ATLA Book Two: Earth
Chapter Fourteen: City of Walls and Secrets
In Which Momo becomes
the ruler of a dynasty, Aang and Sokka pose as Bus Boys, and everyone’s weirded
out by a bear.
Back in the post on “Avatar Day”, we looked at how the
“Gaang visits a Village” episode structure was left out of season two after
that episode. We should also, by now, be very familiar with the basic structure
of a “Gaang visits a village” episode. To recap, the Gaang visit a village or
settlement in the Avatar world, and have a relatively self-contained adventure
there, where they discover a problem in the community they visit, and help
solve that problem. And in many ways, “City of walls and secrets” resembles
that episode structure. Or, more specifically, the beginning of that episode
structure, as it we are introduced to a settlement so vast and complex, it is
too big for a “Gaang Visits a Village” episode, and instead requires a “The
Gaang Visits a City” story arc.
The first hint of this comes in the introduction shot of
lower Ba Sing Se from the train. First, we get the following exchange from the
Gaang:
“Katara: Don't worry
Aang, we'll find Appa.
Aang: It's such a big
city.
Sokka: He's a giant
bison! Where could someone possibly hide him?
[The scene shows the
monorail entering the Inner Wall. Cut to Sokka, Katara, and Aang viewing the
giant city through the windows.]
Sokka: Oh.”
The one shot revealing the sheer vastness of the city
reveals the scope of the Gaang’s task in searching for Appa: it’s not a search
that can be completed in an episode. And the glimpses we get of the lower ring
reveal the city’s problems, as would be the case in an ordinary “Gaang visits a
village episode”, but it is immediately apparent that these problems are far
more complicated than those faced by previous settlements than the Gaang have
previously faced: the shots from the carriage hint at deep set poverty and
criminal activity in the lower ring, problems that point to a deep rooted
systemic injustice driving the city. It’s not the sort of issue the Gaang can
solve in an episode, and it is an issue that merits a longer story arc.
As the Gaang’s story moves from the lower ring to the Upper
Ring, we are further exposed to the conspiracies that drive the city, most
notably in the following conversation with government official Pong:
“Pong: You're the
Avatar! I heard you were in town. I'm Pong.
Aang: Nice to meet
you, Pong.
Sokka: So, Pong,
what's goin' on with this city? Why is everyone here so scared here to talk
about the war?
Pong: War? Scared?
What do you mean?
Toph: I can feel you
shaking.
Pong: Look, I'm just a
minor government official. [Looks to the sides to confirm that no one is
present except them.] I've waited three years to get this house. I don't want
go get into trouble.
Katara: in trouble
with who?!
Pong: Shh, listen, you
can't mention the War here. And whatever you do, stay away from the Dai Li.”
As an interesting side note, we get the first hints of
Toph’s ability to sense lies as she points out to Pong that she can feel him
shaking, a hint towards her role in “Lake Laogai”. It is a hushed scene, with
pong glancing around, terrified that he will be overheard and lose the comfortable
place in the upper ring he has only just gained. We also get the first mention
of the Dai Li, who at this point in the episode are still unknown figures, the
mystery haunting the story before the final reveal of their true nature. The
people who are best off in Ba Sing Se are afraid to speak out against the
government, not wanting to be moved back down to a lower place than they have
gained: it is a city where social status overrides the need for honesty.
As above, so below. The Gaang provide a window into the
secrets and conspiracies that drive the upper ring of Ba Sing Se, while Zuko
and Iroh provide a look at what it is like to live in the lower ring of Ba Sing
Se, as we see how the lower ring is also kept silent by the secrets of the Dai
Li. When Zuko calls the city a “prison”, he’s right in multiple ways. We can
see how ordinary shopkeepers are pressed into not talking about the war, or
anything bad going on in Ba Sing Se, while Zuko and Iroh live amongst visible
poverty and inequality (the shopkeeper is almost certainly lying to the Gaang
when he says there is no Black market): the people of the city are coerced into
pretending they live in a perfect city, when that is demonstrably not the case.
It is also a personal Prison for Zuko, who has to hide his identity to live in
peace. The people of the city have to keep their dissatisfaction and fear
hidden, just as Zuko has to keep his identity a secret. Zuko and Iroh’s living
quarters provide a further contrast between the upper and lower rings: where
the Gaang live in a large bungalow with big, open rooms, Zuko and Iroh live in
a cramped apartment where it only takes Iroh a few moments to get spark rocks
from their neighbours. The material divide in wealth between the lower and
upper ring is evident throughout every aspect of the episode.
Iroh and Zuko’s secret is at risk due to Jet’s attempts to
prove their true identities as members of the Fire Nation, a plot thread that
gives the viewer a glimpse of the Dai Li, and the sinister nature of their
operation. The glimpse of them kidnapping Jet just before the episode’s
conclusion is a part of the steady reveal of their nature throughout the
episode, a nature hinted at in Pong’s dialogue earlier, before they emerge now,
the link between Zuko and Iroh’s story in the lower ring to the Gaang’s plot in
the Upper ring party.
The party in the upper ring also provides a useful role for
Toph in the episode. We are given a glimpse into her role as the daughter of a
wealthy family, as she takes on the role her parents taught her to play to help
herself and Katara sneak into the party. Toph explains that while she is hardly
naturally “ladylike”, she learned how to play the part her family expected her
to by years of training, highlighting the false, acted nature of high society.
This is an episode that is all about masks and disguises, with Zuko and Iroh
disguising themselves as refugees, and the city of Ba Sing Se disuising itself
as a peaceful utopia, a theme that perfectly fits Toph’s backstory. We see how
her class, and role as an upper class girl, was something that forced her to
disguise her true self.
The performed, false nature of high society is further
explored through Katara, who, being a teenage girl from a society that has been
crippled in both size and wealth by the hundred year war, is arguably the least
privileged member of the Gaang. In spite of position as a marginalised
character, she takes to playing the role of an upper class girl like a duck to
water, persuading Long Feng to escort them into the party, showing that class
is something that can be faked, as long as successfully act like someone who
has been trained to be a part of high society. The party is constantly
demonstrating the false, performed nature of the upper ring: the guests who sit
next to Bosco do so for nothing more than a sense of status. It is quite clear
that there is nothing special, or desirable, about getting to sit near the
King’s exotic pet, beyond being able to say they have done so: this is a
society driven by ideas of status and pretending to be respectable and
secure.
The ending reflects the deep rooted problems of Ba Sing Se
that have been explored throughout the episode through the lack of resolution
for the Gaang’s storyline. We’ve had cliffhangers before this season, most
notably in “The Library” and “The Serpent’s Pass”, but those give the episodes
a defined sense of dramatic conclusion, whereas this episode just fades out to
the following menacing speech from Long Feng:
“Enough, I don't want
to hear your ridiculous plan. It is the strict policy of Ba Sing Se that the
War not be mentioned within the walls. Constant news of an escalating war will
throw the citizens of Ba Sing Se into a state of panic. Our economy would be ruined.
Our peaceful way of life, our traditions would disappear. In silencing talk of
conflict, Ba Sing Se remains a peaceful, orderly utopia. The last one on
Earth.”
It is a speech that finally lays bare the true nature of Ba
Sing Se: the city is a false utopia, a seemingly safe refuge that is actually a
police state, run by officials who are not allies to the Gaang but instead
actively obstruct their attempt to move the plot forwards and fight the Fire
Nation. Long Feng’s speech plays out over the footage of Jet being brainwashed,
which is technically a cliffhanger, but more in a conceptual sense than those
mentioned from “The Library” and “The Serpent’s Pass”. In those episodes, the
cliffhanger comes in the form of a direct threat that needs to be dealt with,
whereas here, the cliffhanger comes in the form of a question, as the audience
is left to ponder the depth of the Dai Li’s conspiracy, and what can be done to
unravel it. The lack of any real resolution reflects, arguably more strongly
than any other episode, the heavily serialised nature of Book Two. However,
“City of Walls and Secrets” uses the unresolved ending in a way that really
ties the strands of this episode together to make a very thematically coherent
and consistent piece of television: it is an episode that uses its serialised
structure to lay bare just why this particular city needs more attention than
any previous location in the show. There any many problems in this city that
will take time to solved, if indeed they can be solved at all.
End of Part Thirty
Two.
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