Thanks for tuning in to my third of 61 daily reviews of Avatar: The Last Airbender! Yesterday, we watched S1E2: The Avatar Returns.
In this episode, our adventuring trio makes the first stop on their journey: the Southern Air Temple, Aang’s erstwhile home. From the beginning, Katara displays wisdom and empathy when dealing with Aang, while Sokka is chiefly concerned with his gnawing appetite. Despite her limited years, losing her mother and watching her father leave to fight the Fire Nation has already taught her the ephemerality of life’s circumstances. And since nobody has seen an airbender for a hundred years, since the war began, she’s smart enough to understand where they went. “A lot can change in all that time,” she cautiously warns an enthusiastic Aang.
However, when they arrive at the breathtaking Air Temple, a gorgeous array of spires on a towering mountain peak, Katara loses her nerve. Aang, overcome with nostalgia, recalls his time with the wise trickster Monk Gyatso, a mentor and clear father figure for Aang. So when Katara and Sokka find evidence that the Fire Nation has raided the temple, she hides it from Aang out of a material instinct to shield him from the devastation of grief. But for once, Sokka has the right advice: “you know, you can’t protect him forever.”
In fact, she can’t even protect him for the rest of the episode. Aang’s illusions are shattered when he finds the grisly skeleton of his dear Gyatso, surrounded by the remains of Fire Nation soldiers. Unable to reckon with the brutal reality of the new world he finds himself in, his tattoos begin to glow once more and he loses control, floating at the center of a raging tornado that threatens to blow his companions off the mountain. Like in the last episode, only Katara’s voice is able to get through to Aang. Her empathy seems to allow her to form a deep connection with the young Avatar, and her heartfelt words are able to bring him down from the brink.
Aang! I know you’re upset and I know how hard it is to lose the people you love. I went through the same thing when I lost my mom.
Monk Gyatso and the other airbenders may be gone, but you still have a family. Sokka and I! We’re your family now!
Katara doesn’t try to console Aang over the genocide of his people or minimize his pain. But she understands the deep feeling of loneliness that must be consuming him, and reassures him that no matter what, he will never be alone, that he has people who care for him. In that moment, she and Sokka rise to their destiny by committing themself to the last airbender. Aang’s loss of control here acts like a physical and spiritual manifestation of his trauma response. In the aftermath, his optimistic and indomitable spirit allows him to snap out of it and focus on the present, but he will carry the weight of his grief forever. Notably, Aang does not focus any attention in this moment on the genociders, the Fire Nation, or call for vengeance. Whether that can be attributed to shock or the peaceful ways of the monks, it is a deliberate choice that Avatar makes, as if to say: in the face of great suffering, we must focus on moving forward to address the root of the problem, instead of perpetuating a cycle of pain.”
The trip to the Southern Air Temple isn’t all bad news. As if to emphasize that Aang isn’t all alone, we meet the newest member of Team Avatar, the flying lemur Momo! “We’re all that’s left of this place,” he tells Appa and Momo sadly. “We need to stick together.” Momo’s pucklike personality is a good fit for Aang, and he may even represent the late Gyatso’s spirit watching over Aang.
Over in Zuko-land, we meet one more important character, the snarling Commander Zhao. The Fire Nation warlord with his domineering demeanor serves not only as explicit competition for Zuko in his quest, but also as a critical foil. We get a glimpse into his backstory from Zhao’s cruel comments:
You're just a banished prince… Your own father doesn't even want you.
So when the Prince and Commander engage in a traditional Agni Kai fire-duel, set to an exhilarating score by Jeremy Zuckerman, we find ourselves rooting for Zuko. He shows flexibility in battle and exercises mercy by refusing to mark his victory with the ritual branding of his opponent. In stark contrast, Zhao attempts to strike Zuko when his back is turned, but Iroh intercepts the blow and offers moral judgment:
Prince Zuko. Do not taint your victory. So this is how the great Commander Zhao acts in defeat? Disgraceful. Even in exile, my nephew is more honorable than you.
See you tomorrow for Episode 3: The Warriors of Kyoshi! Share your own thoughts on this episode in the comments.
Spare observations
This episode contains Katara’s first mention of her mother, who was apparently killed by the Fire Nation.
Gyatso is taken from the name of the current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso.
Early in the episode, Aang tricks Sokka into waking up by pretending there’s a snake under his covers. Aang clearly got his love for pranks from Monk Gyatso. He flashes back to a great moment where the two seem poised to eat their fruit pies, only to launch them onto the heads of four distant monks.
We learn about the Avatar’s cycle of rebirth and see a statue of his past incarnation, the firebender Roku. When Aang’s Avatar spirit is unleashed, the statues pick up on his energy and also broadcast it to other holy sites, alerting the Four Nations of the Avatar’s return.
Aang’s Avatar spirit alerts the sages in other nations’ temples of his return.
Clearly, there’s more to Uncle Iroh than meets the eye. Zhao addresses the old man respectfully as “General Iroh, great hero of our nation.” And he catches Zhao’s strike and effortlessly tosses him aside.
Aang picks the name “Momo,” the Japanese word for peach, after his new pet steals one from Sokka.
Friends of the White Lotus [SPOILERS]
Over the course of the series, we learn more about how Aang was raised by the monks of the Southern Air Temple. Some commentators speculate that he never actually knew the identity of his parents (at least, he never references them in the show). So Gyatso is truly the closest thing to a father that Aang has ever known.
Iroh reminds Zuko what happened “last time [he] dueled a master.” Fortunately for him, Zhao is no Ozai.
As I discussed earlier, this episode may be the first to illustrate Zuko’s good qualities, laying the groundwork for his arc.
According to the wiki, “the writers almost did an episode based on the idea that Momo was the reincarnated Monk Gyatso,” but it didn’t make the cut.