I wrote this all in about an hour, due to the fact that I couldn't sleep at all tonight. It was mainly just a way for me to pass some time until I got tired, so a lot of it was written when I was on the brink of sleep deprivation, lol. Fair warning.

Book 2 Zuko is the character at his most troubled and most vulnerable. While his inner struggles were just as important to him in the first season, he still had the authority of the Fire Nation behind him then. In this episode, having betrayed his country and abandoned his uncle for the first time, Zuko truly is alone. The episode starts with Zuko traveling along a barren Earth Kingdom road on the ostrich-horse he stole two episodes ago. He's obviously malnourished and on the edge of dehydration, and is about to resort to robbing a young couple (the same couple Aang would later meet in "The Serpent's Pass") before he sees that the woman is pregnant. While that moment may have been a bit too on the nose in terms of characterizing Zuko's inner goodness, it serves its purpose. Zuko definitely has his values, and he's willing to let himself starve before ignoring them.

The Old Western motif is strong as Zuko wordlessly enters a small, dusty village and mumbles to the nearest shopkeeper that he wants some feed and a hot meal. Zuko doesn't have enough money for a hot meal, however, and so buys two bags of feed instead. This keeps in line with Zuko's conflict earlier in the season over being forced to live like a beggar. When a mischievous child throws an egg at an Earth Kingdom soldier, Zuko refuses to tell the soldier who did it when he's confronted. In response, the soldier, in a blatant display of corruption, steals Zuko's feed and thanks him for his "contribution to the army". Yep, there's no question as to who the villain of this episode is going to be. "Those soldiers are supposed to protect us from the Fire Nation," the shopkeeper tells Zuko, "but they're just a bunch of thugs."

The boy introduces himself to Zuko as Lee, and takes him to his family's farm in repayment for not ratting him out. The boy's parents welcome him, happy that someone is standing up to the soldiers, and his mother asks him for his name. In a moment of subtle humor, Zuko is about to answer, but then stops himself. This is due to the fact that for the entire second season, his Earth Kingdom alias had also been "Lee". The boy's father stops Zuko and reassures him that he doesn't have to say his name if he doesn't want to. He goes on to say that his other son, Sensu, is off fighting the in the war with the real soldiers. Lee's mother offers Zuko a meal, and while he initally refuses, he accepts when allowed to do some work on the barn in exchange for the food. Zuko's hallmark sense of pride is on full display here.

Lee begins pestering Zuko with personal questions as he works on the barn. While Lee's father quickly discourages the intrusive questioning, Zuko is quick to recollect his past, leading to the episode's first flashback. This episode is notable for being the first to give us an in-depth look at Zuko's childhood, the show having only provided us with snippets of dialogue about it prior to this. The first flashback is set in a beautiful, serene garden, Zuko and his mother Ursa sitting happily by a turtle duck pond. Zuko is bright-eyed and youthful here, and it's both refreshing and strange to see him in such a well-adjusted state. Before we even see his sister, we already know all we need to about her when Zuko tells asks his mother "want to see how Azula feeds turtle ducks?" and throws a rock at the small animals. When the mother turtle attacks Zuko's leg, Ursa doesn't have much sympathy. "Zuko, that's how moms are like. If you mess with their babies, they're going to bite you back," she says playfully. Zuko laughs at this along with Ursa, and it's a bit heartbreaking to watch.

When Azula is actually shown as a child, we have all we need to know before she even says a word. Playing with Mai and Ty Lee, Azula attempts a cartwheel, only to land on her face. Ty Lee attempts a cartwheel as well, and does a fantastic one with a flourishing flip at the end. Azula pushes down Ty Lee and laughs. It's evident even from here that Azula would use fear, rather than genuine affection, to keep her friends throughout her adolescence. When she sees Mai blush as Zuko and Ursa walk by, she appeals to Ursa to force Zuko to play with her, much to his chagrin. This is all just a trick, though, to embarrass her brother and Mai. It's clear from even this first interaction that the only thing worse than having Azula as an enemy is having her as a sister.

Perhaps the most truly unnerving part of this first flashback, however, is the letter that Iroh sends Zuko's family. Still in the midst of his siege of Ba Sing Se, Iroh comes off as an almost completely different person. He darkly jokes about burning Ba Sing Se to the ground, which Azula, Ursa, and even the innocent, good-hearted Zuko laugh at. Included with the letter is a pearl dagger for Zuko, inscribed with the words "never give up without a fight". These words, far from coincidentally, encapsulate Zuko. As he told Aang in the season 1 finale, "I don't need luck. I don't want it. I've always had to struggle and fight and that's made me strong. It's made me who I am." No matter what adjectives are used to describe the fire prince, "determined" is easily the most appropriate one. All Azula gets from her uncle is an Earth Kingdom doll, certifying the fact that while Zuko and Iroh were close even in Zuko's youth, Azula was never a candidate for Iroh's tuteledge. Later in life, Zuko would be able to garner his uncle's unconditional love and wisdom. Azula would always only have her father, who would always only respect power and dominance, never compassion or patience. Azula responds to her doll by burning it and insinuating that the nation would be better off if "his royal tea-loving kookiness" didn't return from war. Ursa scolds her for this as Zuko plays with his new knife in the background.

Zuko awakens in the present day to find that his dual swords are missing. He discovers Lee struggling with the swords in the farm's cornfield, trying to practice with them. Zuko confronts him, but instead of being angry, he helps the boy with the swords, showing him that they aren't different weapons, but two halves of the same whole. Lee tells Zuko that he reminds him of his older brother, Sensu, who used to teach him similar things.

The next day, before Zuko is about to leave the farm, the Earth Kingdom soldiers arrive to tell Lee's parents that Sensu's unit was captured. The soldier captain taunts Lee's father, and is about to attack him before Zuko intervenes. The mere sight of the man who defied him earlier is enough to send the soldiers back to the village, but Lee's father hurries off to the front lines to find Sensu. This causes Zuko to briefly recall a similar memory from his childhood, in which Ursa received a letter from the front lines that reported the death of Iroh's son, Lu Ten. When Lee runs to Zuko's ostrich horse and asks if the silent hero will stay at the farm while his father is gone, Zuko refuses. He does, however, give the boy the pearl dagger he'd kept since he was a child before riding away.

This segues into a memory of a young Zuko practicing with the pearl dagger. His sister laughs at him for this, asking him why he's always playing with knives when he isn't even good. She also makes fun of Iroh for abandoning the siege of Ba Sing Se in response to Lu Ten's death, claiming that a real general would've stayed to burn it to ground. Zuko, being actually able to grasp the concept of empathy, remarks that "he's probably just sad that his only kid is gone...forever." When Ursa arrives and tells the children that they've been summoned to see Fire Lord Azulon, eight year old Azula makes a small quip that someone will probably replace the Fire Lord soon anyway before exiting the room. Ursa's quiet musing afterward of "what is wrong with that child?" is one of the funniest parts of the episode.

In Azulon's chambers, Azula excels in both the Fire Nation history questions and firebending forms for the Fire Lord's viewing. Zuko predictably fails on both accounts, but everyone but Ozai is led out, anyway. But before Zuko can exit the room, Azula grabs his hand and leads them both to a hiding place behind a curtain. Ozai tells his father that Iroh's bloodline is broken with Lu Ten's death, but that his lineage is strong. He asks Azulon to revoke Iroh's birthright and grant him alone the promise of succession. In this moment, the audience knows that Ozai has always been a piece of shit. Even before he was officially Fire Lord, he did everything he could to betray his brother and try to grasp at more power. In a rare moment of wisdom, Azulon scorns his son, infuriated that he would suggest betraying Iroh in the time that he needs his family the most. He tells Ozai that while Iroh has suffered enough, his punishment hadn't even begun. Zuko runs out of the room before hearing more.

Young Zuko tries to sleep that night, but Azula enters his room and says that "Dad's going to kill you." She tells Zuko what she heard when he left - Azulon told Ozai that he needed to know the pain of losing a firstborn son. Azula mocks Zuko with legitimate glee as he tries to tell himself that his father would never do that. "Never do what?" his mother asks, stepping into his room. Azula is dumbfounded, and just says "I don't know" before being dragged away by Ursa. Zuko wraps himself in his blankets and tries to console himself by chanting "Azula always lies". This whole scene, in particular, is telling of each sibling's personality. Azula, even at such a ridiculously young age, take delight in the fact that her brother is about to die. She has absolutely no empathy or sadness about it whatsoever. It's horrifying, and something that alienates her from Iroh and Ursa (the only positive influences she's capable of getting) even more. The only person who can use that psychopathy is Ozai, a psychopath himself. Zuko, on the other hand, is inherently compassionate and open. That's most visible here in these flashbacks, when Zuko was a child still shielded by his mother.

When the episode returns to the present Zuko, it's plain to see that he's strived to become the opposite of who he was back then. In response to Azula always mocking his youthful obsession with knives, Zuko's learned how to wield a blade with immense skill. No longer is he compassionate to everyone he meets. No longer is he open. He's closed, and he tries to hide his goodness.

But Zuko can't help but to be good when Lee's mother finds him and tells him that the soldiers came back around as soon as Zuko left. When Lee pulled a knife on them, they took him and said that if he's old enough to fight, he's old enough to join the army. "I don't even know where he got a knife!" she exclaims. Zuko accepts, more to make things right than out of sheer benevolence. The Western style returns when Zuko strolls into town on his ostrich horse, the setting sun at his back. It doesn't take long for Zuko to face off against the four Earth Kingdom soldiers that have been the main antagonists of the episode. Zuko dispatches three of them with ease, only using his swords, but the captain of the soldiers is a much larger threat. He earthbends a flurry of rocks at Zuko, and while Zuko is able to deflect some with his swords, he's eventually hurled back into the air. When he hits the ground, he has another flashback.

Ursa comes into young Zuko's room in the middle of the night, awakening her son to tell him that she loves him and that everything she's done, she's done to protect him. Before she leaves, she tells Zuko "No matter how things may seem to change, never forget who you are." And with that, she disappears from Zuko's life forever.

In the Earth Kingdom town, Zuko is unconscious from the fall. The soldier approaches him and is about to deliver the final blow, but Zuko wakes up and spins a massive wave of fire outward from him, pushing the soldier back. The whole crowd watching the battle, including Lee and his mother, is stunned. When Zuko steps out of the flames to finish off the soldier, anger and hatred in his eyes, the "Fire Nation" soundbyte that served as Zuko's anthem in season 1 plays in the background. It's a fantastic choice of music, and when the soldier, defeated, asks the strange newcomer "who are you?" the answer he gets makes it more fantastic: "My name is Zuko. Son of Ursa and Fire Lord Ozai. Prince of the Fire Nation, and heir to the throne!" Reminded of his mother's words, Zuko, perhaps unconsciously, realizes his purpose. He's not meant to be an Earth Kingdom nomad, traveling from village to village, starving more than being full. His destiny is to be the Fire Lord.

But when Zuko takes the pearl dagger back from the soldier and tries to return it to Lee, Lee's mother steps in front of him, showing a familiar protectiveness over her child. Zuko bends down and tries to give the dagger back to Lee, but he's rejected. Lee tells him that he hates him, and he and his mother walk off.

In the last flashback of the episode, Zuko awakens the morning after Ursa leaves and begins frantically searching for her. He only finds Azula, casually playing with his pearl dagger. He asks her where their mother is, but she just says that no one knows, but that their Grandpa passed away last night. "Not funny, Azula. You're sick," Zuko replies in anger and fear. When he adds that he wants his knife back and reaches for it, Azula leaps back and replies snidely "Who's going to make me? Mom?" This moment is extremely disturbing, even to the viewer. Azula is faster and tougher than Zuko at this point, she's her father's favorite, and Ursa is gone. She gives Zuko the dagger back after he realizes this, and it's clear that it's only because she wanted to. That scene in particular is scary once you realize how much of a terrible situation Zuko's in after his mother leaves. The following scene in which Azulon's funeral and Ozai's coronation are handled in the same ceremony isn't easy to watch, either. Now that Ozai is the Fire Lord, even Zuko knows that means he'll need a successor. And why would he choose Zuko over his favored, more talented daughter? The last shot of the flashbacks is a terrified expression on young Zuko's face as he realizes that he needs to improve his skills or risk death. It's the end of his childhood, and the beginning of his obsession to please his father. At this moment, it's clear that the episode's title is appropriate for both Zuko's main story and the story the flashbacks tell. After his mother's flight, Zuko is more alone than ever.

As natural for his character, the episode doesn't end well for Zuko. As he entered the village, he leaves, solemnly riding toward the setting sun, the villagers looking on upon him in disgust.

It's hard not to draw immense parallels between Zuko Alone and the classic western Shane. In both stories, a nameless hero with a mysterious past rides into a rural town to get supplies. But while getting supplies, both heroes have to deal with a group of thugs that turn out to be exploiting the town. Both Shane and Zuko befriend a small child and teach them how to shoot/use a sword, and both Shane and Zuko have to face off against the thugs to defend the child in the conclusion of the stories. Obviously, both stories rely heavily on western tropes and set pieces, as well. The main difference between the two stories, however, is that Shane is still loved and admired by the child he befriends at the end of the story, and leaves the town without saying goodbye. Zuko is despised by Lee when the story is over, and while he tries to say goodbye to the child, he's shunned instead.

This is fitting with Zuko's character, however, and all too sad when pitted against the clips of him as a child. We see him there so different than he is now. In the flashbacks, he's vulnerable and caring, and it's evident that it's the fault of his surroundings that he turned out to be the "bad guy". If Zuko had been born into Water Tribe or Earth Kingdom leadership, he would've grown up to be more of a hero than Sokka or Aang. His heart is inherently pure, but his experience with showing that goodness has only been met with scorn. His father doesn't care about morality, only power. That's why Zuko is so different as 16 than as 10. He doesn't want to be a kind or gentle person, he wants to be a closed and rough person like his father would want.

There's another great parallel in this episode about maternity. The first scene and last scene that Ursa is in directly complement each other. In the first scene, Zuko pesters a baby turtle duck, only to get attacked in response. Ursa tells him that "If you mess with their babies, they're going to bite you back." And in the last scene, after Zuko's life had been threatened by Azulon, Ursa has killed her father-in-law in order to protect her "baby".

And speaking of Azulon, I love his characterization in this episode. While Fire Lord Azulon is doubtlessly a megalomaniacal dictator, he's easily a more ethical character than Ozai. Azulon actually respects the idea of family and all that it comes with. Even though appointing Ozai next in line makes more practical sense, it's still a betrayal to a family member. It's interesting to see the shades of darkness in Fire Nation rulers.

A recurring element in this episode is the pearl dagger. When Zuko first receives it from Iroh, it's clear that he has no experience with blades. He holds it awkwardly and his stance is off, but it's also clear that he loves it. He gets especially angry when Azula insults it or takes it from him, which is why it's an important factor that he wanted to give it to Lee. He clearly saw a bit of himself in the happy, energetic kid, something that he'd been trying to hide beneath a tortured exterior. The one thing, I'd say, that this episode is about more than anything, is identity. And the fact that identities change. Zuko's identity was drastically different such a short period of time ago, but his internal fire and external hardships have turned him into a truly different person. When he announces to the village who he is, it's his present self talking.

Zuko Alone is a revealing episode. Even though Zuko has always been a sympathizable character, this episode essentially made him a protagonist. It makes it very clear how Zuko grew up to be the villain when all signs point to him being a good person. While an episode that tells us a lot, it's also just downright enjoyable. The main plot with 16 year old Zuko itself is fun to watch, though some of the story beats can be seen coming. I didn't expect the end of the story whatsoever, when Zuko reveals himself as the crown prince and Lee hates him for it. That was especially poignant. Besides that, the flashbacks also had some amazing moments, and Grey Delisle again proves her otherworldly talent at voice acting. She's able to make Azula sound much younger while still keeping her threatening and mischievous demeanor. My only real qualm with the episode is that some things feel rushed, but that's expected in an episode that has so much ground to cover. Zuko Alone is definitely one of my favorite episodes of the series, and a serious contender for my overall favorite episode. 9.75/10.