For over a year people have been speculating that something really bad is going to happen to Iroh and THAT will be the turning point for Zuko.

And tonight we see Zuko apparently betray Iroh . . . allowing Iroh to fall into the merciless hands of the fire nation and Ozai.

These two ideas work perfectly together. This is not Zuko going back on a season of character development but rather the set-up for the last straw . . . the final dramatic jolt that will break the metaphorical camel's back and turn Zuko against his own heritage.

Consider the Fire Nation. They are ruthless. They are ruled by a tyrant to in Iroh's words "is NOT the understanding type."

And consider Iroh. In the eyes of the Fire Nation he is a traitor. The once great Dragon of the West and the very brother of the Fire Lord defending the enemy and attacking Fire Nation royalty. How do you think this ruthless nation lead by the not-understanding type is going to treat Zuko's beloved uncle who, as proven in The Spirit World, he loves more then even his honor and/or throne. (He proved this by turning his back when he saw the Avatar to go save his uncle)

Iroh is going to be violently dragged to a prison cell to start with. There, he will lose his freedom and suffer as a prisoner of war, left to rot in jail. And that's if the FN is merciful . . . which we all know they are not.

Iroh may be tortured . . . prisoners of war have a history of having atrocities against humanity against them; starved until they're forced to eat the gaurd's dog, becoming outlets for gaurd sadism, prison gaurds even being punished if they treat a prisoner with an ounce of dignity. Heck, Ozai might demand Zuko torture Iroh himself to prove his loyalty to the FN.

Or, even more likely, Iroh may be sentenced to death.

This could finally do it for Zuko. He will be done being torn between good or evil, as he will be suddenly and violently torn to the side against the FN. He will himself be tortured by the guilt of getting his uncle into such a situation. I think will give them that final dose of maturing life experience makes him realize; he must control his own destiny, his destiny must not control him

I agree becaue when he was standing next to Azula he was thinking about his uncle and how he?? betrayed him. I think he will turn around

I know he'll turn, but come on, if this wasn't a TV show, his fate would still be in jeopardy. He made an awful decision, to explain this one to the man he respects most, the dragon of the west, and to Katara, for those of you who still believe in Zutara (I have never believed in Zutara, though it *seemed* close before this ep), will be a hard one. It's also a difficult one to explain to his conscience. Responsibility, gotta hate it.

i like your theory... for being one of Zuko currently being evil

If he is currently evil... well i hope things turn out like what you said

Wasnt there like a time period between Azula leaving Zuko to make his decision and Him fighting against Aang and Katara. Do u think Iroh and Zuko made a plan to make it easily into the Fire Nation. (we have seen this before in the finale of Season one, where Iroh helps invade the North Pole when he really came to help Zuko capture the Avatar)

Well, i guess the last dose of that tye good medicine has finally came. i have a question, something is suspicious about his scar!!!

You remember when zuko said,"sorry, its like this scar symbolizes something" something to me seems pretty suspicios about his scar, trust me, because the way i see it is, half-and-half, the clean, and no car side seems good, but the scar side seems bad and we know the fire lord ozai is very powerful, ight, well maybe its some type of spell, i mean, who'd have a fire-shaped scar?

Nice i respect the long post =] yeah this has been kinda shocking to all of us i mean come on in the beginning of the first episode he was cleaning!! . . . im sure everyone thought he was gonna turn good and when azula came in the catacombs trying to get Zuko back the part that surprised me was that Iroh actually had to plead Zuko to not go back to the Fire nation..... i mean after all this dontcha think he'd know better?