Writer:	Tim Hedrick
Director:	Lauren MacMullan
Star:	Dante Basco (Prince Zuko),  Zach Tyler Eisen (Aang),  Mae Whitman (Katara),  Jack DeSena (Sokka),  Makoto Iwamatsu (Uncle Iroh),  Jessie Flower (Toph),  Dee Bradley Baker (Appa/Momo/Various Others)
Recurring Role:	Sab Shimono (Master Yu)
Guest Star:	Malachi Throne (Colonel Mongke),  Marc Graue (Xin Fu),  Bill Bolender (Sha-Mo),  Peter Jessop (Fung),  Paul McKinney (Ghashiun)

Character Debuts: Sha-Mo, Fung, Ghashiun (edit) This episode is in the Avatar: The Last Airbender Book 2: Earth, Volume 3 DVD, along with The Serpent's Pass, The Drill, City of Walls and Secrets, and The Tales of Ba Sing Se. (edit) Though difficult to notice due to the swiftness of their fight, Zuko's fighting style appears to have undergone a noteable transformation during his and Iroh's encounter with the Rough Rhinos. In olden times, Zuko would characteristically bowl his opponents over with either a large fireball or relentless shots of flame. However in this case, when faced with an enemy Yu Yan archer, Zuko instead waits for shot, deflects the arrow, and fires a single small bolt of flame that burns a hole through both bow and string, utterly disarming the archer. This change no doubt is related to the resumption of his firebending tutelage under Iroh in the his previous episode. (edit) This marks the first time moisture from the ground is shown being collected and being bended. (edit) Sokka refers to the moon as Princess Yue in this episode while still under the influence of the cactus juice. This is the second time he refers to her this season, though he says he thinks about her all the time. (edit)

Aang: (sees a cloud that looks like Appa in front of the moon) Appa! Sokka: (under the influence of cactus juice) Appa? Now why would Princess Yue need him? (grabs Momo's tail and brushes it against his cheek) She's the moon; she flies by herself. (edit) Zuko: Maybe we should make camp.
Iroh: No, please, don't stop for me! (edit) Katara: Sokka? Any ideas how to find Ba-Sing-Se?
(Sokka and Momo are both lying on their backs and staring at the sky. Sokka smiles blissfully and points upward.)
Sokka: Why don't we ask the circle birds?
(Several buzzard wasps circling the group. Katara looks left and right at everyone. Aang is still sulking, and Toph staggers a bit.)
Katara: Ugh? We're getting out of this desert, and we're going to do it together! Aang, get up. Everybody hold hands. We can do this. We have to. (edit) Sha-Mo: Quiet, Ghashuin. No one accused our people of anything. If what they say is true, we must give them hospitality.
Ghashuin: Sorry, father.
Toph: I recognize the son’s voice. He’s the one that stole Appa.
Katara: Are you sure?
Toph: I never forget a voice.
Aang (angrily): You stole Appa! Where is he? What did you do to him?
Ghashuin: They’re lying! They’re the thieves! (edit) Katara: The needle on this compass doesn’t seem to be pointing north according to my charts.
Sokka (dreamily): Take it easy little lady. I’m sure the sand folks who built this baby know how to get around here. (edit)

When the gang looks at Aang while he's in the Avatar State Toph looks too. But she can't see anything, so why would she look at all? (edit) When Aang is in the Avatar State at the end of the episode, Katara stays next to him looking at him. A few seconds later we see Sokka and Toph looking too. But all of their eyes should have been shut as the whirling sands would've made it too painful to keep them open. (edit) It is discovered that Iroh's Lotus tile, first seen in The Waterbending Scroll holds significance outside of Pai Sho. (edit) When Iroh looks over to see the Pai Sho table, there are four ice glasses on the table. When Iroh arrives, the glasses have transformed into Pai Sho tile stacks. (edit) Aang learned to locate Appa using his abilities as the Avatar in The Swamp. Later on in the season, we learn from Guru Patik that Aang and Appa's energy connect them to each other allowing them to locate one another when seperated. If this is true, then why didn't Aang use the ability when he discovered Appa was gone, or in later episodes? (edit)

Pai Sho seems like a game similar to the Chinese board game called Mah Jong. Mah Jong is played on a board with 144 tiles. Four of these are Flower tiles (similar to the white lotus tile). In addition, playing a Flower tile is conventionally considered to be aesthetic. (edit) When Katara hugs Aang to calm down his Avatar state, it is similar to the scene in the Full Metal Alchemist episode 'Created Human', where Lt. Ross hugs Ed to try and calm down his rampant alchemy. (edit) Gobi Desert
The names the sandbender Ghashuin, his father Sha-Mo, and his deceased mother Yulduz, are all derived from the Gobi Desert, a large desert region that lies within China and southern Mongolia:

-The father's name, Sha-Mo, which means 'desert,' is commonly used by the Chinese as a reference to the Gobi.
-Ghashiun name, which is Mongolian for 'salt', is a reference to the area of Ghashiun-Gobi (Salt Desert), a semi-desert within the Gobi.
-The mother's name, Yulduz, is taken from the area known as Yulduz Valley, another semi-desert situated within the Gobi. The word Yulduz also means 'star' in Old Turkic (a Mongolian related language), possibly related to notion that stars are used to navigate within the Si Wong Desert at night. (edit) The White Lotus Society was a secret society made up of Chinese Buddhist monks that was first noticed in the 13th century. They rebelled during the Yuan dynasty which caused the White Lotus Society to be banned. That's when they became a secret society. They also contributed to the fall of the Qin dynasty. (edit) At least two members of the Rough Rhinos have been identified onscreen at this point, the rest have been provided on the official Nick site. Overall, the individual names of the Rough Rhinos appear to be heavily Mongolian inspired:
- "Mongke" (the leader) is the name of a grandson of Genghis (Chingis) Khan and means "eternal."
- "Kahchi" (the bearded man) is derived from "Kachhe", the term given to the Tibetan Muslim minority who are Monoligan descended.
- "Ogodei"(the dark-skinned man) derived from "Ogedei" was the name of Genghis' third and favorite son.
- "Vachir" is a style of archery and means 'thunderbolt.' Obviously used as reference for the Yuu Yan archer's skill.
- "Yeh-Lu" comes from Yeh-lu Chu'tsai the Magician, a great statesman and Genghis' chief of the secretariat. Indicates towards the soldiers' enigmatic mask and flashy displayal of pyrotechnics.
(edit)