Tripping Over Books

Season 1, Episode 8

The Skinny: Last week, Hoe Cake’s dad was revealed to be a big bad guy Equalist. Mako and Bolin moved in with Hoe Cake for a brief, glorious time when Bolin took hilarious advantage of the pool and servants. The aftermath of arresting Mr. Sato left Beifong’s job hanging in the balance, and Korra is about to be dealing with an AWKWARD living situation involving her crush and his gf living in her house. Korra is still struggling with her airbending, which does not exist, and she continues her absence from Tarrlok’s task force. (GUYS. I just discovered that I was spelling his name wrong. GASP! Apologies to you. But NOT TO HIM.)

The Setup: In keeping with this new trend of bringing the escalated DRAMZ with each new episode, last week’s Korra finally revealed the manufacturer of those insane chi-blocker/electroshock gloves and YO, it was EXACTLY who I suspected: Hoe Cake’s dad. Turns out that he’s been nursing some serious bender hate ever since a fire bender murdered his wife, so he’s all “AMON 4 PREZ” because he thinks that benders need to go the way of the dodo. But let’s back up, because the setup for the showdown where all is revealed was pretty great, too. So Korra offers Mako and Bolin a place to live on Air Temple Island and is all excited, until it comes out that Hoe Cake has already offered Mako and Bolin a place to stay at HER house. This winds up being important because, while Korra is hanging out at The Estate, Beifong and Tenzin are investigating those pesky gloves. They think they found the guy, until Korra overhears Hoe Cake’s dad on a  suspicious phone call and runs to share the news with them. At this point, SHIZZ GETS REAL, as Beifong, Tenzin, and Korra investigate Mr. Sato, much to the anger of Mako and Hoe Cake. At first, it seemed like the phone call was a red herring. BUT THEN. A new tip leads them to The Estate, where an underground factory is discovered, CHOCK FULL of those gloves and some insane chi-blocker robot things. Mr. Sato shows up and a BATTLE ENSUES, wherein Beifong, Tenzin, Korra, and a bunch of Beifong’s metal benders are all knocked out or taken prisoner before Mako and Bolin come to save the day. Except the hero winds up being Hoe Cake, who is discovers her father is CRAY and evil, and knocks him out. Episode ends with everyone headed to live on Air Temple Island with Korra. ONTO THE NEXT ONE, FOLKS. 

The Breakdown: After a week off, Korra is FINALLY new again! Let’s dive right into “When Extremes Meet”, or “The Unending Major SUCKAGE of the Weasel-Snake, Tarrlok.” The retro intro brings us up to speed on the chief of police job, which Beifong has vacated to go all rogue badass on Amon and tension between Equalists and benders is at a higher fever pitch…again.  The DRAMZ are forever. 

We start off with Korra and Tenzin’s kids–who got some AWESOME comic relief moments in this ep–welcoming Mako, Bolin, and Hoe Cake to their new home on Air Temple Island. Mako and Bolin are thankful, Hoe Cake is AMAZED at how much luggage the airbender acolytes can lift because, yo, her Louis Vuitton steamer trunks are HEAVY, guys.

This whole part is basically why Tenzin’s kids are hilarious. Meelo has an insta-crush on Hoe Cake and gets his kindergartner charm on. It’s kind of adorable. Jinora gives the new guys a breathless tour, which basically is a useless-information dump. BUT THEN Bolin brings the funny and asks her a BAZILLION ridiculous questions at the same speed she was just talking, hoping to stump her. Jinora knows her shizz, though. It’s basically HILARIOUS. Air Temple Island is like a big crazy family with all these weird, awesome kids living there.

It’s Ikki, though, who wins at “kids who put their feet in their mouths without knowing it to HILARIOUS ends” because she pretty much puts Korra’s crush on Mako ON BLAST, right to Hoe Cake’s face. Unannounced. Which led to Korra’s face doing THIS:

IKKI!! SHUT IT!!

After the introductions and settling in on Air Temple Island, Korra and Tenzin go to the swearing in of the new police chief, who is…NOT TARRLOK. I am confounded. Don’t worry, though, guys: Tarrlok–le SNAKE–has managed to bully his way into a position of power by getting the new Chief to consult him on all Equalist-related matters, which is pretty much all anyone cares about these days anyway, so Tarlock is basically the de facto CoP. BLERGH. UGHVOM. He really sucks so much. When Korra called him a weasel-snake, I was like “YES. BOTH OF THOSE.”

He smarms and makes icky while asking Korra to rejoin his task force and Korra is like, “Bish please! No. Effing. Way.” Korra basically plays the Avatar card, saying that she doesn’t need him, but he DOES need the Avatar. And then Tarrlok CUTS DEEP by telling Korra she isn’t the Avatar because she still can’t airbend. LOW BLOW, asshole. He was condescending, patronizing, and horrid, and leaves Korra on the verge of tears.

On their way home, Tenzin asks Korra if she’s ever made contact with her past lives, which brings up the couple of hallucinations/visions Korra’s had during times of epic distress. Tenzin and Korra aren’t sure what they mean, but they both think that it’s a clue to Korra learning more about the spiritual side of being an Avatar, and that the spirit of Aang is trying to reach out to Korra. Tenzin tells her to meditate on it.

“Korra, your sadness breaks my heart. PLEASE, let’s be happy TOGETHER.”

So back on the island, Korra’s off meditating/feeling low when Bolin, Mako, and Hoe Cake find her and she confesses her self-doubt to them. They all basically ROCK–yes, even Hoe Cake, who was pretty badass this ep–and pledged to help Korra learn what she needs to know and to help her fight the good fight because Aang didn’t fight the Fire nation by himself either. He had his friends. AWWW, tug the heartstrings! That is, until Meelo jumps into their feel-good sesh and FARTS ON THEM. A couple times. Guys, something about me: I have a five-year-old’s sense of humor about farts. I DIED when this happened. But the point of this scene: the formation of Team Avatar, who go cruising around in Hoe Cake’s bangin’ car, where they listen to police scanners, looking for wrongs to right and criminals to take down in Republic City. It’s like Batman times 4, with girls and minus the capes. So not really Batman at all, but still AWESOME.

Team Avatar hears about some escaped chi-blocker criminals and they get on the case, bending all up on the streets as Hoe Cake drives. Hoe Cake’s little chi-blocker/electrocution glove comes in pretty handy as Team Avatar takes down a GAGGLE of bad guys before Tarrlok shows up. While Tarrlok basically chides Korra for being in the way, she smartly points out that the whole time Team Avatar was fighting, she didn’t see the task force or the cops anywhere. HMMMMM….

This is the part when we get to the meat of the “unending suck of Tarrlok” portion of the show. He wants to pass a law that says Equalists = illegal. Also, he wants to enact a curfew for nonbenders. More proof that Tarlock is THE EPIC WORST. Tenzin is the only dissenter. The law passes. I blame the useless council members who sit on their asses without speaking at all. 

Back to Team Avatar: OOOOH, GUYS! Mako and Korra have a “thing” getting into the car to respond to a “riot” of Equalists. It’s cute and one of those things that’s in that weird space between superfriendly and a little flirty. Hoe Cake sees it in the rearview and gets squinty. *I* get heart palpitations of the AWESOME kind.

Anyway, Team Avatar gets to the scene to discover that the power is off because Tarrlok is a douche. He’s FURIOUS that Korra has shown up, getting in the way again. Then he arrests a whole bunch of nonbending citizens because he thinks they’re all Equalists, and a major riot ensues. In retaliation, he arrests Hoe Cake for being a nonbender out past curfew whose father is a known criminal. THEN he arrests Bolin and Mako, too, because he SUCKS. More threats and a paddywagon later, and Korra is all alone. Team Avatar’s brief run of awesome appears to be at an end.

Next day, Tenzin and Korra go to the police station to get the rest of the team released and the new CoP, who is a butt-kissing jerkface, tells them that no one can be released without Tarrlok’s approval, and that the task force isn’t done questioning them. Tenzin is awesome, but, in the end, ineffectual.

By now, our girl is basically FED THE EFF UP with Tarrlok and his bullying, so she sneaks out to go talk to him, and during their tense conversation, she finds out that he only arrested Mako, Bolin, and Hoe Cake to get to Korra and force her to get back on his task force. He’s been getting gradually more irritated and angry this whole ep that Korra not only refuses to rejoin the task force, but that she instead keeps “getting in the way,” which is his motto right now. Clearly, these two will not be wearing their BFF necklaces anymore.

AND THEN HOLY EFFING $&!@#%&!@!$ SHIZZBALLS. THEY DUEL AND IT IS BADASS AND KORRA ALMOST WINS AND THEN TARRLOK TURNS OUT TO BE A BLOOD BENDER (!!!!) WHO CAN BLOOD BEND WITHOUT A FULL MOON AND HE CRIPPLES KORRA, KNOCKS HER OUT, AND THEN PUTS HER IN THE BACK OF A CAR AND SENDS HER AWAY AND TELLS HER THAT SHE’LL NEVER SEE REPUBLIC CITY AGAIN. thupbpth *DIES*. I am dead. Or nearly dead. I AM CERTAINLY NOT CALM. 

This is my pissed face. And hair.

Also, Korra has another vision of Aang, but we’ll have to wait and see what comes of it. 

So, the tally: Mako? Jail. Bolin? Jail. Hoe Cake? Jail. All three now at the mercy of Tarrlok, who is sure to be extra shizzy to them because of Korra. Tenzin? Losing power on the council every day. Tarrlok? FREAKY, EVIL BASTARD who is gaining power every day, and whose motives are unknown but surely BAD. And Korra? Beaten, pissed, and on her way to exile in an unknown place, far away from her friends, her city, and her mother-cussing Naga. DANG.

The Last Word: My thoughts? Korra’s going to wind up with Beifong somewhere, going after Amon. She’s going to start learning the spiritual side of being the Avatar, as well as maybe doing a teensy bit of airbending. Basically, she’s going to WAR UP. Meanwhile, Mako, Bolin, and Hoe Cake will get out of jail and Mako will go CRAY that Korra has been kidnapped and will have laser focus on her. His worrying about Korra will give Hoe Cake some pause about their relationship, and will basically make Mako understand which one of the two he loves more. (OBVS Korra.) 

Guys, this show has been amping up the drama recently to epic levels, and I love it. Each of these last three eps has been off the charts excellent, with major plot advancement, crazy action, twists, tension, ALL of the things. And it’s all building up. If my research is correct, there are only 4 episodes left in this season of Book One, with the last two eps airing over a whole hour like the first two did. Legend of Korra is at a fever pitch right now, guys. I CAN’T EVEN DEAL AT ALL. I AM STILL NOT CALM.

The Lines: “Asami, did you know Korra likes Mako?” BAHHH!!!!! KIDS. I totally LOLed.

So, guys: Thoughts?! Where’s Korra going? Will we see Team Avatar united? WHAT THE EFF IS UP WITH TARRLOK?!?