It’s understandable but also completely unfair to Korra, who had plenty of good reasons to behave the way she did. Korra worries that Asami’s father might be manipulating her and Asami snaps at her for giving out “life advice” when she’s been gone for so long, and Mako feels some mix of jealousy and hurt at the fact that Korra wrote to Asami but never to him. The story is pretty straightforward: Korra returns to Republic City and meets up with Mako and Asami (and the uninvited Prince Wu), but three years of separation have created some tension and mild resentment between the trio.

While it’s a small step down from last week’s delight of an episode, it’s still solid entertainment (I mean, who can resist a Train Fight?) and a good way to reacquaint everyone before (presumably) Shit Gets Real in the coming weeks. Overarching plot-wise not a lot of major developments to discuss-Bolin and Varrick flee the Earth Kingdom with the help of some “reeducation camp” escapees, and Kuvira has decided to drain the Great Banyan-Grove Tree of its spirit energy (Toph is gonna be pissed)-but that’s fine, because we get to spend some quality time with some old friends who have been more-or-less sidelined this season. “The Sting” and “Original Airbenders” come to mind as good examples of insular stories where Korra wasn’t even involved this season we get “The Reunion,” a Korra-centric episode that also belongs very much to the entire Krew.

Bryke & Co.’s decision to turn LoK into a “one major arc per Book” kind of show has occasionally lead to some issues with pacing or a focus on plot to the exclusion of character development, but they’re usually pretty good about giving us one or two episodes that function as sort of self-contained “bridge” chapters that let us spend some time with the gang and see them interacting and growing on a micro rather than macro level.

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