The Drill (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

"The Drill" is an episode from the animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender, which airs on Nickelodeon. It is the thirteenth episode of the second season of the series.

Aang discovers a secret Fire Nation invention heading straight for Ba Sing Se and must stop it before it destroys the great wall that protects the city from invasion.

Episode synopsis

Template:Spoilers Continuing from the last episode, "The Serpent's Pass," A massive drill is approaching the wall of Ba Sing Se, flanked by Fire Nation tanks. The drill is under the command of Princess Azula and War Minister Qing.

Aang warns the commander of Outer Wall, General Sung, but the general claims that Aang's help will not be needed. He's sent a group of elite earthbenders, called the Terra Team, to stop the drill. Ty Lee, however, quickly disposes of them, striking their pressure points to close their chi channels and paralyzing them.

Now realizing the vulnerability of his position, Sung begs for Aang's help. Aang needs to figure out a way to stop the drill, and immediately looks to Sokka for ideas.

Meanwhile, Zuko and Iroh have to get past another clerk, in order to get inside the city, which Iroh accomplishes with a little buttering up. Jet, in the meantime, is looking to recruit Zuko into the group.

Later, Katara is checking out the Terra Team. Katara's words about how Ty Lee fights gives Sokka an idea: Infiltrate the machine and destroy it from the inside. Toph creates a dustcloud, giving them some cover, then bends them a tunnel to get under the machine. Aang, Katara, and Sokka get inside, but Toph refuses, preferring to try to slow the drill from the outside.

Inside, the gang manages to steal the schematics from an engineer, and figures out an idea to cut through the supports holding the machine together.

Back in the city, Iroh buys a cup of tea from a vendor, only to find out that it's cold. Jet tries to talk Zuko into joining him, but the prince naturally refuses. Zuko turns back to Iroh and find that he used firebending to heat up his tea. Zuko chastises his uncle for possibly blowing their cover, but it's too late, as Jet has also seen the steam rising from his cup, and starts to suspect the pair.

Inside the Drill, Aang and Katara use waterbending to saw through a massive support beam, with Sokka "cheering" them on. They cut through the beam with much effort, but it's not enough. Unfortunately, the Drill has just reached the wall. Aang, remembering some of Toph's teaching, comes upon a better idea. Instead of trying to cut completely through a few beams, they only cut partially through many of them. Aang is then to deliver the final blow from above, to bring the entire machine down.

Unfortunately, their previous actions are discovered, and Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee quickly dispatch themselves to take care of them, and the group splits up to escape. Azula goes after Aang, sending Ty Lee and Mai after the other two. Sokka and Katara escape through a slurry pipeline, a pipe containing rock and water from the drill. Mai refuses to jump into the "Wall-sludge juice", but Ty Lee quickly goes after them.

Katara and Sokka are carried out through the rear of the drill, Ty Lee following soon after. Katara, however, quickly waterbends the slurry, Ty Lee included, right back up the pipe, keeping her from attacking them. Aang starts trying to cut a weak point to strike, but is hampered by the panicked efforts of General Sung, who is ordering his troops to continually drop boulders on the drill, to no effect.

At the rear of the drill, Sokka is still cheering (and annoying) his sister as she waterbends. Toph shows up, offering some help. As the mud is partially Earth, she lends her abilities to Katara's shoving the slurry (and Ty Lee) all the way back up the pipes.

Topside, Aang is confronted by Azula, who wastes no time in engaging him, even through a rain of falling boulders. Aang fights her off with both water and earthbending, but gets knocked out, just as the Drill breaches the Outer Wall. Azula pins Aang against the wall to finish him off, but Aang recovers, creating a stone hand around his arm to push her away. Before they can begin round two, however, the slurry, backed up by Katara and Toph, overflows the drill, sending a wave of mud over them both. Azula looses her footing and goes slipping into Aang, slamming them both against the wall. They go sliding off opposite sides, Momo helping Aang recover and get himself back up to the top. Using a rock "helpfully" dropped by Sung's men, Aang shapes it into a wedge, placing it right on top of the weak spot. He then runs at full speed up the wall, going as high as he can before dropping back down onto the spike of rock. Subsequently disposing Azula who managed to find her way back up the drill to finish off the Avatar.

The strain of the impact, as well as the pressure of the slurry, is too much for the drill, which collapses into a muddy pile of scrap.

Back at the city dock, Jet makes the realization that Zuko and Iroh are firebenders, and seeks to confront them on a subway train, the same one Than and Ying are also riding on.

Notes

• The commercial for this episode first aired on July 14, 2006, which originally advertised it as part of "The Secret of the Fire Nation" one-hour movie promo that began with the previous episode, "The Serpent's Pass."
• Plans for the drill previously appeared in episode seventeen of the first season, "The Northern Air Temple," on the Mechanist's table. This explains the apprehensive visage the Mechanist assumed at the end of that episode.
• While fighting against Azula, Aang uses earthbending in combat for the first time. He also helps Toph earthbend in one scene and seems to know much more about the art than he did previously—he even quotes an earthbending maxim. This is the first time Aang uses three bending elements in a single combat.
• War Minister Qing, the Fire Nation emissary from "The Northern Air Temple," returns in this chapter.
• For Comcast subscribers, this episode, along with "The Serpent's Pass," was available for viewing on September 12, 2006.
• The drill used by the Fire Nation to penetrate the wall of Ba Sing Se is similar in design and execution to a tunnel boring machine. Its size however is beyond that of any machine of its type in reality.
• Azula is skilled in non-bending martial arts, as evidenced when she easily kicks away average-sized rocks that Aang bends at her. This may suggest she had the same training growing up as Zuko did, as Zuko has deflected rocks in a similar fashion many times before.
• Ty Lee expresses further romantic interest in Sokka in this episode, giving him a suggestive look when she acknowledges the presence of the Avatar's "friends." Sokka returns the gesture with a curious "Hey" with a smile and a hand wave.
• Toph makes a reference to "The Dragon of the West," who is Iroh. This is ironic, since she had made friends with him several episodes back.
• Ba Sing Se's "Outer wall" is very much similar to the Great Wall of China. It encloses an area of farmland in addition to the city itself. In addition, the outer wall is very tall, prehaps as tall as 300 meters or more.
• For the first time a waterbender (Katara) is seen using steam as a weapon.
• Katara refers Sokka as "the plan guy", which shows Katara considers him as useful; however, he annoys Katara as he is not able to assist her and Aang with executing the plan (because he is not a bender).
• Sokka shows his mechanical skills when he read schematics and formulates a plan in an unfamiliar environment; people from the Water Tribe have lower level of technology compared to the Fire Nation.
• Aang wishes he had a metalbender to deal with the drill. Many Elemental philosophies have Metal as a Fifth Element along with Earth, Fire, Water, and Wood, but with the absence of Air/Wind.

External links

• Some information on this episode from http://animationinsider.net
• Variety article episode information