Avatar: The Last Airbender/The Drill/Recap

"You shouldn't give 100% of your energy into any one strike. You've gotta be quick and accurate. Hit a series of points, and break your opponent's stance. And when he's reeling back, you deliver the final blow. His own weight becomes his downfall. Literally."

Aang and his friends have finally reached Ba Sing Se, only to discover that the city is under attack from the Fire Nation, led by Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee, who are using a giant drill. Initially, the commanding general in charge of fending off the attack is reluctant to accept the team's help, but after Mai and Ty Lee quickly dispatch the general's "Terra Team", he changes his mind. Seeing that outer attacks have no effect on the drill, and using Ty Lee's chi-blocking as inspiration, Team Avatar goes inside the drill to take out its weak points and hopefully bring it down before it breaches the city's outer wall.

Meanwhile, Zuko, Iroh, and the Freedom Fighters reach Ba Sing Se as well. Jet is set on getting Zuko (or as Jet knows him, "Li") to join the freedom fighters. However, when Jet sees Iroh warm up a cold cup of tea, he realizes Zuko and Iroh are firebenders...

Tropes

• Attack Its Weak Point: Drives a good half of the plot.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted: By the end of the climactic battle, everyone (excluding Mai) is covered in slurry.
• Brain Bleach: After Zuko sees Uncle Iroh bribe a large woman to get the ferry tickets: "I'm gonna forget I saw that." Complete with Face Palm.
• Big No: Iroh gives one when Zuko knocks the freshly heated tea out of his hand. Played for Laughs.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Ty Lee, naturally. "Look at that cloud. It's so...poofy. Poof!"
• Distracted by the Sexy: Sokka leaves himself wide open to attack when Ty Lee flirts at him. Katara pulls him out before anything bad happens, though.
• Dramatic Deadpan: "We lost."
• Drill Tank
• Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Sokka to General Sung, spoken word for word.
• Gilligan Cut: Aang and Azula are fighting on top of the drill, when boulders start raining down on them.

Aang: (shouting to the general on top of the wall) General Sung! Tell your men to stop throwing boulders down here! (cuts to the top of the wall) General Sung: Whatever you do, men, don't stop throwing boulders down there!

• Ominous Walk: Azula pummels Aang into near-unconsciousness and then ominously marches towards him while she readies a fire attack to presumably finish him off.
• One-Man Army: Ty Lee takes down a good twenty earthbenders by herself.
• Properly Paranoid: For once, Jet is right on the ball when assuming Iroh heated his tea with firebending.
• Theme Music Power-Up: A rare example for Avatar: When Aang starts running down Ba Sing Se's outer wall to deliver the final blow, the main theme kicks in to accompany him.
• This Is a Drill: There's a reason this episode is named "The Drill".
• Visual Innuendo: The Drill itself, of course.
  • Or, maybe it is just a giant drill.
• What an Idiot!: "What are you doing, firebending your tea!?"
• A Worldwide Punomenon: While throwing around names for the team, Sokka comes up with this:

Sokka: How about...the Boomerang Squad! See, it works because it's got the word "Aang" in it! Boomer-AANG." Aang: I kinda like that one.