Bato of the Water Tribe


 * This article is about an episode. For the character of the same name, see Bato.

Writer: Ian Wilcox

Director: Giancarlo Volpe

Guest Stars: Richard McGonagle (Bato), André Sogliuzzo (Hakoda), Jennifer Hale (June), Amy Hill (Mother Superior), Tsai Chin (Aunt Wu), Jodi Carlisle (The Herbalist), Scott Menville (Messenger)

Overview
''Katara and Sokka reunite with Bato, an old friend of theirs. Bato suggests they find their father, and Aang fears 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. Zuko finds a bounty hunter named June to help him track down the Avatar. After defeating Zuko, Aang gets Katara's necklace back, he gives it back to her, and Katara and Sokka decide they can't 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, excited with the discovery, they begin to search for any other traces of the passage of the Water Tribe in that place. Sokka finds a burned arrow and other evidences of a fight between firebenders and the warriors of the tribe, this traces lead 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 dad's fleet. Meanwhile in Zuko's Ship, he and his uncle are drinking a cup of tea and relaxing when suddenly there's a bang and the ship balances causing the tea to spill all over Zuko. He goes to the deck to check who's the responsible for that noises, and he finds a bounty hunter named June, mounted in a large animal, a Shirshu, and she states to be looking for a stowaway.

Zuko says there's no stowaway in his ship but June ignores him and the beast rips a piece of metal from the deck with his strong teeth leaving uncovered what seems to be the basement, following the stowaway's scent the animal ends up finding his prey, who still tries to escape but the beast uses his whip-like tongue to temporarily paralyze the fugitive. While June is carrying the man to the animal's back Zuko asks her how she knew about the man's hideout, to which she replies that's due to the Shirshu's sense of smell. This leaves Iroh very impressed with the animal and with the owner too.



Later, in that night, Sokka is remembering the day that Hakoda, his dad, left the Southern Water Tribe leaving him to take care of his little sister when Bato, a friend of Hakoda's family and a native of the south pole, appears in the group campsite next to the boat. Bato explains that 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 they share some stories about their tribe and Aang starts to feel excluded. In the meantime Zuko hires June to capture the Avatar using the scent of Katara's necklace on her Shirshu in exchange for the damages to his ship and Iroh also proposes to offer her weight in gold.

Back at the Abbey, Bato starts talking about how Katara and Sokka might be able to see their father Hakoda, 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, unfortunately Aang doesn't hear the last part of the conversation, when they say that 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 and Bato takes Sokka and his friends on a coming-of-age ritual called Ice Dodging. Instead of ice, though, they use jagged rocks. Zuko continues his search in the Aunt Wu's place, in Makapu Village. At the same time with the help from the bending arts of Katara and Aang under Sokka's conduct, they pass the test and the group received a ceremonial mark for wisdom, to Sokka, bravery, to Katara and trust to Aang. But when Aang receives this mark, he is overwhelmed with guilt and gives the message to Katara and Sokka. Sokka is furious that Aang kept it from them and he yells at him harshly for it, and Katara is disappointed. They leave Aang to find their father.

Soon after this the Shirshu arrives the Abbey and gets closer of his prey, Katara, who is with Sokka and Bato in their path to find Hakoda, but then they hear a wolf howling and Sokka suggests that the wolf is hurt, but Bato tells them that the wolf has been separated from its pack. He then explains how he knows this by telling about when he was wounded in battle and left in the Abbey to heal by his fellow Water Warriors, feeling the loneliest he has 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 Aang, who is in the shore, sitting on Appa, almost leaving when the 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 learnt that the Avatar is not with them, when Katara and her brother try to flee the beast flings out is tongue and paralyzes them. 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 in the glider, and he manages to take the beast down. However June quickly gets up and once on her Shirshu tries to attack Aang but is stopped by Appa. Then Aang and Zuko starts fighting and eventually they make a big explosion, as a result of the fight, that throws both of them to the roofs. The Shirshu and June get up again and try to paralyze Appa with the tongue, not far from them, Zuko is recovered from the explosion and he starts firebending at Aang but when the Avatar is earning some vantage the Shirshu starts to chase Aang. Appa helps his owner throwing air blasts to his chaser, thought it's not succeed. Zuko resumes his duel with the Avatar who notices Katara's necklace in Zuko's fist and after dodging his fire whips in the top of a well manages to recover the necklace, then hits Zuko by waterbending the water from the well. Appa tries to reach Zuko who is shooting fire at Aang but June and the Shinshu paralyze the bison after performing numerous strokes.

While Zuko and June finally get Aang trapped against a wall Sokka and Katara are revived by some perfume given to them by the nuns, suddenly Sokka has an idea. He has the nuns pour out all their perfumes, and Katara starts waterbending them all around. Since the Shirshu can only "see" with its nose, it gets overwhelmed from all the smells and starts lashing at random people. When Zuko and June are paralyzed by the beast, Iroh feigns paralysis to 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 kids are flying on Appa, Aang asks them what their plan is now. They tell him they're going to get him to the North Pole because he's their family too. Aang gives Katara back her necklace saying that Zuko asked him to do it. Katara gets in the joke too and kisses Aang on the cheek. Aang blushes and twiddles his thumbs as they fly off into the sunset.

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 "She likes you" when Zuko nearly gets struck by its tongue. However, June may not have been kidding since, in the series finale, Nyla does the same to her while being pet.
 * The man June was arm-wrestling appears later in the series, fighting her.

Trivia

 * In the scene where June is arm wrestling in The Tavern, the man she is arm wrestling bears a striking resemblance to Ryu from Street Fighter.
 * The mark of Intelligence is also seen on Aunt Wu, in The Fortuneteller, but it's upside down.
 * According to itunes, this is the lowest rated episode. However, many believe it to be The Great Divide.

Goofs

 * After June captures the stowaway on Zuko's ship, the stowaway can't be seen when she runs off the dock.
 * While searching for Team Avatar, Zuko, June, and Iroh came across the herbalist from the episode "The Blue Spirit" saying the Avatar was there, but they were following the scent of Katara's necklace who was sick at the sanctuary.
 * In a distant look of the Abbey we see the doors open, in the next moment, when Zuko, Iroh and June enter, they break a door that was already open.
 * Zuko and his group manage to break the Abbey's door twice in this episode.
 * When Katara and Sokka are by the boat, Aang's foot prints disappear. Then in the next, scene, they reappear

Bato vom Wasserstamm Bato van de Water Stam Бато из племени Воды