[8.5/10] It’s hard not to think about the Boiling Rock duology from AtLA when watching “Operation Beifong.” Both take place a few episodes before the climactic end of the show, both feature main characters breaking off from the crew in an attempt to rescue family members, and both tell their own rollicking adventure stories that turn out to have major impacts on the main plot.
Here, that involves Lin, Opal, and Bolin trying to rescue Suyin and her family from Kuvira, and running into Toph along the way. Toph cements herself as one of the Avatar-verse’s very best characters, but what I like about this one is how complicated it makes her. It’s easy to love Toph’s cantankerousness and scrappiness, but those same qualities would make it hard to have her as a parent. The show doesn’t belabor the enmity between her and Lin, but the line “You don’t know why I’m mad and when I tell you I don’t care” has the piercing quality of truths. And kudos to the voice actress for Toph, who betrays just a bit of woundedness in the otherwise hardened warrior when she hears that her daughter doesn’t want to speak with her anymore.
We also have a proto-Rogue One situation here, with Kuvira and Batar Jr. trying to build their Death Star-esque superweapon, and Zhu Lee pretending to help but secretly sabotaging it. I’d had my suspicions when Zhu Lee defected, but I still like the reveal that she’s a saboteur and the continuity of it being Toph who detects that she’s lying when she protests that she has no idea how the test failed.
“Operation Beifong” also gives the audience an exciting rescue story. Apart from the personal issues being hashed out among the two Chief Beifongs (and it’s another nice touch that Toph and Lin refer to one another by their titles, underscoring the emotional distance between them) it’s just neat to see Lin, Opal, and Bolin rescue their kin from a hanging cage and then make a grand stand against Kuvira.
Sure, there’s some contrivedness in who chooses to go try to rescue Zhu Lee, who tries to fight Kuvira, and who sticks behind. (In particular, the line from Toph about Katara not getting involved in the Water Tribe civil war feels like an awkward “explain away Comic Book Guy-style nitpicking” bit.) But it still leads to real stakes when Opal, Bolin, and Zhu Lee are in the line of fire of the superweapon, and Toph gets to have her Big Damn Hero moment to save the name, replete with a grump, dry cool action line to go out on.
Meanwhile, there’s a bit more shoehorned in but still interesting season arc housekeeping, as Korra heads to the spirit realm to ask the spirits to help her defend Republic City against Kuvira’s impending attack. (Which is coming in two weeks! Dun dun duuuuuun.) I like the idea that the spirits do not wish to get involved in human affairs, and the notion that Unalaq’s use of them before was an abuse of harmonic convergence that forced them against their will. A challenge centered on Korra as the bridge to the spirit world is a compelling one.
On the whole, “Operation Beifong” is a superb episode that blends a strong family story (replete with a “just as long as you don’t hate me” ending that feels right for the stiff-upper-lipped characters), a nice action and adventure plot that both works in the episode and contributes to the larger story being told, and tacks on a bit with Korra in the spirit world that portends interesting things.
I just realized that Todd Haberkorn voices Baatar Jr. and now all I can hear when he talks is Ling Yao from Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood dub.
Shout by Julius S. PeytonBlockedParent2017-03-13T05:24:31Z
You give metalbenders a bad name!