Avatar: The Last Airbender/Recap/Book 2/11 The Desert

""What are you doing?"

"Trying to keep everyone together.""

Picking up from the events of the previous episode, the Gaang are forced to make their way out of the Si Wong Desert on foot. Aang is depressed over the loss of Appa, Toph is blind in sand, and Sokka ends up on a Mushroom Samba after drinking liquid from the inside of a cactus, leaving Katara to hold the team together singlehandedly. Eventually, they find one of the boat... ish craft the local Sandbenders use to get around, and are then confronted by the very Sandbenders who stole Appa. They accuse the Gaang of grand theft sailboat, which pushes Aang's Berserk Button. While just about everyone flees the wrath of the Avatar State, Katara advances into the gale and adminsters a Cooldown Hug. The episode ends with the two of them weeping in each other's arms.

Meanwhile, Iroh and Zuko are ambushed by the Rough Rhinos last seen in "Avatar Day." When Zuko asks Iroh if he has any friends that aren't trying to kill him, Iroh leads them to the Misty Palms Oasis in search of an old friend. This man, Fung, is sitting at a pai sho table, and the two create the icon of a lotus blossom on the board. This is evidently a secret handshake of some sort for "The Order of the White Lotus," which Uncle Iroh is a high-ranking member of, and Fung helps smuggle the two to Ba Sing Se--right under the noses of Xin Fu and Master Yu, Toph's pursuers, who have decided to engage in a little bounty-hunting on the side.

Tropes:

 * All Deserts Have Cacti: Sokka and Momo get high off of one, but it's the only one they see.
 * Bad Guy Bar: The bar at the Misty Palms Oasis.
 * Bar Brawl: Incited by Fung to provide Iroh and Zuko with an escape from Yu and Xin Fu.
 * Cooldown Hug
 * Foreshadowing: This is the first time that the Order of the White Lotus is mentioned.
 * Forgot I Could Fly: While Sokka is high on cactus juice, he forgets that Katara is a waterbender.
 * Informed Ability: Iroh says the Rough Rhinos are a very capable singing group.
 * Intoxication Ensues: For Sokka.
 * Large Ham: Sokka. Jack DeSena was having a LOT of fun with this episode.
 * Mushroom Samba: Sokka (and Momo) spend most of the episode having one.
 * Open the Iris: Sokka in his Mushroom Samba.
 * Sand Is Water
 * Team Mom: The Episode.
 * Visual Pun: During his Mushroom Samba, Sokka is able to flap his arms in an unnatural manner; in short, he's an armbender.
 * Also, the animals that attack them are a hybrid of Buzzards and Bees. In other words, a BUZZard.