Avatar S3E14 / S3E15: "The Boiling Rock"
A riotous prison break | Grade: A
Thanks for tuning in to my fifty-fourth and fifty-fifth of 61 daily reviews of Avatar: The Last Airbender! Previously, we watched S3E13: The Firebending Masters.
Pound-for-pound, The Boiling Rock might be the most entertaining chapter in the series’ entire run. I don’t make that statement lightly — while there are several double-feature episodes across the three seasons, this pair is easily the tightest and really feels like one story, even compared to The Siege of the North. It’s funny, it’s important, it’s clever, and it’s expertly made. The only thing that keeps this episode from earning an A+ is that it doesn’t quite have that transcendent, series-defining moment that I look for, but it’s got one that comes very close and it was a tough call overall.
It’s another Zuko adventure story. This time, the prince sets out with Sokka, who’s determined to infiltrate a maximum-security Fire Nation prison where he hopes his father is being held. That prison is the eponymous Boiling Rock, a massive, brutalist complex nestled in the steaming crater of a submarine volcano. The two sneak away at night on Zuko’s war balloon, but they’re forced to make a crash landing and disguise themselves as guards. For once, Sokka decides to wing it.
For the record, I always think things through! But my plans haven't exactly worked, so this time, I'm playing it by ear.
As they plot their escape, Sokka and Zuko exhibit that wonderful chemistry that I felt was missing from The Firebending Masters. Sokka’s sarcasm and Zuko’s dry humor are a natural fit, and Sokka’s goofy moments are highlighted in contrast to the prince’s serious demeanor. Even when they’re just getting to know each other on the way, the writers lampshade the awkwardness in a scene that gave us one of Avatar’s most enduring quotes (“That’s rough, buddy”). Throughout the episode, their goal-focused pragmatism and the gravity of the situation always gives the duo something to do.
Compared to last episode, where Aang and Zuko were essentially alone in a bubble, The Boiling Rock also draws more emotional weight from its protagonists by bringing in their loved ones. Sokka, who takes the lead in this episode, kicks off the entire journey because of his guilt after the events of The Day of Black Sun. In my review of that chapter, I discussed his feelings of responsibility for the invasion and how they fit into his broader character arc, as he grows into a leader like the father he so idolizes. Here, we get to see how that defeat and his allies’ sacrifice weighs on him, and he has his own Zuko moment as he asserts:
It's my mistake, and it's my job to fix it. I have to regain my honor.
The guilt is personal for Sokka. Jack DeSena really sells the anticipation, followed by crushing disappointment and frustration, as he learns that Hakoda is not there after all. He also has someone else to feel responsible for: Suki, who finally resurfaces after being captured by Azula in Appa’s Lost Days. You can feel Sokka’s dilemma as he finds himself faced with a similar choice as in The Eclipse: retreat to protect his friends, or stay in the hope their fortunes will improve?
After that defeat, he’s feeling disheartened enough to cut his losses. But he’s lucky to have two loyal companions who are willing to stand by him. Zuko’s gives a funny but inspiring speech:
Look Sokka, you're going to fail a lot before things work out. Even though you'll probably fail over and over and over again, you have to try every time. You can't quit because you're afraid you might fail.
It’s not groundbreaking wisdom, but it resonated anew with me on this rewatch, reminding me of some of my own disheartening failures that I’ve been working through. It’s these little moments of recognition that make Avatar so powerful and rewatchable. Zuko is the right one to deliver this message, too, which comes not from his uncle but from the indomitable spirit that defines Zuko. And of course, the payoff is immediate for a shocked and relieved Sokka when Hakoda arrives on the next shipment after all.
Zooming out, the setting of the prison itself and its cast of characters are unbelievably compelling. The Alcatraz-like fortess, surrounded by a boiling lake, is conceptualized brilliantly. The warden himself is a confident and menacing villain, who garners respect with badass one-liners.
No one has ever, ever escaped from here. I'd sooner jump in the Boiling Lake myself than let that record fall.
Confining unruly inmates in the “cooler” and forcing Hakoda to look him in the eye, he’s far more intimidating than the hapless warden from Imprisoned, who threw his own captain overboard over a trifle. Even rebellious Chit Sang is a great source of comic relief who refuses to rat Sokka out. He also knows the inner workings of the prison, which he uses to aid our heroes’ escape and buy his own freedom.
Sokka’s not the only one for whom things get personal; Zuko’s relationships come back to haunt him, too. He’s forced to confront his treatment of Mai, who’s bitter after he left her with just a letter in The Day of Black Sun. And for the first time since he left, he’s forced to face his sister. But in light of their turbulent relationship, it’s not very difficult for Zuko and Azula to transition back to being enemies. Their fight atop the gondola is kind of lame, as Zuko and Sokka alternate between fireblasts and ineffectual sword swings.
But it’s that final scene between Mai, Azula, and Ty Lee that provides the most significant development for the remainder of the season. Mai, who’s mostly let herself fade into the backdrop until now, seizes her defining moment of the series as she stands up to the princess and allows “the jerk who dumped” her to escape. In ensuing exchange between them, the typically steely and effortlessly collected Azula is provoked to rage for the first time.
I guess you just don't know people as well as you think you do. You miscalculated. I love Zuko more than I fear you.
No, YOU miscalculated! You should have feared me more!
Just as much as her power and ruthlessness, Azula’s defining characteristic is her need for control. She manipulates Mai and Ty Lee to do her bidding, and plots steps ahead of everyone else so that she’s rarely ever surprised. So when Mai defies her, and even worse, suggests that her brother has more control than she does, it shakes Azula to her very core. The idea that love is a more powerful motivator than fear threatens to upend her mode of control and her identity.
And then, even more shocking for the Fire Nation princess, is Ty Lee’s betrayal to protect Mai. While Mai has always been a little aloof, even refusing to fight when Azula is not around (like in The Drill and The Crossroads of Destiny), Ty Lee is Azula’s most loyal soldier who constantly admires and praises her, to the point fans speculate she might be attracted to the princess. Even Ty Lee herself looks surprised by her own actions, as if she wasn’t sure if she could even really harm Azula.
If Azula cannot rule Ty Lee, then what can she control? We’ve never seen the princess look so helpless and shaken as she does here, lying incapacitated on the ground. “Let them rot,” the Princess spits at her former allies, who have been with her nearly the entire time we’ve known her. The next time we see Azula, she’ll have to stand alone.
See you tomorrow for Episode 16: The Southern Raiders! Share your own thoughts on this episode in the comments.
Spare observations
“I can’t remember how it starts, but the punchline is, ‘Leaf me alone, I’m bushed!’”
“You happy now?” “I’m never happy.”
A classic: “My first girlfriend turned into the moon.” “That’s rough, buddy.”
There’s a lot of little details early in the episode that foreshadow its plot. For example, Sokka suppressing a yell when a bit of water splashes on his hand, the warden’s assertion that he’d sooner boil in the lake than let anyone escape, and his reveal that Mai is his niece.
“What would Uncle say? Sometimes, clouds have two sides, a dark and light, and a silver lining in between. It's like a silver sandwich! So... when life seems hard... take a bite out of the silver sandwich!”
Sokka tries to greet Suki with a kiss, like she did in The Serpent’s Pass. “Maybe you’ll recognize this!”
“Well, yeah, actually, I am pretty comfortable.”
Avatar loves the “well-spoken and sensitive inmates” joke, which it first did in Avatar Day.
“Hey, watch who you’re shoving!” “I think you mean whom I’m shoving!”
“Hey! What'd you do that for? That hurt my feelings.” “Aren’t you mad at me?” “Uh, well, normally I would be, but I've been learning to control my anger.”
Chit Sang starts a riot by holding a guy over his head and yelling, “Hey! Riot!”
Friends of the White Lotus [SPOILERS]
Suki will remain with Team Avatar for the rest of the series!
As I hinted earlier, The Boiling Rock is truly the start of Azula’s downfall. Not only does she lose her team, but she begins to lose her confidence and her sense of achieving perfection. I’ll discuss her descent into madness in more depth when we reach the finale.
This will be the last we see of Mai and Ty Lee until the end of the War.