The Boiling Rock, Part 2

''This article is about the episode. For the location, see The Boiling Rock. For the battle, see Escape from the Boiling Rock.''

Writer: Aaron Ehasz

Director: Ethan Spaulding

Guest Stars: Grey DeLisle (Azula), Cricket Leigh (Mai), Olivia Hack (Ty Lee), André Sogliuzzo (Hakoda), Jennie Kwan (Suki), Wade Williams (The Warden), Ezekial Rollins (Chit Sang), Roger Rose (Bully Guard).

Overview
''Sokka, Zuko, Suki, and Chit Sang recreate a plan for escaping the prison, involving Hakoda in their plans. They escape by creating a prison riot and kidnapping the Warden. However, problems for the four arrive when Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee visit the prison. As the plan teeters on the verge of failure, Mai helps Zuko and the others escape. Azula attacks Mai for her betrayal, but Ty Lee intervenes. Azula has them both imprisoned. ''

Synopsis
New prisoners are arriving into the Boiling Rock, and they are lined up to be introduced to the Warden. Sokka, disguised as a prison guard, is glad to see his father Hakoda among the new arrivals. The Warden explains the history of the Boiling Rock, that no one ever escapes from it. Hakoda defies the Warden's orders to look him in the eyes, and trips him, which causes Sokka to snicker. The Warden angrily orders the new arrivals to be confined to their cells. Sokka later enters his father's cell still disguised, which causes Hakoda to almost attack him. But when he realizes who he is, and is overjoyed.

The Warden interrogates the recaptured Chit Sang and grills him to find out who was helping him with the escape plan, knowing he's certainly not smart enough to think of such an intricate plan on his own. Chit Sang refuses to talk. The Warden has his guards torture him by holding him upside down in his chair until he will reveal the identity of the person.



Sokka and his father devise a plan for Suki, Zuko and themselves to escape the prison. Later, Sokka makes his way to Zuko's prison cell and tries to share the plan, but is interrupted by two guards, who are there to take Zuko away. Sokka feigns brutalizing Zuko so he can reveal when they should next meet. Zuko is taken into another cell where he is confronted by his ex-girlfriend, Mai. Meanwhile, the Warden comes back to see whether Chit Sang will talk. Chit Sang then reveals somebody did help him, although he only vaguely does so by indicating it was someone disguised as a Fire Nation soldier.

Mai is hurt that Zuko broke-up with her, berating him for leaving only a farewell letter as he left to join the Avatar. Zuko tries to explain he had to leave to save the Fire Nation, but Mai believes he's only betraying it. Zuko firmly tells her he doesn't see it that way.



Sokka goes to see Suki in her cell to fill her in on the plan. The plan is to escape on the prison's gondola, using the Warden as hostage so they won't cut the cables of the gondola as they escape. Sokka tries to leave the cell casually, but two guards find and tell him that the Warden wants to see him. Sokka is lined up with several other prison guards, who are being inspected by Chit Sang to point out who was the one devising the escape plan. Sokka is terrified, but instead of pointing at him, Chit Sang points to the guard that bullied him from the previous day. The Warden falls for the false identification, captures the accused guard and put him into a prison cell for interrogation. While the accused guard is being interrogated by the Warden, they are interrupted by Princess Azula and Ty Lee. Azula simply glances at the captured guard and realizes he isn't the one they're after. The Warden is stunned and wonders how she knows. Azula sinisterly replies, "Because I'm a people person."

Sokka manages to trick a guard into unlocking the cells of the prisoners to let them out into the yard. He meets up with Suki and Hakoda outside. All they need in order to begin the escape plan is a riot. Hakoda tries hitting a big, tough-looking prisoner, but it doesn't work, as he was told by the guards to control his anger. Chit Sang surprises Sokka, having known that he would come up with another plan, and wants in again. Sokka asks Chit Sang to start a riot, which he does by merely picking up a bystander and telling everyone, "Hey, RIOT!", causing every inmate to starting fighting spontaneously; even the guy Hakoda attempted to provoke forgot about his anger issues. The Warden appears and angrily demands to know how all the prisoners were released into the yard during lockdown (which prompted the guard who let them out to sneak away guiltily).

Mai is still interrogating Zuko, but a guard appears to protect her during the riot. Zuko takes the chance and Firebends at the guard’s feet and rushes out of the room. The guard attempts to shield Mai from the fire, preventing her from reacting. Zuko locks her and the guard in the cell and escapes to the yard, where he meets up with the others. While Sokka and Zuko argue about how to capture the Warden, Suki takes the initiative and goes after him on her own. She runs on the heads of the rioting prisoners and scales the walls of the yard with an amazing display of acrobatics. She disables the guards protecting the Warden, ties him up and gags him. They all meet up, the Warden now their hostage, and make their way to the gondola.



The group makes it onto the gondola, and Zuko breaks the lever so the guards can't stop them. As they begin to ascend, they spot Azula and Ty Lee approaching. Ty Lee runs on gondola's cable while Azula propels herself with Firebending towards the gondola. Suki fights Ty Lee while Sokka and Zuko fight Azula on the top of the gondola. The Warden breaks free of his binding and yells at the guards to cut the cable, which would kill everyone as they fell into the volcanic lake below. The guards stop the gondola from moving and start to hack away at the cable.

Azula and Ty Lee propel themselves onto another oncoming gondola on a separate cable. Just as the guards are about to finish cutting, they are disabled by Mai. She starts to pin the guards with her daggers, angering Azula. A guard asks her what she's doing, to which she replies, "Saving the jerk who dumped me." She frees the line, and the gondola used by the group starts moving again. They make it out of the volcano, leaving the Warden behind in the gondola. Although Suki points out how are they going to leave, Zuko figures out that Azula must have come to the Boiling Rock somehow and spots an uninhabited Fire Nation Airship. The group uses the airship to escape off the island.



Mai is detained by guards and brought forth to Azula. Azula demands to know why she saved the escapees, knowing the consequences. Mai tells Azula she miscalculated, as she loves Zuko more than she fears Azula. The two of them get in position to battle. Just as Azula is about to deliver a fatal blow at Mai, Ty Lee intervenes, blocks Azula's chi, and strikes her down. Ty lee and Mai try to escape but are quickly captured again. Azula calls them fools and orders the guards to let them rot in prison so she'll never have to see their faces again.

Back at the Western Air Temple, Sokka and Zuko exit their newly captured Airship. Aang and the others remark their fishing trip must have been one crazy fishing trip. Toph asks if they at least got any meat, and Sokka answers they got best meat of all, the meat of friendship and fatherhood. Hakoda, Suki, and Chit Sang exit the ship and present themselves to the others. Katara is overjoyed to see her father, and embraces him and Sokka as Zuko happily watches. In the background, Toph asks, "Seriously, you guys didn't find any meat?"

Production Notes

 * In the escape scene, officers are seen slicing at the ropes in the wheel that held up the gondola. They repeatedly slice different ropes, when in fact, the gondolas only use one rope to be sent across. Cutting just one would have been sufficient to throw the gondola into the boiling water that surrounded the prison.

Air Date
New episodes of Avatar began airing on July 14th, in sequential order. Starting with "The Western Air Temple", "The Firebending Masters", The Boiling Rock (both parts together), The Southern Raiders, Ember Island Players, and finally Sozin's Comet Parts 1-4. This event was called "Countdown to the Comet"

Series Continuity

 * Zuko uses parts of the Dancing Dragon to block many fire blasts, including blue ones from Azula, showing that the Dancing Dragon is not just a novice firebending move, but a very powerful form which can be used for defense and attack.
 * Chit Sang makes no mention of his girlfriend and best friend during the second escape attempt, even though he insisted on bringing them along before and they are likely in the yard with the other prisoners.
 * The events of this episode trigger Azula's eventual fall into insanity.

Trivia

 * The irony of Azula's comment "Because I'm a people person", should be noted when she was betrayed by Mai and Ty Lee, two people she thought she knew very well.
 * Chit Sang and his two friends' failed escape attempt is an allusion to the escape attempt from Alcatraz made by Frank Morris, John Anglin, and Clarence Anglin. While successful in their escape, they most likely drowned in the San Fransisco Bay, which ironically is very cold and has a strong current. In Chit Sang's case it was a hot lake and a weak current that foiled his escape.
 * When the Warden ordered the line to be cut, Azula was still on the gondola, so if the line was cut she surely would have been killed. However the second gondola may have been sent purposely to save her and Ty Lee.
 * When Mai explains that she attacked the guards she claims it was to save Zuko. However, it should be noted she also saved her uncle, the Warden.
 * The "Previously on Avatar" section for this episode is the longest of all episodes in Season 2 and 3.

Goofs

 * During the prison riot, Zuko locks Mai and a guard in the interrogation room, but when he runs off there's no lock on the outside of the door.
 * When the guards are cutting the line, the other wheel for the second gondola is not moving, but in the next shot, the second gondola is shown moving.
 * When Ty Lee jumps onto the gondola's line, she jumps on the second line (not the one the prisoners are on), but in the next frame she's running on the first gondola's line.
 * Near the end, after Chit Sang throws the Warden back into the Gondola, Hakoda's hair beads are on the wrong side.
 * When Chit Sang starts the riot and Hakoda says "impressive", Sokka's sword is missing; however, when the scene zooms out, the sword reappears.
 * When Chit Sang throws the warden back into the Gondola,the Warden cannot be seen through the gaps on the side of the Gondola.
 * When they all escape out of the Gondola, their bodies cannot be seen through the gaps on the side of the Gondola.