Review: The Legend of Korra “Old Wounds”

I don’t think anything bad will come from Lin Beifong confronting her past. It sure beats becoming a lonely cat lady.

I thought Lin was a stone wall when it came to emotions and all that. Evidently, that wall is starting to crack. I think showing how and why Lin became so cold is a fantastic story to show. She was confrontational with Tenzin, and that was never explained to it’s fullest degree, either. At least we’re getting baby steps, right?

Spoilers!

The day starts anew in Zaofu, with the steel flowers blossoming to reveal the city. Bolin wanted to know where Chief Beifong was, and Korra dismisses it by saying that Lin’s probably in her room sulking. Su’s two athletic sons come into the room, and they want Korra to play Power Disk with them, but Korra can’t Metalbend. Su is slightly surprised that Lin never taught her, but figured that was for the best because Lin would probably be a terrible teacher. Su offers to teach Bolin and Korra to Metalbend, with Korra jumping at the opportunity, and Bolin kinda balked.  Just then, all of the flatware starts to shake and fly out of the room, because Varrick’s new magnetic suit actually works. Varrick always comes up with the silliest crap, yet somehow it sells.

Elsewhere in the city, Lin is walking the city solo. Lin finds two guards just standing around, and she starts to yell at them. Aiwei tries to tell Lin that the city is the most secure in the world, but of course, Lin doesn’t trust it. This entire time, Lin is wincing in pain, and Aiwei knows that it’s because of stress. He tells Lin that she needs to confront the problems, because it could affect her job. Aiwei hands her the card to a well known acupuncturist, and I guess she takes it? It doesn’t really go much farther, because the scene cuts to Zaheer and the gang in the spirit weeds off Republic City. P’Li is rather pissed, because Zaheer made their presence known to the Republic City police force. It doesn’t really matter, because their plans are to leave the city, and a delivery truck is their ticket out.

So, Lin takes Aiwei’s advice, and she visits that acupuncturist. Even while trying to relax, she’s high strung. The first batch of needles are in, and Lin doesn’t feel a thing. Once the second batch makes their way into Beifong,  one hits her head, and triggers a flashback to when her and Su were kids. Lin walks into the room, where Su and her two delinquent friends are. Su is supposed to be in school, but she skipped out because their mom doesn’t really care.

Su and Korra start their metalbending lessons, and it’s going to be a slow process. While Korra was trying to bend a metal meteorite, Bolin is trying to spy on them. Korra tries again, and it starts to shift. Bolin is kind of sad, because apparently one in a hundred Earthbenders can be Metalbenders.  Back at the acupuncturists, Lin is having another flashback, this time while she is on the street in her patrol car. She ends up in a high speed chase through a city, and it was Su and her friends. She shoots up out of the bed, and the needles go everywhere. Lin leaves in the middle of the session, risking sickness.

Of course, Lin’s is only getting worse, she’s seeing Korra as a delision of young Su. Lin tries to get past Korra, but can barely get out of the door. Lin staggers back into the acupuncturist, where she finishes the session. The flashback continues, and Su is doing favors for the Triad now. Lin tries to apprehend her, but Su cuts the metal cord with her bracelet she had bended into a blade. The cord comes back into Lin’s face, causing the two facial scars she has. Su is horrified, as we cut back to Republic City.

Zaheer’s plan isn’t going so well, because the driver fudged up his story to get out of the city. The guard wants the driver to open the back of the truck, but the driver bails, leaving Zaheer his crew to attack and run take the delivery truck out of the city. Meanwhile, Bolin is trying to bend the meteorite, but is failing hard. Opal surprises Bolin, is embarassed that he can’t Metalbend. Opal tries to talk Bolin into training with Su, but Bolin turns it around on Opal, saying she’s doing the same thing with leaving and training to be an Airbender. Opal agrees, which somehow gets her and Bolin closer together.

Holy shit! It’s  Police Chief Toph! Sorry about that, it’s just that Toph was the second biggest badass from The Last Airbender, and it’s been a long ass while since the character has been anywhere near the Avatar story. Anyway, Toph is scolding her kids, even though Lin didn’t really do anything wrong. Toph tells Su that she needs to leave the city as soon as possible, and tears up Lin’s arrest warrant for Su. Toph is put in a terrible predicament, because Toph can’t have her kid in jail, but this looks really bad as the chief of Police to cover it up. The session is over, and Lin walks off. Su finishes her lessons with Korra, making Korra the first Metalbending Avatar. Bolin tries to start Metalbending lessons, but Lin interrupts Bolin, wanting to talk to Su.

Su and Lin start with guns blazing. Lin lays it on Su that Toph had to retire due to the shame and guilt of keeping Su out of jail, but Su mentions that Toph retired the next year as a hero. Su tries to tell Lin that she’s changed, but Lin thinks no one can change. Su then brings Tenzin into the argument, and things just go awry. This fight is tearing up the meteor rock garden, meaning that the ground has craters, the metal decorative slabs are all over the place now, and there are steps in the middle of the walk way. This fighting brings out Su’s husband and some of her kids, and the fight just escalates. Su and Lin are out for each other’s blood now, and would keep going until Opal Airbends their projectiles away. Lin finally passes out from the fight, and proceeds to sleep for the next sixteen hours. She comes to, and is happy. Lin, is happy. When do those words go together? She walks out of her room with the traditional Zaofu garments that Su and her family wears, and goes to eat in the banquet hall.

The cook whips up a Kalenutsco, which is a mixture of kale, coconut water, and walnuts. Opal walks past, and tries to leave, but Lin catches her. Lin asks Opal to sit, so she can apologizes for the other night. Lin tries to tell Opal that Opal needs to go to the Northern Air Temple. Lin also warns Opal to not make the same mistakes she did. That prompts Opal to go talk to her parents. Su finds Lin, and tells her that she chose to leave, and Su wants Opal to do what Opal wants. Lin and Su make up, and will try to have a life where each other are in it. Elsewhere, P’Li, Gazhan, and Ming-Hua are warming up around a fire, while Zaheer is meditating, presumably so he can try and find Korra.  He finishes the episode saying that Korra is with the Metal Clan.

I can’t believe I am going to say this, but I dig happy Lin. However, I think the way we got to happy Lin was a very integral part of the Legend of Korra story. That fight between Lin and Su was a great fight, because it was subtle while being a no holds barred battle. It was the subtlety that made the episode. Lin and Su didn’t move mountains or a city pod to throw at each other. They just took whatever was around the yard, like stairs, steel walkways, pillars, and part of a pillar.  Generally, we get a vast array of projectiles like houses, cars, boats, cities, and entire city blocks that are generally thrown and leveled in fight.

This episode profiled that, while we all knew that Korra was a badass, it is filled with women who are powerful and strong just like their male predecessors from The Last Airbender. I don’t know if there’s a cast on the show today that has such a prolific stance of woman who can kick so much ass like The Legend of Korra. This season just keeps rolling them out. Of course we have Korra, but Lin, Su, Opal, Ming Hua, and P’Li show that they can kick as much ass as any of the men. These characters have great writing with so many great stories that can be told.