Writer:	Tim Hedrick
Director:	Lauren MacMullan
Star:	Zach Tyler Eisen (Aang),  Mae Whitman (Katara),  Dee Bradley Baker (Appa/Momo/Various Others),  Jack DeSena (Sokka),  Makoto Iwamatsu (Uncle Iroh),  Jessie Flower (Toph),  Dante Basco (Prince Zuko)
Recurring Role:	Clancy Brown (Long Feng)
Guest Star:	Nika Frost (Smellerbee),  Marc Donato (Longshot),  Lauren Tom (Joo Dee),  George Kee Cheung (Pao),  Kurt Fuller (Quon),  Crawford Wilson (Jet)

Character Debuts: Quon (edit) Ironically, "Laogai" is a term for prison in Chinese, which makes the name, Lake Laogai, "Prison Lake". (edit) According to Nick.com, Old Sweepy is a spy for the Dai Li and helps keep order among the people by spreading rumors. (edit) Sang-Jin Kim won a Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Achievement for his work on this episode. (edit) This episode was nominated for an award at the PLATFORM International Animation Festival to be held in Portland, Oregon, in late June 2007. (edit)

Long Feng: (refering to Jet) Foolish boy. You've chosen your own demise. (edit) Katara: (To Jet) You're lying!
Toph: He's not lying
Sokka: How can you tell?
Toph: I can feel his breathing and heartbeat when people lie there's a physical reaction. He's telling the truth. (edit) Jet: I think there might be a cell big enough to hold Appa up ahead. (stops before a sealed stone door) I think it's through here. (doorway slides opens)
Zuko: Expecting someone else? (edit) Katara: Aang, It'll take us weeks just to get to the tip of the Earth Kingdom. And then we'll need to find a boat to get to the island.
Aang: (standing) I don't care. We have a chance to find Appa. We have to try. (edit) Jet: They took me to a head-quarters under the water, like a lake.
Sokka: Wait! Remember what Joo Dee said? She said she took a vacation to Lake Laogai.
Jet: (jumping to his feet) That's it! Lake Laogai. (edit)

When Aang is angry towards Joo Dee, you can see his face turns red and a sign of a face fault (veins into a cross shape). (edit) This is the first episode where we see someone seriously injured or killed by a bending move. Other references would be Zuko's scar, Katara and Sokka's mother, Jet's parents, Gyatsu, the airbenders and anyone else who got in the fire nation's way. (edit) This is the first episode that Jet doesn't feel the need to put a piece of straw or something in his mouth. (edit) At the beginning of the episode, the size of the poster was as big as Aang's hand since we saw him holding the post with only one hand. However, later in the episode, Iroh and Zuko's hands were much smaller comparing to the poster. It's doesn't make sense because Aang's hands can't be bigger than Zuko and Iroh's. (edit) In the episode, Long Feng and the Dai Li used hypnotism to force people listen to their commands. The victims appeared to have a larger pupil, which was impossible, since large pupil meant the eyes weren't even in focus, then Jet wasn't able to complete his attack to Aang at all. Enlarged pupil resembled the person had already dead. (edit)

Lake Laogai may be another allusion to George Orwell's 1984. Lake Laogai is where the Dai Li brainwashes people and takes prisoners, very similar to the way the Thought Police took people to the Ministry of Love to punish them for speaking out, and to brainwash them into loving Big Brother. (edit) Quon's name appears to be a spelling variant of the Mandarin word, "kuan," which translates to "funds." The name coincides with the merchant's wealthy persona as well as his proposal to fund Iroh's tea shop. (edit) When Long Feng regains control of the hypnotized victims, the pupils become supernaturally enlarged. Like almost any brainwashed victim, their eyes can tell the viewers that they are being mind-controlled. Specifically, the technique used here is exclusive to Japanese anime due to its attention to detail on the eyes. (edit) The concept of a secret lair beneath a lake and even some of the scenes in the tunnels are vaguely similar to X2: X-Men United and its Alkali Lake. The method of Katara using her bending to help Jet retrieve his memories also resembled the way Jean Gray used her abilities to help Nightcrawler remember the location of lake in the movie. (edit) The Dai Li agents are first encountered hanging upside-down from chains in the ceiling. This is similar to how the Guardians in Kurosowa's Samurai 7 are first introduced in the anime. (edit)