Bumi is obviously up to important stuff, chasing his spirit buddy, Bum Ju (yes, that is short for Bumi Jr.), who he met during Harmonic Convergence, around Air Temple Island. We find out, that Bumi just wants his spirit buddy to wear a sweater Bumi knitted. The spirit buddy has shown enough sense not to ever wear anything Bumi makes by leading Bumi on a merry chase around the island, culminating in a tense standoff while Bumi hangs onto a tree growing over the edge of a cliff.
Just not a sweater guy
Bumi surrenders too late; the tree branch he's on breaks and he plummets to the rocky ground below.
Just a couple feet above certain death, Bumi forces his hands forward, and out comes air! Bumi is saved by a mini-ball of air supporting him. Bumi realizes that he just unintentionally bent air! He's ecstatic, but one can't help wondering if his spirit buddy maybe knew all along, and lured him over that cliff so that Bumi could learn the good news, too.
We catch up with Korra, Tenzin, and Jinora in Republic City, and Korra is frustrated. Since leaving open the portals, enormous, unexplained vines have grown all over the city, rising to the tops of building like ivy. The vines have created ecosystems within Republic City perfect for spirits, but really sucky for people, so, it's been Korra's job for two weeks to get rid of them. Fire, as we see, doesn't work. Jinora, cuddling with some spirits accompanying them, questions even trying to remove them. Tenzin, after witnessing Korra defeating Unalaq, is confident that Korra will solve this problem.
When life hands you vines, grow grapes
He's the only one with total faith in Korra. Even Korra doubts she can remove the vines. And Republic City's news reporters have questions that show the entire city is sick of waiting and seeing. President Reiko decides not to so much answer any of their questions, but instead just point out that Avatar Korra is to blame for all this, just as Korra appears at his side. Korra, in typical Korra fashion, lashes out at the man who gave her no backup in the fight against Unalaq. She reminds Reiko that the city wouldn't even exist anymore if not for her. They're about to get into it with reporters watching, when Lin Beifong, still Police Chief, breaks it up. Asami emerges from the disappearing reporters to try to cheer Korra up.
Why don't you just go climb the tree in your office?
Tenzin, meanwhile, has taken Korra, Asami and Jinora back to Air Temple Island for what I'm guessing is lunch. On their way in, Bumi waylays Tenzin to give him exciting news. He rushes everything out as if he's a five-year-old, and Tenzin treats him like one. As Tenzin's whole family proceeds through the hellish ritual that is a family meal with young children, we see that Bolin is there too!
Aren't family dinners supposed to be good for you?
Bolin is asked about Mako, who Bolin says has stayed behind in Republic City, sleeping at the Police Station after work, since seeing just about anyone is awkward for him at this point. Bolin drives the point home by impersonating Mako as a brooder with bad hair. Bolin is in a fine mood, waxing on about how Tenzin's family contains every Crazy Family Stereotype. Bumi has been staring at a napkin during this, but interrupts Bolin to point out that he moved his napkin. Tenzin furiously tells Bumi to grow up and stop telling tall tales. Bumi decides that the real problem is that his life isn't in danger, but Pema nixes Bumi's suggestion that Bolin attack him with a bolder. Meelo has no such self-control, and excitedly hurls a dinner plate at Bumi's head. Just as before, Bumi throws his hands in front of his face, and ball of whirling air envelopes the plate, spinning it inches from Bumi's face.
Wait, Bumi's not crazy????
The table is stunned. Even Meelo, who actually threw the plate. Bumi is triumphant, declaring that he'll tell their mother, who will be so proud of him. But, it doesn't last. Bumi's airball runs out of air, and the plate crashes on the table.
We segue back to Republic City, where Mako is back at work, as a dedicated public servant of the police force. Roused from sleeping under his desk, he answers a call to a bookstore, managed by two brothers for years. The place is a wreck and one of the owners is frantic, claiming an argument became a storm. Mako is confused, and even more so, when the man claims his brother was air bending. Sighing because now he's got to get to the bottom of this, he proceeds to the room the so-called air bender locked himself into. Mako is trying to keep calm, but the brother is scared of hurting anyone. Mako threatens to break the door down, but that just ends up triggering a blast of air that blows the door off its hinges and right into Mako, throwing him across the room, buried under the door, as the air-bending brother races off, blown away by yet another gust of wind. The first brother, bending over a recovering Mako, basically says I-told-you-so.
Back at Air Temple Island, Bumi desperately flails his arms and legs in futile attempts to consciously air-bend. Its useless. Korra and Tenzin try to theorize why Bumi might be air-bending now, but neither has an answer as both Mako and Lin Beifong quietly walk up to the family with no greetings to or from anybody. When Lin Beifong mistakes Bumi's practicing as one of Bumi's crazy recreational activities, Tenzin has to give her the stunning news. Except that the shared look between Mako and Beifong says that it's really not so stunning after all. They share Mako's information with Tenzin and the rest. Korra also tries to get Mako to come and stay on Air Temple Island. Mako, wishing he was anywhere else but facing two ex-girlfriends who want him to move in, explains that he's doing important work. The awkwardness ends in a completely unnecessary salute from Mako.
Korra and Asami, about to drive around looking for the mystery air-bender, decide that it's time for Korra to learn how to drive. A stick shift. It's not pretty, with Korra mistaking the brake for clutch. They share some jokes at Mako's expense, and each ends up confessing that Mako kissed her while he was going out with the other. Why they don't jointly realize that Mako is a total dog, but instead share a laugh over lost loves, is beyond me. They have no time to realize the sad truth about Mako, as they've been missing the huge vines growing right in the road, which Korra barely misses. Before they can be relieved, a porcupine spirit emerges from the vines, and Korra loses her calm. She insists that the porcupine get rid of the vines, telling him that this is supposed to be a place for humans. The spirit insists that they didn't create the vines, and disdainfully tells Korra that spirits and their habitats can't be considered separate entities. He implies, the snooty tone we've all come to know from spirits, that Korra should already know that. She didn't, but she's suddenly inspired with an idea for getting rid of the vines.
Don't look at me, lady, I'm just a tenant
The kids, back at Air Temple Island, ambush Tenzin with questions. With new airbenders, their lives could change, and they're ambivalent. Ikki insists that she's not sharing her room with new recruits; Tenzin tells her she'll keep her own room, but the Island itself will probably become more crowded. That's fine with Meelo, who dreams of commanding an army of air benders. Jinora schools him on air bender societies not having armies. Tenzin agrees with Jinora, but he gets a little misty-eyed as he wishes they get enough air benders to fill the temples around the world. Meelo wants his dad to be their boss, but Tenzin is more worried about being their guide. Meelo, with his grandfather's imposing statue behind him (somehow fixed right away after Unalaq destroyed it, I might add), tells his dad that the kids will help. Oh joy.
Korra, meanwhile, approaches a vine-covered building in Republic City, a building built along a canal with plenty of water. As she's about to begin her experiment, Lin Beifong and Bolin by her side, a crowd forms behind her. It's President Reiko, with reporters. Perhaps feeling that she needs supervision, or hoping she'll fail so Reiko can keep blaming her for the City's problems. Korra demands that the reporters shut up, and turns to face the vine-covered building. She bends water into tentacles that soon circle the whole building, and turns the water to spirit energy. The vines respond by retreating back into the canal with her water/spirit energy. She humbly bows to the vines, wishing them peace. All are stunned. The reporters dash to Korra, and are about to worship her, when the canal erupts, vines literally throwing themselves back around the building, covering even more of it, and the building on the other side of the canal, for good measure.
In fact, so many vines pull the other building, it's about to topple over. Lin Beifong and Bolin react quickly, sending stone support pillars up to hold up the building so Korra can evacuate everyone inside, including a kid stuck in the upper stories. A turret falls on the street just as Korra gets out from under it, and a crowd forms around the disaster.
Oh, I'm gonna' look like an idiot now...
Korra reverts to meditating, in an attempt to contact past Avatars. However, they are still gone, just like Korra declared they were after defeating Unalaq. Tenzin interrupts, but Korra's fine with giving up anyway. Without past Avatars, can she even go into the Avatar state anymore? Korra doesn't whine about losing her connection to the past, mostly because it's her own fault. Instead, she bemoans her pariah status in Republic City. Tenzin reminds her that she's not an elected official. She has another job, which is keeping the world's powers in balance. Sometimes, to restore balance, change must come. And not everyone is going to like that change. But what people "like" isn't necessarily Korra's problem. Balance, Tenzin feels, might just be its own reward. When Korra complains that she almost never knows what to do, Tenzin tells her that true wisdom is realizing what you don't know.
Bolin interrupts them with a rushed speech that he realizes too late is pretty rude. The police found the other new air-bender, who has now climbed to the top of the bridge, begging the police to not approach him, and blasting them off the bridge into the bay when they don't listen to him. Korra approaches from the air, and Mr. New Airbender can't ward her off. She settles on the bridge with him, and tells him that there are people who can help him with his new powers. Mr. Newbie wants his old life back; Korra tells him that might not be possible, but he should be taken to the Air Temple Island and just talk to the people there. He doesn't sound optimistic, and then falls off the bridge. Korra, totally in control, saves him from falling onto the roadway, to the crowd's relief. Tenzin warmly and kindly greets Mr. Newbie, who has gotten his stuff together enough to crack a joke about needing a diaper change.
Despite Korra saving the day, President Reiko is not pleased. He's furious that Republic City just seems to be going from one disaster to the next, and blames Korra, banishing her from Republic City. Korra, stoic, agrees that she'll be going. She turns to Tenzin, and seems happy when she tells him that her new mission is to find these new air-benders, and get them to Tenzin. Tenzin informs Korra that she won't be bringing anyone to him, because he's going with her. This episode shows how the bond of Tenzin and Korra has grown; he's never exasperated with her, and knows now to follow her instincts. Korra has learned to stop resisting Tenzin's lessons, and can benefit from earning his loyalty. Both seem completely unfazed by Reiko's banishment of Korra. They've got a mission to look forward to; one only an Avatar and master air-bender can undertake. Tenzin is already daydreaming of new and wonderful air nomads.
Far away (we think), in a mountainous country, where jagged rock-bergs jut from the sea below, a lonely prison cell is getting a visit. It can only be reached by a bridge, that can only be extended by metal-bending. A few members of the Order of the White Lotus approach, one with a tray of food. They have a leader who lacks enough sense to wear a helmet. He shouts at the prisoner, named Zaheer, to go to the back of his cell, and face away from the barred door. The guard deposits Zaheer's meal through a slit between the bars. A setup to show that this Zaheer is considered a dangerous man, who needs a cell in the middle of nowhere that is unreachable for normal people, with highly trained bender-guards.
Zaheer is a grizzled man, not young but not old. And he is perfectly calm. He decides now is the time for philosophy, and asks if the guard knows of Air Guru Laghima. Apparently, legend has it that Laghima was so in tune with air-bending, that he one day rose from the ground and never touched it again. Zaheer is particularly obsessed with one of Laghima's sayings: "Instinct is a lie/ Told by a fearful body/ Hoping to be wrong". Zaheer interprets it to mean that what you see doesn't even begin to describe the universe, and if you base your expectations on what is seeable, you can be taken by surprise. By, say, a prisoner who can suddenly air-bend. Zaheer blasts air at his guards, blowing them back far enough from the door so he can escape. One by one, the White Lotus guards, despite bending fire and earth and water at him, can't touch him as he glides and somersaults his way around all elements and guards. One by one, the White Lotus guards are blown into Zaheer's old cell, and then Zaheer blows the door back in place, leaving his guards with his meal as their only food.
He has a very special set of skills
The leader of the guards demands to know what Zaheer plans on doing. Formally announcing that he's the bad guy of the season, Zaheer outright tells them that he can see a future without the Order of the White Lotus. And without the Avatar. He leaps off the rock-berg for who knows where.
Notice that, unlike last season's cat and mouse with Unalaq, where we suspected he was trouble, then realized he was evil, then realized what he was really up to, Zaheer is announcing his intention to rid the world of the Avatar outright.
And now on to a final thought. There's another interpretation of Laghima's poem. "Instinct is a lie/Told by a fearful body/ Hoping to be wrong." Your fears will try to hold you back. But inside, there is a part of you that hopes you won't listen to your fears. Is that the real lesson to be learned this season, as Korra's world grapples with the changes of integrating the spirit and material worlds?
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