Azula, the boiling rock, happened in the second part of the boiling rock saga. “The Boiling Rock, Part 2” is the 15th episode of Book Three: Fire of Avatar: The Last Airbender and the 55th of the overall series. It debuted on July 16, 2008.
After the failed attempt at escaping, due to Sokka strongly believing that his father, Chief Hakoda of the Southern Water Tribe, would be transported to the Boiling Rock prison, he is forced to devise a clever escape plan let go of the plan for this very purpose.
Sokka, Zuko, Suki, and Chit Sang devise a new plan for escaping the prison, involving Hakoda in their plans. They escape by creating a prison riot and kidnapping the warden. However, problems for the four arrive when Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee visit the prison.
As the plan teeters on the verge of failure, Mai helps Zuko and the others escape. Azula attacks Mai for her betrayal, but Ty Lee intervenes. Azula has them both imprisoned. The group returns to the Western Air Temple, and Hakoda is reunited with Katara.
Azula & The Boiling Rock Episode Backstory
We all know that Azula loves to ruin all the fun. It might as well be her specialty after Zuko and Sokka arrive at the Boiling Rock, the Rendezvous with Hakoda and Suki coincidentally. Sokka is more than overjoyed to see Suki at first but gets punched in the gut before expressing his happiness. She narrates her ordeal of how Azula captured her and the rest of the Kyoshi Warriors. She explains that they sent her to the Boiling Rock.
As the Warden would later brag, it is the fire nation’s most secure prison. Suki was sent to the Boiling Rock for being their leader. She assures Sokka that if his father were sent anywhere, it would have to be the Boiling Rock Prison.
Soon after, new prisoners are arriving at the Boiling Rock. Sokka is excited as he sees that it could be his chance to rescue his father. The prisoners are lined up to be introduced to the warden.
Meanwhile, Sokka is disguised as a guard in prison. When he is about to lose hope of seeing his father again, he arrives at the scene. He is glad to see his father Hakoda among the new arrivals. The warden explains the history of the Boiling Rock. He also doesn’t fail to mention that no one has ever escaped from it.
This is in an attempt to break the prisoner’s minds and damage any thoughts of escape that they might have harbored.
More Backstory
Hakoda defies the warden’s orders to look him in the eyes and trips him, which causes Sokka to snicker. The warden angrily orders the new arrivals to be taken from his sight and confined to their cells. Sokka later enters his father’s cell, still disguised as a guard, which causes Hakoda almost to attack him.
However, when Hakoda recognizes his son, he is overjoyed. Sokka explains to his father that it’s okay that he didn’t realize it was him as Hokoda remarks that he almost punched him in the gut. He tells him that he had that similar problem earlier, referring to the incident with Suki.
The warden then proceeds to interrogate the recaptured Chit Sang. He tries to grill him to find out who was helping him with the escape plan. He strongly believes that he and his friends are nowhere smart enough to think of such an intricate plan by themselves.
Chit Sang refuses to talk as he is not “a squealer.” The warden has his guards torture him by holding him upside down in his chair until he reveals the person’s identity. He tells the warden that the mastermind of the failed prison break is a guard.
Meanwhile, Sokka and his father devised a plan for Suki, Zuko, and themselves to escape the prison. Sokka makes his way to Zuko’s prison cell and tries to share the plan but is interrupted by two guards who take Zuko away.
Sokka feigns brutalizing Zuko alone inside his cell so he can reveal when they should next meet. Zuko is taken into another cell where he is confronted by his ex-girlfriend, Mai.
Meanwhile, the warden comes back to see whether Chit Sang will talk. Chit Sang reveals somebody did help him, although he only indicates someone disguised as a correctional officer. He lines up the guards to have Chit Sang identify the traitor. Sokka, completely sure that this was it for him, squints for the other shoe to drop. Chit Sang instead chooses to accuse a hot-headed guard that he doesn’t get along with.
Mai, still hurt that Zuko broke up with her, yells at him for leaving only a farewell letter as he left to join the Avatar. Zuko tries to explain he had to leave to save the Fire Nation, though Mai counters that he is betraying it. Finally, Zuko firmly tells her he does not see it that way, prompting Mai to cross her arms and look to the side.
Azula The People Person
At this point, Azula is entering the interrogation cell where the correctional officer is being grilled. She walks in on him frustratingly, saying it wasn’t him. The warden fills Azula in on the state of the prison. She instantly concludes that the guard wasn’t one of them and that the warden wasted his time. He is shocked and asks her why she seems so sure. Azula replies that this is because she is “a people person.”
Sokka manages to trick a guard into unlocking all of the cells during what was supposed to be lockdown while new arrivals are processed, letting the prisoners out into the yard.
He meets up with Suki and Hakoda outside. All they need to commence the escape plan is a riot. Trying to solve the problem quickly, Hakoda goes and pushes a big, tough-looking prisoner. However, much to his and their surprise, this plan fails. The tough-looking prisoner tells them that he had been working on anger management.
Chit Sang comes into view and surprises Sokka.
He tells him that he did not expose him since he knew that Sokka would come up with another escape plan, and he wants in again. Sokka points out that they are trying to escape right now and asks Chit Sang if he knows how to start a riot. Much to their surprise, he picks up a bystander and tells everyone, “Hey, RIOT!”
This causes every inmate to start fighting spontaneously. Even the prisoner Hakoda attempted to provoke, working on his anger issues, decided to stop controlling his anger. Finally, the warden appears and angrily demands to know how all the prisoners were released into the yard during the lockdown, prompting the guard who let them out to sneak away guiltily.
Mai is still interrogating Zuko, but a guard under the orders of her uncle appears to protect her during the riot. Zuko takes the chance, fire bends at the guard’s feet and rushes out of the room. The guard attempts to shield Mai from the fire, preventing her from reacting. Zuko locks her and the guard in the cell and escapes to the yard, where he meets up with the others.
When they fill Zuko in on the next phase of the plan to capture the warden, he asks to know how they hoped to achieve this. Sokka says he isn’t sure. Sokka and Zuko argue about capturing the warden, Suki takes the initiative and goes after him independently.
She runs on the heads of the rioting prisoners and guards and scales the yard’s walls with an amazing display of acrobatics. She disables the guards protecting the warden, ties him up, and gags him. They all meet up, the warden now their hostage, and make their way to the gondola.
Enter Azula: The Boiling Rock
Azula steps on the scene as they were much on their way into the gondola.
The group gets onto the gondola. Zuko, thinking ahead, decides to break the lever. Sokka, asking him why he did that when he didn’t know what it was for. Zuko told him that he’s making it so the guards can’t stop them. As they begin to ascend, Hakoda spots Azula and Ty Lee and asks Zuko who they are. Zuko says, “That’s my sister and her friends.”
He also states that they are a problem. Before the words completely leave his mouth, Ty Lee hops on the gondola line and starts running forward while Azula propels herself with fire, bending toward the gondola. Suki fights Ty Lee while Sokka and Zuko fight Azula on the top of the gondola. Suki says she has been waiting for the rematch for a long time.
The warden breaks free of his binding and yells at the guards to cut the line. The guards were shocked, wondering if he didn’t know that he would die. Finally, one of them says that he knows, and they begin to cut the line. Chit Sang quickly restrains the warden, but he is too late to prevent the warden’s orders from being relayed to the guards at the prison, who begin to cut the wire after some initial hesitation.
Soon as they realize what is going on, Azula and Ty Lee propel themselves onto another oncoming gondola on a separate cable. Azula tells her brother goodbye, assuming that he will fall to his death in the boiling lake. However, just as the guards are about to finish cutting, Mai steps in and saves them, incapacitating the guards.
She pins the guards with her daggers and kicks off the brake originally placed on the gondola line, causing it to move again. A guard asks her what she is doing, to which she replies, “Saving the jerk who dumped me.”
The Fall of Azula Began Here
She frees the line, causing them to make it out of the volcano, leaving the warden behind in the gondola. Hakoda gladly tells the warden that his record is finally broken. Zuko stops running as he figures that Azula must have come to the Boiling Rock somehow. He soon spots an uncrewed Fire Nation airship. The group uses it to escape off the island.
After this, Mai is detained by guards and brought forth to Azula. Azula asks for the guards to leave them alone. Ty Lee watches from the sidelines fearfully as Azula demands to know why Mai saved the escapees, knowing the consequences. Mai tells Azula she miscalculated, as she loves Zuko more than she fears Azula.
The two of them get in position to battle, but Ty Lee intervenes by blocking Azula’s chi, much to Mai and Azula’s surprise. Ty Lee and Mai try to escape but are quickly captured. Being dragged up by her guards, Azula calls them fools and orders the guards to let them rot in prison so she will never have to see their faces again.