The popular show Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 Episode 2 "The Cave of Two Lovers" opens up on Team Avatar on the river. The group is taking a short break from their journey to visit King Bumi in Omashu.
Over the course of this episode, they meet a wild nomad group and they work together to achieve their goal of reaching the other side of the mountain that is between them and Omashu. This particular episode explains a lot of the hidden secrets within the universe, but it does still leave a few things to be discovered. Spoilers ahead!
10 Foreshadowing To Aang's Earth Bending Teacher
Aang is on a mission to master all four elements to reach his full potential as the avatar. This episode is a huge foreshadowing for Toph's character. This episode introduces the badgermoles and explains how they were the first earthbenders.
This is later shown again when we meet the character of Toph. She originally felt a kinship with the badgermoles because she was also blind. The badger-moles taught Toph how to earthbend. She would later become Aang's earthbending teacher when everyone in the earth kingdom and King Bumi was incapacitated.
9 Singing Nomad Group
At the beginning of the episode, Team Avatar is approached by Chong's free-spirited nomadic group that provides some extra comedic relief to the episode. Something you might not have known is nomads were very common during this time period. The group in the episode is a peripatetic nomad group who was known for showing off their trade for money in every city they encountered. The best part about the group is that their trade is music and they sing songs about the current situations in the episode. This helps further the plot and eventually saves the group from impending doom.
8 The Reappearance Of The White Jade Tea
The white jade flower is first mentioned in this episode by Iroh but it makes a comeback later on. This tea reappears in season 3 episode 10 “Day of the Black Sun.” Iroh's jailer Ming remembers he is a tea lover and claims “I snuck in some white jade tea. I know you like rare teas.”
Several fans have debated this topic, some believe Ming meant to say “white dragon” tea and she simply misspoke. Another theory is that she meant white “Jade” tea. Unfortunately, we’ll never know. Although, it’s safe to say Ming was not trying to poison Iroh since he didn't swell up again and was able to escape jail.
7 Song & Her Mother's Traditional Clothing
In this episode, we meet Song who is the nurse that helps Iroh get rid of his welts and rash from his encounter with the white jade bush. The two women are wearing a traditional type of dress called hanbok that actually existed outside of the Avatar universe. Hanbok literally translates into “Korean Clothes” but is most commonly known for the style of clothing worn during the Goguryeo Dynasty. This was a style made for men and women. Men would wear a long jacket/blouse called a ‘jeogori’ and billowing pants called ‘baji’. Women would typically wear a blouse that was much shorter but was still called a ‘jeogori’ and a long skirt called a ‘chima’.
6 Aang & Katara's First Kiss?
Katara and Aang are forced to be alone together during this episode, with the exception of Appa being there. These two almost never get alone time together for the entire series. When they are about to lose light they look as though they are about to try the kissing idea but as soon as the torch goes out the crystals light up and this stuns them. This scene is widely speculated for being the “first kiss” however this is untrue.
If you watch closely they never actually kiss. Furthermore, when they do finally kiss for the first time they are awkward and shy around each other afterward. This awkward shyness does not happen in this episode which confirms this kiss never actually happened.
5 Glowing Crystals
Katara and Aang find out "Love is brightest in the dark" is a literal translation when they discover the glowing crystals. But what kind of crystals are these? Well, the episode never tells but we can only assume they were florescent minerals that give off a light glow once they are exposed to light. This doesn’t explain how they light the way out of the caves without the prior mentioned light to recharge them. The fans have just chalked this up to another cool invention that only exists in the Avatar world.
4 Where Are The Travelers Who “Didn’t Make It Out”?
As the curse says some travelers clearly don’t make it out of the caves and they subsequently perish or “and die” as Chong puts it. So where are those bodies? Did you notice that while watching? Any other TV show or movie with scary booby trap caves always have skeletons in them and decayed belongings from the people who weren’t able to figure out the path of glowing crystals. Why do none of the characters encounter such things while they travel through the caves? Also, if the cave was so secretive setup and only the lovers knew how to make it through the labyrinth how were they buried there and who buried them?
3 Why Do Badgermoles Love Music?
In this episode, we are introduced to another Avatar animal creation, the badgermoles. They play a large role in providing an escape solution for Sokka and the nomads. However, bet you didn't realize these earthbending badgermoles like the music because they are blind and their sense of hearing is heightened. In real life, both badgers and moles have poor eye site thus giving the creature that is a combination of them no hope of having 20/20 vision. Because of their shortcomings in the eye site department, this allows them to have a heightened sensitivity to sound. Thus why the badger-moles really enjoy the songs sang by the nomads.
2 The Writing On The Walls
Many of the carvings that appear throughout the episode are written in an ancient style of Chinese calligraphy. Katara reads the story and we see the first characters appear. They translate into “The man and woman were separated by two areas, they will meet at this peak”. Then the symbol for “war” flashes across the screen symbolizing the war that separated the couple. As the scene comes back to modern day you see another carving that reads “Omashu city, to forever remember their love.” The last carving on the wall reads “Love is brightest in the dark” with a picture of the couple kissing. Many of these carvings can be seen throughout the series and it's very interesting to know what they say.
1 The Great City
In the episode, we learn the origin of the great city of Omashu, an earth kingdom located in the southwest. It was created to make peace between two villages at war and was named for the two lovers from the story. The woman was named Oma and the man was named Shu. Oma built this city as a testament of their love after Shu was wrongfully slain. What you didn’t realize is that’s not the only reference Omashu pays to the lovers. The entire city was carved out of a mountain itself and it was carved to look like the Chinese pictograph character for “mountain”. (山)