Avatar S2E13: "The Drill"
A high-stakes infiltration mission | Grade: A
Thanks for tuning in to my thirty-third of 61 daily reviews of Avatar: The Last Airbender! Yesterday, we watched S2E12: The Serpent’s Pass.
Team Avatar faces one of its most monumental opponents yet in this episode. There’s not even a moment to rest after The Serpent’s Pass, as they immediately encounter the Fire Nation war drill making its way straight towards the great Outer Wall of Ba Sing Se. The episode opens with a series of establishing shots that illustrate the colossal scale of the drill and its movement patterns.
The drill really hammers home the technological superiority of the Fire Nation. Mirroring many real-world instances of colonialism, the Fire Nation seems to be rapidly industrializing, granting the nation military dominance over its nonindustrial enemies. Perhaps it’s the relative inutility of fire, compared to the other elements, that forced the Fire Nation to develop alternative means of production.
The mastermind behind the drill is War Minister Qin, the high-ranking official who oversees the Fire Nation’s military technology. We met him in The Northern Air Temple as the man who blackmailed the mechanist for his designs and launched an assault against the temple. Along for the ride in the cockpit are Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee, who easily dispatch the “elite platoon” of earthbenders sent to stop the machine.
It’s Ty Lee’s fighting style that gives Sokka, who’s now officially the “idea guy,” the inspiration to take down the giant drill from the inside. And so the Gaang begins their latest infiltration mission. With the same trick that she used during her seven-on-one brawl in The Blind Bandit, Toph whips up some cover for their approach with a giant dust cloud. She stays behind as they enter the metal monstrosity, though, preferring to stay on the ground where she can see (and bend). Inside, they steal some blueprints from a hapless engineer, and begin cutting through the steel beams that hold together the outer shell.
At the same time, we get glimpses of Zuko and Iroh as they board the train that will take them within the walls of Ba Sing Se and onwards to a new life. Still hanging around since last episode is Jet, who unsuccessfully tries to convince Zuko to join his squad. But the renegade leader, who was orphaned by the Fire Nation, becomes paranoid and suspicious when Iroh not-so-slyly heats up his cold mug of tea with his firebending. Will he blow their cover? Would anyone believe him?
Back inside the metal core of the drill, Aang, Sokka, and Katara have finally cut through the last of the steel braces. All that’s left to do is get to the top of the drill to deliver the finishing blow, but it won’t be that easy: Azula and her squad are onto them! They split up. Mai and Ty Lee chases Sokka and Katara as they make their escape, and Azula follows Aang, setting up for their showdown on the hull.
And what a showdown it is! The fight is tense as Aang and Azula dodge General Sung’s falling rocks and Aang shows off his new earthbending attacks for the first time, including a rock fist that recalls Toph’s rock armor from Bitter Work. The choreography makes good usage of the setting, as a stunned Aang gets pulled under the wall and the erupting slurry sends both him and Azula careening off the edge. But the icing on the cake is Aang’s mad dash to pound the wedge deep into the drill, sending Azula absolutely flying from the impact like she’s Team Rocket. The Avatar theme kicks in perfectly to elevate the raw destruction of the moment into something sublime.
The episode ends on a hopeful and affectionate note, as if to give the viewer a moment to sit and reflect on how far the Gaang has come to finally reach the great city of Ba Sing Se. Can they finally find safety and a much-deserved respite within its walls?
Though The Drill lacks the broader significance in the series to bring it to the level of one of Avatar’s greatest episodes, it ratchets up the stakes with the Fire Nation’s ferocious attack on the last great Earth Kingdom stronghold. Maybe I’m just a sucker for the drama that comes with such monumental scale, but this story felt like a fitting, if temporary, climax for the mounting tension of the past few episodes.
See you tomorrow for Episode 14: City of Walls and Secrets! Share your own thoughts on this episode in the comments.
Spare observations
The drill was briefly seen in the the mechanist’s blueprints in The Northern Air Temple.
The walls of Ba Sing Se are, obviously, inspired by the Great Wall of China. The Earth Kingdom in general, and the capital specifically, take a lot of inspiration from dynastic China.
“That’s why the city is named Ba Sing Se. It's the ‘impenetrable city.’ They don't call it Na Sing Se. That means ‘penetrable city.’”
“Get a hold of yourself, man!”
Iroh is still using the name “Mushi” that Zuko gave him in Episode 2. And Mushi is a flirt. “But may I just say you're like a flower in bloom. Your beauty is intoxicating.” “You're pretty easy on the eyes yourself, handsome. Rawrr!”
Underrated running gag: Jet’s crew responding to Longshot’s silent stares. “I can respect that.”
“I can't see a thing!” “Oh no, what a nightmare!”
As Jet and Zuko talk, you can see Iroh (carelessly) turn away to heat his tea in the background.
The flirtation across enemy lines continues between Sokka and Ty Lee.
“General Sung, tell your soldiers to stop shooting rocks down here!” “Soldiers, whatever you do, don't stop shooting rocks down there!”
Sokka coins “Team Avatar” and “The Aang Gang” (aka, the Gaang) in this episode. Katara tells him “no matter how many times you say it, it's not going to catch on.” Little did she know…
Friends of the White Lotus [SPOILERS]
The traumatized Jet isn’t about to forget what he thinks he saw. Or at least, not by choice…
“What I’d give to be a metalbender…” [foreshadowing intensifies]