Summary
Avatar: The Last Airbender adroitly sets up a third season with a finale full of twists, turns, and cliffhangers, leaving even Aang’s fate in the balance as cut to credits.
In the grand scheme of things, Season 2 only represents the midpoint of Avatar: The Last Airbender. It adapts Book Two: Earth of the animated show, and since there’s the entirety of Book Three to get through, its ending isn’t really an ending, but instead a crucial turning point for several of the characters in their seemingly never-ending war against the Fire Nation. Episode 7, “Something Broken”, is all about setting up Season 3, not in a cynical way, but in the sense of setting the characters off in their endgame directions.
In the short term, that means a bit of potential frustration, with aggravating decision-making and major cliffhangers all over the place. But it’s all serving a broader purpose, which hopefully we can help to explain as we go. And luckily, there’s no ambiguity about whether the show will return for Season 3 – not only has it already been greenlit, but it has already been filmed.
Beneath Lake Laogai
We begin with a rescue mission. As part of Azula’s takeover of Ba Sing Se and a result of all of Aang’s allies having fallen out in the previous episode, everyone – almost everyone, anyway – ends up imprisoned beneath Lake Laogai. Sokka is locked up with Sai, hilariously still paralyzed after his encounter with Ty Lee, while Katara has to share a cell with Zuko, who reveals his identity to her. Appa is also nearby, and Aang knows that, which is why he’s on his way to spring them with unexpected help from Iroh.
Aang and Iroh enter through a secret Avatar door and rescue the others. In that time, Katara and Zuko managed to have a real heart-to-heart about his past, and she even offered to heal him, but with time being of the essence, they all leave together before that can take place. It all kicks off as they’re leaving – thanks to an imprisoned Joo Dee – and Zuko fights his sister to a near-stalemate, but she whispers sweet nothings in his ear about a potential redemption. Despite his earlier conversation with Katara and his actions throughout the season, it seems like impressing his father is still, deep down, his primary objective.
Toph Invents Metalbending (Sort Of)
The only main character not down in the caverns, at least for a while, is Toph, who ended up meeting with her mother for a seemingly reasonable conversation that quickly reveals itself to be a ruse. When it became obvious that her mother wasn’t going to be able to talk Toph around, she poisoned her tea and essentially kidnapped her from Ba Sing Se.
When Toph comes to, she’s in a bending-proof metal box, but that proves to be no obstacle for an earthbender of her ability. In warping the thing, she believes she has invented metalbending, which is fair enough. In the animated series and The Legend Of Korra it’s later clarified that what she’s actually doing is manipulating the earth particles within the impure metal, but metalbending sounds cooler, so whatever.
Toph makes her way back to Ba Sing Se at pace and breaks down the metal door that is preventing Sokka from escaping with Sai.
Zuko Switches Sides (Again)
In the meantime, Katara and Aang square off against Azula and… Zuko, who everyone is shocked to learn has apparently switched sides again. It’s pretty clear that this is some sort of long con, but that won’t be confirmed until next season. Here, as far as anyone can tell, Zuko’s back to being a bad guy, hopping between fighting Aang and then Katara as the battle ping-pongs around the cave.
Since Azula is massively overpowered compared to everyone else, both Aang and Katara together aren’t enough to take her down, especially once the Dai Li arrive to support her. Katara ends up surrounded, and Aang’s on the back foot. With no other options, he activates the Avatar State and channels his ancestors to fight back.
Aang Is… Dead?
Aang in full Avatar State easily overpowers both Zuko and Azula, but he makes the crucial mistake of hesitating rather than taking Azula’s life. She takes the opportunity to hit him with a bolt of lightning, which seemingly kills him stone dead. As we learned earlier in the season, if Aang is killed while in the Avatar State, the cycle will be ended and he will lose his connection to all of the previous Avatars, which seems to be precisely what happened.
Katara rushes to Aang’s side and attempts to heal him, giving Azula an opportunity to strike her down, but Iroh arrives to fight her off so that Katara and Aang can escape. Iroh is arrested and taken away – he doesn’t speak to or even look at Zuko – and Katara escapes up through the ceiling, eventually hooking back up with Sokka, Sai, Toph, and Appa.
Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 ends with Katara trying and seemingly failing to revive Aang using the water from the Spirit Oasis. Even though he briefly flickers back to life, he seems to expire again immediately, implying that he’s gone for good.
