LogFAQs > #941014068

#22: The Drill (2.13):

This episode is this high due to what is just a very cool premise: Azula decides to take down Ba Sing Se by piercing its walls with humanity's biggest feat of engineering so far, a drill the size of a train. And now we get a pseudo season-finale in the middle of the season, because the threat is real. Damn, if Azula had been born earlier, the world would be under the FN's feet by now.

We then get sequences where the kids work to infiltrate the drill, then try different solutions to break it, fight Azula's friends in the meantime, and finally have Sokka figure out a genius plan to break the whole thing down. And in the end, Aang and Azula go 1v1 against each other, and we see Aang using earthbending in combat for the first time, and actually being evenly matched with Azula due to his ability to fight with 3 elements.

On the side, we have a plot where Jet tries to befriend Zuko, but then learns he is FN, becoming paranoid about him, which will lead to the excellent plot of Jet losing it next episode.

I don't have much more to say about this episode, and it doesn't quite do anything revolutionary character or plot wise. But I'm a sucker for good action sequences. Having the cast work to defeat a giant drill is a super-cool boss fight, which lets us see lots of bending and it's just a solid and memorable action episode overall, with some good jokes too.