Review: The Legend of Korra “The Stakeout”

Where does Korra’s travels in search of Zaheer and Aiwei take her? Find out after the jump!

 

 

Spoilers Below

The Legend of Korra has taken a real dip in quality over the last couple of weeks. The season seems to be hitting a slump at all of the wrong moments this season. For instance, Korra’s plan of going after Zaheer, P’Li, Ming Hua, and Gazhan by themselves was pretty reckless. Going into last night’s episode, the notion of going after  Zaheer and Aiwei is one of the most retarded things you can do. When you have someone like Aiwei, who is a wild card to this whole situation, it’s going in for a borderline suicide mission. But hey, Korra stopped Vaatu, Zaheer and his goons should be no problem, right?

The one thing I have enjoyed about this season is that Korra has been in situations and locales that neither the audience, or Korra herself, are used to. This season as seen her as a delegate to strengthen the Air Nation, all the way to being a fugitive of the Earth Queen in about one and a half episodes. We get to visit places, like Zaofu and Ba Sing Se, that we haven’t even seen thus far in The Legend of Korra. Things don’t change much here, because Korra, Mako, Bolin, and Asami are traveling through the desert to find Aiwei and Zaheer.

Speaking of situations Korra isn’t used to, she has been very useless thus far this season. She hasn’t been able to fix the spirit vines in Republic City, she hasn’t been able to help very much in getting Airbenders to the Northern Air Temple, and she was dead to the world when Zaheer got a hold of her. The all powerful Avatar has only done one solid thing so far, and that’s getting Metalbending down. Hell, even Asami found the clue to where Aiwei was going to meet Zaheer while Korra was sulking on a rock. I think that Korra should leave  doing things to Mako, and just keep becoming the first Avatar to maybe Bloodbend, or Lightningbend, or Lavabend, or grow water appendages.

“The Stakeout” sees Bolin’s former fame as a movers star make a comeback when two of Nuk-Tuk’s fans ask for autographs, after getting mistaken for Earth Kingdom bounty hunters. It’s the little things that make me happy. If there is one thing about this show I like, it’s that the continuity always checks itself by touching on previous episodes and stories. Of course, now that I said that, something really dumb is going to happen. Why do I have a feeling Amon will come back to save the day? It’s these changes, for the sake of changes, that really irk me.

It’s sad that one of the best scenes from this episode come from two characters sitting down to play a board game. As such, Bolin and Asami really delivered here. Also, the scene shows that there are a lot of customs in this series, which show up even during board games. Pi Sho is the best exhibit of blending cultures together. Well, that is until Pabu jumps down off of the bed and ruins the game. This, and the following scene with Zaheer and Korra, were the only scenes in the episode that did anything for me.

The other scene that means something is the scene where Zaheer and Korra finally have a talk in the spirit world. We get Zaheer’s mission statement, and why he is after Korra. Here, we get a scene that just makes Henry Rollins’ casting as Zaheer shine, because everything he says is with conviction. If you have seen him in any of his other movies or shows, like Sons of Anarchy, you know how well he can act. Rollins steals the show again, just like he did in the first episode. His calm, cool demeanor as Zaheer really makes a polar opposite to his persona as Henry Rollins the rock star. Seriously, look up a concert of him performing with Black Flag. I will come out and say it now. If it weren’t for Howard Stern, Henry Rollins would have the title of “King of all Media.”

Now, as for why I am speaking so highly about Rollins, you can feel how just Zaheer thinks his actions and cause are. He goes on to tell Korra about how The Red Lotus came from a Brother of the White Lotus named Zhai Bao who was sickened by the way the White Lotus bowed and served the Avatar after the Hundred Year War. there was another twist that surprised me, and that was the involvement of a past villain in kidnapping Korra.

If there was one thing that pissed me off about tonight’s episode, it was that it took about 18 minutes out of 22:40  for the episode to get going. Korra finally got some face time with Zaheer, without Zaheer’s powerful allies getting in the way. Don’t get me wrong, I love P’Li, Ming Hua, and Gazhan. But it was seriously time for Korra to talk to Zaheer. Zaheer even goes on to say that his final goals are the same as Korra, and his reasons behind that resonate and start a debate. Zaheer legitimately thinks that this is a chaos and disorder will cleanse the world. It seems that Korra’s stance is wavering a little.

This is the type of episode that just pisses me off, because it takes almost 3/4ths of the episode just to get going. Aiwei could have been a very cerebral villain, but he turned into a throwaway character. The only good moments to take away from the episode was Korra’s meeting with Zaheer in the Spiritual World, and the Pai Sho game between Asami and Bolin. Luckily, the last minute or so was a real surprise, and something that can be built upon rather easily.