Katara takes on a disguise to help the villagers.
"I will never, ever turn my back on people who need me!"
—Katara
When the Gaang comes upon a fishing village that has been having hard times due to the pollution from a local factory, Katara cannot resist helping the villagers, though she does so in secret. Before long, word in the village is that the local river spirit, the Painted Lady, has been granting them succor, and soon Katara takes the guise of this spirit to further help the villagers.
Tropes:
- Armies Are Evil: It's specifically the Fire Nation military who run the polluting factory, and run roughshod over the villagers, not a private corporation.
- Befriending the Enemy: The villagers seem ready to turn on Katara the moment they realize she is a waterbender—but in the end, they don't, because Sokka admonishes the village for their uproar, and because Katara saved them.
- Big Brother Instinct: Although he's rightfully upset with his sister's actions, he agrees to help her chase away the soldiers that are headed towards the village. He later steps in to protect her when the villagers realize Katara is a waterbender who pretended to be the Painted Lady.
- Caught Coming Home Late: Sokka awaits Katara and Aang when they return from destroying the factory. And he is not amused, shaking out hay stuffed in Katara's sleeping bag to show he knows what Katara did.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Katara. The page quote is the defining statement of her personality.
- Clock King: Sokka turns out to be one, to the annoyance of the other characters.
- Conveniently Empty Building: Apparently the factory is unguarded and runs without human supervision, at least at night. Aang and Katara destroy the place in no time while keeping the body count at zero.
- Covered in Mud: Early on, Aang takes a bath in muddy water and then spatters Katara and Toph with it.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Katara (as the Painted Lady) and Aang demolish the soldiers with next to no effort.
- Declarative Finger: Katara (disguised as the Painted Lady) raises her index finger to Aang signaling him that she is too busy to talk.
- Didn't Think This Through: Sokka accuses his sister of this when she entertains the idea of destroying the factory. He reminds her that this would backfire on the villagers, which does indeed happen.
- Don't Explain the Joke:Sokka: (when he finds no fish to catch in the polluted river) Normally my fishing skills are off the hook! (nobody reacts) Get it? Like a fishing hook?Toph: Too bad your skills aren't on the hook. (everyone laughs)
- "Everybody Helps Out" Denouement: Once the soldiers from the factory are chased off, the episode ends with the Gaang joining a bunch of villagers in clean the river polluted by said factory.
- Extra Eyes: One of the fish from the polluted river has a third eye.
- Everyone Has Standards: While Sokka disapproved of his sister's reckless heroics, he still defends her towards the townspeople once they find out who she is, calling them out for their ingratitude despite Katara doing everything she could to save them.
- Also, fortunately the people actually realize he's right and accept her help despite her lies. They might be angry they got lied to, but they are not Ungrateful Bastards.
- Eye-Obscuring Hat: Katara as the Painted Lady wears her hat low so that her eyes cannot be seen, which is how Aang doesn't initially recognize her.
- Failed a Spot Check: Aang doesn't notice that the brown, sludgy river is polluted until after he's jumped in it.
- Filler: One of only two episodes of the show that you can skip with no problem (the other being "The Great Divide").
- Foreshadowing:
- Early in the episode Sokka, concerned that the Gaang is behind schedule, says they have to start getting up earlier. Sure enough, when Katara and Aang return from destroying the factory, Sokka and Toph are already up and waiting for them.
- Until he sees Appa's purple tongue, Aang says the bison doesn't appear to be sick. Funny you should say that...
- God Guise: Katara eventually disguises herself as the Painted Lady, the village's guardian spirit, in order to heal the sick villagers without revealing herself as a waterbender.
- Green Aesop: The general plot (saving the villagers from the Army's polluting factory) would not look out of place in a Captain Planet episode, and neither would the horribly mutagenic effects of the pollutants.
- I Was Just Joking: Though Katara knew Sokka was joking, and was just making an excuse.Sokka: I was joking! I also said to use spirit magic and made funny noises! (facepalm)
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- While Sokka's "We can't help every town we come across" comment may sound cold out of context, he does make a sound argument that in the grand scheme of things, the only way to truly help the fishing village (and the Fire Nation as a whole) is to end the war.
- Although it's a bitter pill to swallow, Sokka makes another argument that if the Painted Lady note wasn't around to help, the Fishing Village wouldn't be in its happier festive state for long: eventually, they'd go back to hopelessly moping and waiting for something to happen.
- While the villagers initially turn on Katara after they learned that she had been impersonating the Painted Lady, despite saving them moments earlier, she did impersonate their patron goddess and commit blasphemy.
- Keystone Army: Zig-Zagged. It's first played straight, since destroying the factory doesn't solve the problem, but rather serves precisely to make its military security detachment crack down hard on the very village Katara wanted to save. Ultimately subverted, however: Team Avatar beats them, too, and rather than this realistically bringing in even more and more heavily armed troops, the story ends on a happy note. It is implied that the Painted Lady will keep looking after the people, which may or may not justify it.
- Lost My Appetite: Sokka buys a mutated two-headed fish from the village market, arguing that it's a better bargain for their lunch than just a normal fish with one head.
Katara, Toph and Aang promptly decide to run for it. - Magical Barefooter: While masquerading as the spirit of the Painted Lady, Katara goes barefoot.
- Makes Sense In Context: When the villagers learn Katara is a water-bender impersonating the Painted Lady and start calling her out on it, one little boy from before angrily declares "[And] she's the nice lady who gave me a fish". Ironically enough, it sounds more like a reason not to hate Katara.
- Meaningful Background Event: As Toph's tremor sense wouldn't be as effective on the wooden streets of the river village, she's usually shown leaning on someone's arm (mostly Sokka's) when they're in the village.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Destroying the factory just gets the soldiers stationed there mad at the villagers, who now come across as accomplices to terrorism.
- Offscreen Teleportation: Aang when following the Painted Lady at night. Katara thinks she has lost him, but then Aang appears from the other side.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Aang easily figures out that Katara is pretending to be the Painted Lady. The villagers also see through her disguise when she gets close enough for them to see her face. Not helped by her makeup having come off during the confrontation.
- Real After All: The Painted Lady. Whether she would have done the same thing Katara did, had the pollution not kept her from acting, is unknown, but she is at least quite grateful.
- Rule of Symbolism: In the beginning, Katara gives a poor little boy a fish in order to feed his ill mother. While a nice gesture, it does invoke the old saying "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for life." This fits with the episode's theme about learning to help one's self instead of waiting for something to happen.
- Scarecrow Solution: After the Gaang accidentally makes things worse, they decide to use this solution to correct their mistake and scare a corrupt Fire Nation army out of the small village they were persecuting: Toph, Sokka and Appa create fog, sound effects and an overall ominous and creepy atmosphere, while Katara dresses up as the Painted Lady herself, with help from Aang regarding her powers.
- Secret-Keeper: All the villagers agree to keep secret that Katara is a waterbender.
- Shout-Out: When Katara, disguised as the Painted Lady, begins approaching Fire Nation soldiers, a child says "She's com-ing!" in the exact same tone as the line "They're he-re!"
- Sleeping Dummy: Katara stuffs her sleeping bag with grass to sneak away from the group.
- Spit Take: Aang has this reaction when Sokka announces they might have to take potty breaks and food breaks at the same time.
- Split Personality: Dock/Xu/Bushi.
- Toilet Humor: Sokka's idea that the Gaang take food breaks and potty breaks at the same time.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Subverted, for once. The villagers are plenty mad that the visiting girl is a waterbender and has been masquerading as their patron goddess, until Sokka calls them out on it and points out that now the village is safe and can grow prosperous again. Though Katara did apologize to them, she justifies to them that she couldn't simply stand by and do nothing. So in turn, they promise to keep her waterbending a secret.
- Watch Out for That Tree!: While Aang chased after the disguised Katara, he runs across the roof of a long hut, and ends up running into a roof pole while distracted.
- Wham Shot: After everything is done and the Gaang are tucking in for their last night by the lake, Katara is visited by the real Painted Lady, who thanks her for her deeds.
- What the Hell, Hero?: After Aang and Katara destroy the factory, Sokka gives both of them, mainly Katara, a proper chewing out for being reckless and endangering the village with their actions.
