Transcript:The Swamp
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| The episode opens with a overhead shot of a rice paddy, and the camera pans down, revealing an Earth Kingdom village. The scene cuts to a shot of a bridge over a nearby stream. People carrying backpacks and other loads walk back and forth over the bridge, either entering or departing the small village.
The scene cuts to a street within the village. Iroh and Zuko are sitting on straw mats, their stolen ostrich horse behind them. A cart with masks for sale passes by in front of them; one of the masks is seen to be the Blue Spirit mask. As the cart passes, another pedestrian walks in front of Iroh. Iroh holds his hat out to the pedestrian and begins to talk to him. | |
| Iroh | [Somewhat enthusiastically.] Spare coins for weary travelers? |
|---|---|
| The pedestrian tosses a couple of copper pieces into Iroh's hat as Zuko turns to Iroh in anger. | |
| Zuko | [Angrily with his arms folded.] This is humiliating! We're royalty! These people should be giving us whatever we want. |
| Iroh | They will if you ask nicely. [A peasant woman strolls past; somewhat dramatically.] Spare change for a hungry old man? |
| Peasant girl | [Withdrawing a coin from her sleeve.] Here you go. |
| Iroh | The coin is appreciated, but not as much as your smile! |
| Zuko slaps his forehead in frustration as the young girl giggles lightly and walks away. Just then, a man with dual broadswords on his back wanders up to Iroh and Zuko. | |
| Broadsword man | [Smiling.] How about some entertainment in exchange for a gold piece? [He pulls the piece from his pocket with a flourish.] |
| Zuko | [Annoyed.] We're not performers. |
| Iroh | [Standing up.] Not professional anyway. [Singing.] It's a long, long way to Ba Sing Se, but the girls in the city, they look so pretty! |
| Broadsword man | [Annoyed with the quality of the entertainment.] Come on, we're talking a gold piece here! Let's see some action! [Withdraws swords.] Dance! [Begins to slice the ground near Iroh's feet; Iroh hops up and down to "dodge" the attacks while Zuko struggles to control his anger at the man.] |
| Iroh | [Singing.] They kiss so sweet that you really got to meet the girls from Ba Sing Se! |
| Broadsword man | [Stops slicing and laughs.] Ha, ha! Nothing like a fat man dancing for his dinner! Here you go! [Tosses the gold coin onto the ground and walks away.] |
| Iroh | [Dramatically; close to tears.] Such a kind man. |
| Zuko glares at the man in anger and humilitation. The camera cuts to where Appa is flying through a grey sky over a large forested area; it is covered somewhat by fog, and looks rather menacing. Sokka is rubbing a whetstone against his machete, while Katara is studying a scroll. Aang stares at the swamp, and seems to be in a trance. Sokka notices they were slowly flying down, and noticed Aang's trance-like state. | |
| Sokka | [To Aang.] Hey, you taking us down for a reason? [Aang continues to stare at the swamp.] Aang, [Aang snaps out of the trance.] why are we going down? |
| Aang | [Confused.] What? I didn't even notice. |
| The camera zooms out to see Appa flying down toward the swamp | |
| Sokka | Are you noticing now? |
| Katara | Is something wrong? |
| Aang | [He still seems somewhat dazed by the swamp.] I know this is going to sound weird, but I think the swamp is calling to me. |
| Sokka | [Holding his stomach.] Is it telling you where we can get something to eat? |
| Aang | No, I... I think it wants us to land there. |
| Sokka | No offense to the swamp, but I don't see any land there to land on. |
| Aang | I don't know. Bumi said to learn earthbending I would have to wait and listen, and now I'm actually hearing the earth. Do you want me to ignore it? |
| Sokka, Katara and Momo look over Appa's saddle down at the swamp | |
| Sokka | Yes. |
| Katara | I don't know. There's something ominous about that place. |
| Momo hides underneath Appa's saddle as Appa groans. | |
| Sokka | See, even Appa and Momo don't like it here. |
| Aang | Okay, since everyone feels so strongly about this, [Looks at swamp.] bye swamp. [Shakes Appa's rope.] Yip, Yip! |
| Appa groans and flies upward, away from the swamp. A tornado suddenly emerges from out of nowhere, heading right for Appa. Sokka turns around and finally sees it. | |
| Sokka | [Worried and scared.] You better throw in an extra "yip"! We gotta move! |
| Appa starts to fly faster, attempting to avoid the tornado. But as the tornado begins to move closer to Appa, the wind pulls Sokka right off Appa. Katara manages to grab his hand, holding him back from flying into the tornado. Aang jumps up onto Appa's saddle and creates an air shield around Appa. Sokka falls back into the saddle. The wind sucks Appa, who is still protected by the air shield, into the tornado. Aang struggles to hold the air shield. One of Appa's legs begins to stick out of the air shield. The air shield breaks and Aang, Katara, and Sokka fall off Appa, and land in the swamp. Appa and Momo are thrown elsewhere in the swamp. Aang, Katara and Sokka fall into the muddy water. | |
| Aang | Where's Appa and Momo? [Aang jumps up to the top of the trees. His eyes look for Appa and Momo. Calling.] Appa! Momo! [The scene goes back to Katara and Sokka. Katara looks at Sokka.] |
| Katara | [Pointing blandly.] Sokka, you've got an elbow leech. |
| Sokka | [He spins around, panicking, trying to find it.] Where? Where? |
| A creature is shown sticking on to Sokka's elbow. | |
| Katara | [Crossing her arms.] Where do you think? |
| Sokka | [Ripping off the elbow leech and throwing it behind to Katara. He cries out angrily.] Why do things keep attaching to me? |
| Aang then appears, swinging over to the muddy water on a vine. | |
| Katara | You couldn't find them? |
| Aang | [Jumping down into the muddy water.] No, and the tornado... It just disappeared. |
| Katara and Sokka turn to face the darkness in the swamp. The scene switches to Appa, who is trapped in the air in vines. Momo jumps up from the saddle. Momo begins to cut the vines, smartly. Appa falls, with Momo, into the muddy water. Appa shakes the water from his fur and then takes off flying. He again gets trapped in a net of vines. Appa groans as Momo begins to cut the vines, again. The scene switches back to Aang, Katara, and Sokka. | |
| Sokka | [Cutting the vines with his machete.] We better speed things up. |
| Aang | [To Sokka.] Maybe we should be a little nicer to the swamp. |
| Sokka | [Continuing to cut the vines.] Aang, these are just plants. Do you want me to say "please" and "thank you" as I swing my machete back and forth? |
| Katara | Maybe you should listen to Aang. Something about this place feels... alive. |
| Sokka | I'm sure there are lots of things that are alive here and if we don't wanna wind up getting eaten by them, we need to find Appa as fast as we can. |
| Sokka then continues to slice through the vines. The shot appears to be showing someone looking at Aang, Katara, and Sokka through the vines. The scene changes to Appa and Momo. Appa is walking on the wet, muddy ground, trailing his footprints behind. Momo appears on Appa's saddle. A tree trunk happened to be in Appa's way. Appa collapses in front of it. Momo gets Aang's bison whistle to make Appa move. Momo blows on it, but Appa does not feel like moving and hits Momo with his tail. The scene changes back to Aang, Katara, and Sokka, now walking through the foggy part of the swamp. | |
| Katara | [Yelling.] Appa! Momo! |
| Sokka | There's no way they can hear us and no way we can see them. We'll have to make camp for the night. |
| Several flies surround Sokka. Sokka swings his machete at them, trying to shoo them away. Just then, a huge bubble of swamp gas rises from the muddy water below them. The gas grows closer to Aang, Katara, and Sokka. | |
| Katara | What was that? |
| Sokka | Nothing, just swamp gas. Look, there's nothing supernatural going on here. |
| The three groan as they smell the horrid gas. A terrifying scream is heard and the three huddle together, in fear. The scream happens to be just a white bird with a big mouth. | |
| Sokka | [Voice cracking.] I think we should build a fire. |
| Sokka runs off to a nearby tree and cuts pieces of the roots from it. Aang and Katara walk up to Sokka. | |
| Aang | Sokka, the longer we're here, the more I think you shouldn't be doing do that. |
| Sokka | No, I asked the swamp. It said this was fine. [Grabs a nearby root.] Right, swamp? [Shakes the root and fakes a reply.] "No problem, Sokka!" |
| Sokka continues to chop up the roots, while Aang looks somewhat annoyed. The scene changes to a later shot of the trio around a fire. Katara looks around at the swamp. | |
| Katara | Does anyone else get the feeling that we're being watched? |
| Sokka is shown with a fly buzzing around him. He doesn't seems scared anymore. | |
| Sokka | Please, we're all alone out here. |
| Sokka uses his machete to try and scare the fly off. The fly turns into a big, shining ball of light. Behind the gang, several glowing eyes appear to be staring down upon them. They turn around and see them. | |
| Aang | Except for them. |
| They turn back around and huddle together. | |
| Sokka | [His calm demeanour vanishing.] Right, except for them. |
| The scene changes to Appa and Momo, who are lying down on a giant tree branch. Several sounds are heard and Momo begins to scurry around, listening to the noises. Appa, unable to sleep by the noise, groans loudly. The noise stops and Momo settles down on Appa's saddle. As Momo begins to close his eyes, another small sound is heard. The scene changes back to Aang, Katara, and Sokka. The camp fire is beginning to die out. The three friends are shown huddled to together, asleep. A shot is shown of someone looking at them through the vines. A vine snakes its way to Sokka's leg, which is sticking out. The vine begins to wind around it and then to Sokka's whole body.
The show cuts to an overhead shot of the three, each tied up by three or four vines that snake out of the frame. Cut to a close-up profile shot of the three. For a moment they are still asleep, but awake screaming as the vines simultaneously yank them all out off the screen and away from each other. The scene cuts to Sokka. He puts his machete in the ground as he is dragged away. Both Katara and Aang are also dragged off into the mist. Sokka gets up and starts hacking the vines with his machete. He frees himself and runs back down the tree root, pursued by more vines. The scene cuts to Katara, struggling to free herself from the vines. Using the water whip she cuts through her bonds and runs off into the mist. The scene then cuts to Aang, who frees himself by creating an air bubble around him and expanding it. His bonds loosened, he collapses the bubble and hops into the surrounding trees, closely pursued by more vines. He escapes a vine that pulls him to the ground using his airbending to propel himself far away and soon finds himself alone in the swamp. Cut to a wide shot of Aang looking around for his friends. | |
| Aang | Guys? |
| The scene then fades to a shot of Appa's footprint, which is now filled with swamp water. Two figures are looking down at the footprint. Due is the tall and skinny one, while Tho is short and fat. Both wear small, animal skin loincloths. Each has a single, large leaf on his head that seems to serve as a hat. Tho is carrying a stick. | |
| Due | What'd you reckon make a track like that, Tho? |
| Tho | Don't know, Due. [Points his stick at the footprint.] Some'in with six legs. Pretty big'uns too. |
| The camera pans up to reveal more of Appa's tracks in the mud. | |
| Due | Leaves a nice, wide trail to folla'. |
| Tho | You know what's at the end of that trail? |
| Due shakes his head in the negative. Cut to a close-up of Tho's smiling face. | |
| Tho | [Grinning.] Dinner. |
| The scene then cuts to Appa swimming in the marshy water, then cuts to a close-up of Momo. A fly is buzzing around his head, and he watches it, shifting his eyes from side to side. It flies off, and Momo goes after it. He lands on a nearby tree root, still attempting to catch the fly. He hops from tree root to tree root. He catches the fly on the last root, but lets go of it when the root turns out to be the back of a catfish crocodile. Momo jumps as the creature roars and snaps its jaws at him. It pursues Momo as he flies back to Appa. The camera pans left as the chase continues. When Momo and the crocodile reach Appa, his mouth is open, as if to receive the pursuing crocodile. Appa does, then spits him back out. Momo and the catfish crocodile hiss at each other for a moment, then the crocodile swims off. The scene cuts back to Appa, who shakes his head and loudly groans. | |
| Katara is walking through an area where the tree roots are covered in white flowers. | |
| Katara | [Calling out.] Aang! Sokka! |
| Ahead of Katara is another Water Tribe woman, her back facing Katara. She wears the same robe as Katara and has the same hair style. Katara begins walking toward the figure. | |
| Katara | Hello? Hello? Can you help me? [She squints.] Mom? [More loudly and running toward the figure.] Mom! |
| Katara runs to the figure, her eyes streaming tears of joy. She reaches the figure and places a hand on her shoulder. | |
| Katara | I can't believe... |
| The smile leaves her face as the scene begins to lighten. Katara stands in front of a tree stump as she realizes the figure was only an illusion. Katara gasps at the realization, then falls to her knees and begins to cry. It cuts to an overhead shot of the very devastated Katara, then fade to shot of Sokka's hand holding his machete in the air. The rest of Sokka appears. | |
| Sokka | Aang! Stupid swamp! Dumb, ugly vines! Katara! [While slashing vines.] You think you're so tough, huh? |
| Sokka trips over as he cuts through a vine in which he was tangled, falling with his face in the mud. Upon lifting up his head, he sees an image of Yue in a beam of light not far in front of him. Sokka stands up, puts away his machete and starts walking toward Yue. | |
| Sokka | Hello? Yue? This is just a trick of the light... swamp gas... I... hit my head running away last night. I'm going crazy. |
| Princess Yue | [Accusingly.] You didn't protect me. |
| Sokka rubs his eyes in disbelief. Yue disappears and Sokka sighs in relief, as he turns around, he falls over as he was startled upon seeing Yue right before his eyes again. The image of Yue disappears immediately after that. The scene switches to Aang. | |
| Aang | Katara! Appa! |
| Upon wading through the swamp, Aang notices an unfamiliar girl in a dress standing on a hill, accompanied by a winged swine. | |
| Aang | Hello? Who are you? |
| The swine flies off and the girl giggles and runs away. | |
| Aang | Hey, come back! |
| Aang tries to chase the girl; the girl, however, is hard to keep up with, as she keep disappearing and reappearing, ever giggling. As Aang continues his wild chase through the treetops, the scene now switches to show Appa with Momo on his back swimming through the river flowing through the swamp. A little further on the stream, covered by fog, is a group of six swamp tribe members divided over three canoes, Due and Tho sitting in the middle canoe. They look at each other in silence for a few moments, Tho then wets his lips using his tongue. Momo makes some noise at them. | |
| Due | Look at that Tho. Is that a little hairy fella ridin' that thing? |
| Tho | No, that's what they call a "lemoo". Saw one at a traveling show once. Real smart they say. |
| Due | Bet he tastes a lot like possum chicken. |
| Tho | You think everything tastes like possum chicken. |
| Due | C'mon now, fellas. Just a little closer. Nice and easy. Nothing to worry about. We just fixin' to eat ya. |
| Appa takes off in the opposite direction. | |
| Tho | [Annoyed.] What'd you say that fer? |
| Due | [Making a 'don't blame me' gesture with his hands.] Well, we are! |
| Tho | But you don't have to tell 'em that. |
| Due | Well how'd I know they'd understand me? |
| Tho | Come on! |
| Due stands up in front of the canoe and starts spinning his arms, bending the water behind his canoe in order to chase Appa, the other two canoes follow. The scene switches back to Aang, who is still chasing the girl. | |
| Aang | Who are you? |
| Aang bumps into Katara, they both fall over, Sokka hears the rumble and turns around to investigate, shortly after that Katara and Aang bump into his back. | |
| Sokka | What do you guys think you're doing!? I've been looking all over for you! |
| Katara | Well, I've been wandering around looking for you! |
| Aang | I was chasing some girl. |
| Katara | What girl? |
| Aang | I don't know. I heard laughing and I saw some girl in a fancy dress. |
| Sokka | Well, there must be a tea party here and we just didn't get our invitations! |
| Katara | I thought I saw Mom. |
| Sokka | Look, we were all just scared and hungry and our minds were playing tricks on us. That's why we all saw things out here. |
| Katara | You saw something too? |
| Sokka | I thought I saw Yue. But, that doesn't prove anything. Look, I think about her all the time, and you saw Mom, someone you miss a lot. |
| Aang | What about me? I didn't know the girl I saw. And all our visions led us right here. |
| Aang begins walking around, as if looking for something. | |
| Katara | Okay... so where's here? The middle of the swamp? |
| Aang | Yeah, the center... It's the heart of the swamp. It's been calling us here. I knew it. |
| Sokka | It's just a tree. It can't call anyone. For the last time, there's nothing after us and there's nothing magical happening here. |
| A seaweed monster jumps out from the water. The gang huddles together and screams. The monster begins to attack the gang, so the gang also attacks the monster. The seaweed monster captures Sokka and holds him hostage in the monster's vines. The scene changes to Appa continuing his escape from the Foggy Swamp members. Momo throws objects at them, attempting to slow them down. Momo throws a shirt that appears to belong to Sokka at a Foggy Swamp member. | |
| Tho | Now what would a lemoo need a shirt fer? |
| Finally, they capture Momo after the latter hits a low tree branch and falls backwards. Appa begins to run faster. The scene changes back to the gang fighting the seaweed monster. Aang attempts to free Sokka from the monster's vines, but fails. Katara, however, manages to free Sokka. The fight ends as Katara begins to waterbend repeatedly at the monster. A person is seen inside the monster, bending the vines. | |
| Sokka | There's someone in there! He's bending the vines! |
| Katara slices through the monster, but vines continue to attack her. Aang airbends at the monster. | |
| Aang | Why did you call me here if you just wanted to kill us!? |
| Huu | Wait! I didn't call you here. |
| Aang | We were flying over and I heard something calling to me, telling me to land. |
| Sokka | He's the Avatar. Stuff like that happens to us a lot. |
| Huu | The Avatar? Come with me. |
| Huu leads the gang to the top of the giant tree. | |
| Katara | So, who are you then? |
| Huu | I protect the swamp from folks that want to hurt it, like this fella with his big knife. |
| Sokka | See, completely reasonable. Not a monster, just a regular guy defending his home. Nothing mystical about it. |
| Huu | Oh the swamp is a mystical place alright. It's sacred. I reached enlightenment right here under the banyan-grove tree. I heard it calling me, just like you did. |
| Sokka | Sure you did. It seems real chatty. |
| Huu | See this whole swamp is actually just one tree spread out over miles. Branches spread and sink and take root and then spread some more. One big, living organism. Just like the entire world. |
| Aang | I get how the tree is one big thing, but the whole world? |
| Huu | Sure. You think you're any different from me or your friends or this tree? If you listen hard enough, you can hear every living thing breathing together. You can feel everything growing. We're all living together, even if most folks don't act like it. We all have the same roots and we are all branches of the same tree. |
| Katara | But what did our visions mean? |
| Huu | In the swamp, we see visions of people we've lost, people we loved, folks we think are gone. But the swamp tells us they're not. We're still connected to them. Time is an illusion and so is death. |
| Aang | But what about my vision? It was someone I had never met. |
| Huu | You're the Avatar. You tell me. |
| Aang | Time is an illusion. So, it's someone I will meet. |
| Huu nods. | |
| Sokka | Sorry to interrupt the lesson, but we still need to find Appa and Momo. |
| Aang | I think I know how to find them. [Aang kneels down and places his hand on the tree.] Everything is connected. [Energy travels from Aang's hand to Appa's location. Appa is seen being captured by the Foggy Swamp members. Back at the banyan-grove tree, Aang stands up.] Come on! We've got to hurry! |
| Back to the Foggy Swamp members, Appa is trapped inside a net while Tho sings. | |
| Tho | [Singing.] Set my lines by the river bed! Caught ten fish and I killed 'em dead! Cut 'em and gut 'em and I tossed the heads in the water to keep them catgators fed. |
| A jet of water appears and destroys the boat next to Tho and Due's. The two people from the destroyed boat fly into the water. Aang appears on a tree branch. | |
| Aang | Appa! |
| Aang airbends Tho into the water, freeing Momo whose bag was being held by Tho. | |
| Due | We're under attack! |
| Katara | Hey, you guys are waterbenders! |
| Due | You too! That means we're kin! Hey Huu! How you been? |
| Huu | You know, scared some folks, swung some vines, the usual. |
| Sokka | Huu? |
| Due | How you like that possum chicken? |
| Sokka | Tastes just like arctic hen. So why were you guys so interested in eating Appa? You've got plenty of those big things wandering around. |
| Due | You want me to eat old Slim? He's like a member of the family! |
| Sokka | Nice Slim! |
| Due | Oh, he don't eat no bugs! That's people food. |
| Tho | Where'd you say you was from? |
| Katara | The South Pole. |
| Tho | Didn't know there was waterbenders anywhere but here. They got a nice swamp there, do they? |
| Katara | No, it's all ice and snow. |
| Tho | Hmm. No wonder you left. |
| Sokka | [To Katara.] Well, I hope you realize now that nothing strange was going on here. Just a bunch of greasy people living in a swamp. |
| Katara | What about the visions? |
| Sokka | I told you, we were hungry. I'm eating a giant bug! |
| Aang | But what about when the tree showed me where Appa and Momo were? |
| Sokka | That's Avatar stuff, that doesn't count. [To Huu.] The only thing I can't figure out is how you made that tornado that sucked us down. |
| Huu | I can't do anything like that. I just bend the water in the plants. |
| Sokka | Well, no accounting for weather. Still, there's absolutely nothing mysterious about the swamp. |
| Cut to a long shot of the camp from across some open water. A tree branch is shown. One of the screaming white birds lands on the branch and screams. A nearby vine rises up and hits the bird into the camera, which goes dark.
When the image returns, it is of a full moon back in the Earth Kingdom village where Zuko and Iroh were seen last. The camera pans down to reveal the Broadsword Man walking down a street alone. He hears something behind him, turns and draws his blades. The scene cuts to a frontal shot of him, where there was nothing behind him. | |
| Broadsword man | Who's there? |
| The scene cuts to a close-up shot of his hands, which are both grabbed by another man's hands. He is disarmed and thrown against some nearby boxes, his swords falling useless to the ground. His assailant's feet are seen to approach the sword. He picks them up, the camera in turn reveals that the assailant is the Blue Spirit himself. | |
| Fades to credits. |
Cast 
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"Return to Omashu"
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"The Swamp"
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"Avatar Day"
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