Yeah, we’re halfway through the season.  There was no flippin’ chance Aang was taking out Ozai during the eclipse.

Aang returns from the Firelord’s palace and reveals it was empty.  Which means Fire Nation knew the invasion was coming and moved Ozai to some hidden location.

The eclipse is coming soon, but the invasion is heading straight into a trap.  Faced with the decision to continue on and find the Firelord or take the opportunity to escape while they still can, Aang chooses to at least try.  So he takes Sokka and Toph with him to located Ozai.

Toph is able to detect a hidden underground bunker and leads the trio through a labyrinth.

They break into a chamber that seems like it’s for the Firelord, but inside is Azula, waiting for them.  Of course, since it’s the eclipse, she’s completely powerless.  That doesn’t stop her from taunting like a pro, though.  Just when it seems like they won’t take her bait, she taunts Sokka about Suki’s imprisonment.

Elsewhere, Zuko approaches Ozai and tells him he’s switching over to the Avatar’s side.  Before Zuko can leave on that note, Ozai baits him into staying by talking about his mother and how she offered to have herself banished in order to save Zuko… since Ozai was planning on killing Zuko as an offering to Azulon so Ozai could become Firelord instead of Iroh.

Man, fuck this family.

Anyway, that was enough time for the eclipse to end and everyone to get their Firebending back.

And in one of Zuko’s most badass scenes, Ozai attacks him with lightning, but Zuko redirects it back at him.  He probably could have finished him off right then and there, but DESTINY.

The end of the eclipse also means the invasion is utterly screwed.  And if they didn’t already think they were screwed: WAR BALLOONS.

Zuko could have gone straight to Aang, but instead he tries to free Iroh.  Iroh decided he was going to help himself.

The war balloon fleet destroys the invasion fleet, leaving them with no way to escape.  Left with no choice, the older men choose to surrender while the younger members of the invasion escape on Appa.  This means, traveling with the core group will be Haru, The Duke, and Teo.  And yes, that includes Teo’s wheelchair.

As the youngsters fly off with Appa and leave the failed invaders behind, Zuko gives chase in a war balloon.

In the next episode, the Squad lands at the Western Air Temple.

But Zuko is also there, and we learn that Zuko once arrived at the Western Air Temple with Iroh early in his quest to restore honor by capturing the Avatar.

Zuko worries about how to approach the Squad and awkwardly tries out some potential introductions.  Meanwhile, Aang tries to ignore training since they don’t have a Firebending instructor.  But then Zuko shows up and is all “I wanna teach you Firebending.”

Naturally, he isn’t trusted, especially after he lets it slip that he sent Combustion Man against them.

However, despite being one of the first to engage in the Zuko hate, Toph admonishes the others for their Zuko hate, since Aang needs a Firebender.  So that night, she sneaks off and tries to talk with Zuko.  But Zuko gets startled and accidentally burns her feet.

Apparently, it takes Toph all night to make it back to the Squad, and Katara starts healing Toph’s feet.  When they find out Zuko did this, they figure it’s time to take him out.

But then Combustion Man shows up to capture the Avatar.  Or wreck the place.  It’s not exactly clear.

Zuko can’t stop the Combustion Man, but he proves a worthy distraction for Sokka to boomerang his eye, resulting in CM blowing himself up.  He dead.

After witnessing Zuko seemingly prove that he’s on their side, the group decides to let him join.  But Katara has a nice chat with him where she promises to kill him if he steps out of line.

In the next episode, Zuko seems to have lost his Firebending power, so he and Aang head to the ancient ruins of the Sun Warriors, servants of the source of Firebending, the Fire Dragons, much like how the source of Earthbending is the Badgermoles, and the source of Airbending is the Skybison.  I think the source of Waterbending is still just the moon, though.  So uh… yeah.

When they get to the ruins, Zuko reveals that the Dragons were hunted to extinction, and Iroh was the one who killed the last of them.

The entrance to one of the ruins has the same mechanism as the Roku statue, meaning it won’t open until the solstice.  But Zuko cheats the system with SCIENCE.

Inside is a series of statues in a circle, depicting some kind of dance.  Aang triggers a pressure plate and figures they need to perform the dance.  So he gets Zuko to do the dance with him.

The dance triggers a treasure to appear in the center of the room, and Zuko takes it because there’s no reason for it to be trapped.  Except when it turns out it’s trapped.

The two get captured by Sun Warriors, because turns out they’re still alive.

Rather than get sacrificed by, say, getting thrown into a volcano, they have to prove their worth to the Firebending Masters by taking a part of the Eternal Flame up to them.

Turns out the Firebending Masters are… yep, Dragons.

Aang suggests they perform the dragon dance to appease the dragons, and it totally works.

The two are surrounded by a whirl of colorful fire, which somehow shows them the true nature of Firebending.

Turns out fire ISN’T just destruction, it’s energy and life.  Also, I called this day 1.  Or was it day 2?

With this realization, Zuko has his bending back, and Aang broke through his anti-Firebending mental block.  Huzzah!

Next episode, Sokka wants to break into a high-security prison to free his dad if he’s there.

Rather than take Appa, they take Zuko’s war balloon, which was NOT wrecked… until they wreck it landing near the prison.

The prison is called Boiling Rock since it’s situated in the middle of a boiling lake.  And, I guess, it’s a reference to “the rock” itself, Alcatraz “The Rock” Johnson.

They have zero success finding Hakoda since he’s not actually at the prison.  But Sokka sees Suki, so good enough.  While Sokka meets with Suki in her cell, Zuko is forced to break his cover to give them time.  We then learn that the warden is Mai’s uncle, so he’s giving Zuko extra crap.

The three come up with a plan to escape and are overheard by Chit Sang, one of the prisoners.  He wants in on the escape plan or he’s telling the warden.  Fair deal.

However, Sokka overhears the guards talk about new prisoners coming in, and he decides to stay an extra night just in case Hakoda is one of them.

Chit Sang and some of his friends try to escape, but he makes too much noise and gets caught.

Meanwhile, Sokka confirms that Hakoda is one of the prisoners, so now he has to come up with a new plan.

Meanwhile, Mai has shown up to chew Zuko out for breaking up with her via letter, but Zuko is dedicated to his helping-the-Avatar destiny.

Also meanwhile, Chit Sang is interrogated and admits he had help from one of the guards.  He points out said guard as… not Sokka.  Awww.

Sokka finally reveals his plan: cause a prison riot, capture the warden in the confusion, and escape via the cable cars.  It works out pretty well.

But it doesn’t go too smoothly since Azula and Ty Lee give chase in ridiculous fashion.

During the fight, the warden orders his men to cut the line, which would result in his death, but hey… gotta respect the man for sticking to his guns and making good on his threat that he would rather die in boiling water than let any prisoners escape.

Unexpectedly, Mai puts a stop to the line-cutting and helps the prisoners escape.

When Azula returns and seems about to punish Mai for his treachery, Ty Lee does the unthinkable and uses her whatever-it-is-she-does to seal away Azula’s Firebending.  She tells Mai to escape, but they’re immediately surrounded, and Azula orders them locked away because now she has zero friends.

So, everyone returns to the Air Temple along with three allies and a tearful reunion.

Yeah, the prison escapade really didn’t need to be a two-parter.  And I just want to put it out there: for the entire disc, Haru, Teo, and The Duke have been part of the group, and each of them barely had even one line.  It’s an utter waste, and I don’t think the addition of Chit Sang, a second Firebender for the group, probably isn’t going to be making much of an impact either, what with there only being 6 episodes left.  It’s clear the series is only concerned with the core group.

Also, can I just say it’s incredibly weird having Zuko in the main group?  Not because Zuko is in the group per se, but because we no longer have Zuko-focused B-stories.