The second season of Netflix’s ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender‘ follows the next phase in the journey of Avatar Aang and his friends, as they fight back against the growing power of the Fire Nation. The quest to find a way to defeat an enemy whose power is exponentially growing leads the Gaang to some very unexpected places. In the fifth episode, they find a library that is supposed to have all the answers to their questions. However, accessing that knowledge requires them to follow certain rules, breaking which carries serious consequences, the price for which is paid by Jet. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Jet Sacrifices Himself for the Greater Good
Jet started out as a freedom fighter, vowing to fight the tyrannical forces of the Fire Nation. However, his idea of fighting back corrupted over time, and Jet ended up becoming a villain while considering himself a hero. In the second season, he withdraws from the fight to seek asylum in Ba Sing Se with many other people. While he is no longer actively fighting the enemy, he keeps finding ways to stir up trouble. Even though he knows that the Avatar and his friends are also in Ba Sing Se, continuing their fight, he decides to stay away from them. Eventually, they are the ones who reach out to him. Through Professor Zei, Sokka discovers a library with an extensive collection believed to hold the answers to all problems.
Such a trove of knowledge is not good for a state that tries to control every aspect of its citizens’ lives, so it is hidden away in a place accessible only by entering the spirit world. Still, there has to be an entry point, and they deduce that it must be some place abandoned yet capable of holding the library. Because Ba Sing Se is huge and they are already on a clock, they know they need someone who knows the streets well enough to pinpoint a location that fulfills the library’s criteria. So, Katara reaches out to Jet, agreeing to pay him well for his help. Jet comes through and brings them to an abandoned building, which turns out to be exactly what they had been looking for. At this point, his job is done, and he could have left. But when he realizes what the group is going to do next, he decides to stay.
With Aang, the entire group, including Jet and Professor Zei, enters the Spirit World, which allows them to access the secret library. They are greeted by a powerful and mystical owl, Wan Shi Tong, who is not keen on allowing them in, but then agrees to it if they follow the rule that whatever knowledge they get from the library, they will not use to harm anyone. While the group agrees to it, the agreement is flawed in its nature because the whole point is to find a way to defeat Fire Nation, which will require some measure of violence and hurting others. Still, they could have gotten away with what they found had Zei not decided to betray them. He tells the owl their true intentions, which angers the mystical being, who then attacks the group.
Even though they are in the Spirit World, the danger to their lives is no less. If the owl kills them here, they will die in the real world, too. It is especially important for Aang to make it out alive because if he dies, the whole Avatar cycle will die with him. While Toph makes it out in time, the owl stands in the way of the rest of the group. With the building collapsing in the real world, they don’t have much time to escape. So, Jet makes the hard choice. He decides to distract the owl while Aang, Katara, and Sokka escape the library. As soon as they are out, the building collapses, leaving no way for Jet to make it out. Moreover, with the others gone, the angry owl turns towards him and kills him. The fact that he didn’t survive is confirmed when his physical form disappears in the real world.
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