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!
THAT. DEATH.
AMYYYY.