"When you see a painted lady, it's a blessing. A sign. It means we're going the right way."
I'm dealing with being sick right now, so tell me why this line jumped to the front of my brain and bitchslapped me while I was trying to sleep?
Okay, let me break down my thoughts:
Zuko first sees Katara as the Painted Lady while he is fighting to protect Jeong Jeong and the other Fire Nation defectors as the Blue Spirit. It is an active choice to do good for others that he makes on his own (not for Katara or even for Iroh, which is very important). Neither Zuko nor someone close to him benefits from him doing it. He is doing good because he believes it is the right and just thing to do.
Zuko sees Katara as the Painted Lady the second time (unless you believe they met up during the interim time, which I like to think so, but we don't have proof of it) while he is out returning the baby rattle and giving supplies to the people he stole from while at his lowest. While I have my thoughts on this change from the OG ATLA, this isn't the time to get into it. But it's important that Zuko was not seeking out Katara here; first, he was trying to make amends for his own actions, and then he was investigating the same fake scream that the Dai Li set up to trap Katara. And this itself is an escalation of Zuko's capacity for doing good. Here, he wasn't going to help someone he felt responsible for (defected Fire Nation citizens were still his people, in Zuko's mind), but rather a complete stranger whom he believes is in danger. But then he gets there and sees Katara being attacked. And we have another MAJOR escalation for Zuko because he knows who Katara is, but he does not hesitate to jump in and try to protect her. Katara, someone whom he's chased, attacked, fought against, and whose offer of kindness Zuko brutally slapped aside. Not of that mattered because, in that moment, Katara needed help and Zuko was there to give it.
3. Zuko and Katara's imprisonment together can roughly be broken down into two halves, each marked by what Katara is wearing. The first is when Katara is in her Painted Lady outfit but missing her hat and veil, just like Zuko is now missing the Blue Spirit mask. They are now both physically and emotionally exposed and raw to each other. In Katara, this comes out as anger toward Zuko and doubt in her own actions. In Zuko this comes out as shame in himself and an almost pleading earnestness toward Katara. When Katara doubts her actions, he is quick to reassure her that she was good and right in them. Both because he genuinely sees this as true and because of how it reflects back on him. If Katara was doing the right thing, then so was he. There is also fear on both sides here. Katara fears physical violence and being used against her friends, while Zuko... Zuko fears many things but, in this case, he fears rejection. Zuko's life is marred by rejection, to the point he has come to sabotage people's attempts to accept and understand him. But now Zuko is at the point that he's come to WANT connection, even if he's still nervous about it, and he's found someone he's got something in common with. He fears showing her his face because he knows Katara will reject him, and he knows he deserves it. It's very sad.
4. The second half of Zuko and Katara's imprisonment together is marked by Katara wearing her normal clothes (... somehow). But despite not being the Painted Lady anymore, she still has traces of paint on her face (which is actually a great look for the actress; it really brings out her cheekbones) so she's still a painted lady. And while the scene still starts with Katara spitting mad, it ends with her and Zuko finding understanding and compassion in each other's experiences. It is only when they are their true selves that they are able to bond. Because the Paint Lady and the Blue Spirit aren't real, they're facades created to allow Zuko and Katara to be the people they want to be. And, as they learn more about each other, those masks aren't needed for Zuko and Katara to understand one another. And this is another big moment for Zuko because not only can he start verbally acknowledging his own victimhood and the wrongness of his father's actions, but he's able to be vulnerable with another victim of the Fire Nation by relating to his own traumas. It all culminates in letting himself be vulnerable enough to let Katara touch his scar. This is overall a fantastic scene, better than the original imo, and I might do a full analysis on it specifically
5. AKA, things start going wrong. The "Separate them!" scene is small in the grand scheme of the S2's ending but very important to Zuko's choices. There are a lot of cute little details here. For one, Zuko actually says 'Katara' under his breath when he's trying to get to her, and when the wall between them is about to go up, Katara tries rushing forward toward Zuko. Not to mention the Oma & Shu parallel. But the most important thing here is that being separate from/losing sight of his painted lady (and Uncle Iroh) leaves Zuko alone and vulnerable to Azula and her manipulation. One has to wonder if things would have gone differently if either Zuko or Katara had been a little faster and they'd been able to stay together.
6. Because of the increased... let's call it intimacy of their intertwining storylines, and the talk while imprisoned together, Zuko siding with Azula and attacking Katara & Aang hurts all the more. First he lost sight of his painted lady, and then he turned against her altogether. Props to Katara's actress for some phenomenal facial acting because you can very clearly track as her expression after Zuko joins the fight goes from hopeful to confused to hurt and disappointed to renewed hatred. And I can't wait to see how the dominoes of these changes fall in S3. Because even more than the OG ATLA, Katara has no reason to believe Zuko will have changed for the better. But, on the other hand, Katara also has seen firsthand that Zuko CAN do good so...
7. Anyway, I do think it's interesting that (maybe) the last time we see Zuko in this season is him looking up through the hole that Katara escaped with Aang through. He's probably thinking a lot of things in this moment and may already be starting to feel doubt and guilt over his actions. But two last points: early in the season, Amita (who I love) says that the dying of the painted lady flowers told her mother they needed to leave because the Fire Nation is coming. And now, in Ba Sing Se, the Painted Lady/Katara is gone and the Fire Nation has taken over. The other is that, despite having just made a horrible choice that will send Zuko to rock bottom, Zuko ends up looking toward were he last saw his painted lady. AKA, the path he should have followed.
