The Voice in the Night

"The Voice in the Night" is the fourth episode of season one of The Legend of Korra and the fourth of the overall series. It debuted on April 28, 2012 on Nickelodeon.

Overview
''Avatar Korra is still mentally struggling with her encounter concerning Amon. Councilman Tarrlok creates a task force to eradicate the Equalists. Korra is pressured to join, and after participating in a successful raid, she challenges Amon to a midnight duel.''

Synopsis
The episode opens with Avatar Korra experiencing a nightmare in which Amon and his Equalists invade Air Temple Island and prepare to remove her bending, before she wakes up, terrified.

At City Hall, Councilman Tarrlok requests permission from the United Republic Council to form an anti-Equalist task force. In order to convince the other council members he uses Avatar Aang's defeat of Yukone as an example of the initiative that needs to be taken. Tenzin argues that such a task force would only divide benders and non-benders further, and that Tarrlok is only trying to gain more power, but the rest of the council votes in favor of Tarrlok's proposal.

As Korra is practicing her airbending technique and listening to music on a radio, the music is interrupted by a message from Amon. He says that the Equalist movement is gaining more power every day, and that non-benders no longer have to live in fear. Korra stares in fright at the radio as Amon declares that it is time for benders to experience fear.

Later, in the daytime, Mako tries to cross the boulevard after leaving the power plant to get to a trolley but is hit by a pretty young woman on a motorcycle. He quickly forgives her after seeing her beauty. She tells him that her name is Asami and she realizes who he is, being an avid fan of pro-bending, and invites him to dinner.

That evening, Tarrlok visits Tenzin and his family during dinner on Air Temple Island and points out that airbenders never send away a hungry guest. Tenzin reluctantly invites him to eat with them, much to Pema's irritation. Tarrlok introduces himself to Korra and flatters her, before asking her to join his special task force. To his and Tenzin's surprise, she refuses.

Mako arrives at Quom's Cuisine and the man who greets him provides him with an upper-class outfit to wear for the dinner date, courtesy, presumably, of Asami. Mako refuses to remove his scarf, and meets Asami. At her prompting, he tells her of his struggles with money and how they will not be able to play in the pro-bending tournament. When he hears Asami's surname, Mako realizes that she is the daughter of Hiroshi Sato, inventor of the Satomobile and the most successful captain of industry in all of Republic City. Then Asami asks if he would like to meet him to which Mako agrees excitedly.

Over the next few days, Tarrlok sends Korra various gifts to persuade her to join his task force (which consisted of a large gift basket, and a satomobile). Korra speaks with Bolin about his encounter with Amon and is reminded of her deep-seated fear. Tenzin also speaks to Korra, telling her that he is always there for her if she wishes to talk about her fear of the Equalists. Meanwhile, Asami Sato introduces Mako to her father. Mr. Sato is sympathetic to Mako's money troubles, having begun his career as a poor shoeshiner who received an investment from a wealthy businessman, and he offers to sponsor the Fire Ferrets.

Finally Tarrlok, seeing that his gifts were not convincing Korra to join the task force, organizes a gala in Korra's honor. She and Tenzin's family attend, but Tenzin is very suspicious of Tarrlok's motives. Mako, Bolin, and the Satos attend as well, and Korra becomes slightly jealous of the new recipient of Mako's attentions. Mako & Bolin tell Korra that Mr. Sato is willing to sponsor the Fire Ferrets in the pro-bending tournament; though Korra does not seem to be ecstatic. Chief Lin Beifong is also there, still in her police uniform, and revealed to have no higher opinion of Korra than at their last meeting.

At the end of the gala, Tarrlok exposes Korra to a number of journalists and photographers who bombard her with questions and accusations about her refusal to join forces with Tarrlok and fight the Equalists. Unable to muster Tenzin's reasoning of trying to avoid worsening the division between benders and non-benders in the face of the paparazzi, Korra announces that she will join Tarrlok's task force.

Together, they invade a secret Chi blocking training room and capture multiple Equalists and chi-blockers-in-training, but Korra's final strike is to publicly challenge Amon to a one-on-one duel at midnight.

That night, Mako and Asami ride in a carriage together through the park. Mako explains to Asami that his scarf used to belong to his father, and is the only remaining part of him Mako has. In return, Asami tells him that she lost her mother when she was very young.



Tenzin attempts to persuade Korra not to go through with her rash decision, and Tarrlok claims that he also tried to talk her out of it, but she goes to meet Amon on Aang Memorial Island despite his warning. There, Amon ambushes Korra with several chi-blockers and decides not to take her bending away, explaining that if he were to attack her now, she would only become a martyr. Therefore, she will be the last bender to fall as part of a mysterious plan. She is then struck unconscious and sees visions of adult Sokka, Toph and Aang.

Tenzin arrives to see what happened. Terribly shaken by her frightening experience, she embraces Tenzin and starts sobbing, admitting that she had never felt so terrified before. Tenzin tells her that admitting her fears was the first and most difficult step in overcoming them.

Trivia

 * Councilman Tarrlok references Avatar Aang's defeat of Yukone forty-two years prior to present day. This would make Aang forty years old when he defeated Yukone, and thus means that Republic City was, to some extent, up and running in 128 ASC, a mere 28 years after the end of the Hundred Year War.
 * This episode marks the first time Amon is actually seen using chi-blocking (as his technique from the previous episode was never confirmed as such).
 * Jinora and Ikki can be seen playing Pai Sho in the background during this episode when Korra gets her invitation to Tarrlok's party.
 * The image on the banners seen in Tarrlok's party was a piece of Korra's concept art.

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