hallucinate the rest of the episode.

During their travels, we learn that one of the dangerous desert beasts are… buzzard bees.

Meanwhile, Iroh and Zuko get in trouble with Fire Nation trackers and need to find a way to escape somewhere safe.  Iroh makes contact at a bar with a member of the secret society of the White Lotus.  Or the Order of Whispers.  They’re pretty much the same.  They get targeted by the two people contracted to hunt down Toph, but they manage to use their wanted status as a way to get everyone in the bar to turn on each other, and they sneak away in the ensuing chaos.  After a long secret meeting that Zuko isn’t allowed to attend, the two receive everything they need to sneak into Ba Sing Se as refugees.

Katara uses one of Sokka’s stolen maps to guide their way toward Ba Sing Se, and along the way, Toph trips over a boat.  A sand boat.

I should note that it’s difficult for Toph to read through sand, which is probably why she hasn’t done any real sandbending thus far.

The sand boat’s compass seems to be directed toward a large mound in the desert, which Katara believes is probably the desert’s magnetic center.  Whatever the case, Toph is just happy to be on solid rock.

There appear to be tunnels in the center, and the gang goes inside for no particular reason.

Turns out, the place is actually a buzzard bee hive.  Whoops.

Right after they leave the caves, they encounter sandbenders.  Toph recognizes one of them from the crew that captured Appa.

This pisses Aang the fuck off.

Aang and Katara both cry, but at least from what I could gather, it’s for two different reasons.  Aang is probably still sad over Appa and probably not thinking at all about his promise to never let Katara see him in the Avatar State again.

In the next episode, Aang is pretty chill, and Katara is adorable.

Sokka decides the only way to head into Ba Sing Se is via a winding path called The Serpent’s Path.  Fortunately, a traveling party of refugees (which appears to include the pregnant lady and husband Zuko didn’t steal from) arrives and mentions how dangerous the path is, and instead invite the gang to take a ferry into Ba Sing Se instead.

Before the gang even arrived, it seems Iroh and Zuko made their way to the ferry… along with some familiar faces.

The gang tries to get some free passes in, but the whole “I’m the Avatar” schtick doesn’t fly.  Primarily because of the fakers.

Fortunately, Toph is both rich as hell and in a ridiculously high social standing, and she manages to get the gang four ferry tickets.  On their way to the ferry, Sokka gets stopped by a guard.

Turns out it’s Suki with no makeup, which explains why Sokka didn’t recognize her at first.  She looks better without it.  Apparently, someone disagreed, because she spends most of the rest of the episode back in her Kiyoshi Island getup.

The pregnant couple asks the Avatar for help because someone stole all their stuff and their tickets.  Rather than hunt down the robbers, Aang decides he’ll help guide them through the Serpent’s Path.

At the gate to the path is an inscription that says “Abandon Hope,” which is… just so overused it’s embarrassing.

Sokka acts really overprotective over Suki even though she can handle herself, and he explains that he doesn’t want to fail to protect someone ever again.  He just kinda neglects to mention that that person was a girl who just happens to be a freaking moon goddess.

Meanwhile, Jet recruits Zuko into stealing some of the captain’s food since he and his crew are eating like kings while the refugees are only getting scraps.  Surprisingly, this turns out to be true.

Back at the Serpent’s Path, part of the path seems to be submerged underwater.  So Katara does her best Moses impression and bends the water away from the floor so they can walk across.

All is well and good until they encounter the reason it’s called the Serpent’s Path: there’s a giant serpent.

Toph has trouble walking across ice since it’s technically not earth, and she falls into the water.  Sokka says he’ll rescue Toph, but it’s Suki who rescues her.  Toph, being blind, thinks Sokka rescued her, and gives Suki a reward.

Since Toph was willing to give a kiss to someone he thought was Sokka, I’m going to go ahead and add her to Sokka’s harem list.  He is now at 4.  Your move, Zuko.

The gang makes it past the serpent, but keep in mind we have a pregnant woman onboard.  This means it’s obligatory that we have a delivery scene.

With Ba Sing Se in sight, Suki says goodbye, as her place is back at the ferry bay.  But not before one more kiss with Sokka.  Not that I fully understand why they’re in a relationship in the first place, but whatever.

Aang glides ahead of the group so he can start searching for Appa right away, but he turns back after seeing what the Fire Nation has planned just outside the outer wall.

Notice the tanks on both sides for scale.  That is freaking huge.

In the next episode, the series can raise its head high as it finally puts its CG to its best and possibly only good use yet.

The man in charge of the outer wall refuses the Avatar’s help, since his Terra Team has this covered.

Mai and Ty Lee completely wreck the Terra Team, so they tag out for Aang.

Meanwhile, Iroh gets himself and Zuko into Ba Sing Se while Jet decides he totally wants Zuko in his Freedom Fighters.  Zuko turns him down, but Jet notices Iroh using Firebending to heat up his tea.  Whatever respect he had for Zuko immediately gets tossed aside in a whirlwind of irrational discrimination.

Back at the wall, the Sokka-christened Team Avatar infiltrate the drill and follow Sokka’s plan, which is surprisingly really good: wreck some stuff, wait for an engineer, then ambush the engineer and steal a schematic.  With the schematic, Sokka analyzes a weak point in the structure.  At first I found it odd that Sokka is somehow some kind of engineer, but then I remember the episode with the Northern Air Temple, so it’s not like this came out of nowhere… at least this time.

Katara and Aang use Waterbending to tear through a support beam, but it takes a lot of time just to cut through one beam.

Aang decides to take an Earthbending approach by merely weakening all the support beams, then delivering one critical blow to make the drill come crashing down.  They manage to weaken the beams, but before Aang can deliver the final blow, Azula’s Angels arrive.

Mai and Ty Lee pursue Katara and Sokka while Azula goes after Aang.  The siblings escape out the back and Katara uses Waterbending to stop some kind of slurry from being released by the drill, and the pressure backs up through the drill, further making it ready for Aang’s big attack.

Azula and Aang proves to be the best fight of the series so far, if for one major reason: Aang uses everything he’s learned so far, employing Waterbending, Airbending, and Earthbending to keep Azula at bay and strike the giant drill.

In the end, the giant drill is… stopped.  Not quite destroyed, really, but stopped.

And so, the Fire Nation is routed.  Dunno how they’re going to move that drill and plug up the hole, though.  I assume a lot of Earthbending.

Back at the outer wall, Katara does not approve of Sokka’s “Team Avatar” moniker.  Sokka offers up a bunch of equally silly names like Boomeraang Squad, The Aang Gang, and Fearsome Foursome.

In the next episode, the gang finally steps foot in Ba Sing Se.

The Boomeraang Squad is immediately greeted by Joo Dee, a kind of tour guide / creepy robotic smiler.

Honestly, I think she’s even creepier in motion.

During their tour of Ba Sing Se (which confirms that Ba Sing Se is the typical big RPG city, complete with an isolated slum section), the Boomeraang Squad catches a glimpse of suspicious black-robed individuals from the Dai Li, an organization dedicated to protecting Ba Sing Se’s culture.

This can only be exactly as sinister as it sounds.

The Squad is anxious to both find Appa and deliver information to the king, but Joo Dee deflects conversation away from the king whenever the topic comes up.  Finally, she does say Aang can see the king… in 6-8 weeks.  In the meantime, they can relax in their new home and work on finding Appa.

At this point, I’m not entirely sure how far away we are from Sozin’s Comet, so 6-8 weeks might not be that bad a wait.

The Squad decides to focus on finding Appa since they can’t see the king, but Joo Dee also seems to discourage certain topics, and people are scared the fuck of her… either because the topics are forbidden, or because Joo Dee is fucking frightening.  It’s at this point I’m almost certain she’s a Fire Nation spy, but the truth is, well, even worse.

The next day, Katara learns of a party being held for the king’s new bear.  And not some weird bear / other species hybrid.  Just plain bear.  This weirds them out.

Anyway, Toph has experience in social settings, but the rest of the Squad isn’t.  It seems like we’re headed toward a hilarious scene where Toph teaches everyone how to behave, but we are completely denied, and she offscreen teaches Katara everything she needs to know and they plot to get inside and open up a path for the guys.

Notably, Aang does NOT go over-the-top gaga over Katara, proving once again that Aang has absolutely no consistency mentally.  Because he is a mental case.

Meanwhile, Jet has resorted to completely stalking Zuko and Iroh (or Lee and Mushi, tea shop runners, as they are more familiarly known to those in the Earth Kingdom) but cannot find any evidence that they are Firebenders.  So he takes the direct approach by accusing them of being Firebenders and wrecking their tea shop.

Hearing Zuko being referred to as “Lee” also finally triggers who Zuko had been reminding me of all this time.

It’s something that’s been bothering me for a while.

Meanwhile… bear.

Katara and Toph have no invitations, but they get Earth Kingdom’s Lex Luthor to let them in.

The battle between Jet and “Lee” ends… wait… Jet… Lee… was that on purpose?  Anyway, it ends with Jet being taken away by the Dai Li, as EVERYONE in the teahouse confirms that he attacked unprovoked and wrecked the place.  He is taken away screaming that Lee and Mushi are Firebenders, but it ends up making him look like a conspiracy theorist.

The Squad’s plan to meet with the king ends in failure, as Luthor tells them the king has no time to deal with the war.  The citizens of Ba Sing Se are left completely ignorant of the war (somehow), the king’s only concern is in protecting the city’s culture, and all war affairs are handled by Luthor.  Rather than accept this reality and offer Luthor all the info they have, they decide to be REALLY stubborn about taking it to the king.  Though to be fair, Luthor is also adamant about not talking about the war within city walls.  So all in all, complete lunacy all around.

Meanwhile, Jet gets hypnotized by the Dai Li to believe there is no war.  Yeah, he just got neuralized.

And most frighteningly, the Squad is told to communicate everything they have to say through Joo Dee… but it’s a different Joo Dee.

Which leads me to believe they probably have hundreds of these in a vat somewhere.

The next episode, “Tales of Ba Sing Se,” is pretty much a collection of smaller minisodes starring one or two characters on a regular day going about the town.

The first is Katara and Toph as they spend a girls’ day out together.

Katara treats Toph to a day spy because they deserve to feel a little “pampered,” completely ignoring Toph’s upbringing.

Toph and Katara actually end up having a bit of fun, then they beat up some bully girls that make fun of how they look.  Toph seems to actually like feeling like a girl sometimes.  It’s adorable.

Next tale is the tale of Iroh.  He seems to be gathering materials for a “special day.”  Along the way, he helps out the locals by singing for a crying child, teaching a mugger how to be more threatening (then turning his life around by telling him he could be a masseur) and helping some kids run away after they break a window.

As Iroh’s day ends, he stops at a tree to remember his fallen son and sings “Brave Soldier Boy” through tears.  By far the most moving scene in the entire series thus far.

And as if that wasn’t enough, THIS happens:

So, Mako voices Iroh, and after some research I learn he died after recording the second season.  Which means we are now aware that for the rest of the season, Iroh will be voiced by a dead man.  That is just depressing.

Due to my time being on the Internet, I know Mako is highly respected, but I honestly just didn’t have a lot of memories linked to Mako.  Sure, there’s Iroh now, and I always did love his voice, but before that, not really all that much.  I feel like his most notable role before Iroh was as Aku from Samurai Jack.  But to be perfectly honest, I fucking hated Samurai Jack, and I don’t care who knows about it.  But I WILL share my fondest pre-Iroh memory of Mako: as the Happy Cat alarm clock from Duck Dodgers.




I like to think Iroh’s siege of Ba Sing Se consisted primarily of Happy Cat taunts.

The next story is about Aang.  He helps rescues some animals.

Aang does Aang stuff.  Next!

Sokka watches a poetry reading and inadvertently gets roped into a haiku-off.

Sokka does well in the haiku-off and puts the teacher to shame.

His success gets to his head, and he does a rhyme that breaks haiku form, promptly getting him kicked out.

The next story is about Zuko, who once again proves he attracts all the best girls.

Zuko warns Iroh that he thinks the girl has caught on that they’re Firebenders… but turns out the girl, Jin, is just looking to date “Lee.”  Iroh convinces him to accept, so good for Zuko!  Ooh, ooh!  That means we’re up to Zuko: 3, Sokka: 4.  Damn, that’s sad.  Well, we’ve still got a ways to go.  You can do it, Zuko!

The two have an awkward dinner together, and Jin leads Zuko to her favorite spot, but the lights around the fountain aren’t lit.  So Zuko does something surprisingly romantic: he asks her to close her eyes while he Firebends the lights on.

Jin responds by giving Zuko a kiss, and Zuko briefly reciprocates before breaking off the date.  Back at home, Zuko admits to Iroh that his date was pretty fun.  It’s at this point that I point out he never really gave Song a chance even though she actually had a backstory, while Jin really just has, well, her body going for her.  And to be fair, it’s a damn fine one.

The final story is… Momo?  Seriously?

It does end up being pretty moving since Momo is actually wandering around the city following things that look like Appa.  He gets caught to do a street performance, captured by animal traders, and breaks free, then rests in what appears to be an actual clue towards Appa’s location.

Another good run of episodes, but one that highlights the flaw that is Aang being completely incapable of carrying an episode.  The weird political drama going on in Ba Sing Se does come out of left field a little and, honestly, sounds really REALLY stupid.  The series makes up for it with plenty of great character moments, especially in “Tales of Ba Sing Se.”  Though at this point, I’m more interested in seeing where the Zuko and Iroh story goes from here.  Gotta keep in mind, Iroh is Ba Sing Se’s most infamous enemy.  It’s actually a little disappointing that no one has recognized him by now.