Omashu (Avatar: The Last Airbender episode)

"Omashu" is the third episode of the first season of the Netflix adventure fantasy television series Avatar: The Last Airbender, which is based on the animated television series of the same name (2005–2008). The show follows Aang (Gordon Cormier), the last airbender and the “Avatar”, on his journey to bring balance to a war-torn world by mastering all four elements: air, water, earth, and fire. On his quest, he is joined by companions Katara (Kiawentiio) and Sokka (Ian Ousley) and hunted down by Fire Nation prince Zuko (Dallas Liu). The episode was written by Christine Boylan and directed by Jabbar Raisani.

The episode, like the rest of the season, adapts the first season of the original series, with this episode specifically adapting episode five, "The King of Omashu", episode ten, "Jet", and episode seventeen, "The Northern Air Temple". In the episode, Aang and his friends travel to the Earth Kingdom city of Omashu where they investigate the cause of mysterious bombings that have been occurring. The episode also marks the first appearance of Elizabeth Yu as Princess Azula, Zuko's younger sister. The episode was released on Netflix on February 22, 2024, along with the rest of the season, receiving mixed reviews.

Plot
In the Fire Nation, a group of citizens plan an assassination plot against Fire Lord Ozai with the help of a young woman who works inside the palace. The group manage to make it to the throne room before being surrounded by guards and forced to surrender, where the young woman reveals herself to be Azula, Ozai's daughter and the Fire Nation princess. As Azula giddily looks on, Ozai kills the group and asks the guards to leave. He shows Azula the note he received from Commander Zhao proving that Zuko has found the Avatar. The news makes Azula panic, believing she will lose her chance at the throne to the previously dishonoured Zuko.

While flying on Appa, Aang notices an airbender flying near the Earth Kingdom city of Omashu. Wanting to enter the city, Katara and Sokka are helped out by a turnip farmer who smuggles them inside and claims they are his helpers. When in the city, the turnip farmer warns Katara that Omashu is a dangerous place.

Aang with his glider follows the mysterious airbender to find it's not actually an airbender but rather a young boy named Teo that uses a mechanical glider to fly. An explosion goes off nearby and Teo reveals that Fire Nation spies have infiltrated the city. Teo takes Aang, Katara, and Sokka to his home where they meet Teo's father Sai, otherwise known as 'the Mechanist' who provides outlines for technological advancement to the king of Omashu.

Zhao tells Zuko and his uncle Iroh that an airbender had been spotten near Omashu. He offers to join them in capturing the Avatar, but Zuko refuses and says only he and Iroh will go. Later that day, Zhao receives a message from Azula claiming she will help him capture the Avatar from afar. The next day, Aang and Teo glide to a cave at the top of the mountains where they find blasting jelly and the ropes from the turnip farmer that helped them into Omashu.

Katara sees Sai giving designs to a firebender and is about to confront him about it, but is stopped by the turnip farmer who reveals himself to be Jet, a freedom fighter who is fighting against the Fire Nation spies in Omashu, telling Katara that Sai is one of them. He introduces Katara to his crew, consisting of brawler Pipsqueak, archer Longshot, knife expert Smellerbee, and the reckless The Duke, and he takes Katara to their treehouse hideout. There, Jet reveals the Fire Nation killed his family when he was eight, to which Katara can relate as she lost her mother to the Fire Nation. Jet prompts Katara to focus on the positive aspects of her mother rather than how she died, which helps Katara master a waterbending move she was struggling with–'the Water Whip.'

In Omashu, Zuko and Iroh explore the city and Iroh picks up a White Lotus Pai Sho tile. At Sai's house, Sokka helps Sai design a plan for a hot air balloon and Sai tells Sokka he should grow up to be an engineer. When Aang and Katara return, Aang lets them know that he found Jet's blasting jelly and concludes he is behind the bombing, while Katara believes Sai is responsible due to her seeing him with a Fire Nation spy. Angry that no one believes her, Katara races to find Jet who reveals he is responsible for the bombings and that his next attack will be on the king using a bomb he planted in a suitcase and switched with Sai's. Katara tells Aang and Sokka and the three race to stop Jet, but Zuko arrives and begins to fight Aang.

Katara and Sokka use the delivery system of Omashu to get to the palace where Katara successfully uses the Water Whip move to stop Longshot's flaming arrow from detonating the bomb and killing the king. Aang fights Zuko and lets slip that he knows Zuko has been tracking him for three years, leading Zuko to deduce Aang stole his notebook. Enraged, Zuko begins firebending, leading civilians to flee the city. Earthbending guards arrive and arrests Aang and Iroh, who publicly firebends so Zuko can escape the city undetected.

Production
This episode was directed by Jabbar Raisani and written by Christine Boylan; it aired on Netflix along with the rest of the season on February 22, 2024. The episode focuses on the city of Omashu, which was the main focus of episodes five, "The King of Omashu," and twenty-three, "Return to Omashu", of the original series. The episode also introduces Jet and his freedom fighters, who were introduced in the tenth episode of the animated show. In this episode, the Freedom Fighters have five members whereas in the original show they had six, with this episode omitting the team's scout Sneers. The episode also omits Sokka's relationship with Jet from the original show, where Sokka tried to convince Aang and Katara that Jet was hiding things from them, and the Freedom Fighters are instead fighting the Fire Nation in Omashu rather than a forest near a village. The episode also relocates Teo and his father the Mechanist, who is given a name in 'Sai' in this episode, from the Northern Air Temple to Omashu. The two plotlines are separate episodes in the original show, but combined into one plotline in the live-action adaptation.

Main cast members Gordon Cormier as Aang, Dallas Liu as Prince Zuko, Kiawentiio as Katara, Ian Ousley as Sokka, Ken Leung as Commander Zhao, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Iroh, and Daniel Dae Kim as Fire Lord Ozai appear. The episode introduces Elizabeth Yu as Azula, Zuko's younger sister. In the animated series, Azula isn't introduced until the second season and is first mentioned by Zuko in the season one finale. Showrunner Albert Kim stated ahead of the show's premiere that Azula is featured a lot more in the new show's first season than she is in the original series' first season, crediting the knowledge of what Azula does later in the original series' second and third seasons for the writers having the advantage of where to take her. On playing Azula, Yu focused on "planting the seeds for what comes later with her," stating "She’s not so different from Zuko as you might think. I love the internal monologue that she may have at any given moment getting and we see this new side of her that we have never seen before. It was really cool to delve into that side of her." Also guest starring in the episode are Thalia Tran and Momona Tamada as Azula's childhood friends Mai and Ty Lee respectively, who in the original show join Azula in her hunt for the Avatar starting from the episode "Return to Omashu".

Danny Pudi guest stars as the Mechanist and Lucian-River Chauhan appears as the Mechanist's son Teo. In the live-action adaptation, the Mechanist is given a name, "Sai", and lives in Omashu, whereas in the animated show the Mechanist and Teo took refuge at the Northern Air Temple after their village in the Earth Kingdom was flooded. Pudi's casting was announced in July 2022. The Freedom Fighters in this episode consist of Sebastian Amoruso as Jet, Taylor Lam Wright as the Duke, Vincent Huang as Pipsqueak, Wes Valarao as Smellerbee, and Nathaniel Kong as Longshot. Rainbow Dickerson stars in brief glimpses as Katara's mother Kya. Dickerson had previously played a mother to Kiawentiio's character in the 2020 film Beans. Osric Chau stars as Tan, the leader of a group of rebels with a plan to assassinate Ozai, and James Sie reprises his role as the Cabbage Merchant from the original series. Ruy Iskandar and Ryan Mah play Lieutenants Jee and Dang respectively, while Matt Yang King guest stars as the vocalizations for Appa and Momo.

Critical reception
The episode received mixed reviews from critics. Jeremy Brown of Culture Slate praised the episode for its writing stating "A lot is going on in this episode, and it’s woven together really well. Bringing the Mechanist and his son early into the season, with the same story arc he had at the Northern Air Temple in the original, actually works here. Especially because they intertwined it with Jet’s plot of the Freedom Fighters." Noah Petrillo of The Review Geek commended the fight choreography writing "Jet’s dual, hooked swords show impressive range and grace. Zuko and Aang’s hand-to-hand combat was not only performed with technical excellence but it was edited simply, which often makes fights feel far better. It’s too common to miss moves and fabricate a fast pace with many quick cuts." The Comic Crow from Fandom Pulse criticized the episode for its pacing and its decision to combine three episodes into one, saying "Azula is a fan-favorite character, so it’s easy to understand the desire to include her early, but it felt like every scene of her in the episode was pointless filler that could be cut out. Had they done that, there could have been more time spent focusing on Jet or The Mechanist. It gives off the feeling that the showrunners expected people to already know the twist with these characters, so they just didn’t care about exploring them at all." Rich Eberwein of Winter is Coming stated that the episode "somehow managed to be both annoying and nostalgic, but ultimately left me feeling pretty discombobulated." writing that "This episode was all over the place and made me think the showrunners just wanted to shoehorn in as many characters from the original show as possible. I certainly respect that they want to include them, but not at the expense of good storytelling."