Avatar: The Last Airbender/The Guru/Recap

""There are seven chakras that go up the body. Each pool of energy has a purpose and can be blocked by a specific kind of emotional muck. Be warned: opening the chakras is an intense experience, and once you begin this process, you cannot stop until all seven are opened. Are you ready?"

"...I'll do whatever it takes.""

After splitting up in the previous episode, the characters find themselves in uniquely separate situations:

Aang, meeting with Guru Patihk, goes under an intense training regimen designed to open his spiritual pathways and allow him to gain control of the Avatar State. Sokka, after two years, is finally reunited with his father. Toph, having been tricked and captured by Xin Fu and Master Yu, is being carted off back to her parents' estate. Katara is helping the Earth King and his generals plan for the invasion, unaware that Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee have infiltrated the city and are making plans to take over. And Zuko, after going through a long night of fever dreams and wrestling with his subconscious, has come out of the experience uncharacteristically serene.

Tropes

 * Always Save the Girl: "Why would I choose cosmic energy over Katara? I- I love her!"
 * Badass Boast: "I am the greatest earthbender in the world! Don't you two dunderheads ever forget it!"
 * Die or Fly: Toph is being carried away, back to her parents, where she will be undoubtedly placed under even more restrictions than before she'd run away, in a metal container. Using her unique abilities to locate the earth elements within the metal, she invents metalbending.
 * Extra Ore Dinary: Toph invents metalbending.
 * Locking MacGyver in the Store Cupboard: Toph escapes the steel cage by inventing a specialized form of earthbending.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Katara sees Zuko serving tea and instantly runs to inform the authorities. If she had investigated further, confronted him herself or thought about the situation for more than a second, Zuko never would have been put in a position to turn to Azula's side to begin with. (And Aang probably would have finished his last chakra.)
 * Oh Crap: Katara's expression when she finds out the Kyoshi warriors she informed were really Azula and her Quirky Miniboss Squad.
 * Shipped in Shackles: Xin Fu and Master Yu stick Toph in a metal box to transport her back to her parents.
 * Symbolic Blood: After Ty Lee chi-blocks Katara, the water that Katara was bending from her waterskin spreads out on the floor like a pool of blood.