We learn that Zuko's tea-making skills have improved greatly since the Season Two episode, Bitter Work. (edit) A game called Boiling Rock Rescue was released on Nick.com before this episode aired. The basic concept of the game was the same as the episode, to break out prisoners. (edit) This episode aired as part of the Countdown to the Comet event during the week of July 14, 2008. (edit) Enemy Debut: The Warden and The Bully Guard (edit) This episode, along with The Western Air Temple, The Firebending Masters, and The Boiling Rock Part 2, was released to DVD before airing in the U.S. (edit) A season 03 commercial containing several images of The Boiling Rock ("A Pedra Fervente" in Brazilian Portuguese) has started airing in Brazil on April 16th. (edit)

Sokka: Pretty clouds.
Zuko: Yeah . . . fluffy. (Sokka begins to whistle due to awkward silence)
Zuko: What?
Sokka: Wha-- Oh! I didn't say anything. (Brief silence) You know, a friend of mine designed these war balloons.
Zuko: No kidding.
Sokka: Yep! A balloon . . . but for war.
Zuko: There's one thing my dad's good at, it's war.
Sokka: Yeah, it seems to run in the family.
Zuko: Hey. Hold on, not everyone in my family is like that.
Sokka: I know. I know, you've changed.
Zuko: I meant my Uncle . . . He was more of a father to me... And I really let him down.
Sokka: I think your uncle would be proud of you. Leaving your home to come help us. That's hard.
Zuko: It wasn't that hard.
Sokka: Really? You didn't leave anyone behind you care about?
Zuko: Well, I did have a girlfriend. Mai.
Sokka: That gloomy girl who sighs a lot?
Zuko: Yeah. (smiles) Everyone in the Fire Nation thinks I'm a traitor. I couldn't drag her into it.
Sokka: My first girlfriend turned into the moon. (frowns)
Zuko: That's rough, buddy. (edit) Zuko: (After overhearing the guards about prisoners coming in) War prisoners. It could be your father.
Sokka: I know, but is it right for me to risk Suki's freedom? All of our freedom on the slim chance my dad might show up?
Zuko: Its your call, Sokka. (edit) Zuko: (To Sokka about the prison) How do you plan to get there? On Appa? Last time I checked Fire Nation prisons don't have bison day cares. (edit) Sokka: Oh good. You guys have met.
Suki: Actually, we met a long time ago.
Zuko: We did?
Suki:(slightly angry) Yeah, you kinda burned down my village.
Zuko: Oh sorry about that. Nice to see you again. (edit) Sokka: You don't recognize me?
Suki: You (guards) all look the same to me
Sokka: Maybe you'll recognize this
(Sokka leans forward to kiss her, Suki jumps up and smacks him back against the wall, making his helmet fall off)
Suki: Sokka! (edit) Sokka: So we came all this way for nothing!? I failed...again
Zuko: What would uncle say? (Looks at the sky) Sometimes, clouds have two sides...a dark and light and a silver lining in between, it's like a silver sandwich! Sooo...when life seems down, take a bite out of the sandwich..?
Sokka: Hey! Maybe we haven't failed after all!
Zuko: That's the spirit! (In an undertone) I can't believe that worked, I didn't even know what I was saying.
Sokka: No, what you said made no sense at all, but look! Suki!
(Points to courtyard and we see Suki getting up from a bench. Cut back to Sokka and we see little hearts where his eyes are as he runs off.) (edit) Katara: (Reading from note left behind by Zuko and Sokka.) Need meat, gone fishing, back in a few days. Aang, practice firebending while I'm gone, do ten hot squats and twenty sets of firefists everytime you hear a badgerfrog croak.
(Aang yawns and tries to go back to sleep, then hears a badgerfrog croak)
Aang: Ohhh, no one else has homework...One hot squat, two hot squat, three hot squat, four hot squat... (edit) Chit Sang: I hear you're hatching an escape plan and I want in.
Zuko: There's nothing to get in on.
Sokka: Yeah, The only thing were hatching is...an egg?
(Suki and Zuko groan and put their heads down in their hands)
Chit Sang: Okay, Well I come with you unless you want the warden to hear about this egg too.
Suki: I guess we have no choice. (edit) Zuko: (pouring tea) No one can make tea like Uncle, but hopefully I've learned a thing or two. Would you like to hear Uncle's favorite tea joke?
Aang: Sure, I like jokes.
Toph: Bring it.
Zuko: (handing out teacups) Okay. I can't remember how it starts, but the punchline is, "Leaf me alone. I'm bushed."
(Everyone stares)
Zuko: (slighly embarassed) Well ... it's funnier when Uncle tells it.
Katara: (snidely) Right ... maybe that's because he remembers the whole thing.
(Everyone, except Zuko and Sokka, who is sitting off to the side, snickers.) (edit) Zuko: Not up to anything, huh? (Sokka screams and falls off of Appa after being surprised)
Sokka: (annoyed) Fine, you caught me. I was gonna rescue my dad. You happy now?
Zuko: I'm never happy. (edit) Sadistic Prison Guard: Can you believe this guy?
Sokka: (as a guard) I know, pchh prisoners, am I right? (edit) Sokka: Maybe sometimes it's just better to call it quits before you fail.
Zuko: No, it's not. Look, Sokka, you're going to fail a lot before things work out.
Sokka: That's supposed to make me feel better?
Zuko: Even though you'll probably fail over and over again...
Sokka: Seriously, not helping.
Zuko: You have to try every time. You can't quit because you're afraid you might fail. (edit)

Look Hard: When Zuko was in the lounge, you can see that the food he is picking up is brown, but when he walks to the guards it was green, when he sits down it was brown again. (edit) When Sokka tests out the current, the wall doesn't seem that far away, but Chit Sang and his gang, take all night and far into the morning to get halfway. (edit) If you look closely at the last of the prisoners exiting from the gondola, you'll see one of the pirates in The Waterbending Scroll and The Waterbending Master from Season 1. (edit)

The Warden is voiced by American actor Wade Williams, who has a starring role as Captain Brad Bellick on Fox's television series Prison Break, about a man jailed for a crime he didn't commit. (edit) Sokka: You don't recognize me?
Suki: You (guards) all look the same to me.
Sokka: Maybe you'll recognize this.

Suki said the same thing that Sokka did in Season 2's The Serpents Pass when he failed to recognize Suki without her Kyoshi Uniform on. (edit) Alcatraz, a famous American prison commonly known as "the Rock", claimed that nobody could break out since it was located on an island in the San Francisco Bay and surrounded by ocean currents. (edit)