Your son will have tattoos!
Tenzin, Jinora, Bumi, and Team Avatar travel toward Ba Sing Se in order to find the new airbenders. Stopping at various villages along the way, they hope to recruit them in order to rebuild the Air Nation, though with little success as they were only able to convince a young boy named Kai to join them. Meanwhile, Zaheer travels the four nations to free his fellow criminals from their prisons. After freeing Ghazan and Ming-Hua, they set course for the Northern Water Tribe to free their last member, P'Li. Upon learning of their escape, Lord Zuko sets course for the Northern Water Tribe himself in an attempt to stop them.
Part two of the season three two part premiere.
Tropes:
- All Animals Are Dogs: Getting to ride an airship for once instead of flying on his own power, Oogi joins Naga in facing into the wind with his tongue out.
- Bad "Bad Acting": Mako is even worse than Sokka. Bonus points for them both playing a part when doing so.
- Basement-Dweller: One of the new airbenders, who has absolutely no ambition to move beyond it, and even tries to convince Korra she didn't have to do her duty as the Avatar.
- The Bus Came Back: Zuko! With his own dragon!
- Cool Air Ship: Future Industries proves to be going strong after nearly folding last season when Asami shows up in what is essentially a luxury airship yacht.
- Didn't Think This Through: The gang decides to go recruit the new airbenders. It failed to occur to them that said airbenders might have lives of their own they don't want to abandon. Tenzin's sales pitch also needs work.
- Dressing as the Enemy: Zaheer dresses as a White Lotus guard so he can get close to the floating prison.
- Expy: The Basement-Dweller's personality is obviously based on Napoleon Dynamite, he's even voiced by Jon Heder. His looks on the other hand, are based on the show's artistic director.
- Eye Am Watching You: Mako to Kai after the latter's story is exposed.
- The Farmer and the Viper: Kai's backstory according to the sheriff. He was an orphan all his life until a family adopted him six months before the events of this episode. He then ran away from home taking the couple's life savings with him.
- Handicapped Badass: Ming-Hua is armless... but certainly not harmless.
- Hey, Let's Put on a Show: When both Tenzin and Korra failed in their efforts, Bolin decides to try this to attract attention. It works, even if their only applicant is a orphan criminal trying to ditch the cops.
- Idiot Ball: Tenzin gets so caught up in the dream of restoring the Air Nomads, that he completely overlooks the desires of everyone who has inadvertently become an airbender. Who cares if you have a family? Come join us and get tattoos!
- Luminescent Blush: Jinora blushes as she talks to Kai.
- Magma Man: Ghazan is able to turn rocks into magma, the first non-Avatar bender shown to be able to do so.
- Mundane Utility: We see again that waterbending can be used to both clean and dry clothing instantly, when Kya has to clean up some vomit.
- Mythology Gag: The Krew's Travel Montage depicts them in a Chibi style not unlike that of Avatar: The Last Airbender's Super-Deformed Shorts.
- Shirtless Scene: Tenzin shows off his wiry Bruce Lee-esque physique and his master's tattoos during Bolin's airbender show.
- Street Urchin: Kai portrays himself as such at first but in truth he is the The Artful Dodger as the authorities can attest. Mako also doesn't buy Kai's new start for a second.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Minus his trademark scar, Zuko has become the spitting image of his great-grandfather, Avatar Roku.
- Tailor-Made Prison: Each of the prisoners has a prison constructed to counteract their bending power.
- Terrible Interviewees Montage: More like a Terrible Interviewers Montage, as Tenzin's sales pitch fails each and every time.
- This Cannot Be!: Zuko says this when he learns that Zaheer has become an airbender.
- Travel Montage: The Krew's trip across the Earth Kingdom is represented by a cartoonish version of their airship with their heads floating above. Their faces get progressively more depressed as each interview goes terribly.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Kai's story of being a recently made an orphan on the run from his parents' murderers proves to be false not five minutes later, as the police he's running from show up and he tries to run as Korra fights them.
