The Desert


 * This article is about the episode The Desert. For the episode with a similar name see The Deserter. For the desert this episode is referring to, see Si Wong Desert

Writer: Tim Hedrick

Director: Lauren MacMullan

Guest Stars: Sab Shimono (Master Yu), Malachi Throne (Colonel Mongke), Marc Graue (Xin Fu), Bill Bolender (Sha-Mo), Peter Jessop (Fung), Paul McKinney (Ghashiun)

Production Code: 211

Overview
''The gang is stranded in the desert, helpless without Appa. While halting in the Misty Palms Oasis, Iroh and Zuko are recognized from a wanted poster by Xi Fu ans master Yu, hired by Toph's father. They plan to capture them for the reward, but a secret society helps to protect Iroh and Zuko from them and from the Fire Nation. After going through the many perils of the desert, Aang tracks down the Sandbenders who stole Appa, and learns that Appa was traded to a merchant in Ba Sing Se. Upon hearing that Appa was muzzled, an infuriated Aang enters the Avatar State, almost wiping out the Sandbenders, but is calmed down by Katara.''

Synopsis


The scene opens with the gang stuck in the middle of the desert right after Aang, Sokka, Katara and Momo narrowly exited the Library before it vanished under the sand. All but Toph are looking in different directions for signs of Appa and a way out. A distraught Aang verbally goes after Toph, scuolding her for letting the sandbenders get away – accusing her of intentionally letting Appa be captured. Katara attempts to calm Aang down and points out that Toph saved their lives. However, Sokka doesn’t help the situation by stating that they are still in need of rescuing, as they are stranded in the middle of nowhere. Aang lashes out at everyone, calling them selfish. Despite Katara’s efforts to calm Aang, he heads out alone on his glider to search for a sign of Appa. Katara takes charge and decides that the rest of them needs to start walking if they hope to get out of the desert and reach Ba Sing Se to inform the Earth King of the upcoming solar eclipse.

While riding on the ostrich-horse, Iroh utters several fake-moans, pretending to be in pain in order to get Zuko to stop for a break. As soon as the duo halts to make camp, five adversaries on rhinos surround them – the same ones that attacked Chin Village before. Iroh identifies the group as Colonel Mongke and his Rough Rhinos. Iroh greets them in a friendly manner but takes note of where they all are, as the Colonel has stated they are there to capture some fugitives (Zuko and Iroh). As the group attacks, Iroh and Zuko effectively maneuver an escape. While riding away Zuko asks Iroh if he has any old friends that don’t want to attack them, giving Iroh an idea.



Katara, Sokka, Toph, and Momo are tiredly staggering through the desert. Sokka halts to use Momo's wings for shade, causing Toph to crash into him. He irritable begins to say, “Can’t you watch where you’re…?” but stops mid sentense as he realizes that Toph can't see. Katara encourages them to stick together and shares some of her bending water to help keep them hydrated. This is met with some criticism as Sokka realizes it’s been used on the swamp people. He then spots a cactus and slices part of it open to reveal that it contains some type of liquid. He and Momo happily quenches themselves. Katara warns against eating strange plants whose effects they do not know, but the damage has been done. Sokka’s pupils suddenly dilate and both he and Momo begin to hallucinate. Toph asks if she can try some, but Katara decides it’s best if nobody drinks any more cactus juice and they continue looking for Aang.

Aang glides over the endless sanddunes of Si Long desert looking for Appa – blowing his bison whistle and yelling. He lands, and overcome by anger and grief, he slams his staff on the ground, creating a huge sand mushroom cloud. The others (seemingly a long distance away) not only see the cloud but also feel the air. Unknowingly, they decide to keep walking - away from Aang. Sokka and Momo continue to hallucinate, believing the cloud is a giant mushroom and start to worship it under the impression that it might be friendly.

Back at the Misty Palms Oasis, Xin Fu and Master Yu learn that Aang and Toph have been there recently, but headed into the desert and may never come back. Just then, Xin Fu notices Fire Nation wanted posters as well as Iroh and Zuko arriving into the Oasis and entering the local tavern.

It's nearing sunset when Aang rejoins the group – without Appa. He is very discouraged and seems willing to give up, but Katara pulls the group together again and urges them to continue on, even as vulture-wasp-like creatures buzz overhead.

As Katara declares "I think we should stop for the night", the others gladly fall to the ground exhausted. Toph asks for water and Katara begins to ration out the last of what she has when Momo jumps into the water, causing it to sink into the ground. Katara uses her Waterbending to recover most of it. She asks Sokka if she can take a look at some of the things he got from the library. Sokka, still under the effects of the cactus, accuses Momo of ratting him out by telling Katara about the information he had – forgetting Katara was with him in the library. Still in his defeatist mode, Aang says the maps won’t help them find Appa, but Katara points out they will help them head to Ba Sing Se by following the stars. Katara says they should start up again in a few hours to take advantage of the cool nights.



Iroh and Zuko are inside the same establishment where Aang's crew met the Professor in the previous episode. Iroh spots someone at the Pai Sho table and believes this may be the friend they are looking for. As they head over, Xin Fu wants to go after them, but Master Yu points out they may be in over their heads given where they are and they should show patience and wait for the right moment to go after Zuko and Iroh. Iroh approaches the Pai Sho table and asks to play. After beginning with the Lotus tile, Fung and Iroh begin what appears to be a ritualistic game understood by the two of them. Xin Fu loses his patience and goes for Iroh and Zuko, but Fung creates a diversion, causing the rest of the people in the establishment to fight with two would-be captors while Iroh and Zuko escape.

Meanwhile, Katara is rousing everyone awake to take advantage of the night. Aang mistakes a cloud for Appa. When Katara asks him to Waterbend the cloud into her water-skin, Aang angrily does so. After Katara comments on how little water there was from the cloud, Aang blows up at her asking her what she's doing... to which she quietly states "trying to keep everyone together." As they head out, Toph bangs her foot against what she calls a boat, and Aang uncovers a glider-like the Sandbenders used. There’s a compass aboard and the group decides to use the glider to try to get out of the desert. Sokka and Momo are still under the effects of the cactus, and they continue to trip.

Iroh and Zuko are led into a flower shop by their friend who tells Iroh what an honor it is to have such a high ranking member of the Order of the White Lotus. Zuko, still unconvinced as to how playing Pai Sho will help them, makes a derisive statement about flower arranging. Iroh apologizes to Fung about Zuko's lack of appreciation for the cryptic arts. After a cryptic exchange through a speakeasy-type opening, Iroh and Fung are let into a back room, but Zuko is shut out and made to wait in the flower shop as it is "members only".

Aang uses his Airbending to move the glider over the sand. Katara mentions that she doesn’t think the compass is pointing north, and suddenly they see a huge rock formation ahead. Toph is excited to get to the rock while Aang appears to be maliciously hoping there are sandbenders there.

When they reach the top of the huge rock, Toph falls back to make a rock angel to show her joy at being back on solid ground. The crew goes into some caves, and Sokka says he thinks his head is starting to clear up but then proceeds to eat a sap-like, gooey substance from the walls which tastes terrible and makes him feel woozy. Suddenly, Toph realizes these aren’t natural caves and there is something buzzing that is coming toward them.



Huge buzzard-wasp-like animals swarm out. Toph's aim is hampered by the fact the creatures are flying, and Katara is out of water to bend. Momo is snatched by one of the buzzing creatures, and Aang goes after them. He successfully frees Momo, while the others work their way down the rock. It appears Aang used his Airbending to kill the creature after Momo was freed, showing a sinister side to Aang, although the act seemed atypical of him because at the time he was severely stressed and neither before this nor since has he acted that way (indeed he displays an intense aversion to the idea of killing later in the series). The rest of the group are fighting off the swarm when suddenly, huge sandblasts shoo them back to the top. When the sand clears there are several Sandbenders, Aang returns and lands in between his group and the Sandbenders.

Iroh finally emerges from the back room and awakens Zuko, as he's sleeping standing up. He tells Zuko they will be heading to Ba Sing Se and hiding in plain sight. Unfortunately, Xin Fu and Master Yu are still looking for them.

The Sandbenders ask why they have one of their vessels, and Katara explains they found it and that their Bison was stolen. Toph recognizes one of the voices as the one who took Appa. Suddenly Aang demands to know where his bison is, and when his accusation is challenged, he destroys one of the gliders and makes his demand again.

Xin Fu and Master Yu head into the flower shop looking for Zuko and Iroh, but they are not to be found – even after Xin Fu knocks down the door to the back room. A cart with two potted plants is being taken out of the Oasis and suddenly we see Iroh and Zuko are hiding in the pots.



Aang again demands to know where Appa is and destroys another sand sailer. The leader turns to his son and asks what he did; if he has wronged the strangers, the tribe must offer hospitality. The son denies any wrongdoing and continues to insist that Team Avatar are the thieves, but Toph states that she heard the son say to put a muzzle on Appa. Hearing this, Aang, enraged, goes instantly into the Avatar State and destroys the remaining sand sailer. Rightly fearful for his life, the son finally confesses he took the Bison but didn’t know it was the Avatar's. Aang (in a menacing Avatar voice on top of his own) demands to know Appa's location, and the son says he traded Appa to a merchant and that he's probably in Ba Sing Se by now. Avatar Aang begins to form an air ball around him similar to when he was in the Southern Air Temple and had found Gyatso's skeleton. Sokka pushes Toph forward by the shoulders and shouts to the Sandbenders to run. As Avatar Aang begins to rise into the air, Katara approaches him, grabs his wrist, pulls Aang down, and embraces him – eventually bringing Aang out of the Avatar State and it is revealed that tears are streaming down his face.

Series Continuity

 * The mysteriously buried Sandbender's ship that Aang and Katara dig out of the sand is shown in a flashback in "Appa's Lost Days".
 * The maps used by Team Avatar to navigate their way through the desert are the same ones Sokka took from Wan Shi Tong's library in The Library.
 * This is the second episode in which Aang tries to find Appa. The first was The Swamp.

Translations

 * For a translation of Iroh and Zuko's wanted poster, see The Avatar State translation section in Writing in the World of Avatar.
 * For a translation of the four other posters (Chey, Jeong Jeong, the Blue Spirit, and Aang) please refer to The Deserter section in Writing in the World of Avatar.

Connections

 * Although there is a popular myth that cacti store water which can be extracted to the benefit of the thirsty desert traveler, in reality many cacti are poisonous or contain hallucinogens such as mescaline—as Sokka and Momo discovered. Mescaline has properties which induce a psychedelic experience very similar to LSD. Sokka's exclamation at seeing the large mushroom cloud caused by Aang could also be interpreted as an allusion to psychedelic mushrooms, which makes sense given Sokka's state of mind at that time.
 * The mushroom cloud created by the furious Aang are also present in the real world, usually when a nuclear weapon is detonated. An example would be the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.

Trivia

 * This episode aired along with "The Library" as part of the one-hour special, Avatar: The Fury of Aang.
 * Sokka's voice actor, Jack DeSena, once stated that this was his favorite episode due to Sokka being "stoned" on cactus juice. The scene has become famous in the fanbase.
 * Although Toph claims to have heard the son say 'Put a muzzle on him [Appa]", we do not actually hear this during the time Appa is being taken in the episode "The Library". Instead, we hear it in the episode "Appa's Lost Days".
 * This is one of the very few episodes in the series when Aang is angrier than the other protagonists.
 * This is the first time "The Order of the White Lotus" was mentioned in the Avatar Series.
 * When Katara gave Sokka and Toph some water, Sokka tells her that it's swamp water, and Toph agrees, but Toph wasn't with the group in "The Swamp" to even know what the taste of swamp water is. Although, it's possible that Toph is simply familiar with swamps or, given how terrible the water tastes, she simply agreed to it tasting "swampy".
 * Jeong Jeong and Chey are referenced in the Fire Nation wanted posters being looked at by Yu and Xin Fu.
 * This is the middle episode of the series, as there are 30 episodes before and 30 after it.
 * While there are five wanted posters in this episode, all of them have been seen earlier.
 * The scene in which Sokka sees a "friendly mushroom" has received huge positive reception from the fanbase. Various fan-made videos have even been made on YouTube to pay tribute to this (in)famous scene.

Goofs

 * When Aang flies off to find Appa, the group is shown standing in a crater left by the sunken library, but in the scene before they were all standing on relatively even ground.
 * After Momo falls to the ground from drinking the cactus juice, Katara picks him up and exits the frame with Toph. When she runs back to get Sokka, Momo isn't in her arms.
 * When Sokka denies stealing anything from the library and blames Momo for ratting him out, his boomerang is missing in a few frames.
 * Toph says she recognizes Ghashiun's voice because he said to put a muzzle on Appa, but in the previous episode, The Library, he never actually says that. But in Appa's Lost Days, he is heard saying "Put a muzzle on him!!". So it just wasn't shown in that paticular episode, but it did in fact happen.
 * After Aang enters the Avatar State and begins rising into the air, Katara grabs his arm. In the first frame she uses her right hand, but in the next she's using her left.
 * Some cable TV providers, such as Comcast, list this episode as "The Deserters" instead of "The Desert".
 * When Katara takes the chart of the stars that Sokka got from the library, the stars in the background suddenly fade from being very bold to dim.

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