Avatar the Last Airbender 3.14 The Boiling Rock Part 1 Television 

Five Thoughts on Avatar: The Last Airbender’s “The Boiling Rock”

By | August 28th, 2019
Posted in Television | % Comments

Welcome back for another weekly review of Avatar! This week, we take a hard left into prison-drama territory. Let’s go.

1. Prison break re-do

As is the case with a few other season three episodes, this episode is an attempt to go back and re-do an earlier concept with better execution. One of the show’s first episodes, “Imprisoned” (1.06), dealt with an attempted prison break, and so does this, one of the final episodes of the show. “Imprisoned” was emblematic of the show’s early days: well intentioned and with a decent amount of heavy subtext, but ultimately not as gripping or meaningful as it could have been. “The Boiling Rock,” on the other hand, goes full-speed-ahead on its depiction of the harshness of prisons, features many characters we hadn’t expected to return, and goes hard on the suspense elements.

2. Snowballing unpredictability

A large part of what makes this episode such a banger is its unpredictability. Sokka and Zuko jump in and end up on the shores of the Boiling Rock with no way to escape. Once inside, things keep snowballing: they get prison uniforms. What next? Wait, it’s Suki! And then… Zuko is captured! How can they get out of that? Oh no, their escape plan failed! But then …Hakoda arrives! Suddenly, Mai is there! Wait, no — Azula and Ty Lee are there, too! How can they possibly get out of this, and how did we get here when the episode started out in such a simple place??

There’s a strong fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants style to the writing, while also feeling intricately plotted. That’s a near-impossible balance to achieve. But the team achieved it here, and it allowed for some of the best scenes in the series. As I’ve said in previous reviews, I’ve watched this entire show probably about a dozen times, and yet this episode feels just as exciting every time.

3. “I need to regain my honor.”

I mentioned last week that we’re currently in the “pair Zuko up with different main characters” section of the show, and this week we get to see what Zuko and Sokka look like together. I love how they had trouble conversing at first. They really don’t have much in common on the surface. Even getting a bit deeper, into a conversation about girlfriends, they just don’t know how to be open and communicative with each other (“That’s rough, buddy.”). But when working together, we see their shared characteristics. They’re both dedicated, tactical thinkers, and they are both willing to throw themselves into a situation and figure out the details as they go. In other words, they make a perfect pair for a prison break episode.

There are, however, some deeper character beats that show how they complement each other. Early in the episode, Sokka claims that he “needs to regain his honor,” which had previously been Zuko’s refrain. To that end, Zuko was able to act as a sort of spiritual guide, channeling his lessons learned from Iroh. At one point, Zuko attempts to create an Iroh-like proverb, which doesn’t work, but his later words to encourage Sokka are much more effective: “You have to try every time. You can’t quit because you’re afraid you might fail.” Sokka needs Zuko as someone who has had similar experiences and can guide him away from self-destructive actions. Likewise, Zuko ends up needing Sokka, as Sokka allowed Zuko to practice helping others. Spiritual journeys typically lead to characters helping others with their own spiritual journeys.

4. Suki’s back!

Yes!! The last we saw of Suki was back in “Appa’s Lost Days” (2.16), almost a full season ago, when she and the Kyoshi Warriors fought Azula and her crew. We’ve been teased about her whereabouts a few times, most recently in “The Day of Black Sun” (3.11), so it’s been a long time coming. I like that there wasn’t a big dramatic moment where they both realized the other was there; instead, Sokka sees her simply sitting in the courtyard and later visits her privately. This also allowed us a fun moment of miscommunication in her cell, which is par for the course for their relationship. (That moment was also one of the darker ones here, as Suki thought she was about to get sexually assaulted. I imagine it was only allowed because the audience knew upfront that this wasn’t the case.)

Continued below

Suki is just as simultaneously warm, understanding, and kick-ass as we remember. She’s single-handedly responsible for the capture of the warden, and she holds her own during the action scenes even without any bending. I’m glad she made it back onto the team before the finale.

5. “You miscalculated. I love Zuko more than I fear you.”

The entire last 8 minutes of this episode rocks. Many of the season’s subplots have led up to this: the fate of Zuko and Mai’s relationship, the fate of Hakoda and Suki, Azula’s growing insanity. Just as the mid-air fight scene atop the gondola reaches its apex, with the fate of our main characters literally hanging in the balance, we see a shocking betrayal. Mai starts to turn on Azula, who she had followed for the last two seasons, with the brilliant line I used as this thought’s title. Azula’s follow-up is wonderfully dramatic — “You should have feared me more!” — but nothing could have been as surprising as Ty Lee’s fingers suddenly popping into the frame, taking Azula out and reducing her to a limp mass on the floor.

In all honesty, this partnership was always bound to end. I even noted way back in Mai and Ty Lee’s first appearance, “Return to Omashu” (2.03), how they were recruited on shaky ground, more out of fear and boredom than a unity of vision. But I never would have predicted it would go down in such a dramatic way, at such a key moment. It’s because of their betraying Azula that the entire team of heroes got away safe. Since that first appearance showed fear as a direct motivator, it’s beautiful that Mai’s betrayal was coupled with a revelation about her getting over that fear. The whole situation ends up reflecting some of the show’s greatest themes, that any person is neither inherently good nor bad, and that fear tactics can only get somebody so far if love and understanding are competing against that fear.

What were your thoughts on the episode? Were you happy to see Suki back? Thoughts on the Sokka/Zuko pairing, or on the prison break concept? How about those betrayals at the end? Let me know in the comments!


//TAGS | 2019 Summer TV Binge | Avatar: The Last Airbender

Nicholas Palmieri

Nick is a South Floridian writer of films, comics, and analyses of films and comics. Flight attendants tend to be misled by his youthful visage. You can try to decipher his out-of-context thoughts over on Twitter at @NPalmieriWrites.

EMAIL | ARTICLES



  • -->