Avatar: The Last Airbender returns to form in episode six;
if Warriors of Kyoshi was Sokka’s episode this episode (Imprisoned) is Katara’s.
Although not hitting the peaks of episodes 3 and 4 this episode is of the
quality I associate with the series. The humour remains solid and consistent,
the characters are charming and the animation is a lot nicer than it was in the
last episode. Introduced to the show is another minor character: Haru. Haru’s
mother is quickly introduced alongside the situation the village is in under
the occupation of the Fire nation. This sets the stage for the rest of the episode.
Earthbending is a punishable form of potential resistance against
the occupying fire nation troops and as such Haru is quickly imprisoned after
rescuing an old man trapped under rubble. Katara who felt responsible for
having urged Haru to earthbend the man to safety subsequently gets herself
arrested to rescue him. The rig upon which the prison is based is built entirely out of
metal and the design is excellent, the series has always been good at
making oppressive metal constructions and the art team does a great job with
the colouring and texturing. Here Haru’s father is also introduced and after
Katara fails to convince the earthbenders to rebel, even if they cannot bend, the
team develop a plan.
The culmination of this plan results in blowing a load of
coal out to the prisoners, adapting a plan developed earlier that allowed, with
some help from Aang, Katara to appear to be earthbending. After this a fight
ensues with the earthbenders swiftly defeating the firebenders. Unfortunately
the fight itself is a touch underwhelming; one has the feeling that the plan
for the fight was constrained by the time and money the team could put into its
production. Rather than cleverly playing with the potential of a fight in which
the earthbender’s ammunition is flammable the episode only briefly acknowledges
it and moves on; a little disappointing, but the fighting was not the focus of
the episode.
In the final scene we get what was really missing from the
formula in the last episode and to some small extent in this one as well; Zuko’s
return is teased when he picks up the necklace that Katara lost during the
fight. A touch jammed in perhaps as a cliff-hanger, but no less enjoyable for
it: Zuko is for me the most complex character in the show and his ambitiously
long three season character arc is but one of the elements that sets the show
above all the others I watched as a kid as well as above many of the shows I
enjoy today. It’s always good to see more Zuko.
There’s not a lot more to this episode; it’s quite simple
and doesn’t go too hard on the darker material it had to work with. It certainly
explores corruption and oppression and develops characters within the confines
of such circumstances, but it doesn’t say anything unexpected or new and it
doesn’t really need to, the episode is a good one, even if it doesn’t quite
have the magic that episodes like the 3rd and 4th in the
first series do. It’s always nice to see a show that’s comfortable putting the “main”
or title character into the background the way this episode does; something the
show as a whole is quite good at throughout all of the series.
