TV.com

show: Avatar: The Last Airbender

episode: The Waterbending Master

The Bottom Line: "Superb"

The Waterbending Master was the episode where the gang finally reaches the North Pole. It is in itself a big episode just for that. But the writers made it even more significant when they dealt with the big dilemma of actually finding a master for Aang, and the less than complimentary custom that women couldn't waterbend. The excitement and frustration of this episode was very well manipulated by the writers. But it didn't lose that classic Avatar feeling of having at least a little bit of humor. Some moments were very funny too. So the episode was very well balanced, and it was a perfect intro to the end of the season.

show: Avatar: The Last Airbender

episode: The Blue Spirit

The Bottom Line: "Superb"

This was a really good episode. I would first like to say that it was very, very pretty animation. The setting was amazing there. Anyway, I thought it was a very exciting episode. To have Aang actually captured by the fire nation kind of caught you off guard. And then to have him try and escape the whole fortress with a mysterious Blue Spirit was cool. And to top it all off, Aang discovers that the Blue Spirit who rescued him is actually Zuko. This episode really packed in a lot of stuff. And it still had its fair amount of humor in it. It was a really good episode.

show: Avatar: The Last Airbender

episode: The Spirit World (Winter Solstice (1))

The Bottom Line: "Superb"

This episode was exciting. I really liked it because it was our first experience of a two-part episode, and I think this first half of the Winter Solstice was a good setup for the second. Plus it was kind of nerve-wracking to have Sokka stolen away by the monster that terrorized the town. But what makes you worry more is that Aang really shows that he doesn't know what he's doing when he tries to get to the spirit world or try to reason with the spirit himself. When that factor of inexperience on his part somes into play, it really makes the episode a lot more troubling. Although there wasn't much action and there wasn't a lot of important information involved, it was still very good as a setup for the second half.

show: Avatar: The Last Airbender

episode: Imprisoned

The Bottom Line: "Great"

This episode was alright. It had its moments (particularily when the gang tries to trick some fire nation guards into thinking that Katara is an earthbender, and they mistake it for Momo), but the plot of it was weak and way off topic of the main storyline. It didn't even have any character development invovled. The only exciting part was at the end. I think the episode would have been alright as a chapter in the Earth book, but thats just my opinion. This episode just had too much "down time," and got kind of boring at times. For this reason, if you ever watch it over again, the episode has no value or sense of surprise in it. So my score is based strictly on the first time I saw it.