Long-awaited answers arrived in The Legend of Korra season 3, episode 9 – but they weren’t what we expected. Check out our recap and share your thoughts on “The Stakeout”!
Here’s what happened in The Legend of Korra season 3, episode 9, “The Stakeout.”
White lies
Korra, Mako, Bolin, and Asami track Aiwei to a small desert town, where they discover that the Earth Queen has put out warrants for their arrest. They later find Aiwei’s jeep abandoned near the Misty Palms Oasis. Mako and Bolin (as “Ting-Ting”) don terrible disguises and sneak down to case the joint.
Meanwhile in Zaofu, Lin is furious that Suyin helped Korra leave to search for Aiwei. She has control issues.
Following a lead
Back at the car, Korra is frustrated at her lack of information about Zaheer’s motives. Asami finds a note in Aiwei’s jeep that says “Xai Bau’s Grove, Sunset,” which they deduce must be the time and place of his meeting with Zaheer. Spirits flutter over Asami’s map as she tries in vain to find the grove.
Mako and Bolin follow a few false leads through Misty Palms Oasis, which is infested with spirits. After being chased by a tough-looking couple, the brothers track Aiwei to an inn. As Bolin keeps watch, Mako brings Korra and Asami to the Oasis, with a plan to watch Aiwei’s room and follow him to Zaheer.
Impatient in Bethlehem
The Krew tries to get a room at the inn. The innkeeper makes them sleep in the barn, nope wrong story, doesn’t want to rent to teenagers. The tough couple from before arrive, but turn out to be harmless – albeit creepy – members of the growing Nuktuk fandom.
Impressed, The innkeeper offers the Krew any room in the inn. Korra, Asami, Mako, Bolin, Naga, and Pabu all file into the room across the courtyard from Aiwei’s to begin their stakeout. This proves to be less exciting than Bolin expected, so Asami crushes him at Pai Sho for a few hours.
Korra’s plan is to make Zaheer talk, though Mako is skeptical, and suggests spying on the meeting to glean information. But stealth goes out the window as sunset arrives and Aiwei has not left. Korra blasts his door open and finds Aiwei in a meditative trance. She realizes that Xai Bau’s Grove is in the Spirit World, and meditates herself across to find Zaheer.
The natural order
In the Spirit World, Korra watches Zaheer chuck Aiwei’s spirit into the Mist of Lost Souls for all eternity, so that’s crazy dark. Korra confronts him, and he agrees to answer all of her questions.
Zaheer says that he and his friends are members of a secret society called the Red Lotus. A breakaway from the White Lotus, whom they disdain for becoming the Avatar’s “glorified bodyguards,” the Red Lotus is dedicated to restoring freedom to the world.
Zaheer reveals that Korra’s uncle Unalaq was a member of the Red Lotus, and they hatched the kidnapping plot to open the portals and raise Korra in their philosophy. But Unalaq stayed away on the night of the kidnapping attempt, and buried his associations with the secret group.
Korra asks what Zaheer wants. “I want what you want,” he promises. “To restore balance to this world.” Zaheer’s definition of “balance” is a little bit different from Korra’s, however – he wants to abolish nations and governments, to institute chaos.
“The natural order,” he says, “is disorder.”
Flight
In the physical world, Zaheer murmurs through his trance that Korra is at the Misty Palms Inn. P’li sends Ming Hua and Gazan to find her. When the two arrive at inn, Asami races away with Korra on Naga, while Mako and Bolin take on Ming Hua and Gazan. They are distinctly outmatched, and soon left captive and unconscious. Ming Hua sends Gazan after Korra.
Asami rides away from the oasis as fast as she can, but is quickly trapped by an unseen earthbender, who traps her in a pyramid of stone.
A new world
Back in the Spirit World, Korra pleads with Zaheer to help her improve the world, rather than destroying it. “You must realize,” he says, “That once change begins, it cannot be stopped – even by the Avatar.”
Frustrated, Korra demands to know what he will do with her, and Zaheer smugly says that she’ll find out soon enough. Realizing that she has been tricked, Korra trepidatiously returns to her physical body – only to find that she has been bound, muzzled, and strapped to a board.
An exhausted and chained Asami tells Korra that they were captured by the Earth Queen’s forces. The girls are being taken back to Ba Sing Se.
In Zaheer’s cave, he orders Mako and Bolin to be loaded into their truck. “We’re taking a trip to Ba Sing Se,” he says, as the fire dances wildly behind him.
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