Jinora supervises a sparring match between Bumi and new recruit Kai, and Bumi thinks this is going to be like a boxing match of his young army days. Right after he tells Kai not to worry, he'll go easy on the little guy, Kai lays Bumi flat on his back with unorthodox moves and airbending. Kai's a good sport, though, and offers to help Bumi up. He also helps himself to Bumi's wallet (this is going to be a thing with Kai). As Bumi chases Kai for his wallet back, Korra and Tenzin have a parlay on an upper deck, watching the proceedings but totally unconcerned that Kai is still stealing.
Korra and Tenzin are both much more concerned with meeting the Earth Queen, who resides in the Upper Ring of the great Impenetrable City Ba Sing Se. We last saw Ba Sing Se about 70 years ago, when Aang and his crew traveled there, to unsuccessfully prevent the Fire Nation from taking it. Korra wants to know what the current Earth Queen is like; Tenzin's only heard that she can be demanding. He's clearly not looking forward to meeting her, and his tense silence indicates that he expects finding air benders and leaving with them will be made more difficult than it already is. He ends up being even more right than he knows.
For now, though, Team Korra just concentrates on the great stone wall before them. It looms in the distance, separating the farms of the Outer Ring from the city itself. Bolin rushes to the railing, like a kid waiting to see Santa, and he exhorts Mako to join him, who reluctantly does. Mako continues his trend of barely caring what's going on, for as long as he can. Together, everyone focuses on what's on the other side of that wall.
The Emerald City it ain't
Ba Sing Se appears, and it's an immense city. Both ends of the horizon are filled with buildings and gardens. Well, except the Lower Ring, which they pass through first. It's basically a slum, with dirt roads, no greenery, and a smell that no one on the airship can ignore, even high over the city. The next wall shows the Middle Ring, a comfortable array of small, orderly buildings and parks. The next wall, good and high, leads to the Upper Ring; Ba Sing Se's wealthy and government officials live and work here, and you don't get in without permission.
Just like L.A.
Team Korra proceeds into the Upper Ring, which is mostly open space except for government buildings and residences. A few airships are already parked where Team Korra lands, and they are met by Grand Secretariat Gun, personal assistant and food taster for Earth Queen Hou-Ting. After Bolin happily disembarks and praises the smell, Gun launches into a running monologue on how to not anger the Queen. Naga and Oogi will have to stay hidden, and Pabu will occasionally have to hide in Bolin's shirt, at Hou-Ting hates animals. The group moves on, with Gun now explaining how meals will go. Gun tastes everything first, because heaven forbid Hou-Ting eat poisoned food. Then Hou-Ting eats, then people eating with her get to eat. If this is too complicated, Gun advises just not eating. The group is less and less enthused about the place as they get to their guest house, where Naga and Oogi will have to stay in the backyard.
While following Gun around, Kai takes a few looks at the ridiculously wealthy inhabitants literally letting ridiculously valuable jewels and purses just hang everywhere. Without anyone noticing, Kai disappears.
Gun takes Korra to meet the Earth Queen, Hou-Ting, and she's every bit as awful as we've been led to expect. Obsessed with building garden projects at her palace, ordering crews around and never liking anything built or grown. When nothing meets her approval, it all has to be ripped out and started over. She will eventually complain of how unsatisfactory her servants are to Korra. When she asks Korra if she has servant trouble, Korra will happily inform her that she doesn't have servants. Well, unless you count Tenzin's air accolytes on Air Temple Island. Or the crew maintaining the airship. Who are technically not her servants. But still. When was the last time she did laundry? Just askin'.
What could be more important than the shape of my ornamental bushes?
Korra may or may not do housework; but she at least knows to be polite to those who do, and she obviously judges Hou-Ting severely for her snobbish and domineering behavior. Hou-Ting further alienates the Avatar by beginning with everything she dislikes Avatars for; her father, Earth King Kuei, gave some Earth Kingdom land to Avatar Aang and Fire Lord Zuko, to establish the United Republic. Hou-Ting is still bitchy about it, as it was probably about 20% of the Earth Kingdom. She blames the past Avatar for having less tax money to spoil herself with (she sure as heck doesn't spend anything on her people). Korra, who had nothing to do with this and actually was living in the United Republic until recently, tries to stammer something before she's interrupted. Hou-Ting also guilts Korra for not visiting before, as if she was owed a diplomatic visit despite the numerous problems Korra had to deal with for the last few months. She then accuses Korra of only coming because she wants something.
Even though Hou-Ting is right, Korra does need her help, Korra is there as much to help Hou-Ting as get help; Korra wants to train the Earth Kingdom's air benders, and really just needs help finding them. Korra and Tenzin will do the rest. While she says she doesn't personally know of any air benders in Ba Sing Se, Hou-Ting appears to consider this request, but then decides that Korra must do her a solid first. Fair enough, Korra thinks. Hou-Ting gives Korra the job of collecting some tax money in a nearby town, which her soldiers have been unable to transport to her because of local trouble. Korra agrees, but she seems pissy at having to solve a monarch's tax troubles so the woman can have her ridiculously expensive landscaping. Gun, who tries to escort Korra away, gets the brunt of Korra's disgust instead, as Korra simply shoves him to the ground to storm off. It looks funny when she does it, but poor "Grand Secretariat" Gun. He must get shit meant for the Queen all the time.
Back at the guest house, the team finally notices that Kai is missing. So much for Mako watching him. Mako is now of the idea that since Kai doesn't care about them, maybe they should just let him go. Tenzin decides that Kai must be found, as Kai is their responsibility and the only recruit they've managed to convince to join them. Bolin and Mako finally do find Kai, but only after he's successfully picked a local's purse off him, using air bending to rustle the man's clothes and blow off his hat before appearing to help him to get back together.
Kai's slightly illegal revenue stream
Mako immediately chases Kai around the Upper Ring, showing that he still has it, and can match Kai move for move. When Kai tries to escape on a monorail train, Mako manages to catch him by surprise, and for a moment it looks like he's busted. But Kai slips out of his jacket, blows the brothers back, and escapes off the car right before the doors close, trapping Bolin and Mako on the train. A non-stop, heading to the Lower Ring. Bolin thinks that this just illustrates what a great, resourceful lil' troublemaker Kai is. Mako thinks Kai is too much like Bolin.
Kai is. In. So. Much. Trouble.
After a long train journey, the doors finally open on the Lower Ring station, and Bolin and Mako rush over to the train heading back to the Upper Ring. One problem; it costs money, and Kai also managed to steal their wallets on the train. Bolin hates admitting Kai scammed them too. As he and an angrily disappointed Mako leave the station for an extended stay in the Lower Ring, Bolin tries to comfort Mako with the sad fact that they'll be able to go to the bathroom wherever they want. A life on the streets that the brothers worked so hard to escape is their short-term future.
Totally slumming it for a while
The next morning, Asami and Korra, seeming totally unworried about a missing Kai, Bolin and Mako, head out to do Hou-Ting's bidding, with Korra telling Asami it shouldn't be difficult, or too dangerous, so they don't need the whole team anyway. Korra seems bored and frustrated that she's just running an errand for the Earth Queen.
Bolin and Mako, still apparently, unmissed, wake up in an alley, amid trash. Mako, and we know this is wrong, thinks they've been missed already. Bolin is worried about his lovable lil' scamp, who is waking up to breakfast in bed and enjoying a luxurious morning in the city.
Livin' the dream
Bolin and Mako wander around, at a total loss on how to get back to the Upper Ring, or even where to get some breakfast. Bolin sees a fruit stand and wants to resurrect one of their old street-days scams. Mako is indignant at stealing, especially the rotting, insect infested fruit-like matter in front of them. This insults the fruit-seller, who pops up behind fly-infested bananas to tell them off. Mako, unplussed, just wants to clarify whether the guy wants them to try to steal the fruit after all; Bolin demands to know if that's the plan after all; the fruit-seller, decides to jump from behind the stand, and tackle them both. While struggling over fruit Mako didn't even want to steal, a middle-aged man appears from the alley behind. The middle-aged guy recognizes Mako and Bolin from one look, and correctly calls them by their names, and even knows their father's name. The fruit-seller turns out to be named Tu, and turns out to be their first cousin.
Just as we're getting used to Ba Sing Se, we go to the Northern Water Tribe, where the new chiefs live and basically spend their days on twin thrones, bored out of their minds. It's good ol' Desna and Eska. Zuko shows up, riding his dragon with Tonraq, father to Korra and uncle to the new chiefs, and Desna and Eska don't get the interruption of their boring day. Zuko says he's got great news for them: there's a secret ice prison to the west, and everyone's going.
Field Trip!
Just as we get used to the North Pole, we go right back to Ba Sing Se, where uncle Chow and cousin Tu show Bolin and Mako where the extended family lives, which is apparently one really big room in an apartment building. Tu is convinced that Bolin and Mako have been living it up in Republic City; the boys have to explain they spent years dirt poor and living wherever they could sleep. Inside, there are numerous cousins, aunts, uncles, and such. And one grandmother, obviously the center of the family, named Yin. Yin immediately asks about the boys parents, including their father and her son. Bolin and Mako have the sad job of informing her that both their parents were killed years ago.
Nice to meet you, Grandma, we have some really bad news for you...
Asami and Korra have about the same mixed day as Bolin and Mako. Asami brings her electrified shock-glove, but they don't need it when every local on the streets retreats into the buildings framing a town square. Asami and Korra worry a little, but get the local soldiers to start hauling the tax money to the airship. As the soldiers proceed rolling the tax money along, a signal flare shoots into the sky, and a motorcycle gang literally comes from over the buildings, landing in the massive town square, and telling Korra to hand over the money. Korra tells their skull-masked leader that the money's going to the Queen; their leader insults Korra and Asami, saying he loves girls with a little spirit.
Did that guy just call us girls?????
Well, now Korra and Asami will kick their asses on general principle. Which they do. Korra bends her way through most of the gang, while Asami uses awesome flip moves with her glove to get a couple motorcycles down. When the gang leader himself goes down, they retreat. But the gangleader, as they are hauled away in an armored truck that comes from nowhere, yells at Korra that she's on the wrong side, and that that money is the people's. Korra, though victorious, bitterly admits to Asami that he's right.
Bolin and Mako have a more heartfelt evening, as they have dinner with their new family, and Bolin attempts to count them all. Uncle Chow fills in some family history. His brother and the boys' father, San, had dreams of living in Republic City, and left over grandpa's wishes. They only ever heard from San once, a letter about his new family. They've heard nothing since, and Grandmother Yin leaves, overcome with the knowledge that that letter was the last they ever will hear from San. Bolin and Mako follow, and Yin sits them down to look at that last letter together. It came with a picture, showing Bolin and Mako, already so different. Bolin recognizes San's scarf, now constantly worn by Mako. Mako, realizing that Yin needs a connection to her dead son more than he does, takes it off and graciously gives it to her. Will getting something out of this trip himself make Mako a little more enthusiastic about it?
Handing over the official Mako Family Scarf
When Bolin and Mako return to the family, they thank them for their hospitality, and ask how to get back to the Upper Ring. They explain that they're here with Avatar Korra, and helping her find and recruit the new air benders in Ba Sing Sei. The family is aghast. Uncle Chow tells the boys that another local was air bending openly right after Harmonic Convergence. He disappeared. Now no one gets caught air bending. Yin doesn't want to believe that the Earth Queen had anything to do with disappearing Earth Benders, but word is that she's drafting them for her own army. Bolin immediately worries about Kai, and even Mako looks like he'll have to show some concern for the little thief.
Back at the North Pole, Zuko leads Tonraq, Desna and Eska into the elaborate, deeply dug Ice Prison of the North. He explains to them that it was built for one prisoner by Unalaq, who Korra just defeated, father of Desna and Eska. The twins wish they had known of the place earlier; both have people they'd love to imprison. Desna particularly wishes he could punish his tailor for wrinkly cuffs by throwing him in here. Zuko, despite hearing how a fellow ruler would like to become a despot, continues on and informs them that it was built and kept freezing cold for a combustive, explosive fire bender. Zuko then decides to give a history lesson, admitting he hired a similar bender once to kill Avatar Aang. In his defense, it didn't work (because Zuko helped stop him). It's silent, but then Eska admits to trying to kill Avatar Korra over her fiasco of a failed wedding. She consoles Zuko that trying to kill Avatars happens, nothing to fret about.
Look, we have to talk about something in this elevator....
Tonraq decides he's had enough of bonding over trying to kill Avatars, and focuses everyone on the prisoner they're about to personally guard: a woman named P'Li. P'Li is pleased to have visitors, shivering in an ice-covered cell, and correctly reasoning that Zaheer has escaped. Zuko and Tonraq remind her they're hear to defeat her would-be rescuers; undaunted, she almost purrs like a cat as she tells her visitors that she feels warmer already.
Back in Ba Sing Se, Korra tells Hou-Ting to take her ill-gotten gains, and help her find air benders. Hou-Ting looks like she's pondering for a second, then imperiously tells Korra that her Dai Li guards searched, and found none. So Korra can leave now. Korra, furious, reminds the Queen that Korra just basically stole money from Hou-Ting's subjects so Hou-Ting can buy more decorative shrubs. Now, Korra wants her air benders. And she refuses to leave until she's got them, tackling poor Gun again as she busts out of the throne room.
Korra's right to be furious. We know, because we see Kai, one last time, once again using his I'm-just-helping-you-after-that-weird-breeze trick to steal purses again. We're not the only ones who catch it; a Dai Li soldier does too, and Kai finds himself surrounded by Dai Li, and caught by flying handcuffs, pinned to a gate, and trying to fend the soldiers off. He loses, and the Dai Li toss him not into a cell, but a room filled with about six other air benders, all dressed in rags. Kai, now in rags too, is angry and scared. As the Dai Li shut the door, they tell Kai that he belongs to the Earth Queen, and he'll spend the rest of his days fighting for her. Kai, finally caught, can only look desperate as he realizes his two big brothers won't be able to find him anytime soon.
Probably shouldn't have tricked your guardians, kid!
No comments:
Post a Comment