Oh, what a great episode to watch after a long break! Finally, Toph. Yay!
ONE
Sokka, shopping in a city, wants to buy a bag. It’s too expensive, but he gets it anyway. On the street a salesman approaches Aang with a flier for an earth bending academy. We’re reminded that the Avatar needs a teacher.
TWO
Cut to Aang in a silly uniform, surrounded by a bunch of little kids taking class. Master Yu teaches. (It’s pretty much the kind of “quick karate” school we’d see in our own time.) Aang leaves, knowing this isn’t the training for him. Two students walking by speak about an earth bending tournament. When Aang, excited, asks them about it, they ridicule him and don’t respond.
THREE
Katara will take care of this: “Hey, strong guys, wait up,” she says with a flirting voice as she pursues them around a corner. She returns, saying, “We’re going to Earth Rumble Six.” How did she do it? We get a shot of the two boys, perpendicular to the street, encased in ice against the buildings.
FOUR
Our team takes front row seats in an arena. The MC, Host Xin Fu, announces the first battle: The Boulder vs. Hippo. (The Boulder, who always speaks in the third person, is wonderfully written and hilariously voiced. He’s a born meme.) The Boulder basically takes out a series of contestants with different earth bending techniques.
Then Xin Fu announces the “moment you’ve been waiting for, your champion.” Out steps a young girl lifting a championship belt over her head. It’s the Blind Bandit. She immediately taunts her opponent as “The Pebble” and laughs. In a flash of remembrance, Aang sees his vision from the swamp. It’s the cloudy eyes and the sharp laugh that are the key. Now we see her fight. Close on her ear, and the world goes black and white with sonic vibrations from every footstep and slide. Of course, she wins again, knocking The Boulder from the arena platform. “She waited and listened,” Aang says, impressed.
Xin Fu now offers a sack of gold to anyone who can defeat the champion. Aang, still in his silly student uniform, steps up. He really just wants to ask her to be his teacher, excited to have found her, but he takes the wrong approach. The Bandit attacks — do these people really want to see two little girls fight, she asks, ridiculing his young voice — and misses when Aang jumps aside. “Somebody’s light on his feet.” She can’t get a bead on him, and he ends up air bending her off the platform. “Please, wait,” he calls, still trying to convince her to teach him. She bends through a solid wall, slamming it behind her. Aang ends up with the trophy belt.
SWITCH
In the city market square, Sokka marvels how the championship belt matches his new bag. The team approaches the academy on the chance they’ll know of the Blind Bandit. When no one knows of her, Aang describes her as a girl in a white dress with a pet flying boar, the image from the swamp. Students point them to the richest family in town, whose mascot is that boar.
FIVE
The Boulder and Xin Fu have a meeting under the arena. Neither saw earth bending (and they didn’t recognize the air bending) when Aang beat the Blind Bandit. She fell out on purpose — cheated — and took a dive so they could split the purse, is their conclusion.
A boar plaque marks the very fancy house of the Beifong family. Our team climbs over the wall and sneaks through the landscaping. Wandering the grounds in her white dress, Toph catches them. How did you find me, Twinkle Toes? Aang explains about the swamp and that he’s the Avatar. Not my problem, she says, and calls out as if helpless so the guard will come.
As she arrives home, Toph joins her parents and Master Yu for tea. An important visitor is announced: the Avatar. At the dinner table Aang impresses by sending a little air tornado to cool Toph’s soup. Meanwhile, he drops hints about Toph being a great earth bender, and she bends his chair so he face plants in the soup.
That night, Toph comes to the team room and offers a truce. She and Aang walk in the grounds while she explains how she can see with her feet. Her parents don’t understand. Aang invites her to join them, which she declines. She startles at a sonic vibration.
SIX
It’s an ambush. Aang and Toph are trapped by Xin Fu, locked in metal boxes.
SEVEN
A ransom note sends family and team to the arena. Toph is released and returned, but Aang is kept. The Fire Nation has offered a reward, and Xin Fu intends to collect. Aang sends everyone away — “I’ll be okay” — but the team fights and asks Toph to join. “We need you.” Toph’s father, who says she’s too blind and tiny to fight, settles Toph’s resolve. She fights.
EIGHT
Toph takes them all, while her father and Master Yu watch. With her slight smile and her small sidestep, she throws one after the other off of the platform. Although her father cringes for her, Yu is happy. “Your daughter’s amazing! I never knew.” (It’s sweet that he’s supportive.) Xin Fu is the last to get tossed. He jumps and twirls in the air as he bends, but his hand touches the ground and Toph’s got him. Yu says, “She’s the greatest earth bender I’ve ever seen!”
Back at her house, Toph tells her family how much she loves fighting. She apologizes for keeping her bending a secret, but now that she’s 12 she wants to bend openly. “I’m really good.” Her father’s response: I’ve let you have too much freedom. Increase the guards and escort the Avatar out. He’s no longer welcome.
Overlooking the city, the team comforts Aang. We’ll find you a teacher, Katara says. “Not like her,” Aang responds. And there she is, running up to join them. “My dad changed his mind.” Of course she’s welcome. She immediately demands the return of her championship belt from Sokka. He tosses it to her, which she can’t see, and it hits her on the head.
NINE
Father Beifong meets with Master Yu and Xin Fu. He offers them money to bring home his daughter who was kidnapped by the Avatar.
Meanwhile, Toph rides on Appa, wind in her hair, as she flies away with the gang.
CRITICAL NOTES
It’s Toph! (I’m so excited, I must cheer at the beginning and the end.)
Structurally, it’s all sound. One interesting slant is the Three/Six mirror. Did the showrunners know they were hitting it? Two people are trapped by someone else’s — malign intent? bullying? selfish agenda? — action. At the Six we resent Xin Fu’s aggression. At the Three we’re supposed to cheer Katara’s boldness. When we stack the two beats together, though, Katara looks a lot more like Xin Fu than maybe anyone intended. Yeah, those two students were wankers, but did that give Katara license to box them in ice? Xin Fu genuinely believes that Aang cheated him. (Without seeing the air bending, it’s not a ridiculous assumption.) Yet, we’re outraged that he cages Aang and Toph. I think the mirror is a subconscious connection. I don’t see intent. It’s certainly interesting, though!