The beauty of tonight’s two hours lay in the way Zachary Levi wore Chuck’s emotions so nakedly, and in the way Yvonne Strahovski conveyed just how badly Sarah wanted to believe in the life he described. I bitched last week in this space about how the show sometimes treats Sarah as an unequal partner in their relationship. But the symmetry of events that echoed those in the pilot restored that balance nicely in its final hours. Whereas she was his initial shoulder to cry on in a new world order he didn’t understand, so now will he be hers.

[Avatar: The Last Airbender] is a story about hope, bravery, and the fight against oppressive, violent powers who aim to homogenize the world around them. I adore that it is youthful. I adore that it featured an entire animated cast of people of color. I adore that it dealt with such difficult things in a medium that people unfortunately write off as something that can’t be serious, on a network that probably had never addressed some of these themes before.

But I must praise what shines brighter than anything: the writing. From Sokka’s warm humor, to Katara’s hopeful speeches, to Toph’s no-nonsense attitude, to Aang’s moral crises, to giving animals who can’t speak a full characterization, to respecting character development and giving us a reason to care about the people on the screen, Avatar explicitly respects its audience. And I love that.