The Legend of Korra: Night of a Thousand Stars (2x11)

Stuff is happening! And I really like some of it! And I find myself annoyed with other bits of it. Let's take a look.

In Republic City, Bolin visits Mako in jail on his way to the premiere of the final Nuk Tuk "mover." Mako warns Bolin that Varrick could be up to something, but Bolin is completely certain that Mako is wrong. While at the premiere, however, men from the Northern Water Tribe appear and attempt to attack the president! Bolin saves the day, and the Water Benders admit that Varrick hired them. Varrick is jailed, and Mako is released. Korra then comes back to Republic City and tells President Raiko that Unalaq is now threatening the entire world, not just the South. Still, Raiko refuses to send troops, because he says he needs to defend the city. Team Avatar goes to talk to the newly jailed Varrick, who offers his battleship to the cause. We also see that things are going poorly in the South - Tonraq tries to attack Unalaq, but he is quickly defeated, and is now imprisoned.

The best thing about this episode was that stuff happened. It was very active, very intense, and very much a good advancement of the plot. My favorite part was when Bolin saved the president. We haven't really seen Bolin doing any Bending this season, and in fact he rarely does any Bending at all outside of the games. To see him kick ass like this was enormously satisfying. It was an amazingly animated fight.

I also liked the fact that Lin fired the two idiot cops and restored to Mako all of the respect he truly deserves. It was satisfying to see Mako get recognition here, and it was especially nice to have Lin make a good call for once, since she hasn't been doing that much all season. Mako and Bolin had a nice little reconciliation moment, which was heartwarming.

The stuff in the South was great as well. The problem with a lot of this season thus far has been that they set up this awesome civil war and then they ignored it. Now that we get to see the fight between Tonraq and Unalaq, it's starting to heat things up. The Water Bending between the two brothers was fantastic. I find it a bit annoying that it took them so long to get to the exciting stuff, but now that it's here, it's great.

There were of course a few things I didn't love about this episode. The main one was the continuation of the love triangle. Korra doesn't remember that she and Mako broke up, and Mako just didn't have the heart to tell her what had happened. This. Is. Stupid. And Asami getting all angry was also stupid. Not to mention inconsistent. One minute, she looks livid, and the next, Bolin, Asami, Mako and Korra are all sharing a group hung since Team Avatar is back together. The hug was cute, and Bolin being happy that everyone is together again is precious. However, it doesn't work when you throw in this unnecessary little hitch. Wouldn't it have been more interesting if Korra had come up to Mako, apologized for how they left things, and agreed to be friends? There still could have been some tension with Asami, but going the amnesia route just doesn't work for me.

Then there's Varrick... although I do love his fancy jail cell, I think they may have accelerated his plot line a bit too quickly. He was a much more compelling villain than Unalaq has been thus far, so I wish we could have had more of him and his deceitful ways. I like that he keeps switching sides though. I guess I'm pretty indecisive about what they've done with Varrick.

As a whole, I did really enjoy this episode. The action kept coming, and everything moved forward by leaps and bounds. I guess my main problem wasn't a problem with this episode, but more a problem with the pacing of the entire season thus far. I hope things keep up with this great momentum in our final three episodes!

8/10