The final four episodes of Avatar: Seven Havens first season finally answered a major question that’s been plaguing the series: what happened to Pavi and Nisha’s parents?
The final episode of Book 1: Survival “The Root Chakra” explains how the twin Avatars were separated from their parents (and each other), but the answer is worse than anyone ever expected.
Three years before twin sisters Pavi and Nisha reunited as co-Avatars, a tragic night in the desert broke their family apart and rewrote the course of their lives. For years, the truth remained buried under lost memories and trauma, but the real sequence of events paints a far darker picture than either sister expected.
Let’s Back up a Little Bit
Pavi and Nisha grew up in the Eastern Outskirts with their parents, Pramodh and Saumya. In the flashbacks we’ve seen throughout the show, they were a happy family living in the desert outside of Ellora.
This peaceful life didn’t last long. While both girls could bend all four elements, Nisha possessed a strong connection to the Anomaly. The dangerous energy is fueled by fear and acts as a destructive force capable of corrupting people with its energy. Terrified of what Nisha was capable of, Pramodh and Saumya decided to abandon their daughter in the dead of night. They would take Pavi and their pet cat-monkey, Geet, to travel through the Harshlands. Nisha would be left behind so she could be taken in by the Order of the White Lotus. They hoped the White Lotus could train Nisha to control her power and more importantly, keep her far away from them.
Nisha (and the Anomaly) Unleashed
Shortly after her family left, Nisha woke up alone. When she saw her family was out in the middle of a brutal sandstorm, Nisha ran after them, crying for her family to come back for her. Pavi tried to reach out for her sister, but her father held her back.
While Samuya expressed some regret for leaving Nisha behind, Pramodh doubled down. He told Nisha he wouldn’t allow her to destroy their family and pulled Pavi away from her, effectively disowning his six year old daughter.
Heartbroken and angry over her abandonment, Nisha inadvertently summoned the Anomaly, channeling its dark energy in a way that mimicked a corrupted Avatar State. Out of pure instinct, Nisha reached out to her family but she instead sent a red lightning bolt directly into the cliff overhang above them. The explosion shattered the cliff face, sending tons of rock crashing down on her family.
The rockslide killed Pramodh and Saumya instantly. Pavi was crushed underneath the debris, losing her lower left leg in the process. It’s implied Pavi’s connection to the Avatar spirit shielded her from the worst of the rockslide and sealed the wound on her leg before it could even bleed.
The explosion blew Nisha away from the site where she was found by White Lotus member Karthik. He took her in as his ward to raise her while training her in secret. Meanwhile, Pavi’s cat-monkey Geet dragged her out of the rubble and took her before Karthik arrived. The duo would survive by themselves in the Harshlands until Pavi reunited with her sister.
The Twins Learn the Truth
For three years, Pavi and Nisha had no memory of how they were separated, who their parents were, or anything about their past. The only exception was whenever they were in the presence of the Anomaly or its red crystals, which would restore a single memory of events leading up to that night of the sandstorm.
In episode 10 “Ghosts and Spirits,” Nisha regains her memory of killing her parents when she touches a rock formation with the Anomaly crystal on it. Which just so happens to be where her parents are buried. Her grief and horror over what she did was so strong, Nisha couldn’t bend without it triggering flashbacks of that night.
Instead of facing what had happened, Nisha allowed her fear to take over. She went out of her way to keep Pavi from learning the truth, terrified her sister would abandon her like their parents did. These efforts were for nothing when the Anomaly absorbed the twins and forced them to relive the night their parents died.
When the truth finally came out, Pavi’s grief quickly morphed into anger directed straight at Nisha. “You kept this from me,” Pavi told Nisha in a fit of rage. “You didn’t want me to find out. You are what happened to them…I thought Mom and Dad left me because I was the Avatar. A monster. But they weren’t scared of me…they were scared of YOU!”
It makes sense why Pavi was so furious, especially since Nisha tried to hide what happened. But Pavi’s anger also blinds her to the fact their parents were abandoning their own child, ignoring Pavi’s own pleas to go back for her sister. For Pavi, blaming Nisha is easier than facing the reality of what her parents did. The situation reinforces her deepest fear that the Avatar is nothing more than a monster destined to destroy the world.
But it also weirdly pushes Pavi to confront that fear head-on. She unlocks her Root Chakra and succeeds in pacifying the Anomaly. At the end of “The Root Chakra,” Pavi decides to leave Nisha in Ellora to go to the Floating Isles. She tells Nisha she’ll be a better Avatar and won’t become a destroyer like her sister.
Does this mark the end of the twins’ relationship for good?
Probably not, but both girls need to cope with what happened to their parents in their own way. The Anomaly might not be a problem anymore but it’s clear that Nisha’s powers come from a dark place. Her refusal to face her fears and deal with her trauma only makes her more dangerous to the people around her. Until that issue is resolved, it’s going to be a long time until Pavi and Nisha find their way back to each other.
