ONE
The team is at a crossroads kiosk. A nearby village advertizes a Fire Nation festival.
TWO
On the backside of the board are wanted posters. The most prominent is of Aang, but he isn’t worried. The festival seems a great opportunity for him to find a fire bending teacher. They’ll attend and wear disguises.
THREE
Another wanted poster is of the Blue Spirit. That’s a fun detail. We get a push-in, though, on the third wanted poster: an unknown person with two vertical scars running through his eye area.
FOUR
The team, wearing hoods, buy masks from a vendor. It’s a better disguise. An exhibitor performs fire bending magic tricks. Aang wants to go onstage for a better look, but it’s Katara who’s called out from the crowd. Reluctantly, she participates in the “Taming of the Dragon” trick. Aang becomes confused, though, and defends Katara from what he thinks is a real attack. Now he’s recognized. As they run away a man who has been shadowing them, Chey, helps them escape.
Chey takes them to a former Fire Nation general, Jeong Jeong. He’s a fire bending genius, apparently. When Aang asks JJ to train him, though, he’s refused. He’s not ready, JJ says, until he’s mastered water and earth. Of course, JJ is the man with two scars from the wanted poster.
Meanwhile, Zhao is at the village. He learns of and follows the Avatar.
SWITCH
As JJ continues to refuse Aang he’s given a vision. Avatar Roku confronts him and tells him to train Aang. He’s mastered the elements in many lives, so the order is not important. And, of course, no one from the Fire Nation can refuse their former Avatar.
FIVE
And so he begins. The training doesn’t go fast enough for Aang. Too much concentrating and breathing, not enough fire making. When JJ walks away Aang practices more than he’s been tasked. As Katara tries to persuade him to follow his teacher, Aang pushes the lesson and burns her. He’s horrified. Katara runs away crying, hurt.
Seeking to ease the burn, Katara puts her hands in the river. Her skin starts to glow and her injuries disappear. JJ sees. Sometimes water benders have healing power, too, he says. He’s spent the whole episode warning about fire, how destructive it can be without patience, and now he gets to envy the water bender power. Oh, and you all need to leave.
Before they can go, though, Zhao finds them.
SIX
JJ confronts Zhao, his former pupil, and then disappears. Jeong Jeong In at the Three, Jeong Jeong Out at the Six.
SEVEN
Meanwhile, Aang sits reclusively in JJ’s hut. I’ll never fire bend again, he says. Aang isn’t asked to fire bend anymore in this episode, so this decision isn’t directly relevant. It might be important in the future. (We’ll see.) It also allows him to return to his comfortable air bending without the pressure of learning more skills.
EIGHT
Now that Katara’s healed and Zhao is attacking, Aang’s back in the fight. He and Zhao duel one-on-one. As usual, Aang’s technique is to side step, but he also remembers that JJ said his pupil has no self-control. Aang dodges, tricking Zhao to throw fireballs that miss him and hit the boats Zhao came in. He taunts him: I thought you’d be better than Zuko. Ha, that’s harsh. When Zhao realizes he’s burned his fleet, Aang leaves.
NINE
On Appa, Katara is able to heal Aang’s burns from his fight. Sokka gets to complain about the many times he’s been injured, including the two fish hooks in his thumb, and Katara never did any healing on him. (“Two fish hooks?” Aang asks. “He used the second one to try to remove the first one,” Katara answers.)