Not much happened, but it has the right amount of creepiness and it doesn't rely on jump scares alone. It actually manages to build up an eerie and tense ambience that makes you feel uncomfortable while watching the episode. It reminded me of Insidious because of that, something I consider to be a good thing.
I wasn't thrilled by this first episode, but I'm intrigued enough to keep watching the rest of the season.
I just wish I hadn't watched this right before going to bed... Sigh!
Honestly, Gina was the one part of the show, that I very rarely enjoy and got on my nerves very regularly. So this one kinda suffers from her return.
"The doctor said all the bleedings were internal. That's where the blood's supposed to be!" LOOOOOOL
Some interesting pieces coming together. No tree house... Mrs Dudley asking what room the game room was. So many little details we took for granted coz the kids experiences were actually unreliable narration by the sounds of things.
Another strong monologue too, this time from Theo. This show is superb.
I hope that isn't the last time we see Captain Kim. Seemed cool!
I haven't missed Gina one bit!! For me she ruins the show....
That sure fizzled out at the end. Dramatic and exciting in parts, but I'm not sure that any of it made a bit of sense. Remember when these guys used to solve crimes?
Amy is a frickin' Wonder Woman and I love it! Latina like me <3
I enjoyed seeing Hitchcock and Scully having more air time, and I specially enjoyed seeing them working with the rest of the cast separately, because the show often packs them as a single item. I understand their humor is known as being more crude, but I think it balances out with all the other different styles on the show.
"Oop, they're looking at us."
"Spreadsheet, spreadsheet."
"Crime, crime."
"Precinct, precinct."
"Yeah."
Almost fell off my chair.
"There’s nothing more intoxicating than the clear absence of a penis." Braugher is king.
Always a joy to have Pimento appearing in an episode! I'm glad that nutjob is still around.
Never in my wildest dream I imagine Captain Holt say cowabunga, but here I am
9.4/10. As this show has started to improve, I may need to start normalizing how I rate it a bit more. There's still a lot of filler episodes, but the show's impressed me with what it can do, to where giving it a high rating every time it puts out an above average episode is likely putting its ceiling too low. That said, this was a superb episode that gave us some great insight into both Aang and Prince Zuko, creating parallels and contrasts between them, even though it was mostly done in backstory.
I'm frankly kind of surprised that we got the dirt on both Aang and Zuko in the same episode. It seems like the sort of thing that the show would hold off for a season finale, maybe even the end of the series, but I liked getting to know more about the two of them here and now after enough of seeing their adventures to get to know each of them a bit, while not stretching things out too much.
What I like about Aang's story is that there's a certain Last Emperor flair to it, in that both feature a child striving to be childish thrust into a time of tumult where they're expected to be much more because of the times they were born into. I've also compared this show to Harry Potter before -- with its magical powers and world-building and trio of heroes facing a world-threatening big bad -- but this episode also makes that comparison more vivid by exploring something that franchise did with regularity -- the burden of being the chosen one.
After all, the fact that Aang has the weight of the world placed on his shoulders at the tender age of twelve is a little heartbreaking. We know him as this carefree kid, one who takes such joy in life through things like riding exotic creatures or playing "air scooter." To not only have that ripped away from him, to have the responsibility of being the avatar, but to have him rushed into that training because of a sense of impending danger among the monks makes his desire to run away sad but understandable.
But what I really loved about this episode is how it does the unexpected when juxtaposing Aang and Prince Zuko. The former has been portrayed as an innocent devoted to the good, while the latter has (with a few notable exceptions) been depicted as a pretty expectedly evil bad guy. In their backstories, however, we see that Aang couldn't handle the responsibility of caring for the many, that it was his responsibility to become the avatar to protect the world, and it was too much for him. By contrast, we see that Zuko was not an innately evil kid, but rather that he was punished and sent on this task for speaking up for innocent people who were going to be used as cannon fodder for the Fire Nation. Aang was too reluctant and anxious to defend his people, and Prince Zuko was too eager to protect his. That's what leads them to where each of them are today.
I like how it, again, complicates Prince Zuko. He is no longer a monolithic evil, but rather a naturally good kid with an abusive father, compelled by the horrible code of honor of the Fire Nation to go on what was thought to be an impossible task to get back in the good graces of the parent who disowned him. That's a complex motivation that make him unique as a character and gives him a rationale better than an "I'm fighting you because I'm the bad guy" fiat. What's more the glimpses we get of the Fire Lord (frickin' Mark Hamill!) emphasizes the cruelty Zuko faced, the place he grew up in and the experiences he had that both explain why he is the way he is, and give us hope for redemption for him.
It also makes Aang a little less pure, and a little more understandable. Learning that you are the reincarnation of the pseudo-prophet destined to protect the world is a lot to put on a kid who isn’t even a teenager yet. The episode does a nice job at showing how it changes his world, how the things that he enjoyed in life – playing games and being with his young friends, were taken away from him. His responsibility isolated him, and the threat that he would be taken away from the one person who had allowed him to remain a child, the monk who was his guardian, was enough to make him want to flee from having anything more taken away from him.
But what’s meaningful is that we see both Aang and Prince Zuko overcome their anxieties about their past. Aang feels guilt for what happened in the century since he was too afraid to face his destiny and froze himself beneath the water. And yet in the present, while the setup is a little contrived, he faces the same situation, but this time he sees Sokka and Katara holding onto Appa beneath the water, and he realizes he has something to fight for, using his Avatar powers to save them.
In the same storm, we see Prince Zuko, who in the beginning of the episode was parroting his father’s forceful lesson about how individual lives are inconsequential in the face of the Fire Nation’s goals, especially in relation to a task set by the Fire Lord himself, risk his own life to save that of one of his crewmen. It’s a sign that Fire Lord’s teachings haven’t poisoned him yet, that there is still the good kid who worried about the Fire Nation War Council sacrificing loyal but inexperienced recruits to win a battle. And he’s also willing to let the Avatar escape in order to preserve the safety of his crew, something that shows that goodness survives, and supersedes even his all-consuming quest to win back his father’s approval.
Both Aang and Prince Zuko reckon with their pasts, but emerge having made their peace and become able to move forward. Aang resolves not to be weighted by his past, believing, with Katara’s encouragement, that perhaps there’s a reason why he’s needed here now. And Prince Zuko shows that despite the trauma he experienced at the hands of his own Father, despite his devotion to finding the Avatar, there is an integrity to him, and sense in which the better parts of him may still be reclaimed. The protagonist and antagonist of this show are each deepened, not only by knowing where they came from and how they got here, but by seeing what they do in the here and now in the shadow of all that’s happened to them before.
Kevin was right about the Monty Hall Problem.
First, when you choose one of the three doors, you have only 33, (3)% chance of choosing the right one. So, probably, you chose the wrong door. Then, when the host opens one of the two doors that you didn't choose, to reveal it's the wrong door, the other one now have 66,(6)% chance to be the right door, while the door that you chose still remains with the 33,(3)% chance to be right. Therefore, you need to switch doors.
[9.5/10] If there's one thing I really appreciate about Avatar, it's the way it manages to balance world-building and character. One the one hand, this is such an important episode about understanding the world of the Four Nations and the hundred-year war. We learn what the world was like before the war started, we see the motivations behind its beginning, and we learn why Ozai's grandfather was so intent on neutralizing the avatar to make his waging of that war possible.
But it's also a character story, about two friends and de facto brothers whose lives took them on different paths. The reveal that Avatar Roku and Fire Lord Sozin were best friends is a pretty shocking revalation, but one that has power in the way the whole series up to this point has been founded on the way that these things are all connected, that the people and personalities of these conflicts are as important as the world-shaking consequences of them.
It also creates a sense of tragedy and betrayal to that living history. Roku died at the hands of his best friend, in the same of aspiration and ambition. They cared for one another, grew up together, and built friendships that exceed lifetimes, but in the end, after a long life lived, that fell apart. That is heart-rending, and yet it also gives us so much more complicated insight into the lives of an avatar and a fire lord.
But it doesn't stop there -- with the lessons extending to our heroes in the modern day. I love that Aang takes it as a sign that there can be powerful friendships that matter to an Avatar, and that there is good and bad regardless of affiliation. It underscores the importance of Team Avatar and is another step in the evolution of the series to where not every person in red is bad and not every person in green is good.
By the same token, I love the revelation that Zuko is descended from both Fire Lord Sozin and Avatar Roku, and that this generational intertia helps explain the conflict between good and bad within him. It's nicely and subtly represented by Roku riding the red dragon and Sozin riding the blue dragon, the same ones that appeared to Zuko in his fever dream. The fact that he receives the head-piece that belonged to both of these great grandfathers signifies the way he may unify these impulses, and realizes who he is as an heir to the throne.
The episode just does so much in such a short time, it's hard not to be impressed both at the multitude and variety of its accomplishments.
jake's (awful) accents were so funny
I have not missed Gina one bit this season. She lifts out surprisingly easily and her absence allows for more streamlined storytelling.
Ok, Jake and Rosa going to prison but can we talk about Terry's "extra-curricular" activities the hackers uncovered?
"And also, remember your turtle, Graham Crackers?"
"DAD HAD SEX WITH MY TURTLE?!"
"You're something between Kevin Costner and Channing Tatum" "Who wouldn't want to be between those two?!"
Holy shit what a great episode! T'Nia Miller is one hell of an actor. Owen yelling scared the shit out of me!
[9.2/10] I've said before that I am particularly receptive to episodes of these mythos-heavy shows that get a little spiritual and philosophical about their worlds. I don't know why it appeals to me exactly, but maybe it's because it's the show doing what reviewers often do -- try to extract the deeper meaning and symbolism of the proceedings. So having Aang trained by Toph and Katara on the one hand, and Zuko trained by Iroh on the other, with lots of parallels and maxims and spiritual interludes really scratches an itch for me.
I particularly like the way that the episode compares and contrasts Aang and Zuko. Both of them are trying to learn a new skill to complete their challenges, both of them struggle with it because it calls upon them to do something unfamiliar and outside their natural skillset and mindset, and both of them connect these new skills with personal connections.
But what distinguishes them rather than unites them is the way their specific difficulties are different, even if they take the same form. Aang has proven to be preternaturally adept at each new form of bending (as you’d expect The Avatar to be) so the fact that earth-bending, which Katara explains must be air-bending’s opposite, is so unintuitive and hard for him is unusual. Zuko, on the other hand, has always struggled to learn how to use his powers, as we’ve learned from his flashbacks, so his inability to perform lightning-bending is just one more frustration on top of his usual struggles.
The reasons for their difficulties are also distinct. Aang is used to the malleable, adaptive nature of air, so the ethos of earth-bending, which requires standing your ground, facing your challenge head on, and simply out-willing it rather than finding a creative solution is unnatural and unintuitive for him. He starts to wonder if he has the mettle in him for earth-bending, if he will ever be able to call upon that instinct. Zuko, however, has a near-opposite problem, where he cannot find balance or peace or humility sufficient to learn how to bend lightning. Rather than being unable to stand his ground, Zuko feels the ground constantly shifting underneath him, and so, oddly enough, lacks the stability to control something as mercurial as lightning.
But their solutions are different. What allows Aang to break through his struggles is what always pulls him through in difficult times – his connections to his friends. The fact that Sokka’s life is at stake in the face of a charging saber-toothed moose lion (???) is enough to make Aang stand his ground. A bare rock hurtling toward him just prompts the usual ways of sidestepping for Aang (which is reductive of his past, but works for the story the episode’s telling), but one of his best friends being at risk changes the stakes and gives him the courage to stand his ground.
Zuko’s only connection is to his uncle, who offers one of those creative solutions that Aang is trying to avoid. There’s such intrigue in the notion that Iroh is interdisciplinary in his bending. Again, there’s a thematic contrast, where Aang is trying to learn to hold firm so that he can earth-bend, where Zuko is trying to learn to be balanced and use defense as offense, by learning Iroh’s lightning-channeling technique. But unlike Toph (who probably had control of the situation if things had started to get bad, though who knows) Iroh is unwilling to put his pupil at risk.
And yet, Zuko seeks it out on his own. Zuko standing on that mountain, offering angry pleas at the heavens for lightning to test him, is a heightened emotional moment, bundling up Zuko’s passion, his regrets, his insecurities, his anger, and his pain in one grand gesture. Zuko doesn’t get that lightning, merely prostrating himself against a sky that is as uncaring as his father, but something tells me he’ll have his chance before the season is over.
But even apart from the larger Aang-Zuko parallels, the episode is supremely enjoyable and compelling. For one thing, the discussions from Iroh, Toph, and Katara about the different natures of the four elements and their practitioners is fascinating. Iroh’s descriptions of the four disciplines fall a little too much into the often reductive Hogwarts House phenomenon, but still does a good job at tying the qualities of the elements themselves with the qualities of those who wield them. And the fact that he promotes the idea that understanding all four and taking things from each is important helps sand down the edges of some of the categorization. From last season’s reveal that Iroh can see into the spirit world, there’s always been hints that he’s more attuned to these things than others, and it’s nice to see that explicated a bit.
There’s also a nice contrast drawn between Toph and Katara. Rather than the pair of them butting heads, it shows the two of them as essentially parents with conflicting styles who both want the best for the kid they’re “raising.” Katara’s encouraging style, focused on positive reinforcement and motivating Aang through compliments and gentle correction have gotten him far, and Iroh’s speech implies it’s the correct technique for learning water-bending. But Toph’s hardnosed, Rocky-montage routine seems to be equally appropriate for learning earth-bending, where her subtle nods and harsh tones eventually effect the right change in Aang to make him able to move rocks.
And I haven’t even gotten to the great comic relief from Sokka being stuck in the ground! (Shades of the Robot Chicken “Giraffe in Quicksand” sketch!) First of all, the saber-toothed moose cub is the most adorable creature A:TLA has offered thus far, and Sokka’s name for it only added to that. But just seeing Sokka, in a comic mirror of Zuko, plead with the heavens for salvation, promising no more meat-eating or sarcasm in exchange, was hilarious. The comic writing for Sokka has improved by leaps and bounds, to where he is a consistent highlight and great break from the more serious side of Avatar.
Overall, this is one of the show’s best episodes so far, even as the batting average for A:TLA has much improved in its second season. The thematic parallels and distinctions between Aang and Zuko provide a nice spine for the episode, and the philosophical discussions about the various elements make for an interesting look at the spiritual side of the Avatar world. “Bitter Work,” and the show as a whole, offer the story of two young people, trying their hardest to achieve something that doesn’t come naturally, and finding very different choices and different outcomes based on who they are, and who they have helping them along.
This show is the single sweetest thing that has ever graced Earth and I will protect it (and re-watch it) forever!
Jake and Amy, setting an example of healthy relationships. I love them so much!
8=======D
Even when he doesn't appear on the show, he still manages to steal it. Pimento rocks!
really enjoyed the mass effect style graphics and backdrop in this one
kind of a generic plot twist though
a big portion of this episode is just a sex scene
which I wouldn't care about if this was a normal length story
but the fact that time is important with a show like this
just kind of felt like it hogs up too much of the episode
Well I wasn't expecting my prediction to come so quickly! Kinda shitty to absolutely traumatise Erin like that tbh.
Really struggling through this show. Will force myself to finish last 2 and hope there is a light at the end. Coz I'm kinda tired of the religious speeches and hearing Father Paul shouting all the time.
How did the FBI let Betty run this entire investigation alone for that amount of time? How are all these kids now teachers at their old highschool without a teaching degree? Why aren't all parents pulling their kids from that school like Lemure's parents did? I have so many questions every time I watch Riverdale and yet here I am... still watching.
