Aang spots a knife in the ground; Sokka identifies it as being from the water tribe. As they look around, they find evidence that a group of water tribe warriors ambushed a band of firebenders. They then found a water tribe boat, one from Katara and Sokka’s father’s fleet.
On Zuko’s ship, Iroh and Zuko appear to be enjoying a relaxing moment and sharing a cup of tea. But of course they get interrupted and Zuko spills his tea all over himself. They head to the upper deck and find a giant animal with an attractive woman on top(jun). The creature is a Xirxiu, and the woman is a bounty hunter named Jun. She finds a stowaway on Zuko’s boat, and captures him. The Xirxiu has a power within its tongue that allows it to temporarily paralyze anyone or anything it touches. Iroh comments, “I am impressed. Very impressed,” as she rides away.
A few hours later, at night time, we return to Sokka, Katara and Aang. Sokka flashes back two years ago, as the warriors of his tribe were setting sail to battle against the fire nation. He remembers a run-in with his father, which brought on some undeniably tear-jerking moments, not only among Sokka and his father, but also of fans across the world.
Now a man, apparently of the water tribe (based on the way he is dressed) walks into camp. Katara and Sokka recognize him, his name is Bato. He was a good friend of their father, and of theirs, from the South Pole. Bato invites the gang back to his village where he had been staying. This village is populated by “sisters,” who dress sort of like nuns. The head “sister” goes by the title “Superior.” The sisters have been caring for Bato, who is a former water tribe warrior until he was injured. Also revealed is that Katara and Sokka’s father’s name is Hakoda.
After another of Sokka’s attempts at a joke, Bato brings them inside his house. To Sokka and Katara’s delight, Bato’s humble abode is filled with old memories from the South Pole, such as pellets, a campfire and more. But Aang doesn’t seem to be impressed with the animal skins all over the place.
Then, wondering what’s cooking, Katara reveals another memory of South delight: stewed sea prunes. It’s a personal favorite of Hakoda, and Katara and Sokka appear to love them as well. However, Aang tastes a bit of the prunes and makes a face of pure disgust. A little bit of background information about Katara and Sokka’s father is revealed as well. Apparently Bato and Hakoda sought an arctic hippo, but “the hippo did the dragging,” Bato joked. Another good time the water tribe friends endured was “the Great Blubber fiasco” of which the details are still very shady, since not much about it was revealed in this episode. Bato and Hakoda enjoyed many amusing moments, which, according to Bato, weren’t all funny at the time of each incident.
Then Aang, feeling neglected, goes over and puts on an old hat of sorts, but Bato says the “hat” is of ceremonial value and is fragile as well. Now a little embarrassed and still feeling neglected, Aang puts the ceremonial item back on the wall and takes a seat in the back of the room.
The camera then moves to what appears to be a bar. Inside, Jun is arm wrestling a muscular man with humongous biceps, and who sweats a lot as well. Zuko enters the bar and pushes a man out of his way, “Out of my way. Step aside filth.” Iroh tries to apologize for Zuko’s uncouth attitude, “He means no offense. I’m sure you bathe regularly.” As they walk up to the table Jun is at, she greets the two fire nation travelers, “Well if it isn't my new friends, Angry Boy and Uncle Lazy.” While this is going, on the man appears to becoming seriously strained, and is pulling all his might to stay in the match. She pins the man’s arm to the table, without even breaking a sweat. As Jun gets showered with coins from the spectators who had been watching the match from the upper deck, Zuko wants to be paid back for the damage done to his ship by her Xirxiu. But she quickly offers to buy drinks for everyone in the bar, and tells Zuko’s she’s a little short on money. “Money isn’t what I had in mind,” Zuko snaps back.
Outside the bar, Zuko shows Jun Katara’s necklace, and asks her to track down “the bald monk she is traveling with.” Zuko says if she finds this monk he will consider the damage to his boat paid for. “Pfft, forget it.” Jun starts to get on her Xirxiu. Iroh offers to pay her weight in gold, and Jun counters, saying she’ll do it if she gets his (Iroh’s) weight in gold, which, in case you haven’t noticed, is quite a bit more. “Hahaha, you got it!” Iroh responds. Jun tells Iroh and Zuko to get on, and let’s her Xirxiu sniff the necklace, and they’re off.
Back at Bato’s, we hear Bato is expecting word for Hakoda soon, and that Katara and Sokka could travel with him and see their father. Sokka comments it has been over two years since they’ve seen their dad, and it would be incredible. Aang, sadden by the news that his friends might leave him, goes outside to get some fresh air, and think some things over. “It would be great, but we can’t. We have to take Aang to the North Pole first.” Sokka says. And Katara pretty much seconds that motion.
Outside on the boat, Aang is sitting on the edge of the bow. “I can’t believe they would leave me,” Aang says to himself as he hears something in the distance. It’s a messenger riding an ostrich-horse. He asks for Bato of the Water Tribe. Aang says, “I know Bato.” “Make sure he gets this,” the messenger says, and then takes off. Nosily, Aang rolls out the paper the messenger gave him. He finds it’s the map to Katara and Sokka’s father, but selfishly and unmoral, Aang crumbles the paper up and stuffs it away in his shirt.
“Hey everyone, sorry I was gone so long,” Aang greets everyone as he re-enters the room where Bato and the others are. But Aang appears to be acting a bit suspicious, I wonder why? He picks up his bowl of stewed sea prunes, and starts pigging out, but makes a face of total disgust. But then says “Mmmm…,” which causes Bato, Katara and Sokka to give Aang very strange looks.
After a night of heavy traveling (because it is now day time), we see Jun, her Xirxiu and our fire nation friends traveling through the ol’ herbalist institute from episode 13. Remember? The herbalist lady and her cat, which she seems to talk to a lot, are there. The lady is picking herbs to replenish her stock when the band approaches. The insane lady she is asks Miyuki (the name of her cat), “did you get in trouble with the fire nation again.” Miyuki doesn’t seem impressed at her insane keeper’s attempt to be funny, but I got it. Anywho, the Xirxiu is off once again.
Back at the abbey the gang is staying at, Aang is airbending some hay over to Appa for breakfast. But the crumbled up paper inside (the Rendezvous map) falls out of his sleeve, and Superior catches him. “You should be ashamed of yourself, littering in the courtyard,” she scolds. And then she gives the paper back to Aang and everything is ok, for now.
Now the gang is over on the shore with Bato. Aang quickly sees the footprints left by the messenger’s ostrich/horse and airbends them away, and then whistles as if nothing ever happened.
Bato shows Aang, Sokka and Katara the boat, which his father both built and took him ice-dodging in. Bato then asks Sokka about his first time ice-dodging, but Katara says Sokka was not of age (14) at the time his father left home to fight in the war. Now Bato has a novel idea, and says he will take Sokka out ice-dodging.
Still in the middle of their hunt for the Avatar, the Xirxiu and its passengers roll through the town featured in The Fortuneteller. While here, Aunt Wu tries to flirt with ol’ Uncle Iroh. “Care to hear your fortune, handsome?” Wu asks Iroh. Iroh responds, “At my age there is really only one big surprise left, and I just assume leave it a mystery.” Good ol’ Iroh. They continue on their journey.
Now we go back to Aang and the others. The ship is now at the mercy of the rapid waves of the ocean, or, in laymen’s terms, the ship has set sail onto the ocean. Sokka asks how they are going to “ice-dodge” without any icebergs. Bato says they will be dodging a field of rocks in place of the ‘bergs. Sokka is to steer and call the shots, Katara is to handle the mainsail (?), a position which is about bravery, and Aang controls the gin, which is all about trust, which is very ironic, don’t ya think?
Bato takes a seat, and says the kids must pass or fail on their own.
After a very adventurous “rock-dodging” adventure (I’ll save the details for when you actually watch the episode), the kids receive marks for the successful completion of their journey. Sokka receives the mark of the wise for his task (an up-side-down crescent with a small circle in the middle); Katara the mark of the brave (a back-wards shaped moon); and Aang the mark of the trusted (simply an up-side-down crescent). Aang was inducted as an honorary member of the water tribe. However, that might change after what happens next.
Feeling guilty, Aang reveals he has kept the map to the Rendezvous point, where Katara and Sokka’s father is, from them. Sokka is outraged and says Aang can go to the North Pole on his own, and then asks Katara if she is with him, and she decides to leave Aang as well.
Katara, Sokka and Bato begin to head off on their journey. They fill their packs with supplies, and get ready to go to the Rendezvous point. Katara and Aang wish each other good luck, and Superior tells Aang it would be best if he would begin to move on. On Appa, Aang heads out of the gated city, and looks down the road at Bato and his old friends, now pretty down far the path. Aang says “I’m an idiot, Momo,” and begins to steer Appa in the opposite direction, towards the ocean.
Moments later the sisters are interrupted from their perfume-making by Jun, Zuko, Iroh and her Xirxiu. They come bursting through the city’s outer gate, and the sisters are terrified. Jun says, “We’re getting close,” and they head out of the city, in the direction of Katara and Sokka.
Deep inside the forest, Katara, Sokka and Bato hear a wolf’s cry, and Bato says it is because he has been separated from his pack, a feeling he can relate to when the other water tribe warriors had to leave him behind because he was wounded. Sokka flashes back to two years ago when he watched the water tribe warrior ships sail off into the sea, after he wanted to go with them. Next, Sokka decides him and Katara need to go back and get Aang to the North Pole, because that is where he is needed the most. Bato supports Sokka’s decision, saying he knows his father “would understand and I know he’s proud of you.” Bato gives Sokka the map to the Rendezvous point, and says if they changed their mind, they would be able to find him.
In the next scene, Aang, Appa and Momo are preparing to head off. Superior comes rushing in and tells Aang he must leave now, for a large beast using the scent of a necklace came into town. Aang realizes it is Katara’s necklace, and he must go back and attempt to rescue her and Sokka.
On their way back to the abbey, Sokka hears a large pounding sound on the ground. He signals for Katara to stop, and seconds later Jun’s Xirxiu and its three passengers appear from behind some trees, and Katara and Sokka begin to run for their lives. Xirxiu, which had been tracking the scent of Katara’s necklace, zooms in on her. Jun then remarks to Zuko, “So this is your friend. No wonder she left, she’s way too pretty for you.” Zuko just ignores her and proceeds to asking the two where Aang is. Sokka informs Zuko the three split up, and that Aang is long gone. Zuko replies, “How stupid do you think I am?” Sokka replies, “Pretty stupid,” and then grabs Katara and yells “RUN!” But before they can get too far, the Xirxiu hits them with its tongue, temporarily paralyzing them both. The Xirxiu now is seeking out something new, and finds the map to the Rendezvous point. He gets Aang’s scent and blasts back into the city, not to the delight of the sisters of course. The Xirxiu begins walking around in circles, and Zuko asks why. But then the creature looks up and sees Aang flying down right on top of it. The Xirxiu tries to hit Aang with the tongue as he begins to fly in closer to the ground, but instead it just loses its balance and falls to the ground, knocking its travelers, which now include Katara and Sokka, also to the ground. Jun swiftly gets herself and the Xirxiu up on its feet and, just as you might think Aang is doomed (as the Xirxiu is heading full force straight at him) Appa comes in to defend his keeper. He knocks the almost-as-big-as-but-not-as-strong-as-a-flying-bison creature into a building. Aang looks on with a smile, but now has a problem of his own, as Prince Zuko comes into the picture. He blasts Aang with some fire, and Aang fights it off with some airbending. The two now come closer together, and when Zuko’s fire power and Aang’s air power combine, a big explosion occurs, propelling each of them onto the ceiling of different buildings on the outside of the abbey.
Iroh sees Jun lying on the ground, and, worryingly, goes over to check if she’s ok. She appears fine and gets up, ready to battle. She wakes her Xirxiu up, as it has some unfinished business with Appa. Appa tries to fly overtop of the bounty hunter-beast combo, but at mid-air gets struck down by the tongue of the Xirxiu. Jun appears pleasantly surprised as Aang falls to the ground, but Appa, being the tough guy he is, shakes it off and the two collide head-to-head. Jun goes flying off, and strikes Appa with her whip. Appa moans but other than that appears all right as he gets up and almost crushes Jun with his giant front leg. Fortunately for her, though, she gets up just in time.
Aang wakes up, only to see Prince Zuko charging at him with an arm full of fire. Aang dodges the flames and begins to fight, once again. I could go into a lot of detail here, but I’d probably be boring you, so basically here’s what went down: the Xirxiu began to run after Aang, and Appa tries to defend him; Iroh steals some perfume (that old man!!); Zuko and Aang engage in a fight on and around a well; Aang gets Katara’s necklace back; Appa finally goes down for longer than two seconds after being hit by the tongue; Sokka devises a plan that includes Katara using her bending to defeat the Xirxiu; and the Xirxiu is then defeated.
The Xirxiu hits Zuko and Jun with its tongue, and Iroh acts like he got hit by it as well. Zuko says, “Uncle, I didn’t see you get hit with the tongue,” and Iroh replies, “Shhh!” with Jun lying on top of him. Jun doesn’t appear to like it. Again I’ll say it, Iroh you dirty old man!!
Now on Appa, Aang asks where they’re going now. Sokka and Katara tell him that they’re going to the North Pole, and that, as much as they want to see their father, they know where they are now is where they are needed the most, and that is where they’ll stay. Aang then returns the favor as he gives Katara back her necklace, and jokingly says, “Zuko asked me to be sure I got it to you,” and Katara replies, very sarcastically, “Awww, that’s so sweet of Zuko. Would you give him a kiss for me when you see him?”
Aang says, “Sure,” and then Katara kisses Aang on the cheek, and Appa flies away in the distance.
