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 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. The team begins 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, which eventually 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 loud 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 the disturbances, and he finds a bounty hunter named June, mounted on a large animal, a Shirshu. June states to be looking for a stowaway. Zuko states 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 until 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 it is due to the Shirshu's sense of smell. This leaves Iroh very impressed with the animal and with the owner as well.



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 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 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 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 and gets closer to his prey, Katara, who is with Sokka and Bato in their path to find Hakoda. They hear a wolf howling and 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 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 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 in the glider, 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. Aang and Zuko start fighting and eventually they make a big explosion, as a result of the fight. The Shirshu and June get up again and try to paralyze Appa with the tongue, and 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, though it 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 in the top of a well manages to recover the necklace. Appa tries to reach Zuko who is shooting fire at Aang but June and the Shirshu paralyze the bison after numerous strokes.

Meanwhile, Zuko and June finally get Aang trapped against a wall. Sokka suddenly comes up with a plan. 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, 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 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, "He likes you," when Zuko nearly got struck by its tongue. However, June may not have been kidding seeing as how Nyla reacted the same way 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.
 * 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.

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 can't 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.
 * 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.
 * 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's her necklace and scent that they are following, although it could be that Aang has Katara's scent on him, as she hugs him quite a lot.
 * 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 tounge, June was on the saddle, but in the next frame where Nyla struck June, she was off of the saddle.
 * When Aang gets Katara's necklace from zuko the band is connected. But when he gives it to Katara the band is ripped at the middle.

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