Writer:	Aaron Ehasz
Director:	Lauren MacMullan
Star:	Mae Whitman (Katara),  Makoto Iwamatsu (Uncle Iroh),  Dante Basco (Prince Zuko),  Dee Bradley Baker (Appa/Momo/Various Others),  Zach Tyler Eisen (Aang),  Jack DeSena (Sokka)
Recurring Role:	Jim Meskimen (Zuko's Lieutenant),  Sab Shimono (Monk Gyatso)
Guest Star:	Mark Hamill (Fire Lord Ozai),  James Hong (Dour Monk),  Robert Pine (Old Man),  Susan Silo (Old Man's Wife),  Clyde Kusatsu (Senior Monk)

Character Debut: Fire Lord Ozai (edit) It is reavealed why Aang ran away and disappeared for a 100 years. (edit) This is the first time Iroh performs lightningbending. (edit) This chapter is Avatar co-creator Michael DiMartino's third favorite episode of the first season, due to the intriguing backstory of both Aang and Zuko that it delved into. (edit) Pai-Sho must be a pretty popular and long-practiced game in Aang's world since we've seen Uncle Iroh playing it in several episodes and in this episode we see a flashback of Aang and Monk Gyatso playing it over 100 years ago. (edit)

General: The Earth Kingdom defenses are concentrated here. A dangerous battalion of their strongest earthbenders and fiercest warriors, so I am recommending the 41st division.
Old General: But the 41st is entirely new recruits. How do you expect them to defeat a powerful Earth Kingdom battalion?
General: I don't. They'll be used as a distraction while we mount an attack from the rear. What better to use as bait then fresh meat?
Zuko: You can't sacrifice an entire division like that! Those soldiers love and defend our nation! How can you betray them? (edit) Zuko: Lieutenant, you'd better learn some respect, or I will teach it to you. Lieutenant Jee: What do you know about respect? The way you talk to everyone around here, from your hard-working crew to your esteemed uncle, shows you know nothing about respect. You don't care about anyone but yourself! Then again, what should I expect from a spoiled prince? (edit) Katara: You ran away.
Aang: (Looking up at Katara) And then the Fire Nation attacked our temple. My people needed me, and I wasn't there to help.
Katara: You don't know what would've..
Aang: The world needed me, and I wasn't there to help!
Katara Aang?
Aang: The fisherman was right. I did turn my back on the world.
Katara: You're being to hard on yourself. Even if you did run away, I think it was meant to be. If you stayed, you would have been killed with all the other airbenders.
Aang: You don't know that.
Katara: I know it's meant to be this way. The world needs you now. You give people hope. (edit) Zuko: Finding the Avatar is far more important than any individual's safety. (edit) Iroh: I looked away. (young Zuko gets his scar)
Young Zuko: Ahhhhhh.
Lieutenant Jee: I always thought that Prince Zuko was in a training accident. (edit)

How did the old woman know where Aang and Katara went after leaving the market? (edit) When Sokka states that he had a dream where Momo could talk, this is actually a hilarious foreshadowing to the fact that Momo does actually talk in the episode Nightmares and Daydreams, albeit in Aang's dream. (edit) It's clear when Zuko goes back up to the top of the ship to investigate the lightning strike, a good deal of his crew has joined him. As he goes up the ladder you can see them standing on the deck of the ship. However, when Iroh turns to redirect lightning, every member of the crew has disappeared, only to return in the next shot of the deck. (edit) The outline of the man's mustache above his teeth vanish for a second while he debates on apologizing to Aang in the cave. (edit) When Katara walks into the cave and sees Aang kneeling on the ground and walks up to him, her shadow can be seen moving over him on the ground but the light from outside is still shining on his back, even with Katara's shadow over top of him. (edit)

In the flashback, Ozai challenges Zuko to an Agni Kai, meaning fire duel. Agni is the Hindu god of fire. Kai is from Japanese, meaning a confrontation. (edit) At the very beginning of Aang's flashback, two Airbenders can briefly be seen playing a "Rock, Paper, Scissors"-like game. (edit) When Aang and Katara are riding on Appa up the huge wave crest during the storm is seems to be a allusion to the movie The Perfect Storm. (edit) The scene where the fishing boat was breaking apart in the storm with Sokka, and the fisherman on it could be a allusion to the woodcut painting In the Hollow of a Wave off the Coast at Kanagawa (from a Series of Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji) by Katsushika Hokusai. (edit) The method that the monks use to identify the Avatar when he is young is very similar to how the people of Tibet find the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. One of the tests they use is to see if the suspected reincarnation is really the new Dalai Lama is to see if the boy can recognize several of their old possesions from a past life. In this episode, it is revealed that Aang picks past Avatar's toys to play with out of a large amount of toys. (edit)