ONE
We start up right where the last episode stopped: Omashu is under Fire Nation control. Sokka says, you’ll have to learn earth bending from someone else. No, Aang’s going in. Bumi’s my friend, he says.
TWO
He shows the gang a secret passage into Omashu: the sewer. Aang air bends the muck and Katara water bends it, while Sokka’s left to just wallow.
In the streets Sokka comes up out of the sewer like a monster. Katara washes him, and Aang dries him. A kind of cute, pink leech, a pentapus, is attached to his face. Aang tickles it and it releases, leaving behind red sucker marks. When a Fire Nation patrol comes upon them and asks what’s wrong with his face, the team invents pentapox. It’s contagious! Sokka acts like a zombie, and the patrol dashes away.
THREE
Azula’s old lady mentors offer her advice. Form a small elite team, they say.
FOUR
The gang contemplates where they can find Bumi.
Meanwhile, we’re introduced to Mai. She’s about as deadpan and bored as a character can be. Her father is Fire Nation governor in Omashu, and her youngest brother is a toddler, Tom-Tom. When the resistance attacks, Mai goes immediately into action, throwing knives from her sleeves. Then it’s over and she’s bored again.
Our team joins the attack, and follows the resistance underground afterward.
Now we meet Ty Lee, an acrobat with the circus. Azula is here to recruit her, an old school chum. Stammering, Ty Lee says she’s happy and doesn’t want to leave. Of course, Azula says. I’ll watch your show. Pleasant words, pleasant voice, complete menace underneath.
The resistance explains to Aang that Bumi just surrendered without a fight. It baffles them. They can’t win, but they don’t know how to safely retreat. We have thousands of citizens. Well, how about a case of pentapox?
Sokka arranges for everyone to get sucker marks, then tells them to sell it. Act sick!
As the citizens stumble like a plague of zombies, the guard sends up an alarm. Mai’s father instructs them to drive the sick from the city. Unseen, baby Tom-Tom wanders away.
While all this is going on, Aang finds Bumi’s pet, Flopsy, unchains him, and begins a search for his friend.
SWITCH
Momo flies about searching for food. Tom-Tom, playing, grabs Momo’s tail and hangs on as Momo flies away in a panic. They end up with the horde, out the city gate.
FIVE
Ty Lee on the high wire, performing. Azula in the audience insists that the net be set on fire. And that dangerous animals should be released below.
Aang and Flopsy arrive at the survivors’ camp. No sign of Bumi. Sokka informs him they have an extra person, and shows him a happy Tom-Tom.
Cut to mom, crying. Her baby’s been kidnapped.
Ty Lee announces to Azula she’s had strong hints for a career change and would like to join her.
In camp, baby Tom-Tom chews on Sokka’s boomerang. A messenger hawk brings a trade suggestion: the baby for Bumi.
Azula has arrived. With Ty Lee and Mai, she now has her elite team. When she hears about the trade agreement, she says that Mai will handle the hostage trade. She has no sympathy for their plight. “You let them leave.”
SIX
Azula declares that the city shall now be called New Ozai (her father’s name).
SEVEN
It’s team vs. team, Aang vs. Azula. Bumi is lowered in a metal coffin that lets his face show. Sokka holds the baby. A baby for a king? The deal’s off, Mai says. Recognizing Aang, Azula sends a lightning burst at him, missing.
EIGHT
Battle. Bumi, in his hoisted box, is jolly about it all. They slide, they bend, and Bumi laughs throughout. Ty Lee comes in and jams her fingers in Katara’s pressure points, taking her arms out of commission. Azula is indomitable and focused. It seems like she might catch them, until Bumi uses his chin to earth bend. Aang’s a bit furious. You could bend all along?!
Then Bumi gives a speech about the key to earth bending: waiting and listening. Whoever is to teach Aang, they will understand this principle. Bumi, still chin bending about in his coffin, will stay to watch over his city.
NINE
Appa flies the team away.
Azula will now track two targets: the Avatar and her brother. Giggles when Zuko is mentioned. Apparently, he and Mai were/are an item.
Meanwhile, Tom-Tom is silently returned to his family, which makes them happy.
CRITICAL NOTES
On the page the Two takes up a lot of space, but in the film world it moves fast. No problems there.
The Three, these creepy old witch ladies, is wonderful. Dropping them in to hit a Three beat is brilliant. They have a mythic quality — the Fates, maybe — that resonates. Placing them again at the Six is not probable, I get it. Instead, the Six has Azula respond with a kind of destiny proclamation: rename the city for the Fire Lord. I’ll grant it legitimacy as a Six beat. Thematically the beats mirror. Visually, though, it’s terrible. I would’ve preferred a tweak that better coordinated the Three/Six. Even an identical shot selection — two old ladies framed at the Three, two young friends framed at the Six — would’ve juxtaposed more fully.
Season Two is exciting. Of course, I know what’s coming (I can’t wait!), but seeing Azula’s team formation is good stuff for right now.