Avatar S2E8: "The Chase"
Enemies and traitors, all working together | Grade: A
Thanks for tuning in to my twenty-eighth of 61 daily reviews of Avatar: The Last Airbender! Yesterday, we watched S2E7: Zuko Alone.
Team Avatar has grown by one, and the Gaang is already buckling under the new dynamics. As Azula and company track our heroes repeatedly in a swift mechanical tank, they’re forced to pull an all-nighter. Everyone is running on fumes. It only widens the rift between Katara and Toph, who refuses to help set up camp. “I’m fine,” she curtly tells a frustrated Katara, missing the point. “I can carry my own weight.”
Even Appa is exhausted, and when he literally falls asleep in the air, Aang needs to make a crash landing. But the drama escalates when Toph blames Appa for their predicament, noting correctly that Azula’s squad has been following his trail of shedding fur. But the usually peace-keeping Avatar won’t stand for insults to his oldest companion, and blows up.
You're always talking about how you carry your own weight, but you're not. He is! Appa's carrying your weight.
Toph’s over the whole affair, and walks out. Is Aang’s earthbending journey over before it begins?
Toph’s refusal to help out is a symptom of a deep insecurity that her confident bravado masks. Though she knows she’s strong, years of confinement by her parents have made her hyper-focused on proving it. After being denied her independence for her entire life, she won’t tolerate anything that might possibly infringe on it. She projects these fears onto all of her interactions. Collaboration is an anathema for Toph — to her, any reliance on others shows weakness.
She even takes it as a slight when Iroh, whom she’s very fortunate to bump into, respectfully serves her tea. “I know what you're thinking. I look like I can't handle being by myself… You wouldn't even let me pour my own cup of tea!” But Zuko’s wise uncle recognizes the parallels between the stubborn Toph and his own nephew.
You sound like my nephew, always thinking you need to do things on your own, without anyone's support. There is nothing wrong with letting the people who love you help you.
Iroh also reveals that he’s been trailing the prince the whole time. Toph is touched by his delicate love for Zuko, which is so unlike what she herself has received. She takes his words to heart and decides to open up and return to the Gaang. As they part, Toph drops wisdom of her own beyond her years. When Iroh catches up to his nephew, she suggests, “maybe you should tell him that you need him, too.”
Meanwhile, Aang attempts to misdirect Azula by leaving a trail of Appa’s fur, sending Sokka and Katara in a different direction on Appa. But the Fire Nation princess is far too clever for that and sees right through the trick. She sends Mai and Ty Lee after the siblings, and sets out on her own after Aang.
Katara and Sokka just barely manage to crash Appa on the far side of a river as they outrun Mai and Ty Lee on their mongoose lizard mounts. But awesomely, the two lizards just run across the river on their hind legs, because why not? There’s a brief fight, and Ty Lee jabs Sokka’s limbs until he resembles a wacky waving inflatable arm-flailing tube man. (He gets a small victory when he just bonks his hard head right into her fist. “Good try, but no.”) Mai pins Katara to a tree with her knives, but just like in Omashu Returns, it’s Appa who saves the day, sending the two foes hurtling down the river with a giant swipe of his tail.
In final act, we’re back to Aang for a showdown in the ghost town, which brings more of the Western aesthetic from Zuko Alone. Azula catches up with Aang, who waits patiently for her. She gives Aang a more proper introduction with a pretty funny impression of her brother. “You don’t see the resemblance?… ‘I must find the Avatar to restore my honor.’”
But as she closes in, another challenger arrives. Zuko himself has followed Azula’s tracks, bursting onto the scene between his sister and the Avatar. “He’s mine.” We get a classic Mexican standoff between the three of them (I guess Aang is the Good, Azula is the Bad, and Zuko’s the Ugly?). Azula breaks the tension by firing at Zuko, and a frantic volley of back-and-forth blasts ensues. The fight doesn’t live up to the raw creativity of, say, The Blue Spirit, but it’s well choreographed and makes good use of the abandoned buildings, like when Aang tries to trick Azula into a second-story room with a missing floor — she barely catches herself, but Zuko runs headlong in and crashes to the ground.
Things get interesting when Sokka, Katara, Toph, and Iroh all arrive at the same time and corner Azula, who relents. “I know when I'm beaten. You got me. A princess surrenders with honor.” But her barely-concealed smirk isn’t fooling us. Iroh is momentarily distracted when he notices the girl he met is now with the Avatar, and Azula pounces, striking him in the chest with a vicious fire blast. Iroh hurtles to the ground in front of his nephew, whose horror is emphasized with a Hitchcock zoom.
Aang, Katara, Toph, and Zuko all fire at Azula, and it’s the first time in Avatar that we’ve seen all four elements at once. (Sokka throws his boomerang, too. Thanks, king.) But in a move reminiscent of Jeong Jeong in The Deserter, Azula bends an explosive fire shield around her and vanishes.
When the smoke clears, Zuko is on his knees at his uncle’s side. Katara offers to help, but Zuko, who doesn’t know about her healing powers anyway, is in no state to accept it. “LEAVE!” he cries, punctuating his pain with an arc of fire. And they do.
Though it may be overshadowed by the cohesive brilliance of its predecessor, this is still a great episode thanks to its character dynamics, unlikely encounters, and dramatic conclusion. It feels like Toph’s arrival marked the beginning of Season 2 in earnest, and in The Chase things start really heating up.
See you tomorrow for Episode 8: Bitter Work! Share your own thoughts on this episode in the comments.
Spare observations
It’s partially masked by the darkness, but in many frames, the animations feel significantly less crisp compared to last episode. It turns out that Avatar actually worked with two Korean animation studios, JM Animation and DR Movie, who alternated episodes. The producers fired DR Movie after Season 2. The Chase was one of theirs.
How does that tank travel through the trees? Do they just fireblast them all down?
“Did you just slam the door in my face?”
“You both need to calm down.” “Both?! I’M COMPLETELY CALM!!!” “I… can see that.”
“What's wrong with ponytails, Ponytail?” “This is a warrior’s wolf tail!”
Toph: “Is he [Zuko] lost?” Iroh: “Yes, a little bit.”
“Is it just me, or was that guy kinda cute?” Get it, Sokka!
Iroh gets Azula with the belly bounce!
Friends of the White Lotus [SPOILERS]
When the Gaang and Zuko bend the four elements at Azula, they’re standing in the order of the Avatar Cycle: Air, Water, Earth, and Fire. We only see the four elements used in a single strike like this one more time, in the series finale.
Though Zuko helped Aang when disguised as the Blue Spirit, this is the first time he directly cooperates with the Gaang under his own identity. The enemy of my enemy is my friend!