The Great Divide
A lot of folks tend to skip this one, and I can see why.
The party is visiting a large canyon known as "The Great Divide", which leads to the Earth Kingdom's capital at Ba Sing Se. They're met by members of two tribes who share a fierce rivalry: the rough and unkempt Zhang, and the refined and snobbish Gan-Jin. Driven from their homes by the Fire Nation, they're attempting to escape to Ba Sing Se and have both sought the assistance of an earthbender who guides them through the canyon while protecting them from the Canyon Crawlers that reside within.
Most of the episode is just the two tribes bickering and pointing fingers at each other over an incident which occured a century ago. As Aang tries to keep the peace, he sends his friends to learn more about the conflict from both tribes. Katara travels with the Gan-Jin while Sokka travels with the Zhang, and both are soon swayed to the respective leader's point of view. While it produces some funny moments, along with two different animation styles for the tribes' interpretations of the events, it's drags out too much.
Aang later resolves the feud by claiming he knew the two people who started the feud and it was over a disagreement in a ball game. While that works, Aang later admits to Sokka and Katara that he was lying about it. Honestly, it seems out of character for him. Even his friends are amused by it. It might have made more sense if Katara called him out for it, or if he expressed more guilt over it and said he'd acted out of desperation, or both. There could even be a message about misinformation there (something that's probably a lot more relevant today than it perhaps would have been twenty years ago).
On the plus side, the Canyon Crawlers are suitably menacing and provide a valued contribution the climax.
All in all, you can probably skip this one. Hell, even the writers disavowed it via a joke in the penultimate episode.
The Storm
While the previous episode was a pointless filler, this one is largely an origin story. It's also a contender for one of the best episodes of the season.
Sokka takes a job with a fisherman to pay for supplies, but his employer accuses Aang of being the avatar who turned his back on the world. As a storm hits, Aang tells Katara about his past. A century earlier, Aang became one of the youngest airbending masters after creating his "air scooter" technique you see him do in the intro, but was told of his status as the Avatar four years earlier than normal due to the coming war. Faced with the pressure of his responsibilities and a growing isolation from his friends, he ran away from home after learning he was to be relocated to another temple away from Monk Gyatso; the only person who saw Aang as a normal child instead of the Avatar. He and Appa were caught in a storm, and Aang entered the Avatar State to encase them both in ice before they drowned. The pair were cryogenically frozen for the next hundred years until Katara found them, during which time the rest of the Air Nomads were wiped out by the Fire Nation.
Meanwhile, Zuko's intention to pursue the Avatar into the storm pushes his crew to the brink of mutiny, especially Lieutenant Jee. Over a stove in the engine room, Iroh tells Jee the other officers about his nephew's troubled past. Three years earlier, Zuko was an idealistic young prince eager to learn how to rule. While sitting in a meeting of the Fire Lord's war council, he called out one general's plan to use a military unit as cannon fodder. The Fire Lord told him he was being disrespectful, and had to settle the dispute with an agni kai. But when the day of the duel came, Zuko discovered that his opponent was not the general he'd insulted, but the Fire Lord (voiced brilliantly by Mark Hamill with strong Joker energy). Not wanting to fight his own father, Zuko attempted to forfeit the duel. In response, the Fire Lord burned his face and then banished him from the Fire Nation, not to return unless he captured the Avatar.
One of the ways this episode works so well is that it intertwines the two stories to draw parallels between Aang and Zuko. When you get down to it, they're not so different. They're both driven by guilt over their past mistakes, and trying to hide it. Aang hides behind a fun-loving happy-go-lucky persona, while Zuko hides behind a mask of rage and angst. Aang's story has a particularly heart-wrenching moment when he learns the kids he taught the air scooter to have developed a game, but they don't allow him to play out of a belief that the avatar would have an unfair advantage. As previously mentioned, chosen ones never have it easy. I'm beginning to see how Prince Rufus turned out the way that he did.
The two parties are soon required to face the storm. Aang and Katara have to save Sokka and the fisherman as their ship flounders. Zuko and Jee have to rescue their helmsman after the bridge is hit by lightning. As Zuko sets a course for the eye of the storm to ensure the crew's safety, he and Aang share a profound look.
Overall, this was a fantastic episode.
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