Bato of the Water Tribe


 * This article is about the episode. For the titular character, see Bato.

"Bato of the Water Tribe" is the 15th episode of season one of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and the 15th of the overall series. It debuted on October 7, 2005.

Overview
''Katara and Sokka reunite with Bato, an old friend of theirs. Bato suggests they find their father, which causes Aang to fear that his friends may leave him. Aang intercepts a message from Sokka and Katara's father and hides it. Later, he comes clean about the message, upsetting his friends. Meanwhile, Zuko finds a bounty hunter named June to help him track down the Avatar. After defeating Zuko, Aang gets Katara's necklace back, and gives it to her. Katara and Sokka decide they cannot leave Aang, as he is part of their family, too.''

Synopsis
Aang finds a whale's tooth scimitar which Sokka identifies as a Water Tribe weapon. The team begins to search for any other traces of the passage of the Water Tribe warriors in that place, as Sokka finds a burned arrow and further evidence of a fight between firebenders and the warriors of the tribe. Their search eventually leads the three of them to the shore. The trail seems to end there, but then Katara sees a stranded boat, which they recognize as part of their father's fleet.

Meanwhile on his ship, Zuko and his uncle are drinking tea and relaxing when suddenly there is a loud bang and the ship rumbles, causing the tea to spill all over Zuko. He goes to the deck to see who is responsible for the disturbances, and finds a bounty hunter named June, mounted on a large animal called a shirshu. June states that she is looking for a stowaway and ignores Zuko's claims that there is no stowaway on his ship. The beast rips a piece of metal from the deck with its strong teeth, leaving uncovered the area below deck. Following the stowaway's scent, the animal ends up finding his prey, who tries to escape only for the beast to use his whip-like tongue to temporarily paralyze the fugitive. While June is carrying the man onto the animal's back, Zuko asks her how she knew about the man's hideout to which she replies that it is due to the shirshu's sense of smell. This leaves Iroh very impressed with the animal and the owner as well.



Later that night, Sokka remembers the day that Hakoda, his father, left the Southern Water Tribe, leaving him to take care of his little sister. Just then, Bato, a friend of Hakoda's family and a native of the South Pole, appears at the group's campsite next to the boat. Bato explains that he was injured and left behind, and takes the party to his current home in an abbey of nuns who make perfumes and cures.

Sokka and Katara are very pleased with the reunion and share stories about their tribe, and Aang starts to feel excluded. In the meantime, Zuko hires June and her pet shirshu, Nyla, to capture the Avatar using the scent of Katara's necklace and offers her weight in gold as payment.

Back at the abbey, Bato starts talking about how Katara and Sokka might be able to see their father, and that a message is arriving soon about their father's whereabouts. Aang runs off, feeling hurt that Katara and Sokka might leave him to go find Hakoda. Aang does not hear the last part of the conversation when they reject the offer, saying they have to go to the North Pole with him.

While Aang is contemplating their possible departure, he is greeted by a messenger with a rendezvous map from Hakoda. Instead of giving it to the others, Aang hides it to ensure Katara and Sokka stay with him, and returns to Bato's home acting awkwardly. Meanwhile Zuko, June, and Iroh are busy looking for Aang in the ruins of Taku, worrying the herbalist who thought that her cat, Miyuki, was involved in any trouble with the Fire Nation "again".



The next day, Aang hides the footprints of the messenger's ostrich horse when Bato takes Sokka and his friends on a coming-of-age ritual called ice dodging. Instead of ice, though, they must navigate through jagged rocks, as there is no ice in that region. Zuko continues his search in Aunt Wu's place, in Makapu Village. At the same time, with help from the bending arts of Katara and Aang under Sokka's conduct, they pass the test and the members of the group each receive a ceremonial mark: the mark for wisdom to Sokka, bravery to Katara and trust to Aang. When Aang receives this mark, he is overwhelmed with guilt and nervously gives the message to Katara and Sokka. Sokka is furious that Aang kept it from them and yells at him harshly while Katara is disappointed, and they leave Aang to find their father.

Soon after this, the shirshu arrives, getting closer to its prey. Katara, who is with Sokka and Bato on their journey to find Hakoda, hears a wolf howling. Sokka suggests that the wolf is hurt, but Bato tells them that the wolf has simply been separated from its pack. He then explains how he knows this by telling Sokka and Katara about when he was wounded in battle and left in the abbey to heal by his fellow warriors, feeling the loneliest he had ever felt. This story reminds Sokka again of when Hakoda left to fight abroad. Sokka and Katara realize their mistake, and turn around to find and apologize to Aang, who is on the shore, sitting on Appa, almost ready to leave when Mother Superior warns him about Zuko and the necklace.



As soon as Aang realizes that his friends are in danger, Zuko, Iroh, and June find Katara and Sokka and learn that the Avatar is not with them. Katara and Sokka are paralyzed by the shirshu as they try to escape. The shirshu finds the map, which has Aang's scent, and they start to track him to the abbey. When they arrive there for the second time, Aang is waiting for them. Flying on his glider, he manages to take the beast down. June quickly gets up and once on her shirshu, tries to attack Aang, but is stopped by Appa. Aang and Zuko start fighting, and eventually create a large explosion, as a result of the fight. Nyla and June get up again and try to paralyze Appa with the tongue while, not far from them, Zuko recovers from the explosion and starts firebending at Aang, who is also being chased by the shirshu. Appa helps his owner by throwing air blasts to his chaser, although this does not succeed. Zuko resumes his duel with the Avatar who notices Katara's necklace in Zuko's fist and, after dodging his fire whips atop a well, manages to recover the necklace. Appa tries to reach Zuko who is shooting fire at Aang, but June and the shirshu manage to paralyze the bison after numerous strokes.

Meanwhile, Zuko and June finally corner Aang against a wall. Sokka comes up with a plan and has the nuns pour out all their vats of perfumes; Katara starts waterbending the perfume all around. Since the shirshu can only "see" with its nose, the excess of different scents becomes a smokescreen of sorts, causing it to become overwhelmed and lash out at random people. When Zuko and June are paralyzed by the beast, Iroh pretends to get paralyzed, so he could get close to June and holds her in his arms as he lies on the ground. Aang and the others use the opportunity to escape.

Later, the group are flying on Appa and Aang asks them about their current plans. They inform him they will travel to the North Pole because he has become part of their family. Aang returns Katara her necklace, saying that Zuko asked him to do so. Katara understands the joke, and kisses Aang on the cheek. With that, Aang blushes and twiddles his thumbs as they fly off into the sunset.

Credits

 * Written by:
 * Ian Wilcox


 * Directed by:
 * Giancarlo Volpe


 * Starring:
 * Zach Tyler Eisen - Aang
 * Mae Whitman - Katara
 * Jack DeSena - Sokka
 * Dante Basco - Prince Zuko
 * Dee Bradley Baker:
 * Appa
 * Momo


 * Also starring:
 * Mako - Uncle
 * Richard McGonagle - Bato
 * Jennifer Hale - June
 * Andre Sogliuzzo - Hakoda
 * Amy Hill - Superior


 * Additional voices:
 * Dee Bradley Baker
 * Dante Basco
 * Jodi Carlisle (Herbalist) (last appearance)
 * Tsai Chin (Wu) (last appearance)
 * Jennifer Hale
 * Amy Hill
 * Scott Menville (messenger)

Series continuity

 * Katara's necklace, which she lost in the episode "Imprisoned" is recovered by Aang and returned to her during his battle with Zuko.
 * The herbalist and her pet cat Miyuki make a return appearance in this episode. She is seen gathering herbs near the ruins of Taku.
 * June, Zuko and Iroh make a stop at Makapu Village and briefly converse with Aunt Wu. June comments that, "The girl must have spent a lot of time here", referring to Katara's repeated visits to have her fortune read.
 * When Zuko tries to get Nyla the shirshu back on the scent, June sarcastically says, "He likes you", when Zuko nearly got struck by its tongue. However, June may not have been kidding, seeing how Nyla reacted the same way to her while being pet.
 * The man June was arm-wrestling appears later in the series, fighting her.

Goofs

 * When Bato says the sisters craft perfume and ointments, Katara is seen wearing her mother's necklace, even though, at that point, Zuko has it.
 * After June captures the stowaway on Zuko's ship, the stowaway cannot be seen when she runs off the dock.
 * In a distant look of the abbey we see the doors open. The next moment, when Zuko, Iroh and June enter, they break through the door that was already open.
 * When Katara and Sokka are by the boat, Aang's footprints disappear. In the next scene, they reappear.
 * When Katara and Sokka find out Aang had the map that would lead them to their father, we see Sokka, Katara and Bato's footprints. When Sokka, Katara and Bato are walking away, their footprints disappear.
 * Zuko and June stop at the hilltop herbalist in their pursuit of Aang, despite the fact that Katara never went there, and it is her necklace and scent that they are following.
 * When Bato is saying he cannot do anything while dodging, Katara's rope is behind Sokka and Aang.
 * When Sokka is yelling at Aang the mark on his forehead is an arch, but when he turns back at Katara, it is more triangle shaped.
 * When Nyla struck Zuko with his tongue, June was on the saddle, but in the next frame where Nyla struck June, she was off the saddle.

Trivia

 * In the scene where June is arm wrestling in the local tavern, the man she is arm wrestling bears a striking resemblance to Ryu from Street Fighter.
 * Also when she is arm wrestling, there is a woman in the background who looks somewhat like Jin.
 * According to iTunes, this is the lowest rated episode. However, many believe it to be "The Great Divide".
 * This is the first episode in which Appa actually engages people in combat, using his size and ability to airbend to great effect.

pt-br:Bato da Tribo da Água Bato vom Wasserstamm Bato van de Water Stam Бато из племени Воды