Sokka has long felt isolated as the only person of the group unable to bend. Maintaining his assumed Fire Nation identity, he convinces Fire Nation sword master Piandao to teach him. Piandao teaches Sokka the philosophy of swordsmanship by giving him various boring tasks like painting and rock-gardening

Azula, Zuko, Mai and Ty Lee go on a forced vacation to Ember Island while Ozai meets with his advisors alone. Zuko and the girls attend a party where Azula tries to flirt but scares boys away with her poor social skills

With guidance from Avatar Roku and Fire Lord Sozin's final testaments, Aang and Zuko respectively both learn about the Roku and Sozin's childhood friendship. Sozin suggested to Roku that the Fire Nation should conquer the world to ensure universal prosperity. As the Avatar, Roku knew the importance of balance between all peoples and vehemently disagreed

Team Avatar steal some clothes to hide in plain sight while traveling through the Fire Nation, but Aang unwittingly snags a Fire Nation school uniform and is found by a local truant officer and taken to class. He hides his tattoos with a headband and long sleeves

The gang arrives at a Fire Nation village populated by sick and starving people. They are sick because of a nearby Fire Nation munitions factory polluting their river. Katara convinces the group to stay by making Appa appear sick and assumes the role of "The Painted Lady," a local legend, in order to heal the sick and steal food from the factory

Aang, Sokka and Toph search for the Fire Lord inside a secret bunker, but find only Azula, who simply flees, trying to stall them until the eclipse concludes. Elsewhere, Zuko confronts his father, revealing his plan to join the Avatar and help him defeat Ozai. As Zuko tries to leave, Ozai reveals what happened to Zuko's mother Ursa to keep him in place

The group arrives at the rendezvous point for the invasion, with four days to spare. This realization causes Aang to feel increasingly nervous about confronting the Fire Lord. After having a nightmare about a failed invasion, Aang comes to believe he is not fully prepared and sacrifices his sleep and sanity in order to train

The gang discovers that there have been strange disappearances in a nearby Fire Nation town during the full moon. They befriend an elderly innkeeper named Hama, who reveals that she is a waterbender from the Southern Water Tribe who had been taken away sixty years ago alongside her fellow waterbenders

Katara expresses her disapproval when Toph and the boys begin scamming Fire Nation street gamblers for quick cash. Toph thinks Katara is acting too motherly, and a rift forms within the group when Sokka finds a wanted poster of Toph

On the day of the solar eclipse, many allies featured in previous episodes, such as Haru and his father, the swampbenders, Pipsqueak and The Duke, and The Mechanist and his son Teo, reunite with Team Avatar to launch the invasion of the Fire Nation. Aang kisses Katara as a sign of his strong feelings for her, worried that he may not return

Zuko tries to teach Aang how to firebend, but he has lost his own ability to bend as he is no longer reliant on rage, the previous source of his firebending. Toph suggests they learn from the original source of firebending, revealed to be the dragons, who first imparted their knowledge to a now-extinct civilization called the Sun Warriors

To find Sokka's father Hakoda, Sokka and Zuko infiltrate the Fire Nation's top prison, the Boiling Rock, located on an island surrounded by a boiling lake. Unfortunately, they crash their balloon on arrival and cannot easily leave. They disguise themselves as guards and begin asking around about Water Tribe prisoners; while there are none, the pair discovers Suki is in the prison

Sokka reunites with his father and begins brainstorming a new escape plan: They decide to take the warden hostage during a prison riot and escape on the gondola to the other side of the lake. Chit Sang is interrogated and reveales that a disguised guard helped his attempted escape, but claims it is a guard who had previously placed him in the cooler to save Sokka, and rejoins the group after starting the riot

After leaving the desert, the group Zuko meets Aang and his friends at the Western Air Temple, with the intention to join their group and teach Aang firebending. He desperately tries to prove to them that he has changed for the better; however, they furiously reject Zuko due to his past actions

Abandoned by her friends and father, Azula's mental stability begins to deteriorate as her coronation as Fire Lord approaches. She banishes much of her court, fearing everyone will betray her. Sokka, Toph, and Suki arrive just as Ozai's airship fleet is lifting off, successfully boarding a ship with the help of Toph

Aang has decided to fight the Fire-lord after Sozin's Comet passes, needing more time to master firebending. Zuko derails this plan by revealing that Ozai intends to burn the entire Earth Kingdom continent to ashes with the comet's power, having learned of this plan from the war meeting on the day before the eclipse (from the episode "Nightmares and Daydreams")

Sokka and Suki learn that the Ember Island Players, a Fire Nation theater group, is debuting a play based upon the group's adventures. The play turns out to be Fire Nation propaganda, and although the audience enjoys the play, Aang and his friends are embarrassed by the inaccurate and exaggerated portrayals of themselves

On the island, Aang seeks guidance from his past incarnations, but they too suggest he may have to take violent action against the Fire Lord. Zuko asks June to find his uncle Iroh; she leads them to the outer wall of Ba Sing Se. There they meet King Bumi (who escaped and liberated Omashu during the eclipse), Jeong Jeong, Master Pakku, Master Piandao, and Iroh, all of whom are revealed to be members of the Order of the White Lotus, a secret society led by Iroh that "transcends the division of the four nations"

Azula ambushes the group at the Western Air Temple, forcing them to split up again: Hakoda and Chit Sang flee in the stolen Fire Nation airship with Teo, Haru and The Duke, while Suki, Zuko and Team Avatar blast their way past Azula and escape to safety