Omashu (Avatar: The Last Airbender episode)

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"Omashu"
Avatar: The Last Airbender episode
The episode's title card
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 3
Directed by	Jabbar Raisani
Written by	Christine Boylan
Featured music	Takeshi Furukawa
Cinematography by	Michael Balfry
Editing by	David Lebowitz
Original air date	February 22, 2024 (2024-02-22)
Running time	52 minutes
Guest appearances
Utkarsh Ambudkar as the King of Omashu Danny Pudi as Sai Elizabeth Yu as Princess Azula Thalia Tran as Mai Momona Tamada as Ty Lee Sebastian Amoruso as Jet Lucian-River Chauhan as Teo Ruy Iskandar as Lieutenant Jee Ryan Mah as Lieutenant Dang Matt Yang King as the voice of Appa and Momo
Episode chronology
← Previous "Warriors" Next → "Into the Dark"

"Omashu" is the third episode of the Netflix adventure fantasy television series Avatar: The Last Airbender, which is based off the animated television series of the same name (2005–2008). The show follows Aang (Gordon Cormier), the last airbender and the “Avatar”, on his journey to bring balance to a war-torn world by mastering all four elements: air, water, earth, and fire. On his quest, he is joined by companions Katara (Kiawentiio) and Sokka (Ian Ousley) and hunted down by Fire Nation prince Zuko (Dallas Liu). The episode was written by Christine Boylan and directed by Jabbar Raisani.

The episode, like the rest of the season, adapts the

In the Fire Nation, a group of citizens plan an assassination plot against Fire Lord Ozai with the help of a young woman who works inside the palace. The group manage to make it to the throne room before being surrounded by guards and forced to surrender. The young woman reveals herself to be Azula, Ozai's daughter and the Fire Nation princess. Ozai kills the group and asks the guards to leave. He shows Azula the note he received from Commander Zhao^[a] proving that Zuko has found the Avatar. The news makes Azula panic, believing she will lose her chance at the throne to Zuko.

While flying on Appa, Aang notices an airbender flying near the Earth Kingdom city of Omashu. Wanting to enter the city, Katara and Sokka are helped out by a turnip farmer who smuggles them inside and claims they are his helpers. When in the city, the turnip farmer warns Katara that Omashu is a dangerous place.

Aang with his glider follows the mysterious airbender to find it's not actually an airbender but rather a young boy named Teo that uses a mechanical glider to fly. An explosion goes off nearby and Teo reveals that Fire Nation spies have infiltrated the city. Teo takes Aang, Katara, and Sokka to his home where they meet Teo's father Sai, otherwise known as 'the Mechanist' who provides outlines for technological advancement to the king of Omashu.

Zhao tells Zuko and his uncle Iroh that an airbender had been spotten near Omashu. He offers to join them in capturing the Avatar, but Zuko refuses and says only he and Iroh will go. Later that day, Zhao receives a message from Azula claiming she will help him capture the Avatar from afar. The next day, Aang and Teo glide to a cave at the top of the mountains where they find blasting jelly and the ropes from the turnip farmer that helped them into Omashu.

Katara sees Sai giving designs to a firebender and is about to confront him about it, but is stopped by the turnip farmer who reveals himself to be Jet, a freedom fighter who is fighting against the Fire Nation spies in Omashu, telling Katara that Sai is one of them. He introduces Katara to his crew, consisting of brawler Pipsqueak, archer Longshot, knife expert Smellerbee, and the reckless The Duke, and he takes Katara to their treehouse hideout. There, Jet reveals the Fire Nation killed his family when he was eight, to which Katara can relate as she lost her mother to the Fire Nation. Jet prompts Katara to focus on the positive aspects of her mother rather than how she died, which helps Katara master a waterbending move she was struggling with–'the Water Whip.'

In Omashu, Zuko and Iroh explore the city and Iroh picks up a White Lotus Pai Sho tile. At Sai's house, Sokka helps Sai design a plan for a hot air balloon and Sai tells Sokka he should grow up to be an engineer. When Aang and Katara return, Aang lets them know that he found Jet's blasting jelly and concludes he is behind the bombing, while Katara believes Sai is responsible due to her seeing him with a Fire Nation spy. Angry that no one believes her, Katara races to find Jet who reveals he is responsible for the bombings and that his next attack will be on the king using a bomb he planted in a suitcase and switched with Sai's. Katara tells Aang and Sokka and the three race to stop Jet, but Zuko arrives and begins to fight Aang.

Katara and Sokka use the delivery system of Omashu to get to the palace where Katara successfully uses the Water Whip move to stop Longshot's flaming arrow from detonating the bomb and killing the king. Aang fights Zuko and lets slip that he knows Zuko has been tracking him for three years, leading Zuko to deduce Aang stole his notebook.^[b] Enraged, Zuko begins firebending, leading civilians to flee the city. Earthbending guards arrive and arrests Aang and Iroh, who publicly firebends so Zuko can escape the city undetected.

Production

This episode was directed by Jabbar Raisani and written by

Danny Pudi guest stars as the Mechanist and Lucian-River Chauhan appears as the Mechanist's son Teo. In the live-action adaptation, the Mechanist is given a name, "Sai", and lives in Omashu, whereas in the animated show the Mechanist and Teo took refuge at the Northern Air Temple after their village in the Earth Kingdom was flooded.^[2] Pudi's casting was announced in July 2022.^[6] The Freedom Fighters in this episode consist of Sebastian Amoruso as Jet, Taylor Lam Wright as the Duke, Vincent Huang as Pipsqueak, Wes Valarao as Smellerbee, and Nathaniel Kong as Longshot.^[5] Rainbow Dickerson stars in brief glimpses as Katara's mother Kya. Dickerson had previously played a mother to Kiawentiio's character in the 2020 film Beans.^[7] Osric Chau stars as Tan, the leader of a group of rebels with a plan to assassinate Ozai, and James Sie reprises his role as the Cabbage Merchant from the original series.^[5][8] Ruy Iskandar and Ryan Mah play Lieutenants Jee and Dang respectively, while Matt Yang King guest stars as the vocalizations for Appa and Momo.^[5]

Critical reception

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The episode received mixed reviews from critics. Jeremy Brown of Culture Slate praised the episode for its writing stating "A lot is going on in this episode, and it’s woven together really well. Bringing the Mechanist and his son early into the season, with the same story arc he had at the Northern Air Temple in the original, actually works here. Especially because they intertwined it with Jet’s plot of the Freedom Fighters."^[9] Noah Petrillo of The Review Geek commended the fight chorography writing "Jet’s dual, hooked swords show impressive range and grace. Zuko and Aang’s hand-to-hand combat was not only performed with technical excellence but it was edited simply, which often makes fights feel far better. It’s too common to miss moves and fabricate a fast pace with many quick cuts."^[10] The Comic Crow from Fandom Pulse criticized the episode for its pacing and its decision to combine three episodes into one, saying "Azula is a fan-favorite character, so it’s easy to understand the desire to include her early, but it felt like every scene of her in the episode was pointless filler that could be cut out. Had they done that, there could have been more time spent focusing on Jet or The Mechanist. It gives off the feeling that the showrunners expected people to already know the twist with these characters, so they just didn’t care about exploring them at all."^[11] Rich Eberwein of Winter is Coming stated that the episode "somehow managed to be both annoying and nostalgic, but ultimately left me feeling pretty discombobulated." writing that "This episode was all over the place and made me think the showrunners just wanted to shoehorn in as many characters from the original show as possible. I certainly respect that they want to include them, but not at the expense of good storytelling."^[12]

Notes