This is the episode I wish I could just skip. It’s too sad.
ONE
Desolate, vast, and sandy. Each of our team faces out on the desert, looking in a different direction. Turning around, Aang yells at Toph for letting Appa be taken. She defends herself with reasonable explanations, and Aang explodes, accusing her of not caring. Katara intervenes, supporting Toph. Sokka gives a pessimistic view of the entire situation.
TWO
Aang won’t hear any of it. He goes airborne to look for Appa.
THREE
Katara assumes leadership. They must get the information about the solar eclipse to Ba Sing Se. They start walking.
FOUR
Cut to a cactus. We’re with Zuko and Iroh riding double on the bird horse thing. Overexaggerating, Iroh wails. Zuko stops to make camp, and the mount lifts its head at a noise. We get a glimpse of bad guys moving fast. Four men surround Zuko. Iroh steps forward to greet Colonel Mongke and his gang. All four of them taunt, readying their weapons. “You know these guys?” Zuko asks. They’re the Rough Rhinos, Iroh answers, each one a different specialist. (Meanwhile, Iroh smiles, lol. Riding the bird upset him more than this.) He offers them tea.
When they attack, Iroh goes into action, parrying their different throws. Zuko takes out the archer. Grabbing the bird, Iroh mounts and runs, with Zuko jumping on behind. As they ride away, Zuko comments that it would be better if Iroh had old friends who didn’t want to attack him. This sets off a lightbulb for Iroh.
Back to the glaring sun and our exhausted crew. Katara urges them on. When Toph asks for water, Katara bends each of them a drop from her reserve pouch. It’s not enough (and it’s “swampy”, lol), but Sokka spots a cactus and hacks off a piece. Katara cautions him, but there’s water inside. Sokka and Momo drink.
Close-up of Sokka’s pupil as it dilates. He drug-trips on the cactus juice, and Katara takes the rest of it away from him.
Aang, an angry and resolute expression on his face, glides over waves of sand. He blows the bison whistle and calls out. Landing and twirling, he can see nothing but barren desert. Tears threaten. He thwacks an air bend that sets off a mushroom cloud of dust.
Our team, walking, sees the explosion in the distance and feels the blow of sand. Sokka, so happy, continues his cactus high.
SWITCH
Cut to a rustic desert village. Master Yu and Xin Fu track the Avatar. They see a board with Fire Nation wanted posters. Turning, they recognize Zuko and Iroh entering the square.
FIVE
A miserable sun. Our team walking as dusk approaches. Aang lands next to them. Katara tries to be peppy, but Aang is depressed, Toph is overwhelmed by “sand pudding”, and Sokka, high, points up to the “circle birds”. However, Katara powers them forward, refusing to quit. We see a POV from the birds, a kind of vulture wasp, hovering over their path.
As the sun sets, Katara wants them to walk through the night. Everyone collapses. Katara doles out a little more of her bending water, but Momo (who also drank from the cactus) dives through the droplet and scatters it. Sokka freaks out, but Katara just bends the water back up from the sand.
From Sokka’s pack, Katara takes the library scrolls he stole so she can find a map to Ba Sing Se. While she gauges their position from the constellations, everyone else crashes.
Dissolve to the town where Iroh and Zuko have tea. Zuko disparages the “filthy wanderers” who populate the shop. Iroh, though, sees an old man waiting at a Pai Sho table and approaches. Meanwhile in the shadows, Master Yu and Xin Fu wait for the right moment to grab them. At the table, Iroh “favors the white lotus gambit” by putting the tile dead center on the board. The two men recite ceremonial phrases (which are probably a code) and begin to play. Zuko, of course, misses the subtlety.
Like Zuko, Xin Fu is also impatient with the “geezers”. He accosts them. The Pai Sho man stands up and loudly announces the bounty these two will bring. (Yu already warned about too many people knowing money was involved.) Every wanderer in the shop perks up. Knives come out. Surrounded, Xin Fu and Yu must fight. They defeat the room, but Iroh and Zuko have snuck out during the commotion.
Back in the desert, Momo pats sand over a sleeping Sokka. Katara wakes them all. Aang’s been awake, though. As he rises he spots a shadow crossing the moon. “Appa!” No, it’s just a cloud. Katara realizes what that means, and asks Aang to fly up and bend out its water. Sulking, he does it. When Katara remarks how little water the cloud made, Aang shouts at her. She keeps them moving.
Toph, frustrated with her blindness in the sand, trips over something. Rubbing her bruised foot, she asks, “What idiot buried a boat in the desert?” Aang swooshes it clear, revealing one of the sand bender’s gliders. It has a compass, and Aang can make a breeze. They’ll get out of here.
Sokka, giggling, pats sand over Momo.
Back at the town, Zuko and Iroh are led to a side building. They’re in a storeroom and the old man bows to Iroh, “a high-ranking member of the Order of the White Lotus”. Zuko, cranky and disbelieving, is left behind as the other two enter a secret back room. Members only.
The sand glider speeds across the desert as Aang keeps a steady gust going. However, the compass doesn’t point north. It leads them to a giant rock formation. Toph, hearing “rock”, perks up.
They watch the sunrise from the top. Toph makes a snow angel on the rock surface. Behind them are ominous tunnels. As they enter, Sokka feels better, more clear-headed. He immediately licks some goo sticking to the tunnel walls. Now he (and Momo) are woozy again. While Katara yells at him, Toph can feel that the tunnels were carved, and that something down deep is buzzing.
Running out of the caves, they’re chased by the vulture wasps. Battle on the mountaintop. Toph can’t target flying things, and Katara’s out of water. Then one of the wasps grabs Momo. That’s it for Aang; he takes off after, not willing to lose anyone else. The other three head down the cliff path, Katara telling Toph where and when to fire her rock bending.
Sky battle. Once Aang unbalances the wasp, Momo is free and can fly along with him. They keep chasing until Aang, grim-faced, kills it.
The others continue to fight at the bottom of the mountain. Suddenly an intentional dust storm blows the wasps away. When it clears, sand benders are revealed. Crew and ships surround our team. Aang lands in between, facing off.
Daytime in the town as Iroh emerges from the secret room. The plan is to go to Ba Sing Se, where no one will notice two more refugees. Outside the storeroom, though, are Xin Fu and Master Yu, looking for them.
SIX
Back to the rock. “What are you doing in our land with a sand-bender’s sailer?” the leader asks. Katara calmly explains their story, even though the man accuses them of theft.
SEVEN
A younger man, after hearing her story, scoffs and threatens. Close on Toph’s eyes as they narrow. The older man shushes the brash one and offers hospitality. Toph, though, recognizes the voice of the son. He stole Appa, she announces. Aang, staff out, confronts them immediately. When the son denies it, Aang smashes one of their boats with an air burst. Close on his angry face as he demands his bison.
EIGHT
At the storeroom, a young man brings out two large flower pots on a cart. As he walks away, Xin Fu and Yu burst through the door he just closed. They’ve heard about the secret back room, and they kick down the door. The room is empty except for a lone white lotus tile. Outside of town, the man drags the cart through the sand. With a cartoon “swoop” noise each flower lifts up to show Iroh and Zuko hiding in the pots.
Back to Aang as he destroys another boat. The father turns to the son and asks, “What did you do?” Son tries to lie, and Toph retorts, “You said to put a muzzle on him.” Aang goes into the Avatar state, he’s so outraged.
Son decides to tell the truth now. He traded Appa to merchants who would probably sell him in Ba Sing Se. Avatar dust whips around, turning into a small hurricane. Sokka, leading Toph, runs out of the damage path and tells the sand benders to do the same. Katara, with a face full of sorrow, trudges forward and takes Aang’s arm. She coaxes him down and holds him. He lets go of the Avatar state.
NINE
(There is no Nine. Without Appa, this episode can’t resolve.)
CRITICAL NOTES
I wish the mirror of sand-patting — Momo burying Sokka up to the chin and Sokka, later, doing the same to Momo — were the Three/Six. So beautiful! I don’t think I could make it happen, though, and I don’t blame the showrunners for picking Katara acting like an adult as the Three/Six. It’s not as visually glamorous, but it suffices.
I didn’t delve to see if the Zuko section had a parallel Enneagram. It doesn’t feel like it will. They match the general beats, though. Avatar team separate at the Four, rejoined at the Five; Zuko and Iroh wandering at their Four, under the wing of the White Lotus at the Five. It works well. I’m a little wary that the Switch comes early, but these beats seem clear.
The Seven is probably the best sequence of the whole episode. Look at those decisions. The son’s weasel choices fuel some strong Aang responses, which is juicy goodness for storytelling. We worry about Appa and we want revenge just as much as Aang does. The flow of this arc is satisfying and upsetting. We won’t see Appa again for a few more episodes, so this tension will continue. And when we do . . . I can’t bear to think about his side of the story. It’s my least favorite part of the whole series.