Korra S4 E11 – Kuvira’s Gambit! – Recap and Thoughts

Episode 11 is out, and in it we get two see two of the biggest plot lines in the show come near their climax. Let’s recap!

The episode starts with Kuvira informing the “Empire” that the lands of Republic City are Earth Kingdom de jure (thus Empire titular). You see her tell Baatar jr. she loves him, but with a rather smug grin on her face.

At Republic City, Suyin and the rest of Operation Beifong return and greet Korra. Zhu Li tells them all about the 2 week timetable and the intensity steps up a notch for the team. As an aside, the Spirit Gun is being estimated as the Rail Gun that resembled it so in the previous episode. Click it, its nuts. Its obvious the art team wanted to make this association. They prepare to defend the city against an attack via rail.

At Varrick’s workshop, the scene of the season takes place. I can’t help but get emotional talking about this. They take care to make her look as cute as possible, and frankly I LOVE the two of them together. She finally confesses in a scene you need to see for yourself, via the exact words being “Varrick, you mean the world to me.”
Not quite “I love you Varrick,” but I suppose that’s as potent as you’ll get on Nickelodeon. He responds as you’d expect, in a silly condescending way, setting up his dump of emotions in the final shows.

Fast forwarding a bit here, the team is fully prepared for a war that appears to be another full week away by the original 2 week info. Korra decides to go covert and take the weapon out from the inside, but as they converge we see the coolest thing this show has ever had. A 25 story mech with the giant spirit cannon attached! Looks like the 2 week thing was a ruse Kuvira played in order to maintain the advantage.

As it descends on the city, President Raiko gets a glimpse of this power first hand and quickly changes his tune. He surrenders the city in a panic which sends everyone else into an even greater panic, especially Korra.

Korra takes the center stage (finally – its only been what, 8 episodes?) They decide to capture Baatar Jr using an elite Airbending Squad to sneak in and out of the air ship. This is where things get fairly predictable, and where the title of the episode is it’s own unmaking. I’ll talk more about that down below.

Once they return with the captured Baatar, it becomes obvious they can’t force him to talk. Which is weak as hell if you ask me. This is such deux ex machina its unreal. Does Korra really not care about the city enough to rough up Baatar Jr? Like not even threaten to take away his bending or something? So lame.

Suyin gets emotional with her son, and its obvious he has gone off the deep end. I don’t know if they will ever reveal exactly what his malfunction was, but its really sad to see how strong the Beifong family is, despite their eldest heir being such a maniac.

“It’s madness to let others take what is ours and accept it blindly. Republic City belongs to us!”

And here it gets even worse! Korra threatens to essentially permanently abduct Baatar Jr. Her trump card is telling him that she will keep him prisoner for ever unless Kuvira relents the attack. How unrealistic is that? Is that expected to work!? The fact that Baatar falters at this threat is laughable.

Anyway, Baatar contacts Kuvira who baits him into giving their location along with the Avatar’s. She even coldly tells him she loves him and that she is willing to submit the city in order to be together…

Until…

recapBOOM. The episode ends with Kuvira looking more than satisfied to have traded Korra’s life for her apparent “love.”

Best Two Things Ever

recap1. Zhu Li and Varrick reunited.
You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for this moment. It was beyond amazing. Its not often there are scenes that play with my emotions in this show, but this was surely one of them. I know they will elaborate more on this, but I feel satisfied knowing I was right in predicting she was acting in his interests the whole time. The fact that she was willing to suicide to protect him and the rest of the people spells her passion out plainly. Varrick better reciprocate or I’m going to be pretty upset with him!

2. Grandeur in Mech Weapon.
This was completely out of left field, and something I would have NEVER seen coming. I knew they were working on a “weapon” but this is beyond even those expectations. The sheer size of the device was spectacular and frankly the coolest idea they have ever implemented into this show. The look on the team’s face when they ran across it for the first time was the same I had. Just utter WTF. And the fact that it is so agile and controlled by her metal bending mastery adds so much more to this idea.

The Worst Thing Ever

Predictability and terrible titles.
From the second I saw Kuvira embrace Baatar in the first 2 minutes I knew this was the only possible ending. The name of the episode is literally the plot “twist.” Who chose this? Am I the only one who feels this way? It was ridiculously obvious from the get go, and they laid it on soooo thick through out.

Suyin crying over her estranged son, and him making a comment like “Kuvira is my family now.” It was passionately executed, but just so damn obvious that it became hard to watch. At least we got the mech to carry the excitement.

Next episode we will see Baatar help Korra dismantle it, and then the 1v1 begins. Count on it.