K108 When Extremes Meet

It takes a lot to make me near speechless after an episode and K108 did just that, it brought up questions that I just did not really have any explanation or theory for (I can usually come up with something). When Extremes Meet had a bit of everything: Funny Moments, Character moments, Plot advancement, action scenes, unbelievable Intensity and even a bit of shipping. Tarrlok comes back into the main story in a MASSIVE way here and jumps from being the councilman you are meant to dislike to being just as big of a villain as Amon, creating Extremes on both sides of the conflict. Tarrlok coming back into things also puts Korra into a position we have not really seen her in yet, that being not just the Avatar of the benders but also of the non benders, she is neither on Tarrlok or Amon’s side and given how much power those two have people with her a few and far between. To cover this episode I will cover the main sections of this episode and then focus on some characters.

I will start at the start on Air Temple Island where we all got the scene we were waiting for based on how K107 ended, that being nearly all of the main characters on Air Temple Island meeting. It was so great to finally have a character interaction scene like this from Meelo continuing to be amazingly random and funny to the hyper conversation Ikki and Bolin have, it just shows how great of characters the kids are and when ever they are involved we do get some of the funniest moments. I really like the continuation of Air Nomad culture with the Island split into Boy and Girl sides like the Air Temples are split with the North and South being for the boys and the West and East temples for the girls. In this early scene we also got one of the shipping moments of the episode, Ikki who seems to have no brain to mouth filter just straight up tells Asami that Korra likes Mako, the use of Anime faces for Korra and later Ikki when Korra tells her to leave was well done, I really liked that Asami did not confront Korra about this and realised how crazy embarrassing it must be for Korra. I also enjoyed the small piece of development for Asami she was just happy to be in a room where nothing reminded her of her father, continuity from last episode and showing it is still on her mind and showing just how betrayed she feels.

The Team Avatar scenes were so great to see, the way Mako and Bolin were referencing the Original team Avatar as they formed their own team was a fantastic reference and also showed that the 4 teens are all friends in that they really tried to pick up the upset Korra. The moment where “The Avacar” was revealed was pretty epic, using the new technology to help them and again a K107 reference which at the same time referenced a previous episode showing how Hiroshi evaded the police for so long and was always ahead of the police, but also gave the team the means to quickly locate criminals. I liked getting to see them actually get a win at last, they have been beaten so many times up to now that it needed to happen, it was an amazing Satomobile chase scene and fight at the same time. Seeing Mako use Lightning to knock Chi Blockers out was great to see and then more Epic Asami who as he is driving in a high speed chase is also using her electric glove to shock chi blockers. The small scene with the media was also good as it further shows how important the media is in Korra, Tarrlok right there could not touch Team Avatar as they reacted quicker than him and he would lose support if he did arrest them there while Tarrlok later on was the first to reach the Non benders and it was Korra who was the one late to arrive and being aggressive.

Speaking of the Non Bender Roundup scene, this was by far and away one of the most powerful moments of Korra so far. Tarrlok is so anti Equalist that he is grouping all Non benders in as Equalists, he imposes a curfew solely on Non benders. They are rightfully protesting such an anti-Equality law especially because he has shut their power off, Korra tries to stop this, but Tarrlok then orders them all arrested. When the metalbenders lift groups of innocent non benders into the air and you hear the terror from them it just hits you that “This is so wrong” everything Amon was saying about benders applies directly to Tarrlok, he is just driving more non benders to Amon’s cause. We then see that despite Korra’s Avatar title and bending skills she cannot touch Tarrlok as he has to much power in the city, her friends are arrested as she is powerless to help them or the non benders. A scene that shows that non benders are really now being oppressed and is just setting up the conflict between Amon and Tarrlok as the ultimate clash of extremes.

The last scene I will cover before I focus more on characters is of course the Tarrlok and Korra confrontation at the end. I don’t think I am exaggerating when I say that was probably the most intense, violent, dramatic and emotional few minutes of anything I have ever seen. The first part is just them talking to each other we find out that Tarrlok’s whole plan was to ultimately try to get control of Korra through blackmail, she is pretty much the last important person in the city he does not have control over. Korra realises that he is part of the problem and is just further justifying Amon’s cause, he is intimidating non benders with bending, in one of my favourite moments of the episode he turns it around on her and says that is she not doing the exact same thing always, she denies it but we can see it has hit her hard and I hope that we get a change in view from Korra into the future. When she says he is similar to Amon, it really angers him despite it being true which is where the fight starts.

The fight itself was one of the most violent bending battles I have ever seen, especially as one of the first bender on bender fights outside of the Arena, it really showed us what we have been missing with all out bender on bender fights. The key is that Tarrlok is basically trying to kill Korra here and Korra is so angry at him for what he has done and his insults to her that she is pretty much trying to do the same. His rapid fire Ice dagger move was amazing and when we saw Korra get cut multiple times it was big, just because we have never really seen people get cut in the middle of a fight before. This makes Korra mad as she begins to go for the big moves, she slams him through a wall with a wall, then explodes the floor and is about to burn him with Firebending until……until TARRLOK BLOODBENDS…….TARRLOK BLOODBENDS WITHOUT A FULL MOON (only a crescent moon). Like Lin using Toph’s Seismic Sense this was a similar moment seeing bloodbending return, it was shocking to see it happen and brings up so many questions: Namely how is he bloodbending without a full moon, who taught him and especially who is Tarrlok really. The only thing I could come up with is something related to the spirits. He then knocks out Korra and she has another vision and this vision is a lot clearer than before, we see who appears to be Yukone bloodbending everyone in the courtroom including Sokka and Toph as Aang struggles to stop him. The similarities between Tarrlok and Yukone are clear to see and at the moment them being related somehow (probably Tarrlok is his son) is the theory I would go with. Korra is then sent away from the city to never see it again, this was one amazing cliffhanger. Where is she being sent, will we see one of the other nations again.

For characters there is only one guy to talk about here and that is Tarrlok who really shows his true colours in this episode. Now with Saikhan as Chief he has control over not just the Task Force and the Council, but also the Metalbenders now. It means he is effectively the most powerful person in the city and Korra is the only person he needs to control that could be a danger to him. We really get to see what his ideals are here and it is clear he cares little for Non Bender and I would say little about anyone else except himself and gaining more power. He was angry when Korra called him just like Amon, but it is so true, he is doing the exact same thing Amon is doing just in reverse, he is not actively taking out Non benders but shutting of their power and enforcing a curfew is just as bad, he could have just put in a general curfew, but the fact that it is dependant on being a bender or not just shows you he does not care about non benders at all. Tarrlok pretty much jumps from being a decent side character to being almost the biggest villain of Korra, Amon being masked and us not knowing much about who he is is perhaps working against him now, but it is safe to say we have two amazing villains who look set to lock horns in an amazing way. I am interested in seeing what Tarrloks goal is, the way he is going at the moment he won’t have any non benders left to enforce laws upon more and more benders are being taken down by Equalists, what is his aim, there is not much more power he can obtain in the city unless like Amon his goals also extend to the world.

Korra is the last character I want to cover. She has some great moments in this episode, the key ones are on her feeling like a failure because she cannot Airbend or be spiritual, for her character who much have mastered the first 3 elements so easily to be struggling is really throwing her for a loop. She has reached the point where she is set to give up, then what Tenzin says to her about her visions may be the key to learning both Airbending and being spiritual, finding out what the visions mean, it was a nice scene to set up what we know K109 will explore. Then seeing her crying because she feels like she is the worst Avatar ever, the pressures getting to her is another nice scene to show that she is not always the tough and confident bender and even how The formation of Team Avatar cheers her up. She is in a vulnerable position going into the next episode and it seems she will have a lot of time along to consider her visions and think about her own use of bending and if she is like Tarrlok in the way she intimidates people, it should be a fascinating next episode for her as a character.

Overall this episode was a great one to come back to after the week break for Memorial Day, it left the fandom stunned at the end and we are all unbelievably excited for the next episode, K109 Out Of The Past. We may be getting a resolution on the visions, we will have to deal with the fallout of Korra being missing, how is he going to explain away the damage to city hall, there is a meeting the next morning. I speak for the whole fandom when I say “Is it Saturday Yet ?”

The Pro-Bending Arena, In All Its Glory