Some people always have to show off.
"Let go your earthly tether. Enter the void. Empty and become wind."
— Zaheer (original quote by Guru Laghima, an airbender)
Korra decides to turn herself over to Zaheer to save the airbenders who are held captive by the Red Lotus. But she and her friends get double-crossed by Zaheer's group. As Ghazan tries to bring down Korra's friends, Bolin saves the day by his new-found lavabending skills. However, he's not the only one who acquired new skills. Zaheer unlocks the ancient ability of flight.
Tropes:
- 11th-Hour Superpower:
- Bolin learns how to lava-bend in a do-or-die situation
- Zaheer learns flight at the end of the battle.
- Bait-and-Switch: Ever since going to Zaofu, Bolin has been desperately trying to learn to metalbend and it seems as if this would culminate in him unlocking his new abilities at a critical moment and saving his allies. Instead it turns out that Bolin really isn't a metalbender... but instead an even rarer lavabender and that is what saves his friends at the end.
- Big Damn Heroes: Kai arrives on his baby bison to take Tenzin, Mako, Bolin, and Asami to safety.
- Bound and Gagged:
- Tenzin is bound to the floor and gagged when Mako, Bolin, and Asami arrive at the temple. This is to keep him from betraying the fact that the airbenders have been moved.
- Korra has her wrists and ankles cuffed when she surrenders, but is still able to fight to an extent. Later on, she is chained up in the Red Lotus cave by her arms and legs, and kept at a sufficient distance to prevent breath-based bending from reaching them.
- Call-Back: The trap door and its secret passageway (used by Bolin, Tenzin, Mako, and Asami to escape the lava) were last seen in the eponymous episode of the original series that introduced the Northern Air Temple, used by the Fire Nation to meet with the Mechanist.
- Crucified Hero Shot: Korra chained spread eagle by the Red Lotus in order to be ritualistically killed.
- Dark Reprise: The music playing in the background of the final scene is Korra's theme... but with an eerie One-Woman Wail in place of the erhu.
- Death by Irony: Like the original Combustion Man, P'Li is finished off by one of her own blasts going off in her face. For further irony, the woman fighting for true freedom dies by literally being contained.
- A Death in the Limelight: The scene with P'li and Zaheer gives some backstory to P'li, namely she was a Child Soldier to a cruel warlord prior to meeting Zaheer. She would later end up dying.
- Die or Fly: Bolin learns how to lavabend right as he, his brother, Tenzin, and Asami were about to get killed.
- Disguised Hostage Gambit: All of the airbenders, save Tenzin, were moved from the temple shortly after their defeat. The crowd of hostages are all empty robes held up by Ming-Hua's waterbending.
- Disney Death: Zaheer airbends Tonraq off the mountain they're fighting on. Later on, it's shown one of the metalbenders (Kuvira) caught him on the way down.
- Enlightenment Superpower: Zaheer unlocks flight by untethering himself from earthly desires after P'li's death.
- Flight: With P'Li gone, Zaheer finds himself no longer attached to this Earth by worldly desires, and unlocks the ancient airbending ability to fly.
- Funny Background Event: When Ghazan and Ming-Hua are talking with Zaheer about his new flight power, Ghazan leans to the side to look under Zaheer, like he's not sure if Zaheer is faking it or not.
- Good Is Not Soft:
- Suyin is a nice lady, and directly responsible for P'Li's death.
- Likewise, Tonraq, established as Korra's loving father and a good man, clearly tries to kill Zaheer in their fight, and Korra helps him.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Just as P'Li is about to fire, Suyin metalbends her armor around P'Li's head. The discretion is furthered by the fact that she didn't go out with a "bang" sound, unlike Combustion Man. Cut to Zaheer turning and shouting his lover's name, and we see black smoke in the distance.
- Hairpin Lockpick: Asami frees Tenzin from the chains placed on him by the Red Lotus with a hairpin. This is combined with a little Percussive Maintenance when she slams the hairpin in and pops the lock.
- Handy Cuffs: Less handy than usual, but the trope still applies with the shackles on Korra. Although they restrict her movement, cuffing her hands behind her back would no doubt have been more effective.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Korra decides to accept Zaheer's deal and surrender herself to him since the world has been out of balance too long since the original Air Nomad genocide and it can't afford to lose the airbenders again.
- Hero of Another Story: Well for a certain value of hero anyway. When P'Li and Zaheer share a tender moment before taking custody of Korra, she mentions their first meeting where he rescued her from an unnamed ruthless warlord who was using her as a living weapon of mass destruction.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Lin draws P'Li's fire, enticing P'Li to go for a kill-shot. When she does, Suyin metalbends her armor around P'Li's head. With the blast having nowhere to go, she becomes a literal example of the petard.
- It's Going Down: The Northern Air Temple is crumbling thanks to Ghazan's lavabending.
- Let's Split Up, Gang!: The rest of the Krew head off to the where the airbenders are (supposedly) being held captive while Korra heads of to Laghima's peek to hand herself over to Zaheer and P'Li, but with the Metal Clan and Tonraq hiding in the wings to ambush the two. Unfortunately, with the exception of Lin and Su, Korra's backup are unable to make much headway against the Red Lotus members and Zaheer still escapes with her.
- Levitating Lotus Position: Zaheer meditates while floating when he waits for Ghazan and Ming-Hua at the Red Lotus hideout.
- Logical Weakness: Even more than lightning bending, combustion bending's sheer power is revealed again to be its greatest weakness. Once the attack is in the process of launching it can't be stopped or dissipated the way some bending attacks can be; the energy MUST go somewhere. Even if P'Li noticed in that final moment that her head had been encased in metal, it's unlikely there was anything she could do once her attack had reached the point of no return.
- Magma Man: Bolin discovers his ability to lavabendnote on the brink of death, saving himself, Mako, Asami and Tenzin.
- Mauve Shirt: The metalbender captain who gets most of their speaking lines and prominent scenes gets a name, Kuvira. She was also one of the metalbender dancers from the first episode in Zaofu.
- Monumental Damage: The Northern Air Temple, one of the four great ancient temples that remain of the original Air Nomad culture, gets completely destroyed after Ghazan buries it in lava.
- Musical Spoiler: A hint of the Red Lotus Leitmotif sneaks into the background music when Kuvira introduces herself, hinting at future events to come.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Suyin and Lin's takedown of P'Li is what allows Zaheer to gain the ability of flight, thus giving him a means of escape from the cliff.
- Not Now, Kiddo: It takes Kai a few attempts to get everyone else to listen to him report where the airbenders were taken, which is also reasoned to be where the Red Lotus would've likely fled to with Korra.
- Papa Wolf: Tonraq tries to impale Zaheer with an icicle for attempting to capture his daughter Korra.
- Prepare to Die: Says Zaheer to Tonraq:
- Red Shirt Army: The Metal Clan guards are quickly taken out by P'Li despite superior numbers. The only useful thing they do is tend to the injured. It's a Mauve Shirt that saves Tonraq from a fall.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: Pabu and Naga get left behind. Bolin worries about them before cutting to a scene of them giving in trouble with Grandma so that we can have one lighter moment before things get serious.
- Shout-Out: Considering Zelda Williams is on cast for this episode, it's probably not a coincidence that Bolin suggests a plan involving obviously fake bird calls in a situation they are inappropriate for, which then get used anyway.
- So Happy Together: Zaheer and P'Li have a tender moment together which sets up her death later in the episode.
- So Proud of You: Korra's allies, especially her father, tell her how proud they are of her after she decides to sacrifice herself to save the Air Nation.
- Spanner in the Works: Zaheer would have won if not for Kai managing to escape and tracking them to his hideout. This means Korra's allies can track the Red Lotus down and mount a rescue attempt.
- Standard Female Grab Area: While she's not held by the arm, Korra otherwise (briefly) falls victim to this trope. Just before Tonraq shows up to save her, Zaheer is practically escorting her onto the airship, holding her by the back of her shirt. Granted, she is shackled hand and foot and has just been beaten up, but that doesn't stop her from kicking ass after her dad shows up.
- Stock Phrases: After the adults who had all been ignoring him (complete with Lin pulling a Not Now, Kiddo) finally let Kai speak and reveal where he thinks the other airbenders and Korra are, Mako responds, "Why didn't you say so?" Kai's response is a very appropriate growl and eye-roll.
- Take That, Scrappy!: In-universe: Kai says he deserved how Mako treated him before. Mako agrees.
- Trash the Set: The Northern Air Temple, which has been the site of the Air Nation side of the story this season, gets demolished by Ghazan's lavabending after he tries to kill Tenzin and the rest of the Krew.
- Title Drop: "Let go your earthly tether. Enter the void. Empty and become wind."
- Watching Troy Burn: Tenzin witnessing the destruction of the Northern Air Temple.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Ming Hua gets tired of Ghazan toying with Bolin and Mako and tells him to just surround them in lava.
- With My Hands Tied: Korra's arms and legs are bound by platinum shackles, forcing her to bend in short bursts. It works for a while, but Zaheer gets the upper hand after Tonraq is taken out of the picture.
- Worf Had the Flu: Since Korra is fighting With My Hands Tied, she lacks the dexterity to properly dodge Zaheer's attacks. Also, Platinum is three times heavier than iron, even heavier than gold. It's estimated
that these chains and bulky cuffs weighted at least twenty pounds. Since bending is such a full-bodied gestural art on top of that, it's pretty amazing she could fight at all. - You Killed My Father: Korra said this when meeting Zaheer after waking up and tries to fry him with fire breath. As she was unaware at the time that Kuvira had saved him from falling to his death.
- Your Head A-Splode: P'Li's fate after Suyin encases her head in metal and right before she was able to release a combustion blast is implied to be gory.
- You Said You Would Let Them Go: Was there any doubt that Zaheer wouldn't honor his deals? Korra was smart enough to expect this to be the case, but it didn't matter anyways because Zaheer expected she would figure him out and arranged for decoys.
