The Headband

"The Headband" is the second episode of season three of Avatar: The Last Airbender and the 42nd of the overall series. It debuted on September 28, 2007.

Overview
''After entering the Fire Nation, Aang and his friends steal local clothes in order to live incognito among the citizens. Aang accidentally steals a Fire Nation school uniform and is taken to the Fire Nation school of the uniform stolen, after being accused of truancy. Aang wears a headband to hide his Airbender tattoos. Enjoying being able to go to school, socialize like a 'normal' kid, and realizing the value of learning about the Fire Nation, he enrolls in the school. He later arranges a school-wide dance party for the rigidly disciplined and self-expression lacking Fire Nation pupils. When the school authorities learn about the party, the students help Aang and his friends escape. Meanwhile, Zuko hires an assassin to find and capture Aang.''

Synopsis
Zuko tosses and turns in his sleep before he eventually awakens. He approaches a Fire Nation prison and looks distantly towards it. As he stands near the entrance, a guard spies him from the roof and demands to know Zuko's identity, but he simply walks away instead.

Meanwhile, Aang and the others are traveling through the Fire Nation, using a combination of Waterbending and Airbending to hide Appa in a cloud. They take temporary shelter in a cave, and go to seek out new clothes so they could blend in with the Fire Nation citizens, eliminating the need to hide. They find an unattended clothesline and steal some outfits. Aang uncomfortably blushes when Katara comes in her new outfit, and he quickly indicates that she has to remove her mother's necklace. Afterwards, they venture into a nearby town to purchase some accessories, including a new necklace for Katara.



In town, the group attempts to act natural, which is somewhat impeded by Aang, who, having traveled through the Fire Nation a century before, claims to be an expert of their customs. He calls people he sees on the street "hotman" and other expressions that have clearly been out of date for a hundred years. When the others go to buy food from a meat stand, Aang declines due to his vegetarianism and goes off on his own for a bit. However, he is quickly caught by a group of soldiers who escort him into a classroom. His stolen clothing happens to be the uniform of a local school, and the soldiers assume he had been a student playing hooky. The teacher assumes he is a new student from the Fire Nation colonies in the Earth Kingdom. Aang calls himself Kuzon after his old Fire Nation friend and attempts to blend in at the school with partial success. After dismissal, he meets a girl named On Ji, who is friendly to him, as well as On Ji's apparent boyfriend, Hide, a popular student who is less than friendly. After a brief confrontation, Aang winds up making friends and playing with Shoji and other children from the school.

Aang returns to the cave at nightfall, to the relief of Katara, Sokka, and Toph who were evidently worried by his long absence. The fact that he had been attending a Fire Nation school all day shocks Aang's friends, especially Sokka. When Aang claims to have enjoyed the experience and wishes to return to the school the next day, Sokka strongly objects. Aang argues that every minute in the class he is learning new things about the Fire nation, showing Sokka a picture of Ozai as well as one he made out of noodles. Eventually, Aang manages to convince him to allow it by pointing out that it's an opportunity to find out information about the Fire Nation, specifically mentioning a "secret river" they were going to learn about that led to Fire Lord Ozai's palace. Sokka admits that he is a fan of "secret rivers" and reluctantly permits Aang to go back the next day. Aang joyfully says "Flameo, hotman!" to Sokka, who becomes utterly confused by his statement.



Meanwhile, Zuko returns to the prison. When confronted by the guard from the previous night, he aggressively threatens him not to tell anyone about his visit. He goes into the room where Iroh is being kept prisoner; Iroh turns away from him, showing great disappointment in his nephew. Zuko tells Iroh that it is his own fault that he is in prison, and that the two could have returned to the Fire Nation together as heroes. Iroh still refuses to speak, sending Zuko into a fit of rage, leaving a saddened Iroh alone in the cell.

The next day at school, Aang gets in trouble for not reciting the Fire Nation Oath correctly, as he had obviously never heard it. The students think his bumbling through the oath is a funny joke, but the teacher punishes his disruption of the class by calling for a pop quiz on the Fire Nation's history. The first question asks for the year in which Fire Lord Sozin defeated the Air Nation Army. Aang, confused, points out to the stunned class that the Air Nomads had no formal military, and were defeated by an ambush. The teacher rejects his claim, as it is not in the Fire Nation's history texts, and stated that he couldn't have known that unless he was there 100 years ago. Aang remembers he isn't supposed to argue, and tells the teacher it was just a guess.



In band class, Aang tries to play the tsungi horn and gets chided by the teacher for dancing, which apparently is not considered proper in the Fire Nation. Nevertheless, On Ji is amused by the dance, and when Aang offers to show it to her during recess he incurs the wrath of Hide, who attempts to hit him. However, Aang skillfully evades every attempted blow with his hands behind his back, eventually getting the clearly outmatched Hide to stumble and fall over without any bending or even touching him. However, this gets Aang into trouble for "roughing up" a favored student of the Headmaster, resulting in a parent-teacher conference. Sokka and Katara attend the conference acting as Aang's parents, "Mr. Wang Fire" and "Mrs. Sapphire Fire". Concluding the conference, the Headmaster warns them that any more disruption will result in "Kuzon" being sent to reform school, to the coal mines to be exact. While they manage to succeed in fooling the teacher, Sokka is against Aang returning to school byt saying "No more school for you young man". Aang, however, tells Sokka that this is the first time since he found out that he was the Avatar that he has had the chance to be a normal kid, and insists that they need to do something for the children in the school in order to allow them, at least briefly, to have freedom of expression. Since these students are the next generation of the Fire nation, changing them might help. He then plans to hold a secret dance party in the cave for everyone in the school, to which Sokka, still wearing his beard, demands, "Go to your room!".



Meanwhile, Zuko has a romantic picnic with Mai and they share a kiss. The two are interrupted by Azula, who tries to get Zuko to talk to her. He refuses, resulting in Azula sending Mai away by saying that Ty Lee needs help untangling her braid; Mai complies politely, but gives Azula an angry look behind her back. Azula then tricks Zuko into admitting that he was visiting Iroh, and warns him, with apparent sincerity, not to do so, as his visiting a traitor would make others suspicious. Nevertheless, Zuko visits his uncle in prison again. Again Iroh merely faces away from Zuko. Zuko attempts to be kinder, bringing Iroh food as a gift. Zuko begs Iroh for his advice; he explains that he believes the Avatar to be alive, and that he is very confused and has no idea what to do about it without Iroh's guidance. When Iroh remains silent, Zuko flies into another rage, berating Iroh, then leaves. As he leaves, Iroh continues to remain silent, but a tear runs down his face.



Back in the cave, the children arrive and the school band begins to play. The children do not know how to dance and are afraid they'll get in trouble. Aang demonstrates some historical Fire Nation dances, and eventually asks On Ji to dance, which gradually encourages the rest of the students to do the same. Sokka states that Aang and On Ji look good together, to which Katara gives a slightly terse response. Later, Aang asks Katara to dance. After hesitating, she takes Aang's hand and they perform a combination of neijia drills and capoeira in synchronization, which does indeed appear to be an acrobatic dance. However, the headmaster and several soldiers appear on the scene, having been told of the dance by Hide. They try to catch Aang, but he hides within the crowd of kids. Because the soldiers identify Aang with his headband, they are thrown off when they discover several other students wearing the same headband. Eventually, every student in the cave appears to have put one on, effectively delaying the headmaster's hunt for Aang.

The crew manage to slip away in the opening behind the cave. However, before leaving, Aang stops and exchanges smiles with Shoji before running off, closing the opening behind him with Earthbending, leaving Shoji shocked and speechless. While the party flies off on Appa, Toph compliments Aang on his efforts, which she believes made a serious impact on the students. Katara agrees and kisses Aang on the cheek, causing him to blush. Sokka refuses to take his fake beard off, claiming that "It's permanently glued to his skin."

Meanwhile, Zuko walks into a dark alley at night. There he meets with a mysterious man with a metal arm and leg, as well as a tattooed third eye. Zuko states his purpose for contacting the man very simply: he has heard the man is capable of doing his job effectively and secretly, and Zuko wants him to track down and eliminate the Avatar.

Credits

 * Written by:
 * John O'Bryan


 * Directed by:
 * Joaquim Dos Santos


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


 * Also Starring:
 * Grey DeLisle - Azula
 * Cricket Leigh - Mai
 * Jeanne Sakata - Ms. Kwan
 * Tinashe Kachingwe - On Ji
 * Matthew Underwood - Hide
 * Noah Luke - Shoji
 * Jim Ward - Headmaster
 * Phil Proctor - Music Teacher


 * Additional Voices:
 * Dee Bradley Baker
 * Paul Butcher
 * Grey DeLisle
 * Noah Luke
 * Phil Proctor
 * Matthew Underwood
 * Jim Ward
 * Mae Whitman

Series continuity

 * Sokka's "Wang Fire" beard makes two more appearances; once in "The Runaway" and another time in "Nightmares and Daydreams ".
 * This is the last time Katara's hair is in the Book 1 style; the rest of the series it is shown down.
 * In the episode "Avatar Day", after Sokka lost his boomerang, he said it was like losing a part of his identity, like if Katara lost her hair loopies or Aang lost his arrows. In this episode, Katara stops wearing hair loopies to blend into the Fire Nation and is not seen wearing them again until the Invasion and Aang "loses" his arrow by covering it up so no one would know he is the Avatar.
 * Although Iroh is seen, he does not talk. He is first seen talking in "The Avatar and the Fire Lord".
 * When Aang and Katara are dancing, they circle one another with the wrists crossing and their hands flexed, which is the exact same thing Zuko and the Lieutenant Jee did in "The Storm" when they were about to fight. This means that some of the basic forms for Firebending and Waterbending are the same, which means some of the children at the party could possibly recognize the technique, if they themselves are Firebenders, or the movement could have been do to the fact that they were doing capoeira.
 * Aang is the second person to play the tsungi horn in the show; the first was Iroh. Zuko can also play this instrument, however, he doesn't favor doing so, seeing as he refused to play at the music night on their ship, when his crew was commandeered by Zhao.
 * The song played by the Flameos is played again later in the third book, at Chan's party in The Beach. The song was played a third time in Sozin's Comet, Part 1: The Phoenix King when Zuko and the gang went to the Earth Kingdom tavern where June was.
 * This episode is the third time that Aang is blushing at Katara when she appears in a new outfit.

Goofs

 * When the bell rings, one student appears twice.
 * When Zuko enters Iroh's prison cell, there isn't a stool in the room. After the commercial break, however, there is a stool which Zuko ends up burning.
 * When Ms. Kwan starts asking about the Air Nomad Genocide, there is a kid that doesn't have a book or pencil. But when Aang "answers" her question, the kid has a book and a pencil.
 * When Aang answers Ms. Kwan's question to her pop quiz, he doesn't have any pencil with him. When he sits down to write his answer, however, he does.
 * When the school appears for the first time, Fire Lord Ozai's statue has just one color, but after the music class, some parts of the statue are a gold color.
 * When Toph tells everybody to stop bending, there isn't a table made of rock at the middle of the cave, but when the kids arrive, there is.
 * When Aang starts to tell everybody that they can dance, one of the Flamey-Os guys doesn't move.
 * When the kids land on the island so they can hide in a cave, Appa just goes in, even though he doesn't like going underground, nor into caves or tunnels they come across.
 * When Aang starts telling people to dance, one student appears twice in one shot, though this could be explained if they were twins.
 * When the class begins a pop quiz, Aang's paper was on his left hand side. In the next scene, it was in front of him without him moving it.
 * When Aang first enters the classroom, there are sixteen seats and all are filled already. The second day he comes to class, he has a seat of the sixteen seats, so one person is missing.
 * Toph is only seen pushing the sole off one of her shoes, though it is possible she pulled apart the other off-screen.
 * When the Headmaster goes into Aang's party and tells the guards to stop tapping their feet, none of the kids are playing music, yet you still can hear music.
 * After Sokka says the mustache is "permanently glued to my skin", his lips continue to move.
 * Toph's Fire Nation outfit is red with golden stripes. In the scene where Aang first comes back from school, her outfit doesn't have the golden stripes.
 * In one snapshot, before the gang steals the clothes, Katara's eyes are brown even though her eyes are really blue.
 * It seems unlikely that the gang would let Toph pick her own clothes, as she would have no idea what they look like or if they would fit her.
 * Katara "calls the silk robe" to wear, yet she takes a long skirt and a one-sleeved tank top. However, this could because she changed her mind or the robe didn't fit her.
 * When the headmaster and Hide show up at Aang's party, there are only three guards with them, one man and two women. However, after Aang leaves the cave and the headmaster tells the guards to stop dancing, an additional female guard is shown moving to the music.
 * When Zuko and Mai were having a romantic picnic Mai was wearing gloves but after Azula says that Ty Lee needs help untangling her braid she is not wearing gloves anymore.

Trivia

 * The non-canon Chibi short Swamp Skiin' Throwdown originally aired just prior to this episode.
 * Aang uses the belt from the school uniform as a headband, but no one seems to find this strange as he said on the first day that he had an embarrassing scar. When the Headmaster comes looking for Aang, all the students wear their belts as headbands to aid his escape. Aang wears it with the emblem upside-down; according to an extra in this episode, he does this to resemble his arrow.
 * The music played when the chapter page is shown is the same music that the Flameos play at the dance party.
 * The Fire School history teacher refers to the Air Nomads as the "Air Nation" and mentions their "army", revealing more of the Fire Nation's extensive propaganda campaign.
 * This is one of the only two episodes where Zuko laughs; the first is "The Waterbending scroll".
 * The dance party scene and the basic plot of the episode; a free-spirited young man teaching self-expression to the youth of an oppressive town, is loosely based on the 1984 Film Footloose.
 * This episode marks Combustion Man's first appearance.
 * Katara and Aang incorporate "bending" moves into their dance.
 * One of the dance moves Aang shows is the "Phoenix Flight". This foreshadows Ozai crowning himself Phoenix King and using the airships to attack the Earth Kingdom.
 * The leg movements in Aang's "Phoenix Flight" dance resemble those of Kazachok, a traditional Ukrainian folk dance.
 * When Aang leaves the group as they go into the meat place, we see a woman who is wearing some of Toph's disguised clothes.
 * Mai shooting a dirty look at Azula is a precursor to the events that took place in the Boiling Rock when Mai liberates Sokka, Zuko, and the other fugitives from the gondola, betraying the alliance between herself and Azula.
 * The dance that Katara and Aang do bears slight resemblance to the Brazilian martial art, Capoeira, a stylized form of mock-combat made to appear like a dance. Avatar Extras confirms Capoeira to be a verified influence. The beginning of the dance is also strongly influenced by Baguazhang, the martial arts style that Airbending is drawn from, including the "circle-walking" motions and the two performers mirroring each other.
 * Never once did On Ji ever state that Hide was her boyfriend. In fact, she was never seen smiling while he was with her.
 * When they each took the disguises, they each buy an accessory that resembles what they each usually wear: Katara's necklace, Toph's hair piece, Sokka's wolf tail and Aang dons a headband over his arrow.
 * Aang's pasta drawing of Fire Lord Ozai appears in "Nightmares and Daydreams" in a fantasy battle while waiting for the Invasion of the Fire Nation.
 * The scene where all the kids are wearing their belts as headbands to confuse the guards into thinking they were Aang/Kuzon is similar to the historical event where over 6,000 revolting slaves said they were Spartacus in order to protect him from the Romans.

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