This is a two-part finale, effectively. So I will be covering both episodes here.
Epimetheus
The episode begins with Hiroshi Sato delivering an expositionary speech about what's happened the last few days. Bending has been declared illegal, Aang's statue was defaced, the Avatar flees from their presence, and Amon is preparing to fight the incoming "United Forces" invasion. The crowd cheers him on, as two people in Equalist gear walk away. One of them earthbends a passage.
They're Korra and Mako. On their way back to the group, Korra is pissed about being seen as "on the run," and she naturally wants to go back up there. Mako brings sanity to Korra's nonsense, reminding her that they've got an army coming. Korra just says that she hates being patient. Of course you do; it makes too much sense for you to like it.
Cut to the rest of the group, in some kind of shanty town. Asami's snippy with Mako, since he and Korra were out together. Oh and look, it's that random hobo from before. He talks up the fact that there, among the indigent and cast-offs of society, Amon's Equalist movement has no sway. Benders and non-benders live together "harmoniously"... in filth. He cooks them a meal of... boiled garbage stew. Yummy. Asami is not pleased with the meal, so she gives it to Pabu.
You know, Asami, your father would still be willing to take you back. Just sayin'.
Cut to Korra, lying against Naga at night. Mako shows up, asking if she can't sleep either. Great; more shipping. Korra talks about how much has changed since she left the Southern Water Tribe a few months ago. Mako talks about how he didn't even know her then, yet now can't imagine not being with her. Thus proving that Mako has no life outside of Korra. He strokes her ego a bit, and then moves in for a kiss, but she says that she should sleep.
Enough of that horseshit; cut to Amon. A blindfolded guy is brought to him. Amon declares that he will be "cleansed," and then de-bends him. Then he says, "Next," and we see a whole line of people waiting their turn.
Cut to Korra&Ko going outside on a foggy morning. They're waiting for the army to show up, and they don't have long to wait. We cut to General Iroh, who wonders where the enemy is. And Korra's wondering the same thing. And I'm wondering why Korra&Ko didn't do anything to thwart Amon's invasion efforts. Oh that's right, Korra has about as much forethought as the common stump.
Korra&Ko look on with greater worry at why there are no obvious defenses here. We then get a camera shot underwater showing mines. Which naturally start exploding when Iroh says, "Something's not right." He's correct; what's not right is the fact that he didn't check for mines before entering a choke point. Indeed, it seems that this fleet consists only of one size of ship: big. No smaller ships, no utility vessels that might be able to check for mines. Just big ships.
Then... Korra jumps into the bay, apparently to swim to their ships. Oh, and biplanes show up, because why not. They begin making bombing runs of the ships, while Korra is in the water nearby. They even have torpedo planes, some of which nearly hit Korra.
We see the United Forces soldiers fighting back. Earthbenders throwing disks of stone, firebenders manning cannons. And thus Amon's vision is fulfilled: it's benders vs. non-benders, because the United Forces side has absolutely no non-benders at all. Everything on their ships is powered by bending. All of the offensive and defensive weaponry needs benders to function.
Seriously, outside of the occasional political position, are there non-benders in any form of de facto authority in this People's United Democratic Republic? The police are benders, the army is benders. All forms of actual power come from benders.
I guess non-benders should be glad that ethnic cleansing hasn't set in.
Korra tries a few futile attacks. Iroh gets up onto his mast and firebends at planes. Now if these pilots weren't idiots and stopped trying to fly so low, they would easily avoid this. But they're not, so he manages to take out several planes. Iroh eats a bomb directly to the face, but much like his grandfather, this only serves to piss him off and give him some minor clothing damage. Korra rescues him because... he's a named character; screw his crew.
Cut to Korra&Ko with Iroh. Korra is annoyed at how Amon keeps outsmarting them. Well, it wouldn't be so easy if you made even the slightest effort to anticipate the actions of your opponent. You're only losing because you're stupid and think that Amon is as stupid as you. This isn't even Azula-level craftiness here; Amon is simply exhibiting basic competence: think about what the enemy will do, and make arrangements to deal with it.
Iroh says that they still have a few tricks left, but he needs to send a message to do so. Thus, Korra takes him to the random hobo again, who's apparently a telegraph operator. Isn't that awfully convenient. Iroh sends a message to "Commander Bumi,*" telling them what happened and where to wait until they're told when to move out and attack.
Iroh then whips out a map, saying that they need to attack the airbase. OMGWTFBBQ, actual planning and initiative?! It's almost like this guy's a general or something. Mako suggests the location of the base, based on back-tracking the direction the planes came from. So Iroh says that they'll move out at dawn. Because attacking under cover of darkness would make too much sense. Asami says that they're going after her father now. Um, how can you possibly know he'll be there? Did you read ahead in the script?
Korra gets an odd look at all this. Then she tells the others that she's not going, that she doesn't want to wait around anymore, that she's going after Amon. Um, Korra, you're not waiting around anymore; Iroh just came up with a plan of attack. So you'll be attacking, not waiting. Iroh says, "that's not a good plan." Of course not; Korra came up with it. She offers no rational explanation for why she needs to do this; she just says that "my gut" is telling her to fight him now, "on my terms."
Yes, your gut instinct has done so well thus far, Korra. Like the time you called him out, he captured you, and the only reason he didn't de-bend you was because it would make a martyr out of you. Speaking of which, what happened to you being frightened of him? Did you work through that off-screen?
Iroh again tries to point out how stupid this plan is, but he leaves open the idea by saying that it's too big for her to do alone. So Mako agrees to a suicide pact with Korra. And Iroh relents, citing that his grandfather trusted the "Avatar's instinct." I'm sorry, am I the only one who watched all the other episodes, where Korra's instincts got her routinely captured or otherwise didn't lead to good things? There is no such thing as Avatar Sense, or if there is, the writers need to explain when the hell she developed it to substitute for her pre-existing Dumbass Sense powers.
Well, cut to morning. Bolin and Mako hug it out in a tender moment, damaged only by the crying of the hobo. Bolin reminds Korra to be careful, and they hug; a tender moment not damaged by a crying hobo. Korra gives them Naga for their mission. Mako gets a moment with Asami, where he... doesn't break things off with her cleanly. Instead, he says that he wants her to know how much he cares about her. Yeah, how much is that exactly? She kisses him on the cheek and walks off.
Time For Backstory
They decide to hang out in the attic until Amon returns. And in the attic is... Tarrlok. How dramatically convenient. Korra asks who else is around, but he says he's the only one. Korra asks why, and Tarrlok beings the epic reveal: that he's Amon's brother.
DUN DUN DUNNNNN!!!!
Get comfortable, because the entire third act of this episode is exposition and backstory. Tarrlok only learned Amon was his brother after he was captured and de-bent.
Yakone was broken out of prison by some of his cronies, and he got some plastic surgery to change his appearance. Sure why not. He moved to the Northern Water Tribe, got married, and had two boys. Amon, then called Noatak, was the eldest, and he watched out for his brother. And we get heartwarming shots of them playing in the snow.
Things took a turn for the worse when the two discovered they could waterbend. Yakone became much harsher with them, especially for Tarrlok who wasn't as good a waterbender as Amon. After a bit, Yakone took his children on a hunting trip, where he told them the truth about his identity. Then he told them about bloodbending, what he considered the most powerful bending form. He also tells us that it was "that coward Katara" who made it illegal. That hypocrite maybe; I seem to recall a little revenge epic where she was perfectly fine with using it. But then Katara's always cared more for forcing rules on others than following them herself, so a point for character consistency.
Yakone then says that he wants them to avenge him by mastering his uber-bloodbending, attacking Republic City, and killing the Avatar, who stole his bending. He declares that this is now the purpose of his children; Tarrlok narrates that this was the end of the good times.
Tarrlok narrates that Yakone took them on "hunting trips" every full moon, to teach them bloodbending. We see Noatak bloodbending some bovine, while Tarrlok looks on with horror. Yakone snarls at him for his weakness, but praises Noatak's skill. Then, they moved to any-time bloodbending, which Tarrlok also hated because it meant more time practicing the skill.
Tarrlok said that Noatak seemed to enjoy bending animals to his will. And he did quite well, mastering the technique by age 14; he didn't even need to use his hands. Noatak was changed by all this, becoming colder and more distant.
Then the day came to upgrade their skills to people. Namely, each other. Noatak bloodbended Tarrlok as instructed, but Tarrlok refused to do so to his brother. Naturally, this pisses Yakone off, but before he can attack Tarrlok, Noatak bloodbends him. Oops. Noatak then declares that the Avatar was more powerful than Yakone, since he took Yakone's bending. Noatak then declares that they aren't his tools for revenge.
Noatak asks Tarrlok to run away with him, but Tarrlok doesn't want to leave their mother. So Noatak declares him to be weak and runs off. This kinda destroyed their family, causing Yakone to give up on his dreams of revenge and he died a few years later.
Back in the present, Korra considers this, "one of the saddest stories I've ever heard." Wouldn't it be great if it were a big pack of lies? But no, it's the truth. Tarrlok declares that his father's spirit still shaped him into a tool of revenge, just as it had Noatak, and he apologizes for his actions.
The reason Tarrlok figured all this out was that he recognized his brother's bloodbending when he was de-bended. And this all also explains how Amon shrugged off Tarrlok's bloodbending. This also means that Amon subtly uses bloodbending during fights, which allows him to dodge attacks. And obviously, he could use bloodbending more overtly at any time.
Korra shows that she has something not entirely unlike intelligence, when she says that they could expose him as a bender at the rally. This would strip him of his supporters. Granted, she doesn't have the foresight to realize that even if she managed to succeed, she'd still be in his line-of-sight, thus allowing him to bloodbend and capture her for de-bending.
Korra wants to free Tarrlok, thus proving that her intelligence a moment ago was just for show. Tarrlok has to point out that this would immediately tip someone off that someone found him. He asks her to end this story.
Three-Way Dance
Endgame begins with Bolin, Iroh, and Asami arriving at the airfield; planes overhead announce its presence. They head down there, leaving Naga behind. They see some posts standing in the snow. Asami asks, "Why would there be fence-posts, but no fence?", then the three of them run into the invisible electric fence. Wow, you three are so stupid you deserve to be captured.
Cut to Amon at the Pro-Bending arena. Korra and Mako show up, wearing their disguises. Amon tells his life-story again, mainly to give Korra an excuse to interrupt with, "that's a lie, Amon!" She then refers to him as Noatak, causing a zoom-in to his eye, which narrows slightly. Amon tells his crowd to calm themselves and let the Avatar speak.
Korra tells the crowd about his de-bending power being bloodbending, and that his brother is Tarrlok and his father is Yakone. For some reason, Amon's lieutenant seems oddly willing to buy this nonsense, despite it coming from someone he has no reason to trust. But Amon takes off his mask to reveal his scarred face. Wow, that's impressive; every day, Amon puts on scar makeup on the off chance that he'll need to do this.
Naturally, the crowd turns on them. A couple of Equalists show up to capture them, and Mako suggests that they escape. That's when Amon delivers the punch line: part of the stage rises to reveal... Tenzin and his airbenders! Good job, Tenzin; Lin sacrifices herself to buy you a chance to escape, and you screw it up by getting captured. Top notch.
Speaking of screwing things up and getting captured, cut to Asami and Ko. Hiroshi appears and says that he believes that Asami will come to her senses in time. Asami is pissed, saying that they can never be a family again, and that her mother would hate what he's become. Hiroshi goes apeshit, yelling that he's avenging his wife. Another guy interrupts, telling him that the planes are ready, so Hiroshi orders "the fleet" to be destroyed. The collective gasps from Iroh and Bolin give Hiroshi the opportunity to tell them that yes, he intercepted their wire and knows where the fleet is. You mean Hobo-com transmissions aren't secure?
They wonder how they're going to escape. Here's an idea, General; firebend at the bars until they melt. Being tide up wouldn't have stopped Azula or Ozai, or hell even Zuko; that's what firebreathing is for. Indeed, he should be able to firebreath to release them from their ropes. Or Bolin could earthbend and dig them a tunnel. Again, being tide up doesn't make you powerless; his legs have full range of motion. But no, we have to get out of here much, much stupider. Naga shows up and is able to break the cage.
Which means that Naga was able to get past the invisible fence. The invisible fence that "our heroes" couldn't even get past. That's right; their collective intelligence has been trumped... by a dog.
Iroh heads for the planes, while Bolin rides Naga. Asami decides to hop into one of the tanks; she delivers some exposition to explain how she can drive one, since it controls like a forklift. Iroh uses firebending to catch up with a recently-launched plane and commandeer it. His flying goes less than well, but he manages to keep the plane in the air.
Cut back to Amon, who declares that he will destroy all of the airbenders. Korra wants to stop him, but Mako holds her back, saying that he's baiting her. Yeah, but the alternative to fighting right now is letting him de-bend the airbenders. Granted, as we've seen with Yakone, that won't actually destroy all airbending, as their children can still manifest the skill. But it'd still suck for the time being.
When Amon approaches them, Mako decides to cut loose with lightning. Hey, what happened to "baiting you;" nothing changed since you said that. The pair jump down, using synchronized firebending to wall-run. Mako holds the Equalists back with wild firebending while Korra frees the family. Pema and her baby are in prison, so they still have more to do. Tenzin airbends to clear the stage, and the group escape via a side door. Tenzin takes his family to go find his wife and son, while Korra and Mako lead Amon away. They duck into a room before Amon sees them. However, he does see the door close, so he walks in.
Korra's hiding under a table, hidden from view. But she can still see and hear his footsteps. Tense moments pass as he walks by her table. He stops, and sweat drips down her face. Then he moves on. Korra gives the smallest of sighs.
Then he yanks her out with bloodbending. Mako appears and attacks, but is quickly taken out as well. Amon then slowly walks behind Korra and places his hand at her neck. She cries out in terror as his thumb falls to her forehead.
And she is cleansed of her impurity.
Cut to General Iroh. We get a solid minute and thirty seconds of him taking out the plane squadron. And if he were an actual character, that might matter. But he's not, so we care little for him save for his name and voice actor. He does fly around with his firebending, which is silly. And the fight ends with his plane crashing into Aang's statue. But it only knocks off the giant Amon mask.
Meanwhile, Bolin is destroying the runways. Three tanks come after him, but they are dragged off their feet... by the dog. Yes, really; Naga can move several tons worth of metal. Sure why not. Also, this almost gets Bolin killed, but mainly because he's too stupid to get out of the way.
Asami is busy working out her daddy issues by breaking planes in the hanger. Her father arrives, also driving a tank. He reminds her that she's helping the people who killed her mother. Rather than dispute this obvious generalization, Asami says that he doesn't love her mother anymore, that he's too full of hatred. So he attacks. He knocks her tank down and starts battering at the cockpit, saying that there's no chance for her redemption anymore.
Bolin appears to rescue her, shouting that he's a terrible father. The earthbending barrage distracts Hiroshi long enough for Asami to rip his tank's arm off and fling him across the room. She climbs on top of his tank, ready to return the favor he tried to give her, but she stops. That gives Hiroshi the chance to attack and use that distraction to flee. But he doesn't get far before Asami nails him with an electrified bolo.
Cut back to Amon, gloating over his victory. Then his lieutenant makes his presence known; he saw the bloodbending thing. He pulls off his mask and crushes it, declaring Amon to be a traitor and attacks him. Well, this ends about as well as you'd expect: with the lieutenant being bloodbent and sent into the wall.
Then Amon goes to Mako. However, Mako has a surprise for him: lightning, which he managed to summon without any movement at all, save pointing two fingers. So Amon's dead, right? I mean, lightning is still lightning, isn't it? 60 years didn't stop it from being a killing technique.
Mako picks up Korra and runs for it. As they're running, Korra whispers about her bending being gone, but Mako figures that's for later. Then he gets bloodbent. So, all that time in ATLA to show that lightning-bending was practically death incarnate, and now it's been reduced to what a shock glove can do. Less actually, considering how quickly Amon recovered.
Amon softens Mako up this time by bouncing him off of every wall in the hallway. Then he praises him, saying that nobody's ever managed to escape his bloodbending enough to attack. So he turns Mako around and reaches for him.
Then Korra airbends. Of course she does. Despite the punch looking nothing like an airbending move, a gust of wind hits Amon. She realizes she can airbend, then starts a barrage of punches that also look nothing like airbending moves. Granted Amon still has his bloodbending, so this does little more than piss Amon off. Well, it would if she didn't somehow get a kick in there through his bloodbending that airbends him through the wall and into the bay outside.
Amon's mask comes off as he enters the water. The crowd sees it float to the surface. We see Amon sinking, then waking up underwater. To keep from drowning he waterbends, but a little too much, as he's now riding atop a pillar in the bay. And his makeup came off.
Oops.
The crowd turns on him, so Amon flees, diving underwater and swimming away.
Endgame
Cut to Amon going to Tarrlok's cell. Noatak apologizes for destroying Tarrlok's bending, and Tarrlok muses on how he should have gone with him back then. So Noatak decides to invite him along now, saying that they have a second chance now, that he doesn't have anything else left.
Cut to Air Temple island, where we see ships from the United Forces arriving. I guess the Equalists all gave up off-screen. Korra&Ko are all here, as is Lin who's unhappy to see Korra de-bended. Tenzin tries to salve Korra's feelings by saying that she saved the city; she reminds him that Amon is still at large.
Then a ship comes by, and Ikki says that their uncle Bumi has arrived. He delivers an over-the-top "yahoo;" wow, you don't even get a real line in this series, and I hate you already. Tenzin is similarly not pleased with having to spend time with Bumi.
Cut to the open ocean, where Noatak's driving a boat with Tarrlok in the back. Noatak exclaims that all things are possible for the two of them. While Noatak wistfully talks about how he'd pretty much forgotten his original name, Tarrlok looks at some of the shock gloves on the boat. As sad music plays, he picks one up and puts it on. Then he unscrews the cap to the fuel storage and speaks the page quote.
A distant shot shows the boat exploding.
Cut to Korra's OWL compound in the Southern Water Tribe. Everyone's sitting in a room, including Korra's parents. Katara opens a door, then says that despite her best efforts, there's nothing she can do about Korra. Way to be defeatist there, Master Katara; unless everyone was sitting there for weeks, you seem to come to that conclusion pretty fast. Especially considering that you have never encountered this condition before. I guess if it doesn't come easy, it doesn't come at all for you; I wondered where Korra got that attitude from. Lin seems to agree, wanting Katara to keep trying, but Katara's adamant that her connection to the non-air elements was cut off.
Korra comes out, and Tenzin tries to reassure her, but she's not having it. She walks out the door. Mako goes after her, but she tells him to leave and return to the city. She says that she isn't the Avatar anymore. Mako says that he doesn't care, then he talks about the time when Korra was kidnapped. That made him realize how much he loved her. But she says she can't and leaves.
Tenzin comes out and says that they need to be patient with her. Um, no, you don't. She has suffered a deep, personal loss, and is now exhibiting just about every sign of impending suicide known to man*. And you're letting her wander off alone to do God-knows what. Not to mention the fact that there is a not-entirely-unreasonable argument to be made that it is her duty as the Avatar to put herself out of her misery and continue the Avatar Cycle. For the betterment of the world.
So Korra goes out to the cliff. She stands at the edge of the cliff, so closely that a tear falls down over the edge. Good call there, Tenzin. Then she sits down and cries.
Remarks
This episode manages to be good despite itself. Structurally, the episode is an absolute mess. Nothing flows naturally at all. People do whatever is convenient to set up the next plot-point and move the story along. The buildup to the climactic moments of the series don't really work. There's a whole scene of plot-critical infodumping that only happens by sheer luck, not by any active will or desire on the part of the characters.*
Korra didn't infiltrate Air Temple island to find intelligence on Amon; she did it for no reason in particular and was rewarded randomly for it. The act was completely without character agency; there's no cause/effect relationship between what she did and what she gained. At best, you could see it as serendipity or the hand of fate, but it ultimately is the hand of the author delivering unearned victory to the protagonist.
This is all indicative of one thing: not enough time. Like other structural issues in past episodes, this two-parter clearly needed to be a three-parter. It's all just really cramped.
But there are enough elements that work to overcome the ones that don't. The reveal of Amon and Tarrlok's past is interesting, though I'm not convinced as to how Noatak took the journey he did into becoming Amon from where we saw him last.
One of the reasons I liked the idea of Amon being in some sense a disciple of Ozai having learned some energybending from his contact with Aang, was that it gave us consequences for the writer's horrible cop-out on that moral issue. However, the Yakone angle does provide more a more reasonable means to that same end. Yakone, as an any-time bloodbender, could not simply be jailed in anything remotely like a regular prison. You can either kill him or steal his bending, unlike Ozai, where there were many entirely legitimate alternatives to either outcome.
This way still gives us some consequences, since had Aang simply killed Yakone, none of this would have happened*. We get to have long-term consequences of Aang's style of dealing with problems. He debended Yakone and thought no more of it; problem solved. After Yakone escaped, Aang probably didn't spend much time tracking him down. After all, Yakone's not a bender; how much damage can he do? Which really shows Aang's worldview: non-benders cannot be significant problems for the world.
We get some emotional resonance with Asami's fight against her father, but the lack of time makes it hard to really focus on it. Hiroshi's dialog with Asami lacks a lot of emotional range. And while that may be the point, I just don't think it worked as well as it could have. He never really seemed like he was trying to convince her, and she never seemed even slightly tempted by the offer.
The time spent with Iroh was ultimately a dud. Unlike the earlier fanservice from Out of the Past, which was all done in service to the plot, Iroh serves absolutely no purpose to this story (outside of being the only person who can plan ahead). He's here to look cool and be voiced by Dante Basco, nothing more. Everything he does in this story could have been done by somebody else. His presence subtracted from Asami or Korra, taking time away from the actual characters we're supposed to care about.
And time was not a luxury that this episode had to waste.
The confrontation with Amon worked reasonably well. I predicted pretty early on in the series that Korra would be de-bent, and that she would learn airbending after the de-bending. Not a hard prediction to make, granted. The main thing here is that we don't really understand why Korra is able to airbend at all. Indeed, none of her moves even look like airbending moves. Her first airbending attack is throwing a very firebender-like punch. Neither Aang nor Tenzin bend that way.*
I think it's really the dénouement that makes this all work. Tarrlok's murder/suicide, to prevent their father's evil from continuing. Just considering the sense of hopelessness that this requires. Tarrlok can't even be sure he wouldn't pass it along to any eventual children, just as Yakone passed it on to his own. After all, Tarrlok didn't want to continue his father's legacy, yet he has already done so unconsciously; he can't be sure he won't find himself doing it with his children. So he ends their sad story here, while he still can. And Amon may have ultimately known what Tarrlok was doing, tacitly approving or nudging him in that direction by saying that nobody could stop them while they were together.
But the Breaking of Korra is the best part. Not because I hate Korra, but because of how genuine and human it all is. There's a real sense of loss. Yes, she's got airbending, but that's all she's got. She lost everything she was born with, all those advantages are gone. Forever. She even says that she's not the Avatar anymore.
In the end, Amon fulfilled his promise; he has destroyed Korra. She may have won, but she paid a terrible price in the end. Actions have consequences. And while her actions here didn't stem from any of her character flaws (so much as just poor writing), she still made choices that led to her losing her bending. Like trying to confront a super-bloodbender without a plan, or trying to expose Amon without fully thinking through how that would end.
And it really makes you want to see how Korra can rebuild herself. She built her entire identity around bending. And while she has nascent airbending skills now, she's got nothing else. It makes you really want to see how she would come to terms with the damage to her body, how she would deal with it, and how those around her would treat her. Would the world consider her a broken Avatar? Would some say that she should sacrifice herself to continue the Avatar Cycle, so that the world would have a "proper" Avatar? Would she think that herself?
Is that what she's thinking when she looks over the cliff? Will she live with herself in this broken state? Can she live with it?
...
Yeah OK, I kinda skipped something. Namely, the actual ending to the series. I stopped my review about two and a half minutes before the episode really ended.
I want to split this 2+ minutes into its own section of the review for a reason. I want to summarize everything up to this point, so that you can understand where I was, mentally, when I beheld what followed. Now you understand my mental state when bearing witness to the last part of the episode. Overall, the episode up to this point was satisfying, but not as strong as it could or should have been.
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