Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 Episode 5 Recap: What Happened To Appa?

Things get pretty grim and dark as the quest for knowledge exacts a heavy price from Aang and his friends in the fifth episode of “Avatar: The Last Airbender”. Previously, Aang learned about Long Feng’s true identity as the chief of Dai Li, who has been carefully maintaining the false narrative about peace in Ba Sing Se. Katara and Zuko decided to try their hands at vigilantism, in hopes of doing some good for the destitute. Iroh attempted penance to absolve himself of his guilt and find closure for his son’s demise. Azula infiltrated the walled city by posing as a Kyoshi warrior along with her companions – and the Fire Nation already has a leg up in the upcoming conflict. In the latest episode, Team Avatar visits Spirit Library to find a way to stop Fire Nation, a decision which proves to be a double-edged sword in the end.

Spoilers Ahead

By handing over General Tran to the Ba Sing Se military, Azula and her friends have gained the trust of General Sung, who explains to her about the difference between the modus operandi of Dai Li and the city military. Needless to say, this revelation gives Azula the idea to widen the rift between the two administrative bodies of the city as she directly reveals the news of General Tran being kept as a prisoner at General Sung’s quarters to Long Feng when he arrives to welcome the Kyoshi warriors. Seeing Long Feng’s reaction to the update, Azula and her companions canassume how terse the relationship between him and General Sung is. Azula speculates that the need to maintain control through lies and a spy network implies the king of the nation is inept, and someone else holds the power. To flush out who is the one controlling the city’s internal isolationist narrative, Azula attacks Joo Dee (the new one) in the city market, landing herself in prison as Long Feng arrives to meet with her. Without beating around the bush, Azula jumps straight to the point, revealing she has deduced that Long Feng is in charge of things, and she wants to join hands with him to find Zuko. Azula shows how much smarter she is compared to all the teenage heroes, and even to some of the grown-ups, every time she handles her mission. It’s a shame that she is a ruthless, maniacal sociopath who is completely irredeemable. 

Iroh tries to convince Zuko to take a respectable job in the teahouse in the hopes of stopping his nightly misadventures, to no avail. Toph learns her mother is going to pay a visit to her by arriving at Ba Sing Se and feels pretty dismayed, given she just can’t seem to escape the looming presence of her overbearing parents. In light of recent revelations about Beifongs supplying weapons to the Fire Nation, she is even more reluctant to meet her mother. She visits Iroh’s teahouse and has a thoughtful conversation with the former Fire Army general. Toph shares her own conflicted feelings towards her parents, whom she detests at present for their immoral actions, and Iroh speculates whether their love for their daughter can bring about a change. Alternatively, Iroh shares his inability to find a way to help his nephew, and Toph’s advice makes him wonder whether he has been unmindful about what Zuko wants in the first place. The best aspect of the conversation is that even though Iroh knows that Toph is part of Aang’s group, Toph probably has no idea with whom she had tea and shared her burdens. Later on, Iroh has a conversation with Zuko, where he acknowledges that he wanted to raise him like his own son, Lu Ten, but ended up denying his individuality, in the process . Iroh mentions Zuko needs to choose his own path and assures him that no matter what path he ends up choosing, Iroh will continue to stand by his side. 

Team Avatar is maintaining extra caution to not tip Long Feng’s spies off, and Katara meets with General Sung in secret, who raises the proposition that Aang will need to use his powers as Avatar to provide the military a shot against the impending Fire Nation attack. Professor Zei brings a map to the Spirit Library drawn by legendary scholar/ explorer Lao Xiaobo, which mentions that the librarian Wan Shi Tong, a giant owl spirit, hid the library from the human realm after the corridors of the library were tainted by the vices of warmongering humans. A spiritual scar was left in the place where the library once existed, a similar kind of rift between the human and spirit world through which Aang visited the spirit realm and confronted Koh the Face Stealer. The group starts looking for the spirit rift to venture to the Spirit Library, where Aang and co. hope to find a way to take on the Fire Nation during the arrival of Sozin’s Comet. Katara decides to take Jet’s help, even though he has lately chosen quite an immoral path, as his xenophobic actions against immigrant Firebenders in the previous episode suggest. Katara makes a deal with Jet; she agrees to pay him in exchange for intel regarding any place in the lower ring of Ba Sing Se that might feel haunted. Jet takes the team to an abandoned area in the lower ring and convinces the team members to let him join their spiritual journey as well. Momo and Appa stand guard to take care of any possible intrusion by enemies. 

As the group ventures into the grand halls of Spirit Library, the giant owl guardian, Won Shi Tong, arrives with the intention to drive them off. Aang tries convincing him to let them seek the knowledge they hope to find, but Won Shi Tong is sceptical about Aang, as he knows all about what happened with Moon and Ocean Spirit in the Northern Water tribe. Professor Zei comes to the rescue by convincing the owl to let the team enter by drawing upon the knowledge exchange clause, and hands him the map of the Spirit Library drawn by Lao Xiaobo to gain access to the library. However, the librarian sternly reminds the team not to gather any kind of knowledge that might be used to put others in harm’s way.

As the team gets busy searching for the right material, Katara connects with Jet as he opens up about his regrets of failing his comrades who lost their lives while waging war against the Fire Nation army under his leadership. Katara comforts him by assuring that no matter how much he has strayed from his path, the fact that he has helped Aang is proof enough that his heart is still in the right place. Inside the Spirit Library, Aang is visited by the spirit of Airbender Avatar Yangchen, who provides him counsel regarding trusting others to share his burdens, using the Avatar state wisely, and harnessing elemental powers. Sokka likens a fox spirit to Yue and follows him to find a room from where celestial positioning can be witnessed and studied in real time. Meanwhile, Toph is visited by the spirit of Avatar Kyoshi, who helps her to resolve her internal struggles – fear of failing her teammates, who are the only friends she has ever had, and her family legacy remaining as a perennial burden.

In the meantime, in his Blue Spirit persona, Zuko manages to locate Team Avatar in the abandoned area, and while Momo and Appa temporarily leave the vicinity upon being distracted, Zuko has the full opportunity to put an end to the insurgency against the Fire Nation by killing Aang. However, he can’t find it in himself to kill Aang, even while this single decision can completely change his life for the better. Deep down, Zuko is a good person, and his last interaction with Iroh has strengthened his morals. In his Blue Spirit garb, Zuko returns to Iroh’s place and reveals he couldn’t kill Aang – a revelation which will surely make Iroh reaffirm his belief in his nephew’s goodness. 

During her conversation with Kyoshi, Toph learns that the former Avatar had charted the celestial movements to determine the exact point of time of the comet’s arrival, and the fact that during the Day of the Black Sun solar eclipse, the Firebenders lose their ability. Toph relays this intel to her team members, and Sokka pinpoints the exact date and time of the solar eclipse with the help of the celestial movement tracking apparatus. Professor Zei finds himself at a moral dilemma and ends up reporting the violation of the code to Won Shi Tong. However, Zei is not really doing this out of his straight arrow nature; he wants access to the Spirit Library for eternity in exchange for his intel. 

Won Shi Tong confronts the team of heroes, who fail to convince him that their intentions are much more focused on saving lives instead of putting others in harm’s way. The tragic irony of Zei’s snitching is taking a feral appearance. Won Shi Tong devours him first for violating the library’s code, as the professor had put his own teammates in danger in his thirst for knowledge. The guardian charges at the group, and somehow, Toph manages to return to the human realm. She finds out the gate to the Spirit Library is sinking, and puts all her might to use Earthbending to stop the sinking. Right at the moment, she notices Appa is being tortured by someone, and Toph finds herself in a moral crisis. Leaving the gateway unattended means the deaths of her friends, and not helping Appa to fight off the attackers also ensures terrible consequence. Toph chooses to save Aang and his group, seeking forgiveness from Appa, who is nowhere to be seen afterwards. 

Jet sacrifices his life to distract the guardian for long enough to let Aang and his friends flee from the library. I would have liked Jet’s redemption arc had he not tried to butcher immigrant Firebenders in the previous episode by acting like an extremist. The group returns to the human realm, and Aang is horrified upon not being able to find Appa. Toph reveals everything that has happened since her return, and as Aang loses his composure out of concerns for his longtime companion, he ends up triggering his Avatar state. It remains unknown as to who abducted Appa, but there is a strong possibility that Long Feng and Azula are behind this dastardly act. Now that Aang has lost his cool and has once again let his emotions get the better of him, his uncontrolled rampage in Avatar state might result in yet another regrettable situation. But I think everyone will agree, this is a justified reaction, given how much Appa means to him., and viewers will look forward to the events of the next episode.