Tarrlok explains using half-truths while flashbacks give us the real truth. He's staged the scene to look like Equalists attacked while Korra was there. He even shocks himself with a gauntlet to gain an injury. He blames the Equalists for the abduction of Korra; he even tells his manservant Saikon to send out the entire force to find Korra.
Cut to Lin Beifong in bed, still recovering. She hears the news of Korra's abduction on the radio, so she pulls herself out of bed and goes to her closet to reveal her armor. Naturally, she puts it on via bending, because picking things up is for pussies. Though granted, it still shows how far metalbending has fallen from Toph's perfection, when she could bend viable armor out of whatever was handy. Lin removes her police insignia.
Cut to... Lin breaking Asami out of prison; just like that. No having to deal with guards or anything. It's all incredibly rushed, like many aspects of this arc. Bolin's trying to pee, but is having problems with Mako in the same cell. Really, writers? You have time for this weak comedy, instead of showing how Lin manages to break them out of prison? Anyway, Lin shows up and breaks them out. Mako's happy to see Asami, but forgets all about her the moment he learns that Korra's captured.
And then Lin metalbends Bolin's fly. A good joke, but still not worth the time in such a cramped episode.
Cut to Korra banging on the walls, to no avail. Obviously, Korra's banging on the walls endows her with metalbending powers and allows- oh wait, that doesn't happen, because the plot for this episode doesn't need Korra to escape. Korra remembers Tenzin's words about meditating on the meaning of her vision, so she tries that. But only after it's clear that nothing else works.
This pulls Korra into a flashback. She sees Bearded Aang meeting with Armored Toph and her police squad. She tells him that he's not needed, that she can handle it. But Aang says that they might need his help. So she invites "twinkle toes" along, thus causing the page quote. After over 25 years, it's clear that the Blind, Snarky Earthbender hasn't changed a bit.
Because change is for actual characters...
The pair head into a dark restaurant, where they confront someone named Yakone. He sounds almost like a stereotypical Italian mobster, saying that he should be able to enjoy his lunch in piece. Toph grabs him with some cables and he protests. Aang talks about witnesses to something, that they know what he is. Yakone seems to take this cryptic reference in stride, saying that he's beaten their charges before. So they take him away to do it again.
Korra pulls herself out of the vision and thanks Aang for the connection, but she's not sure what it means. So she goes back to meditating.
Cut to Lin and Korra's Ko meeting with Tenzin. Mako is clearly upset and agitated about Korra's disappearance. He suggests finding her dog, but Tenzin says that he's missing. Lin informs us that there is a maze of tunnels under the city, which is where the Equalists may be hiding. Right, and you didn't look there earlier because...? What, was the Police Commissioner considered a political liability and nobody paid any attention to her when she said there was a crazy masked man living in the sewers?*
Bolin says that he thought the Equalists went underground when he had been captured. Thanks for sharing this now, idiot. Lin muses about her captured officers, and Tenzin says that they'll get everyone back.
The group goes looking where Mako last saw the truck carrying Bolin. Lin whips out the Toph Vision and spots a tunnel. They find a steel gate, as well as fresh motorcycle tracks in the snow. Mako wistfully says that Korra must be there. When the tunnel splits into several choices, Mako suggests one direction. Asami asks (as a contrived excuse to give an answer) what they'll do if she's not that way, but Mako angrily answers that they'll try another.
Asami asks Bolin if Mako is interested in Korra. Bolin tries to lie, but he sucks at it, so Asami forces him to confess that Mako and Korra kissed once. And That's Terrible.
Thankfully, the plot interrupts this bit of shipping, as several motorcycles approach. Everyone hides, and the bikes enter a secret passage in the walls. Hey Lin, maybe you should take off those shoes and use your Toph Vision full-time, so you won't miss things like that. Pro tip. So Lin bends the door open and they go through.
They find various Equalists in facemasks talking about various things, while trams come and go to different places. One of them mentions the prison, so now they know where to look for Korra. So once the Equalists are gone, they hop on board the tram. Of course, they're smart enough to get off the tram before it reaches the stop, thus allowing them to ambush the Equalists stationed there. Lin breaks out the Toph Vision and says that she found her people. Mako asks after Korra, but she hasn't found her yet.
After Tenzin quickly dispatches some guards, Lin goes to break her officers out. By the looks on their faces, she realizes that Amon already destroyed their bending. Mako interrogates a guard, asking where Korra is, but the guard says that they don't have her. Lin confirms this with her Toph Vision. And thus they realize that it must be Tarrlok who has her.
An alarm sounds, forcing them to escape. Another tram follows them, but Bolin makes short work of that. Lin pulls them through the ground when she sees a bunch of guys and tanks waiting where the tram stops. They burst through the ground and make their escape from there.
Cut back to Korra. Hey, I almost forgot you were in this episode. She flashes back to Yakone's trial. Which apparently happens with the ruling council as jurors. Sure why not. The prosecutor claims that Yakone is a bloodbender who bloodbended people, which is illegal. The defense's case is very simple: you can't bloodbend except during the full moon. And if there was no full moon, you must acquit.
We skip all that boring evidence and jury deliberation stuff, going straight to the verdict. It turns out Sokka's heading up the council, so he delivers the verdict. Screw You, Aunt Wu, 421* + Yue and Saving the Frickin' Earth Kingdom, for Sokka becoming head of the ruling council of one of the economic and cultural centers of the modern world. But who's counting.
Sokka tells a lengthy tale of benders with unique abilities, starting with his defeat of Combustion Man, naturally. See, even Sokka got character development post-ATLA; he became a preening jackass. That's more than Toph got. His point is that unique bending abilities are not so unusual that the council should dismiss the possibility that Yakone has such unique abilities. And considering the evidence we never get to see, they find Yakone guilty. Hurray for jurors giving testimony in deliberations! Yes, I know it's not the US justice system, but it was an adversarial process and I don't think any of them consider this kosher.
Anyway, Yakone makes it all moot by bloodbending Sokka. And everyone else. That's right, not only can he do daytime bloodbending, he can do crowd daytime bloodbending too. I'm kinda wondering what the endgame for this trial was going to be. They sentence a man who can control people's bodies at any time, and they just expected him to come along quietly? Of course, Yakone isn't exactly impressing us with his forethought, as it's a hell of a lot easier to escape from prison than in a crowded courtroom.
Oh, and that "everyone else" part also includes Aang, thus proving how useful he would have been at the arrest if Yakone had resisted.
Back in the present, Tenzin has assembled some police and the rest of the council. Tarrlok walks in, asking if they have news of Korra, so Tenzin accuses him of taking her. Tarrlok plays it off for a while... until his assistant appears, telling them that it's true. He apparently hung around for awhile that night, and saw Tarrlok bloodbend Korra into the truck. He even saw Tarrlok almost lose his face to her firebreathing. And he tries to justify not saying anything earlier due to fear of Tarrlok's bloodbending.
OK, does nobody in this show have even the slightest forethought? If he wanted to fess up, but was scared to do so, why not slip Tenzin or one of the other council members a note? This is the worst possible way to deliver this information: right in front of the villain.
And guess what? It doesn't go well. Yakone took out 3 members of the actual Gaang, plus random bystanders; this half-assed Gaang-substitute here doesn't stand a chance against Tarrlok. So he knocks them all out and runs for it.
Lin slaps Tenzin awake. Saikon heads out to tell the police force, while the others try to track Tarrlok to Korra.
Cut back to Korra and the flashback. Yakone forces Toph to unlock him, then knocks everyone out. Except for Aang, who says the cliché line, "You won't get away with this," so that Yakone can say the equally cliché line, "Republic City is mine." He tosses Aang aside and runs for it. Well, Avatar State Aang says no, and gives chase, riding a giant ball of air while a soft variation of the Avatar Theme plays. He takes out the cart that Yakone picked up.
Continuing the unintended theme of not thinking things through, Aang confronts Yakone rather than just knocking him out. Yakone tries to perform the HIBY-patented "bloodbend to death" maneuver. But the Avatar State says no again, which leads to Aang energybending Yakone's bending away. Which is a good thing; nothing to be afraid of or intimidated by.
Coming out of the vision, Korra says that Aang was trying to warn her about Tarrlok. Oh look, Tarrlok just showed up. From his grousing, Korra deduces that his secret has been revealed. She also deduces that Tarrlok was Yakone's son, which is where he got his uber-bloodbending from. Of course, that doesn't explain where Yakone got it from, but who cares. Tarrlok says that he wanted to rule Republic City as its savior, not as a criminal like Yakone. But his plan now is just to flee. With Korra. Yeah, that's going to work out really well.
Tarrlok heads upstairs and... a Amon and four chi blockers appears! Korra startles at hearing Tarrlok says his name. The chi blockers approach, but Tarrlok just says, "You've never faced bending like mine." and bloodbends them into unconsciousness. But not Amon. Tarrlok amps up his bloodbending, which does little more than slow Amon down. When Tarrlok asks what he is, Amon declares, "I am the solution." And then he takes Tarrlok down and strips him of his bending. Which is a bad thing because... the badguy is doing it.
Amon tells his subordinates that he'll take care of Tarrlok; they should deal with Korra by shocking the box. OK, but could you say that a bit louder; I don't think she heard you well enough. Not being an idiot, Korra uses her armband to hang from the ceiling of her cell, avoiding the shock while vocally playing along. When they open up the box, she takes them out with some high-end fire and earthbending.
She bursts outside to find Amon there, loading Tarrlok. She fires some ice shards at him, but only as a stalling tactic while she runs away. Oh, so she's still afraid of him this episode. She waterbend-skis down a mountain, leaving Amon behind. But she hits something and is knocked out.
But then Naga finds her, notably before Amon, and carries her back to the city. Tenzin and Ko hear Naga's wail and thus find Korra. Mako tells the others to back away, then carries her to the Sky Bison, while Asami looks on gloomily at this touching moment.
Fanservice
Like the last episode, this one was rather fast-paced. There were a lot of missing connections between scenes, and way too many contrivances and generally convenient things. Like how fast they find the Equalists. They have a hunch where they are and boom: they find them and exactly what they're looking for. Tarrlok getting outed felt way too fast as well. And what exactly was Tarrlok's plan with kidnapping Korra while on the run? I mean, outside of bad fanfics, that can only end in him eventually being killed in his sleep.
One thing I dislike is that we never get to meet the "You're our Avatar too" lady again. That should have been an important moment, and there should have been some recognition of the fact that Korra failed her.
Overall, it was OK. The most interesting part was the end, where Amon no-sells Tarrlok's uber-bloodbending. It deepens the mystery around Amon. Tarrlok's purpose is done*; we know he's not Amon, and thus he passes the villain baton off. Amon, after not being directly present for three episodes makes his return in dramatic fashion.
I guess the big thing here is that this is our first real look at the older versions of the Gaang, except for Katara. And that was a very deliberate choice on the writers part, to wait for 9 whole episodes before bringing the Gaang into the story.
It helps put the focus of the story where it needs to be: on Korra and her people. On the current story, not the previous one. And while this helps provide more foundation between LOK's world and ATLA's, it is still only here because it serves the needs of this story. It's fanservice, but it's not only fanservice. It justifies itself to the story.
And it's no coincidence that we will only see one of the Gaang members again at the very end of the series.
