Avatar: The Last Airbender: "Chapter Fourteen: The Boiling Rock, Part 1" and "Chapter Fifteen: The Boiling Rock, Part 2"

(This is the 23rd installment of my weekly recaps of Avatar: The Last Airbender, the Nickelodeon animated series that ran from 2005 to 2008 to much critical acclaim. I’ve never seen it! These recaps are only available to paid subscribers.)

• “Chapter Fourteen: The Boiling Rock, Part 1” (originally aired July 16, 2008)
• “Chapter Fifteen: The Boiling Rock, Part 2” (originally aired July 16, 2008)

I don't know why Avatar: The Last Airbender decided to do a prison-break storyline with only a handful of episodes left in its run. I also don't know why that story was focused primarily on Sokka, Zuko, and Suki, reducing the other main cast members to what amount to cameo appearances. I also don't know why the show expects me to care this much about Sokka and Katara's dad, Hakoda.

But "The Boiling Rock" is the kind of episode I adore, largely because it's the kind of episode that is best deployed in the midst of a long, long television season. If you collapsed this season of the show down to even 13 episodes, you might condense this two-parter to one episode or (worse) eliminate it entirely. And even if you kept it, you would surely try to incorporate Aang and Katara in some capacity, instead of leaving them by the wayside.

"The Boiling Rock" works, however, because of its limited scope. It sends its characters out with one specific quest — break Hakoda out of prison — then specifically chooses which characters it includes to get maximum impact for the story going forward. One of the major plot threads in these episodes, for instance, involves Zuko and Mai's relationship, one that has mostly been implied to this point but also needs this episode to really work dramatically in the episodes to come. In a more crowded episode, their relationship wouldn't come to the foreground nearly as well.

Similarly, Ty Lee (the best!!!) has been off the board for a lot of this season, which is a dangerous place for a character of her stature — important, but not so important that she immediately springs to mind when listing the show's characters (unless you're me) — to be in with this few episodes left in the run. Paring away the number of characters similarly gives her a big, exciting moment. When she turns on Azula in order to save Mai, the moment lands, because we've had enough time with her in this two-parter to remember who she is and what her character means to the show.

You could say similar things about Suki, who hasn't even been in this season (though Azula reminded us she existed a few episodes ago) but gets a huge showcase in this two-parter. But because we haven't seen Suki in some time, and because these episodes use her so well, her mere presence helps shore up the weakest element of the episodes' premise. (Hakoda, bless him, is a void of a character, a symbol to be filled in later, and the need to rescue him never feels especially pressing.)

Indeed, compare the way that these episodes utilize Suki, Mai, and Ty Lee to the various tertiary characters who are hanging out with the Avatar's crew to understand how important an episode like this can be. When [checks notes] Teo and Pipsqueak and so on joined the team in "The Day of Black Sun," their return came and went with so little weight that every time they pop up in a scene, I'm shocked anew to realize that they're still hanging out in Avatar land. In contrast, Mai and Ty Lee have been turned into wild cards precisely at a point when the show has almost no wild cards left, and they've done so in dramatic fashion. I assume they won't be back until the finale, but when they do show up, I'm going to remember exactly where they were and what they were up to.

A lighter character load also helps out the two characters who actually are in every episode, Sokka and Zuko. As core relationships among the show's five most important characters (the core Avatar trio, Zuko, and Toph) go, Sokka and Zuko's isn't as important as Zuko's relationship to either Aang or Katara. But it's also important enough to require the audience believing in them as allies beyond just fighting on the same side. "The Boiling Rock" not only pushes the two onto the same mission, but it features moments when each saves the other's life. Their relationship actually feels real, now. It's hard to imagine the two becoming best friends, but it's easy to imagine them fighting alongside each other quite happily in the middle of a war.

What's more, the shift of Sokka places more of a burden on Katara, even in her absence. She's been the strongest holdout on Zuko, and now she's the lone holdout, as he's won over first Toph, then Aang, and finally her brother. (I'm only just now realizing how this string of episodes is all about Zuko winning over his new allies one by one.) Yet we know Katara well enough to know that she won't crumble so easily. Heck, earlier this season, she still seemed kind of peeved at Toph.

This kind of character development in absentia is something long-form TV can really excel at, especially in longer seasons. We know that Katara probably won't be Team Zuko all of a sudden, but we also know that the longer she holds out, the more it's simply because of her own stubbornness. She's not even on screen, and we're learning things about her. It's honestly incredibly clever, and the more I write about the back half of season three, the more I'm impressed by how carefully structured every single element of it is.

The action in "The Boiling Rock" is also some of the best in the series so far. The fight on the gondola is well-paced and perfectly balanced, with every character getting a moment to shine, and the sequence keeps increasing the stakes incrementally. By the time Azula and Ty Lee have abandoned ship for a different gondola, and you're sure Zuko and Sokka are doomed, only for Mai to save the day, the show's character beats and action beats are working in tandem. It's thrilling to watch unfold.

One of my favorite stretches of television is the last third of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's final season, in which the Dominion War finally takes over the entirety of the show. But what's fascinating about how the series structures those episodes is that it doesn't bother at all with telling one long story. Instead, it tells a bunch of shorter character stories that add up into an overall impression of the war, with all of the threads finally knitting together in the series' final episode.

Avatar's approach isn't quite as bold. We're still checking in on everybody in most episodes. But episodes like "The Boiling Rock" are only possible if you have the confidence to leave your main character behind for what amounts to two full episodes of television and to reduce most of your characters to cameos. And they're also only possible when you know your final season will have real estate across which it can sprawl.

I have groused a bit in this final season about some of the narrative dead ends of its first half and some of the weaker moments and episodes throughout. But it's also clear that even the weaker episodes were necessary to weave the overall tapestry of the back half of this season. I think Avatar has probably been better than it has in these past few episodes, but it's never been as consistent. And that's a good sign as we head into the final handful of installments.

Other thoughts I thought:

• Normally when I do comparisons to other TV show contemporaries of Avatar, I assume there was just something in the water. But it's really clear that these episodes were fairly heavily influenced by, of all things, the Fox show Prison Break. Yes, there have been other prison break stories before that series, but the character types that Sokka and Zuko meet in the prison are so specifically calling to that show, I think, that it's very hard not to imagine this series drafting a little off of an even bigger hit show.
• Speaking of new characters the two meet in prison, Chit Sang (or, as I kept calling him until I learned his name, "Big Boy") is a delight. He has real Han Solo potential. Or he would if the series wasn't ending in six episodes.
• The show has done a really good job of building up Sokka as... not a master strategist but a solid strategist nonetheless. His various plans for getting out of the prison are mostly solid! Even the ones that don't work!
• It's becoming clear that Ty Lee is just never going to get the character development I want from her, and it's too bad. She's a really fun character, and I wish that I could be an evil princess who hangs out with her best friend, a girl who ran away from the circus.
• Look, I don't care which sibling it is, but Zuko has to kiss either Sokka or Katara. I demand it!
• It should be a sign of the esteem I hold these episodes in that I'm this hyped about them despite the nearly complete absence of Appa.
• I wish we had gotten to see Sokka and Zuko commandeering Azula's war blimp thing, but it was probably more important to see her snarl at Mai and Ty Lee when they ultimately opted not to sign onto team "Azula Gets To Just Do Whatever She Wants." (I'M STILL ON THAT TEAM, AZULA. PICK ME!!!)
• Sokka telling Zuko his last girlfriend became the moon is very funny, and Zuko offering a half-hearted, "That's rough, buddy" is even funnier.
• "You should have feared me more"??? Honestly, Azula. You are just going from strength to strength, girl.

Next week: Just two weeks left! Next time, we'll check in on "The Southern Raiders," then see what "The Ember Island Players" have in store. (I already know I'm going to love that episode.)