Tripping Over Books

Recaps of Episodes 9 and 10 coming atcha, where LOTS of things happened!

Episode 9 • The Stakeout

So this episode begins with Team Avatar chasing down the traitor, Aiwei. Naga–super pet–tracks him through a middle-of-nowhere town in the desert. The team walks into a bar to get some info and Bolin gets all excited when he thinks that his WANTED poster is, in fact, some display of the locals’ fandom of his movies. Alas. Anywho, turns out that they are all wanted by the Earth Queen and the locals aren’t super friendly. Also, no Aiwei just yet. MOVING ON.

Back in Xaofu, Lin and Su have a spat about the fact that Su let Team Avatar go to hunt down Aiwei. Lighten up, Lin. Just a little bit?

Meanwhile, Naga tracks Aiwei to ANOTHER town in the middle of the desert, the Misty Palms Oasis, but this time, her nose knows. Team Avatar finds Aiwei’s jeep abandoned behind some rocks. Mako and Bolin head into town to see if they can find Aiwei while Asami and Korra stay on the outskirts to wait. While they’re waiting, Korra wonders what Zaheer has up his sleeve and Asami finds a clue about a potential meeting place between Aiwei and Zaheer in the jeep. However, when the girls try to find the place on a map, they can’t. OOH.

In town, Mako and Bolin ask a few questions and have some success until two bounty hunters spot them and they try to hide from them. BUT THEN! They spot Aiwei walking down the street and they follow him. When they go back to get the girls, they all share their info. Korra wants to go in guns blazing, but Mako advocates a stakeout instead.

Team Avatar rents a room in the same inn as Aiwei and waits for him to leave for his meeting with Zaheer. Things are dragging out and getting boring when Korra gets fed up with waiting and she storms over to Aiwei’s room. When she busts in she finds Aiwei mediating on his bed. Turns out that his meeting with Zaheer is in the spirit world. Korra goes to join him, leaving Mako, Bolin, and Asami to guard their bodies.

In the spirit world, Korra finds Zaheer and Aiwei meeting. Zaheer is telling Aiwei that he’s compromised the operation and left a loose end. Zaheer finds out where Aiwei’s body is located and throws him over a cliff in the spirit world. Korra confronts him and asks him WTF he wants. Zaheer is pretty forthcoming.

He tells Korra that he and his group are part of the Red Lotus, people who want to restore freedom to the world. They’re basically anarchists. Zaheer says that her kidnapping attempt was her uncle, Unalaq’s idea. He has some pretty negative thoughts on Avatar Wan and Korra determines that the Red Lotus wanted to kidnap her so that she could open the spirit portals and free Vatuu. The mission of the Red Lotus? To restore balance, but the kind that eradicates all governments and keeps people from being truly equal. They believe that disorder is the only natural order. EEP!

Meanwhile, Zaheer manages to both meditate and tell his cronies where Aiwei’s body–and Korra’s–is. Pa-Li sends Gazan and Ming-Hua to grab Korra. When they arrive in Misty Palms, Asami makes off with Korra’s body on Naga while Mako and Bolin stay to fight. It doesn’t go well for them. Like, at all. Mako and Bolin are captured by Zaheer’s group, and it looks like Asami and Korra are going to make it, but they are also captured, but not by Gazan and Ming-Hua. They are captured instead by the Earth Queen’s forces and are being taken back to Ba Sing Se. Zaheer and his baddies take Mako and Bolin and head to Ba Sing Se themselves.

Episode 10 • Long Live the Queen

Korra and Asami are being loaded onto an airship to head back to Ba Sing Se. Korra is trying to warn the Earth Queen’s forces about Zaheer, but they think she’s cray. Asami, who is such a BAMF, manages to break free of her bonds and says that she can get them off the airship because it’s been crappily made. She runs off to get the keys to Korra’s bonds.

Meanwhile, Mako and Bolin are in a van with Zaheer. Bolin is hilariously making friendly small talk with Gazan and Ming-Hua when they arrive in Ba Sing Se.

In the Earth Queen’s throne room, she’s getting a briefing from her servant on the arrival time of Korra’s airship when Zaheer is granted an audience by saying that they know where to find her missing airbenders. Zaheer is trying to negotiate the Earth Queen handing the Avatar over to them to avoid an international incident in return for information about the airbenders. The Earth Queen agrees to their terms. She sends Mako and Bolin to the dungeon.

Back on the airship, Korra creates a diversion for Asami to unlock her chains and the two try to take over the ship. Instead, the ship crashes in the desert and winds up having to deal with a SUPER huge sand monster. EEP. The sand monster gives the crew some motivation to let Korra and Asami help them put the ship back together so they can get to Ba Sing Se.

Back in the throne room, the Earth Queen gets word of the airship crash and the potential escape of Korra. Zaheer and his group decided that they aren’t going to chase Korra anymore; she’s going to come to them. They walk into the throne room and after a tense conversation about showing respect for the crown, Zaheer attacks the Earth Queen by LITERALLY STEALING HER BREATH. RIGHT OUT OF HER MOUTH. HE KILLS THE EARTH QUEEN. OMG OMG.

Zaheer then makes an announcement to all of Ba Sing Se, telling them that he took down the Earth Queen, but that he’s not trying to take over the Earth Kingdom and that all the citizens of Ba Sing Se are free, and Gazan earth bends down the wall that surrounds the city. Mako and Bolin are still stuck in the dungeon. Bolin tries to metal bend to get them out, but he isn’t able to do it. No worries, though, because Zaheer shows up and breaks them out with a message for Korra.

Korra and Asami and their sand sailer eventually make it back to Ba Sing Se just in time to meet up with Lin, Korra’s dad, and Lord Zuko (HAI!), who have tracked Team Avatar their. Korra finds out that the Earth Queen has been killed and she tells her father and Lin that it’s the Red Lotus. DUN DUN DUNN.

Whew! This season is shaping up nicely in terms of the drama, although I have to say that I miss the romance a little bit. But I like this Red Lotus angle and I can’t believe that they KILLED the Earth Queen! DANG! Now I’m ready for more air bender goodness, so let’s hope that we see some more of them next week! 

Episode 8 • The Terror Within

We begin this episode in Xaofu, where Korra and Bolin are practicing their metal bending. Well, Korra is practicing it. Bolin is struggling to actually DO it. But Korra manages to get a win, whereas Bolin resorts to earth bending in a fit of frustration before Asami REALLY craps on his day and reminds him that tonight is Opal’s going away dinner. GUYS. BUT I SHIP IT. I have complete confidence that these two are NOT DONE.

Also, remember how Varick is still around? He’s created an airbender finder. But LOL it doesn’t work. Anywho, everyone says goodbye to Opal and the rest of Team Avatar + Lin Beifong prepare to go search for more airbenders the next day.

BUT LO! Something is rotten in the state of Xaofu! That night, while everyone sleeps, ZAHIR AND HIS CRONIES ARE SNEAKING IN. HOW IS THIS HAPPENING. Pabu begins FA-REAKING out and trying to wake up Bolin, who wants no part of it. Ming-Hua does some water bending thing with the glass of Korra’s bedroom window, and then the bastards SHOOT NAGA WITH TRANQUILIZERS. DO. NOT. MESS. WITH. NAGA. Korra wakes up and tries to fight them off but is hit with a dart herself and passes out. Zahir grabs Korra and leaves. THANKFULLY, Bolin chooses now to listen to Pabu’s warnings, wakes up, and sees Zahir running off with Korra over his shoulder.

A HUGE fight ensues. Like, HUGE. ALL the benders get into it, including Su & Lin. Zahir, Gazan, Ming-Hua, and Pa-Li put up an insanely good fight, shooting things with their minds, lava bending, and trying to use an air glider. Bolin gets in a great shot as well that saves the day. It really looks dire for them for a while, and they almost make off with Korra anyway before Su and Lin are able to grab Korra from them and airlift her to safety using their metal bending. Team Zahir manages to airbend all of them away without a trace.

The next day, Team Avatar, Su, Lin, and the truth-seer, Aiwei, try and figure out how Zahir and his gang even got into Xaofu. They determine that one of the guards must have let them in and Aiwei begins questioning them all–even Varick (lol not him) and Su, at Lin’s request (obvs these two still have some things to work on)–until one young guard sits down and Aiwei deems him the GUILTY ONE. Except he doesn’t look it at all.

Team Avatar begins searching the guard’s home and finds a suspicious note and the guard logbooks. Not looking good for the kid. Mako wants to question him right away, but Aiwei wants to let him stew. Mako instantly throws shade at Aiwei and is frustrated that they aren’t confronting the guard. Mako begins to question the guard’s guilt and then Varick shows up and he posits that PERHAPS the guilty person isn’t the guard, but AIWEI HIMSELF.

When Team Avatar goes to Aiwei’s home to do some sleuthing, they aren’t very successful at first, but then they find a bookcase that MOVES, and Su’s advisor all of a sudden seems SUPER shady. And of course, he shows up while Team Avatar is still there. Aiwei says he’ll talk to them over some tea when Korra mentions that things aren’t “adding up.” Aiwei manages to talk around their questions and then asks them who they think is the traitor if not the guard. Silence fills the room as it becomes clear that Team Avatar suspects Aiwei, and then he says, “You have no idea what’s coming for you, Avatar.” And then he sneaks out of his home using the secret hideaway behind the bookcase. When Team Avatar manages to make it back there as well, they see that Aiwei has rigged a bomb and it EXPLODES OMG.

Thankfully, Korra and her airbending save Team Avatar. But Aiwei has escaped through a tunnel behind his home. Korra tells Su that Aiwei is guilty, which is a huge blow. He was her number one advisor. They determine that Zahir and his team got into Xaofu through the tunnel in Aiwei’s home, but despite more searching, he’s already gone.

Korra wants to suspend the search for more airbenders to look for Aiwei and find out what’s going on with Zahir and his gang, but Lin wants nothing to do with it. She wants to take Korra back to Republic City, but Lin says it’s too dangerous. Su agrees with Lin and Korra backs down. They prepare once again to leave the next morning.

Exceptttt…in the middle of the night, Su shows up in Korra’s room with the keys to her jeep. She tells Korra to take Naga and the Team and go find Aiwei, saying that she’ll deal with Lin. Team Avatar heads off into the night to hunt down Aiwei.

So, this episode was great because one, it took place entirely with one storyline. I kind of love those episodes sometimes. Also, I love that Team Avatar was able to defeat Team Zahir this time, although it makes me nervous thinking how desperate this will make them. Also, what is this ominous “you have no idea what’s coming for you” business? And can I tell you that, even though I’m really enjoying this season, I’m missing some of the romance feels. But I’m also really digging the action! What do you guys think?