We pick up exactly where episode 8 left off... with Korra feverishly riding Naga along a dusty road, Mako, Asami and Bolin in the Jeep just behind her. They speed through the night, not stopping until well into the next day. It's not even a town, just a few huts clustered together, but it does boast a bar. Not surprising, drinking is the number one leisure activity when there's no other.
Team Korra stops in, only to be totally unimpressed with the shady-looking clientele. Bolin gets excited when he sees his face on a nearby poster, but before he can brag about being famous- again- Mako grabs him and reads what the poster actually says. Bolin is a criminal wanted by the Earth Queen. They all are, each with their own "Wanted" poster.
Why is only Bolin's picture smiling?
Their wanted posters all look dreadful, as if the Earth Queen took the worst picture in their Twitter feeds for her posters. They stop complaining only when they realize that the rest of the bar has recognized them. Swords, knives, and anything the patrons of the fine establishment could possibly use as weapons are being readied for some unspecified, but still known purpose. Team Korra backs out, with an unintimidated Korra indicating that she's watching them.
Just for the record, we're not scared of you
Korra's morning surprise is about as much fun as the surprise Lin is about to get. When she angrily asks Suyin where Team Korra is, Suyin goes into teenager-trying-to-minimize-her-guilt mode, using the same tactics to try to keep herself out of trouble she probably used on their mother, Toph. Where's Korra? Oh, well, I'm sure she'll be back just as soon as she finds Aiwei for me, Sis. 'Til then, don't lose your cool. It doesn't work on Lin, who erupts. When Suyin opts to try to convince Lin that controlling Korra isn't going to work, Lin storms off. Lin isn't going to stick around Zao Fu waiting.
Team Korra, on the road again, stop when Naga does, and it turns out that she's stopped where Aiwei did. Team Korra finds Aiwei's vehicle behind some well-placed bushes. Naga is so proud of herself, until Korra explains to her that there will be no reward. Naga takes out her frustration on Korra and stomps off. Mako decides that he'll go into the nearby town, an oasis named Misty Palms (no mist, but some sad-looking, decrepit palm trees), assuming Aiwei is hidden there.
Asami and Korra want to come too, but Mako convinces them to stay by the vehicle in case Aiwei comes back, leaving Bolin to accompany Mako into town. Before I launch into Bolin's latest comedy, notice how easily Mako's taken over decision-making. He's spent most of the season bored, until now, when there's a groovy mystery to solve. Someone get that guy an orange ascot and a green van.
Bolin contributes to the investigation by re-inventing himself. After getting the green light to come into Misty Palms, Bolin insists that they go incognito, fishing around in a magically-appearing bag for two lemon-yellow raincoats and swim goggles. Don't ask where the gear came from.
No, really, don't ask. You don't want to know.
Bolin would just make up a story, anyway. Mako, feeling ridiculous in his get-up, barely listens as Bolin gushes out his cover story- Bolin is really a secret agent named Ting Ting, with a chip on his shoulder just the size of Pabu. Mako declines getting a cover story, only wanting himself to be known as a detective. Bolin realizes that Mako's unnamed cover is even more mysterious than his, and coos his awe at Mako's minimalist storytelling.
Maybe the guys should stay by Aiwei's car instead...
The boys have a brief interlude with a bar owner, who confirms that Aiwei's in town from Bolin's description of his nose/earring and Aiwei's lie detecting. It includes watching the bar owner shoo some spirits out of his bar, and watching them hop away. Those spirits do some wandering outside of town, just where Korra is fuming uselessly at Aiwei's hidden whereabouts while Asami finds some clues in Aiwei's Jeep. She finds a map, and a note. The note gives them a place and a time, Xaibao's Grove, sunset. But the map has no Xaibao's Grove on it. The spirits shooed away earlier appear again, dancing around in Asami's way, and she shoos them away, so you know they actually have something important to tell her that she won't listen to.
The spirits are a little less helpful to Bolin, as one bites him viciously. This attracts the attention of some more shady-looking desert dwellers, these dressed for some kind of bow and arrow hunt. Bolin realizes, from their pointed looks at him, that he's been made. He and Mako flee the hunters, who run right past the alley Bolin and Mako hide in. Mako is trying to come up with their next move when Bolin spots Aiwei, completely by accident, walking on a street on the other side of the alley. And lucky them, Aiwei doesn't see them. For once, Team Korra has the element of surprise.
Korra wants to immediately capture Aiwei and demand to know everything about Zaheer. The suspense of not knowing why Zaheer wants to kidnap her is getting to her. Mako says that interrogating these guys didn't work for thirteen years, and it's time to be sneaky and spy on them. Korra decides Mako's right, and it's nice to see what he can do when he abandons his awkwardness around his friends.
The innkeeper isn't nearly as impressed with Mako when he tries to get a room for them all. She's suddenly the least of their problems when Bolin is finally cornered by the hunters. Team Korra is ready, going into instant attack mode despite the innkeeper's warning, but fighting will be completely unnecessary. Turns out, they're just really really devoted fans. And Bolin finally gets his star treatment. They've even got a Bolin bobblehead toy, which Bolin somehow ends up with as he autographs their movie poster. Even he can't come up with anything witty to say as the woman gushes all over him, in Level 5 Clinger-mode.
We're even crazier than you!
The whole incident, does, however, help them win over the innkeeper, who's only concern is that the exact room Mako picked out for their surveillance is pretty small. Despite Mako assuring the lady that it will be perfect, they literally all must jam into a bedroom not made for four adults, a fire ferret, and a polar bear dog.
Guess who gets the bed?
At least there's a Pai Sho game. Mako and Korra remain focused on watching Aiwei's room across the courtyard, but Bolin entices Asami into playing with him. Which he comes to regret. After he and Asami disagree on the pace of the game, they consult the rules only to find the rules confuse them more. Korra is totally unconvincing when she tells Bolin she'll get right on standardizing Pai Sho rules for everyone. You never know, that might help achieve balance, Korra. And Bolin could use a little help from the rules, as Asami wins every game. Every game. Over the course of hours, they play and play and play. While Korra and Mako look through the same window, over the same courtyard, towards the same room. This goes on. Until sunset.
Bolin's luck changes just before the sun goes down, and even Asami agrees he'll win this game, totally not concerned that he'll win for a change, as she's won every game before. But Pabu has other plans, hopping all over the board, scattering pieces and ruining Bolin's big chance. As Bolin collapses in a distraught heap on the floor, Pabu proceeds to rip the Bolin doll his biggest fan just gave him, just to remind him that, yes, it is personal.
The end of Bolin's Pai Sho hopes coincides with the end of Korra's patience. Mako notes that Aiwei is definitely in there, holding up his notebook as proof that Aiwei couldn't have gotten away. So, they know Aiwei's in there. Is he already onto them? Korra decides that spying isn't working out.
Time to ruin the plan!
Storming out there room, she can't be stopped from crossing the courtyard, and flinging open Aiwei's door, only to find him sitting on his bed, eyes closed, and unresponsive. Zaheer or his gang are nowhere to be found. Has Aiwei led them here to trap them?
Korra figures it out first. Aiwei is meditating. The spirits from earlier, by the Jeep, were trying to help Asami realize that Xaibao's Grove was in the Spirit World. And Aiwei has already proceeded to his rendezvous point, leaving his body behind at the Misty Palms Inn. Korra decides to join him, with the rest of the Team staying nearby to guard her body while it's spiritless.
Korra, now more advanced at finding the Spirit World now, is instantly there, and not far from where Zaheer suddenly appears. Aiwei emerges, and Zaheer instantly barrages him with questions, demanding to know how their kidnapping failed. He's clearly a horrible boss. Aiwei tries to calm him down, insisting that no one knows where he is, but telling Zaheer where his body is. Zaheer, now that he knows where Aiwei's body can be found, and that nobody will find him anytime soon, quickly knocks Aiwei's spirit 'out' and takes it over his own shoulder. Korra is shocked at Zaheer's betrayal, and screams out for his attention, which she gets right before Zaheer disappears to a cliff, which he throws Aiwei's spirit over.
He reappears to Korra, who angrily demands to know what he did with Aiwei. Zaheer is a little smug as he informs Korra that Aiwei won't be bothering anyone, as his spirit has been thrown into the Fog of Lost Souls, the 'prison' that Jinora, Tenzin, Kya and Bumi almost didn't re-emerge from last season. Aiwei is instantly forgotten, though, when Korra realizes that she can now just demand that Zaheer tell her directly what he wants. Zaheer is now all gentle helpfulness, telling Korra that she's entitled to know what he wants. He and Korra sit together in Xaibao's Grove.
Back in the Earth Kingdom, Zaheer's body is inert while the gang sits around a fire. Zaheer, however, suddenly mutters to his friends the location that Aiwei gave him before. So, Zaheer has assumed that Korra is there, and sends his gang to capture her while he keeps her detained long enough for them to arrive. Bastard!
That gets forgotten soon enough though, when Zaheer tries to claim Korra's lifelong Avatar Mission as his own: balance. It's a long story, involving Korra's defeated uncle, Unilaq. After Aang defeated Fire Lord Zuko 70 years ago, the Order of the White Lotus came out of hiding, and became the defense force for the Avatar, acting as bodyguards. Zaheer and his gang are members of the Order of the Red Lotus, formed sometime afterward, and convinced that they are what the White Lotus should be. An organization not devoted to protecting authority figures, but getting rid of the existing order of the world, paving the way for "true" balance. Unilaq, according to Zaheer, was once part of the Red Lotus, and part of the original kidnapping plot. Unilaq, unlike Zaheer and his gang, did not get caught in the kidnapping attempt. Unilaq buried his Red Lotus connections (probably literally), and went on to formulate his own plan for achieving world domination, which Korra only foiled by tapping into her own spirit power.
Zaheer and his gang spent years in prison, and Zaheer wondered if his mission was right. Until Harmonic Convergence, when he was one of the lucky few who gained air bending power. Despite some absolute clods gaining air bending, negating any special universal message, Zaheer convinced himself that his new power was a sign from the universe that he is doing the right thing. Which means that there's nothing Korra can say to convince him otherwise. Even when he reveals that the Red Lotus' plan for 'balance' is to remove the world's leaders from power, giving everyone "true" freedom. Korra says that sounds like chaos, and demands to know why Zaheer wanted to kidnap her years ago. Zaheer tells her it was to raise her with his "ideals", but Korra tells Zaheer it sounds more like an attempt to brainwash her. Zaheer, possibly realizing that Korra will never willingly help him, brushes all of Korra's criticisms of the Red Lotus aside. True freedom means no leaders. Period. It's like freedom is the only thing Zaheer believes in. It never occurs to him that people might want something else, like fairness. Or protection from exploitation, or protection from theft. For Zaheer, only when anyone can do whatever he or she wants, will the universe be in balance. Even John Galt thinks Zaheer is off his rocker.
While keeping Korra occupied, Mako, Bolin and Asami realize that Ghazan, the lava bender, and Ming Hua, the water bender have arrived. With Korra still in meditation and not waking up, Mako sends Asami away with Korra on Naga, and they ride out just as Ghazan and Ming Hua see them leave Aiwei's room. Mako and Bolin stay behind for a duel.
Bring it
Once again, Mako takes on Ming Hua and Bolin tries to take on Ghazan. Mako gets in some shots, with his fire drying her water a few times, but Ming Hua quickly figures out that she can use ice to trap Mako and immobilize him, then knock him out. Bolin barely holds up against Ghazan's lava, since any rocks he throws at Ghazan get turned right into lava that he can only dodge. Doesn't take long for Ming Hua and Ghazan to team up against Bolin. He tries to dodge them by jumping in the pool, and it does save him from a lava attack.
Ooooh... pretty colors!
But Ming Hua uses the pool water to trap Bolin in a ball of water he barely manages to get his head out of. Asami has gotten away, but Bolin and Mako look like they're situation is only going to get worse. Ming Hua sends Ghazan away to find Asami and Korra.
We find the ladies, galloping (do polar bear dogs gallop?) away on Naga, Korra still out cold, when Naga is suddenly stopped by folding panels of rock, lifting up to form a pyramid that imprisons them.
So... where am I going?
Still in Xaibao's Grove with Zaheer, Korra's not convinced of any of Zaheer's ideas, and growing impatient. She demands to know why exactly Zaheer wants to kidnap her now. Confident that Korra's his by now, he tells her she'll find out when she wakes up in his custody, and tells her his trap is sprung. Korra, immediately realizing she needs to wake up, does, but doesn't like where she is. Or how she's completely immobilized on a rack, with arms strapped to herself, and half her face covered.
Remind you of anybody?
Ugh.
And can you believe it? There's no Wifi
Which is what Ghazan and Ming Hua also tell Zaheer, back at the cave they've been hiding in. Despite not having the Avatar, they have the next best thing- two of her close friends, hands tied behind their backs. They throw Mako and Bolin on the ground. Zaheer, despite losing Korra again, s pleased to announce that they'll be taking the guys to Ba Sing Sei.
First class for us, steerage for you!
No comments:
Post a Comment