Previously on Avatar… IGN revisited one of the great animated series of all time, Avatar: The Last Airbender! Since we’re missing some reviews in our backlog — in this case, episode 209 through 311 (22 episodes total) — we thought it’d be fun to fill that gap, while also looking back at what made the show so great. (Two turtle ducks with one stone!) We’ll be reviewing episodes Tuesdays and Fridays, so feel free to follow along by watching the episodes with us via DVD, iTunes or Amazon Prime!
For more on IGN TV’s summer flashback reviews, click here.
Warning: Full spoilers from the episode follow.
In the grand scheme of Book Three, “The Runaway” was fairly inconsequential. No real headway was made on Team Avatar’s part — save for some extra coin — and yet it was still a solid episode thanks to great character development. In this case, the storyline was squarely focused on Toph and Katara settling their differences. At the same time, there was plenty for Aang and Sokka to do as well, mostly involving boys-will-be-boys shenanigans.
But “The Runaway” wasn’t without its flaws — most notably a “Three Days Earlier” plot device that showed Katara turning Toph in to the Fire Nation authorities. Generally speaking, I’m not a fan of the “How We Got Here” trope, especially in this instance since we know Katara would never actually do anything like that. In addition to being cliche, it kind of spoiled the surprise of Katara’s “ultimate scam,” which we all saw coming a mile away.
Regardless, that didn’t make this episode any less fun in getting to that point. Actually, some of the best moments here came early on, as Toph, Sokka and Aang decided to run scams on scammers for money. This included great scenes like Toph’s initial cup game scam, as well as a montage of scams featuring the brief return of Sokka’s “Wang Fire.” That’s not to mention the debut of Hawky, Team Avatar’s oft-forgotten animal companion!
Stuck in the middle.
That said, the crux of this episode was Toph and Katara’s quarrel, which yield both humorous and emotional results. For example, Katara calling Toph out for her immature behavior stripped away some of Toph’s armor (so to speak) and led to Katara realizing her own motherly tendencies. (“Stop rubbing your eye, and speak clearly when you talk!”) One of my favorite scenes to come out of this was Sokka explaining to Toph how Katara filled the void left by their mom, while Katara eavesdropped from the water below.
Toph and Katara’s ultimate scam was also fun for the two girls — especially after they reunited in a wooden prison and escaped using Katara’s sweat. (“Genius!”) I also loved how they were the ones to save Aang and Sokka from “Sparky Sparky Boom Man.” (“You know, I’m starting to think that name doesn’t quite fit!”) Not only did the bounty hunter’s appearance get Toph and Katara working together, but it was also an entertaining way to end an otherwise low-key storyline.
