If you haven’t seen the first four episodes, you can go read my reviews of those! Here’s the link to the two-episode premiere, episode three, and episode four.

To start off, I wasn’t the most impressed with this episode. It felt like Korra really took a step back into being an impulsive, hard-headed person who didn’t listen to advice or counsel and just wanted to get her way. I understand she thinks she’s right, but she’s just barreling into this whole civil war without stopping to think.

The episode starts off with her in the capitol. She’s there to ask the president to send troops to help the Southern Water Tribe. But first, she leads a march of the Southerners who are asking for peace. Once they get to the Southern Water Tribe cultural building, a bomb goes off.

Mako sees the people who did it running away from the building. He observes that they are actually fire benders and not water benders at all. Korra doesn’t listen to him, and immediately assumes that the people responsible are the Northern Water Tribe. Mako isn’t convinced, and eventually makes a positive ID of the suspect who was fleeing. But the two cops above him don’t lead any credence to his evidence, and basically also assume it’s the Northerners.

To me, this again shows how Korra is absolutely taking a step back. Unlike in the past two episodes where she listened and gathered all the evidence before making a decision on how to act, in this episode she refuses to listen to Mako, who is trying to talk to her and present evidence that is contrary to her assumptions. In classic Korra fashion, she barges on, refusing to stop and think about her actions.

She goes to the president to ask for help, and predictably, the president really doesn’t want to send his troops to the south. Korra blows up at him and storms out. Varrick comes up with the idea that Korra should go behind the president’s back and try to get the army to go without official support.

I really don’t understand how she can think this is a good idea. She is verging on treason to try to use the capitol’s troops without the president’s permission and official order. Furthermore, once Mako hears about the idea, he exclaims about how bad it is to Bolin. Conveniently, the president sees him that day and asks him directly if Korra is planning something. Mako caves and tells him, which I honestly think was the right thing to do, and the president is able to stop Korra from convincing the general to help her.

She figures out that it was Mako who told the president, and she storms into his work, breaking his desk and yelling. Again, she is unwilling to actually talk about anything, and only yells that he betrayed her. She refuses to see it from his point of view, which is horrible. Her unreasonable attitude forces Mako to break up with her.

Again, I think Mako makes the right decision here. His job and doing the right thing is important to him. I predict that he will actually find the people responsible for the bombing, and I think he’ll probably uncover some kind of conspiracy related to that. On a relationship level, if your partner does not support the things that are important to you, then they probably aren’t the best fit for you. Korra was making their relationship all about her and her problems, which is completely not fair to him. To his credit, he was trying to help her, but when he refused to go along with Korra just because she said so, she got angry.

At the end of the episode the twins, Eska and Desna, are chasing Korra to attempt to capture her. It turns out that Unalaq lied to her when he said he didn’t need her to open the spirit portal. So he sent his children to go catch her and bring her back. Korra was on her way to the fire nation to ask for their support when the twins catch up to her. There is a brief bending battle, when a gigantic spirit shows up. Korra spirit bends, but the creature resists. That makes me think the spirit is being controlled by Unalaq. Maybe he was controlling them the whole time, which is why they attacked the festival and the boats. The spirit overcomes her bending and devours her. Cliffhanger!

It was definitely a ‘meh’ episode for me. I really didn’t like Korra’s attitude, and I didn’t like the stuff at the air temples. It was all about Tenzin’s child training the lemurs. Sure, it was cute, but it didn’t really seem to matter much. Another thing I don’t understand is why Korra hasn’t gone to Tenzin for help. After all, he was her trainer. It’s a little unbelievable that the thought hasn’t even crossed her mind. And why didn’t she explain the situation to chief Beifong? I felt like this whole episode was about her being stubborn and making dumb decisions, hence why I’m frustrated with it.

I’ll definitely watch the next one, but I hope that Korra stops punching her way through situations. It’s getting annoying.

Score: B-

New episodes air Fridays at 7pm, EST.