The Headband

"The Headband" is an episode from the animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender, which airs on Nickelodeon. It is the second episode of the third season of the series. This episode was accidentally released early on TurboNick.

Episode synopsis

Zuko tosses and turns in his sleep, before he 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. The guard 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 then go to seek out new clothes to help them better blend into the Fire Nation. They find an unattended clothesline and steal some outfits, and then go to town to buy some accessories (including a new necklace for Katara, who sadly removes her mother's Water Tribe necklace).

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. 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 men who grab him and escort him into a classroom. His stolen clothing happens to be the uniform of the local school, and the soldiers thought he had been 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, Hiide, a popular student who is less than friendly. After a brief confrontation, Aang winds up making friends and playing with the other children from the school.

Aang returns to the cave at nightfall, relieving Katara, Sokka, and Toph who were evidently worried by his long absence. The fact that he has been attending a Fire Nation school all day shocks Aang's friends, and when he claims to have enjoyed the experience and wishes to return to the school the next day, Sokka strongly objects. 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 reluctantly agrees that Aang should go back the next day.

Meanwhile, Zuko returns to the prison. When confronted by the guard from the previous night, he threatens him not to tell anyone about his visit to the castle. He goes into the room where Iroh is being kept prisoner; however, Iroh merely turns away from him. 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 so that he flees the room.

The next day at school, Aang gets in trouble for not reciting the Fire Nation Oath correctly, as he has 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 a surprise attack. The teacher rejects his claim, as it is not in the Fire Nation's history texts, and so Aang gives up the argument. 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 Hiide, who attempts to hit him. However, Aang skillfully evades every attempted blow, eventually getting Hiide to overbalance himself 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". While they manage to succeed in fooling the teacher, Sokka is against Aang returning to school. Aang, however, insists that they need to do something for the children in the school, in order to allow them, at least briefly, to have a freedom of expression. He therefore plans to hold a secret dance party in the cave for everyone in the school.

Meanwhile, Zuko has a romantic picnic with Mai, before the two are interrupted by Azula, who tries to get Zuko to talk to her. He refuses, so Azula changes tactics and sends Mai away; Mai complies politely, but shoots Azula a quick, venomous look as she passes. 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, silently, but 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 has no idea what to do about it without Iroh's guidance. When Iroh is silent, Zuko flies into another rage and berates Iroh, then leaves. As he leaves, Iroh remains silent, but a tear runs down his face. When the children arrive and the band begins to play, they 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, and after slightly 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 teachers 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 teachers 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 be wearing a headband, effectively delaying the headmaster's hunt for Aang. The crew manage to slip away in the opening behind the cave. But before leaving, Aang stops and exchanges smiles with another student before running off, closing the opening behind him with Earthbending and leaving the student 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, which causes him to blush.

Meanwhile, Zuko walks into a dark alley at night. There he meets with a mysterious man with a metal prosthetic arm and leg, as well as a tatooed 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.

References

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