The Legend of Korra: Rebirth (3x02)

Diving right in to the plot:

Korra and the gang set out to recruit Air Benders. Mako says no when Korra asks him to come along, but Bolin eventually convinces him and he joins them. They use one of Asami's airships to fly. As they travel around the Earth Kingdom to find Air Benders in different villages, they have a lot of trouble recruiting people to their cause, since nobody wants to uproot their lives to go live in an Air Temple.

They eventually put on a show to impress everyone with Air Bending, and a young boy, Kai, comes forward. He tells them a sob story about his dead parents and says that there are bad men coming after him. When the bad men show up, it's revealed that they're actually looking for Kai because he's a thief, who stole the savings from the family who adopted him off the streets. Korra learns that Kai will be taken to jail, and decides to take Kai with them, giving him guidance. They now have their first recruit.

Zaheer, meanwhile is going about freeing his criminal friends, including an Earth Bender named Ghazan and a Water Bender named Ming-Hua. Zaheer wants to hunt down the Avatar. The elderly Lord Zuko is informed about Zaheer's escape, and tells a messenger to send word to Republic City that the Avatar must be protected. Meanwhile, Zuko heads to the North Pole to stop Zaheer and his men from releasing their last prisoner.

Uhhhh I have nothing big to complain about, really. I'm sure this will be addressed later, but I do hope we get to go back and see Republic City more, too. See how the Spirits are doing now that they're part of our world. For that matter, I guess it did bother me a little that we haven't seen any Spirits in the Earth Kingdom, really. Shouldn't they be everywhere? Or did I miss something?

Now for the good stuff...

I could have mentioned this in the last one, too, but the humor is really spot on! The sequence where Tenzin talks about Air Temple culture and is continually rejected was really fun. I actually laughed out loud with "your best friend will be a giant bison!" Great stuff. Also, Korra freaking out on the bum loser guy who wouldn't leave his house... that was priceless.

Kai is a great new character. When he was first telling them his tragic back story, I was rolling my eyes. I thought... this is a bit cheesy, even for a kid's show. But then, his actual back story is a lot more interesting. He's not just an orphan who lives off of stolen goods on the streets. Rather, he's a kid who actually had a chance to be adopted and have a good life, but chose to screw over the people who were trying to help him. This makes him a really morally ambiguous figure, to say the least, and I think maybe we needed that.

I like how they're setting up Kai and Jinora as possible future love interests. I think that could be fun to watch. Also, Bolin's child-like enthusiasm towards the kid is funny, and Mako's distrust is going to play an interesting part in events, I can tell.

Zaheer is now freeing some more criminals, including an awesome Water Bending woman with no arms, and a fierce Earth Bender... they both seem awesome.

But not as awesome as the most awesome awesome ever.... ZUKO! When I saw him, I flipped out. I am so excited. And that DRAGON! Freakin' incredible! I cannot wait for more Zuko. So cool. One thing I really admire about The Legend of Korra is that it has a very good balance with its parent show. There's not intense references to it all the time, but Aang and his friends are a constant presence, because it was their reforms that brought the world to its current position. And to now see Zuko, after all this time, is a real treat. We're really broadening our world back out from just Republic City, and seeing some of these places we haven't visited in a while. I'm thrilled.

So, yeah! Another great, great episode!

9/10