“The Drill” is a good episode, it is largely action focused but we still get some good character moments that strengthen the episode. We also see Team Avatar be given the name of Team Avatar by Sokka and see all of them working together to stop the amazing Fire Nation Drill.
The episode was directed by Giancarlo Volpe and written by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko.
The story involves the Fire Nation’s assault on Ba Sing Se with their Drill. It is up to Team Avatar to stop them after the Wall defenses of the Terra Team fall before Azula’s Trio. From here the story unfolds as Team Avatar must deal with the threat of the Trio and the Drill.
The Pros: The Drill – The Drill is powerful and takes a lot to destroy it. From within the Drill Team Avatar needs to steal a layout of it from an Engineer, next they need to weaken the interior before Aang crushes it from above to cause it explode. It does a lot of damage before it goes though and manages to break through the Wall before it is stopped.
The Trio – The Trio are once again awesome! Ty Lee takes out the Terra Team and isn’t afraid to get muddy when Sokka and Katara make their escape through the waste pipe of the Drill, though she gets captured in the overflow in the process, and Mai has a funny moment where is disgusted and chooses to stay in the drill. Azula does a great job fighting Aang until she is knocked off the Drill when it is about to explode and Aang finishes it off.
Team Avatar – Sokka calls them Team Avatar when he is inspired by the Terra Team for giving them a cool name. Outside the Drill Toph pushes against it, and she provides cover for them to get inside. Sokka comes up with the plan for weakening the interior and Katara and Aang weaken the Drill using Waterbending to break it down from the inside before Aang uses Earth and Airbending to break it. Katara also gets revenge on Ty Lee for Chi Blocking her.
Okay: War Minister Qin – Qin is just kind of there and has an arrogance to him. He was still smart for using the Drill, he just declared victory way to early and depending on Superweapons just isn’t smart since if the weapon fails you lose.
The Cons: Earthbender Forces – The Earthbender forces are pretty weak and the General is largely incompetent. This has sort of been a pattern in the Earth Kingdom which I might analyze at the end of Book 2. They lose way too quickly and their rocks don’t do anything to the Drill.
This was a good action episode, but there weren’t that many character moments, and the weakness of the Earthbender forces was sad given that this is the Earth Kingdom Capitol. You would think someone in the Earth Kingdom would take the threat of the Fire Nation seriously. Suffice to say, it was still good action though.
Final Score: 8 / 10
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