Good to hear that it picks up. I honestly nearly checked out the writer of the Beach ep to see if she'd written anything else. It was so pre-teen-girl.

The stuff with Roku and ....Zuko's great grandfather felt very superficial, too, compared to the lovely depth of the previous two seasons. And Sokka has seemed 'off' as well. About the only one that doesn't seem too off is Toph, surprisingly enough, probably because we don't get a ton of her to begin with. (She kills me, though. *So* funny.)