History Recap / AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheBeach

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: The Combustion Man intercepts a letter to the Firelord revealing that the Avatar is still alive (and his general location.) As dangerous as the hitman is, things would have been vastly worse otherwise.

* BareYourMidriff: Almost every girl at the beach, particularly Azula and Ty Lee.

* BeachEpisode: It's even in the title!

* BreatherEpisode: At least for the Fire kids.

''[[caption-width-right:333:Azula, Ty Lee, Mai, and Zuko bond after wreaking havoc on Chan's house.]]''

-->'''Ty Lee''': If you want a boy to like you, just look at him and smile a lot, and laugh everything he says, even if it's not funny!\\

* CampfireCharacterExploration: The fire team discuss their flaws around a nightly camp fire.

* DudeMagnet: Ty Lee, to her surprise. She starts attracting a couple of guys’ attention at the beach itself, but she finds herself surrounded by several guys at Chan’s party. When they start asking her which one she likes, she knocks them out and cartwheels away.
* DysfunctionJunction: Turns out the fire team are four pretty screwed-up teenagers, and that makes them who they are.

** Ty Lee grew up with six sisters, all of whom look the same, and she felt as though she had no identity. So to help her establish an identity, she ran off and joined the circus, which she admitted in “Return to Omashu” made her really happy.
** Mai and Azula both deny that they have one, before going into it. Mai grew up as the only daughter of a rich Fire Nation family and lived by very strict rules (sitting still, behaving, and not speaking unless spoken to) for the sake of her father’s political career. Because of her family’s strictness, she grew up not expressing herself or interacting that much with kids her age. Azula’s is more subtle as she acts like her life was perfect, but she seems to focus on how her mother thought she was a monster. While she admits it was true, Azula was still hurt by how her mother saw her.

** Azula gets rather nasty at Ty Lee and says that the boys she was surrounded by don’t actually like her, prompting Ty Lee to cry. This one is so harsh that for once, Azula actually ''apologizes''.

* ScarilyCompetentTracker: Combustion Man. He managed to find the exact location of Aang and his friends and attempts to kill them.

* TemptingFate: Katara assures Toph that there walls all around their swimming pool so no one would see Aang's tattoos. Cue Aang going down the waterfall and being noticed by the Fire Nation guards.

* VillainEpisode: The A-plot of this episode centres on Zuko, Azula, and her minions.

* SkirtOverSlacks: Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai's bikinis. Mai's skirt and slacks are both past her knees, so it looks like one long skirt from a distance, but the skirt has slits almost up to her hips.

* MiseryPoker: The Fire nation group each take turns voicing their respective FreudianExcuse in response to some criticism from the others. There's not much of a contest, as the girls' stories of various forms of emotional abuse and neglect can't really compete with Ozai permanently disfiguring Zuko.

** Ty Lee grew up with six twin sisters, all who look the same, and she felt as though she had no identity. So to help her establish an identity, she ran off and joined the circus, which she admitted in “Return to Omashu” made her really happy.

* InnocentlyInsensitive: Ty Lee warns Zuko that being constantly angry is bad for his skin. She realizes a second too late that this is a really stupid thing to say to a guy whose own ''father'' burned '''''a big hunk of his face'''''.

** Ty Lee grew up with six older sisters, all who look the same, and she felt as though she had no identity. So to help her establish an identity, she ran off and joined the circus, which she admitted in “Return to Omashu” made her really happy.

* RuleOfSymbolism: During the campfire scene, Zuko takes his family's portrait and tosses into the fire without a second thought. It's a powerful representation of how disillusioned he is with pretending [[DysfunctionalFamily his family]] is perfect or even normal. Interestingly enough, Azula doesn't stop him from doing it either, though one could make the argument ''she'' realized that years ago.

* RealityEnsues: An isolated shut-in with no proper social skills is going to fail miserably at trying for normal interaction with people.

* RuleOfSymbolism: During the campfire scene, Zuko takes his family's portrait and tosses into the fire without a second thought. It's a powerful representation of how disillusioned he is with pretending his family isn't [[DysfunctionalFamily dysfunctional]]. Interestingly enough, Azula doesn't stop him from doing it either, though one could make the argument ''she'' realized that years ago.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar:
** Toph telling Aang not to "expose himself." She was of course talking about his tattoos, but Aang replies, "What, I'm wearing trunks."
** Azula tearing into Ty Lee about being a tease is pretty much a PG slut-shaming.

* IJustWantToBeNormal: Played with. Azula doesn't really want to be normal, since she ''loves'' the attention and praise she gets from being Princess, but she doesn't tell Chan and Ruan-Jian who she and Zuko are out of a sudden desire to see what it's like to be normal.

* IllTakeThatAsACompliment[=/=]InsultBackfire: Affected at first, Ty Lee rebukes Zuko calling her a "circus freak" and says she considers it to be a compliment due to her previous living a life of no identity.
* InnocentlyInsensitive: Ty Lee warns Zuko that being constantly angry is bad for his skin. She realizes a second too late that this is a really stupid thing to say to a guy whose own ''father'' burned a big hunk of his face.

* InnocentlyInsensitive: Ty Lee warns Zuko that being constantly angry is bad for his skin. She realizes a second too late that this is a really stupid thing to say to a guy whose father burned a big hunk of his face.

* InsultBackfire: Ty Lee rebukes Zuko calling her a "circus freak" and says she considers it to be a compliment due to her living a life of no identity.

* SarcasticClapping: Azula does this when Zuko and Mai make up, before sarcastically congratulating them all on their "performances" of their sob stories. However, by this point it's quite clear that she's using her sarcasm as a defence mechanism.

* TrashTheSet: The Fire kids at the end of the episode.

-->'''Azula''': She was right, of course, but it still hurt.

* BerateAndSwitch: Ty-Lee gives Azula advice for picking up guys:
-->'''Ty-Lee''': If you want a boy to like you, just look at him and smile a lot, and laugh everything he says, even if it's not funny!\\

* DissonantSerenity: The villains, as depicted in the final panel (and on this page). Keep in mind that that's an innocent ordinary citizen's house that's going up in flames behind them.

* FanDisservice: Lo and Li in their bathing suits.
* {{Fanservice}}: Quite a lot.

* FreudianExcuse:
** All four of the fire team tell theirs.

** Mai and Azula both deny that they have one, before going into it. Mai grew up as the only daughter of a rich Fire Nation family and lived by very strict rules (sitting still, behaving, and not speaking unless spoken to) for the sake of her father’s political career. Because of her family’s strictness, she grew up not expressing herself or interacting that much with kids her age. Azula’s is more subtle as she acts like her life was perfect, but she seems to focus on how her mother thought she was a monster. While it was true, Azula was still hurt by how her mother saw her.

** Azula's tear into Ty Lee about being a tease is pretty much a PG slut-shaming.

* IJustWantToBeNormal: Played with. Azula doesn't want to be normal, she ''loves'' the attention and praise she gets from being Princess, but she doesn't tell Chan and Ruan-Jian who she and Zuko are out of a sudden desire to see what it's like to be normal.

* InnocentlyInsensitive: Ty Lee warns Zuko that being constantly angry is bad for his skin. She realizes a second too late that this is a really stupid thing to say to a guy whose father burned off a third of his face.

** Azula gets rather nasty at Ty Lee and says that the boys she was surrounded by don’t actually like her, prompting Ty Lee to cry.
* LargeHam: Azula was in particularly fine form this episode. Like Jack DeSena was during ''The Desert'', Grey De Lisle seemed to be having a great time in this episode.

* LittleNo: Asked if it's his father that he's so angry about, Zuko says "No!" in a startled, pleading way--he's so desperate for Ozai's approval that being angry at him is unthinkable.

* MsFanservice: Ty Lee seems to delight in being such in this episode. So much so that the others accuse her of being an AttentionWhore.

* NoSocialSkills: Azula. She has an amazing capacity to lead, to subvert loyalties, to understand other people and sway their opinions and is overall a master of manipulation... but normal social interactions are ''utterly'' beyond her. Although she refused to admit it, she is quite insecure about it as well.
* NothingExcitingEverHappensHere: The two Fire Nation guards are bored out with their job and one exclaims that nothing happens. Cue the Avatar coming down the waterfall.

* NotSoStoic: Azula looks genuinely sad when asking Zuko if he's mad at her. She already knows he is -- for manipulating him into betraying Iroh and serving as her scapegoat-- but knows it's not the source of his brooding.

* RuleOfSymbolism: During the campfire scene, Zuko takes his family's portrait and tosses into the fire without a second thought. It's a powerful representation of how disillusioned he is with pretending his family isn't [[DysfunctionalFamily dysfunctional]]. Interestingly enough, Azula doesn't stop him from doing it either.

* TemptingFate: Katara ensures Toph that there walls all around their swimming pool so no-one would see Aang's tattoos. Cue Aang going down the waterfall and being noticed by the Fire Nation guards.

* UnwantedHarem: Not unwanted at first, but Ty Lee's admirers fighting for her attention soon start to make her nervous to the point she ''knocks out them all'' to have some peace.

* {{Adorkable}}: Azula at the party, jarringly exposing [[NoSocialSkills her lack of social skills]].

* RuleOfSymbolism: During the campfire scene, Zuko takes his family's portrait and tosses into the fire without a second thought. It's a powerful representation of how disillusioned he is with pretending his family isn't [[DysfunctionalFamily dysfunctional]].

** Ty Lee and Mai are depicted barefoot in this episode for the first time.

* AerithAndBob: Ruon-Jian. It's pronounced "Ron Jon," like the [[http://www.ronjonsurfshop.com/ surf shop]].

* {{Squee}}: Zuko's EstrogenBrigade during his ShirtlessScene.

* StunnedSilence: After Azula announces her plan with Chan to become "the strongest couple in the entire world." [[http://piandao.org/screencaps/ep45/ep45-762.png He doesn't seem that enthused]].