Katara learns the truth about Jet.
"We can't win without making some sacrifices."
The gang is ambushed by a Fire Nation camp (or rather, they walk straight into it) but are saved by a young man named Jet and his band of rebel freedom fighters. Katara and Aang are immediately drawn to Jet's charismatic leadership. Sokka, however, is suspicious, partly because he distrusts his sister's affection for Jet, and because of his own envy of Jet's skill. As they band together to help fight the Fire Nation, however, it begins to seem as though Jet truly isn't what he seems.
Tropes:
- Accidental Hero: If Sokka hadn't asked for the Gaang to walk instead of fly, they wouldn't have stumbled upon Jet or his plot to destroy the nearby village. Instinct saved dozens of lives!
- Actually Pretty Funny: When Aang is saying how funny the name “Pipsqueak” is, Pipsqueak (who seemed to be offended) laughs along with him.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Katara is a nice girl and spent most of the episode fawning over Jet. However, when she learns how dangerous he is and thinks he’s done something horrible to Sokka, she completely thrashes him and immobilizes him with her Waterbending.
- Big Brother Instinct: Little Sister Instinct, actually. When Katara thinks Jet has killed Sokka, she flips out.
- Big Damn Heroes: No one's gonna believe Sokka about Jet? Fine, he'll save the villagers himself. (Just not the way everyone expected).
- The Big Guy: Pipsqueak. The largest of the Freedom Fighters by far and wields a straight up log as a weapon.
- Bittersweet Ending: The village is saved, and Sokka gets some respect from the Gaang as a leader. Katara finds herself heartbroken, however, when Jet is revealed to have used her and Aang to destroy a village.
- Blind Obedience: The Freedom Fighters always follow Jet’s orders and never question his judgement. The only one who questioned Jet was The Duke, but he seems to have been pacified when Jet justifies the deaths of the villagers as being a necessary sacrifice to free the valley of the Fire Nation. Pipsqueak even says that things always turned out alright when they followed Jet’s orders. Sokka realizes that expecting Aang and Katara to always follow his orders and not question him is bad.
- Blush Stickers: Katara when getting pulled close by Jet so they can be roped up the tree.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Sokka says that sometimes you need to trust your instincts (and later, those same instincts end up leading him to warn the village). Katara pointedly mentions that instincts nearly got them trapped by Fire Nation soldiers. In the end, Sokka acknowledges that instincts aren't always right.
- Broken Pedestal: Jet for Katara. Katara saw him as someone who fought for justice and cared about the people that he protected. Only at the end does she realize that he will do whatever he thinks is necessary to keep the valley safe, even if it means killing innocent people in the process.
- Bullet Time: Used in the scene where Jet takes out the fire army mooks.
- Bullying a Dragon: Jet takes on Aang and Katara to ensure that they can't stop the dam from exploding. He only beats Aang because the latter refuses to attack, but with Katara it's a Curb-Stomp Battle.
- Cassandra Truth: Sokka experiences this while trying to convince Katara and Aang that Jet isn't as good as he seems to be. Unfortunately, Katara refuses to believe him for several reasons, the main one being her infatuation with Jet. Subverted when he warns the villagers themselves instead. They listen, and nobody drowns.
- Character Development: Early in the episode, Sokka is convinced that a good leader should have obedient followers. But when he questions the Freedom Fighters' willingness to drown an Earth Kingdom village at Jet's say-so, and they answer that they've always obeyed Jet without question, Sokka responds that Jet has much to learn if he thinks that that's how one should lead.
- Character Title: "Jet".
- Character Witness: The old man that Sokka saves from Jet and the other Freedom Fighters. He backs up Sokka when he goes to the village to warn them about Jet’s plan to flood the valley.
- Chekhov's Gun: The animal traps early on return later when Sokka traps two of Jet's fighters in them.
- Compulsive Liar: Jet lies multiple times in the episode. He first lies about the old man that he and two of the fighters attacked by claiming he was a Fire Nation assassin sent to kill Jet. Then he lies to Aang and Katara about the Fire Nation planning to burn down the forest so they would inadvertently aid him in destroying a nearby town. Finally, he lies about Sokka being on a mission with Smellerbee and Pipsqueak, when he was being led through the forest to prevent him from interfering with Jet’s plan.
- Continuity Nod: Sokka insists that he's kissed a girl whom Katara hasn't met, most likely referring to Suki.
- Correlation/Causation Gag: When Sokka is bluff-threatening the fire army troops, one of them collapses and Aang wonders how Sokka did it. Turns out it was Jet shooting from a tree.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Sokka. He seems like he can’t lead and can’t forage. However, when Sokka is tied up and being led around the forest by Smellerbee and Pipsqueak, he’s able to lure them into a couple of traps and escape his bonds. Then he personally foils Jet's plan with his charisma and empathy alone.
- Cutting the Knot: Done almost literally by Sokka in the opening; when Aang tries to open the traps holding Momo and a couple other animals one-by-one by flying up to the treetops and untying them, Sokka just uses his boomerang to cut them all down at once.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: Jet and the Freedom Fighters have the goal to free the local village by driving the Fire Nation out of it. They have mainly been doing raids on Fire Nation camps and taking down soldiers they come across. But then Jet decides to take it a step too far and blow up the dam, destroying the village and everyone in it. He claims doing this will kill the Fire Nation soldiers there and free everyone, but ignores the fact that all the innocent people in the village will die too. Sokka even calls him out on this after he manages to save everyone.Jet: Sokka, you fool! We could've freed this valley!
Sokka: Who would be free? Everyone would be dead. - Empathy Doll Shot: Subverted. When the town gets flooded, we're treated to a somber shot of a doll floating in the aftermath. Shortly after, the doll is picked up by its owner. Turns out the town was evacuated in the nick of time, and no one drowned.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Sokka hates the Fire Nation like a lot of characters in the show. However, he refuses to resort to Jet’s methods of driving the Fire Nation out when innocent civilians are involved. He also realizes early on that Jet isn’t so heroic when he, Smellerbee, and Pipsqueak almost attack an innocent old man that just happened to belong to the Fire Nation.
- When Jet is outlining the plan to flood the village, The Duke raises concerns about non-Fire Nation citizens getting killed.
- First Kiss: According to Avatar Extras, Katara gets hers from Jet.
- Forest of Perpetual Autumn: The episode takes place in a forest of red-leafed trees, notably despite being set shortly after the Winter Solstice.
- Free-Fall Fight: Aang and Jet keep fighting mid-air while falling from a tree.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: When the flood starts, you can see cabbages in the village just before they're swamped.
- Freudian Excuse: Jet's parents were killed by the Fire Nation when he was only eight. He also tries to invoke this with Katara and Sokka, reminding them of their mother's death when they protest his actions. It doesn't take.
- Gilligan Cut: After Sokka persuades the gang to walk for a while to avoid the attention that a flying bison is likely to get, Aang says optimistically that maybe walking will be fun. Cut to some time later, and Aang is complaining that walking stinks.
- Girlfriend in Canada: Sokka has kissed a girl— you've just never met her. He might be referring to Suki.
- He Who Fights Monsters: Jet's determination to defeat the Fire Nation is such that he doesn't care how many innocent people he hurts along the way.
- Implausible Deniability: Sokka insists that he has kissed a girl, only Katara hasn't met her. The only other girls in their village were either middle-aged or children, and there was literally no one in the South Pole she hasn't met. Though Katara hadn’t officially met Suki, who kissed Sokka on screen.
- Inopportune Voice Cracking: When Sokka tries to assert himself as the leader of the gang at the beginning of the episode, Katara laughs and says that his voice is still cracking. Which it does as he's indignantly denying it.
- Ironic Nickname: Pipsqueak is the largest of the Freedom Fighters. Meanwhile, The Duke rides on his shoulders.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- Aang throws some explosives at Momo as a joke. So Momo climbs on Aang's shoulder while taking some of the same explosives and throws them at Aang's feet.
- A rare positive example. Sokka protects the old man that Jet and his friends have attacked. The old man vouches for him when he tries to warn the village about what Jet plans to do.
- Little "No": Katara lets out a horrified, echoing "No" seconds before the flaming arrow ignites the explosives at the base of the dam.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Once Katara and Aang learn the truth about Jet, Katara expresses guilt over not believing Sokka when he was telling her that Jet is bad.
- Nobody Here but Us Birds: Jet and his friends communicate via bird sounds.
- Noble Bigot: Katara sadly shows signs of it. While she is initially on Sokka's side when he tells her that Jet attacked an old man, she isn't pleased with Sokka leaving out that the old man was from the Fire Nation, acting as though Sokka was leaving out a key detail and instantly believing Jet when he said that the old man was an assassin.
- One-Word Title: Jet's name.
- No, You: After Sokka reveals he managed to warn the village and the Fire Nation evacuated everyone in time, Jet calls him a "traitor" for it, but Sokka immediately turns it back on Jet.Jet: You traitor!
Sokka: No, Jet. You became the traitor when you stopped protecting innocent people. - Oral Fixation: Jet is always seen chewing on a blade of grass.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: While the Fire Nation officials initially don't believe Sokka's warning, when the old man vouches for him, they waste no time evacuating the village.
- Shadow Archetype: For both Jet and his Freedom Fighters. While Jet is everything that Sokka envies about being a leader (charismatic, respectable, authoritative), he also embodies his worst qualities magnified (his hatred towards the Fire Nation, his belief that everything he does is for the best). On the other hand, the Freedom Fighters' blind faith in Jet mirrors what Sokka previously wanted (Aang and Katara listening obediently to him).
- Shout-Out: The Freedom Fighters' hideout is similar to the Lost Boys' hideout in Hook, and Jet is similar to the character Rufio (played by Dante Basco, Zuko's voice actor).
- Silent Bob: Longshot. He never speaks at all during the episode.
- Surprise Vehicle: At the end, Sokka is riding into view on Appa to deliver the good news about the villagers being saved.
- Villains Want Mercy: This is how Jet views the Fire Nation. He sees them only as the bad guys who destroy and murder everything in their way without mercy, and so when he and the Freedom Fighters mug an old Fire Nation man who pleads with them for mercy, it sets Jet off and he yells "Does the Fire Nation let people go? Does the Fire Nation have mercy?" while trying to strike him. However, this is just Jet's own warped view of seeing everyone from the Fire Nation as a villain, since the old man was just an innocent civilian who had nothing to do with the war.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Jet wants to defeat the Fire Nation army, and with good reason; however, he is willing to harm innocent civilians to get the job done.
- Would Harm a Senior: The first red flag for Sokka about Jet is his willingness to attack an old man who was just walking through the forest. Even more so was the old man trying to run and begging for mercy when Jet made his intentions clear. It was because of this action that Sokka was able to evacuate the village before Jet and his people destroyed the dam, Sokka would not have been believed had this old man not vouched for him.
- Would Hurt a Child: As we see, there are children in the village, which doesn't seem to phase Jet from his plan.
- Would Not Shoot a Civilian: This is ultimately what sets The Gaang apart from Jets' Freedom Fighters: they aren't going to tolerate harming a group of innocent Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation civvies, even if it means that they'd be foregoing a chance to deal serious damage to a group of Fire Nation soldiers.
- You Monster!: Katara calls Jet a monster after the destruction of the village.
