Avatar: Seven Havens - “What Lies Beneath”, “The Envoys: Part One”, & “The Envoys: Part Two” Review
“The world used to love the Avatar. How did she go from being adored to destroying humanity?”
It’s an excellent question that Nisha asks, and the series has the sense to leave it hanging. These three episodes of Avatar: Seven Havens answer a great deal, but that question is still open, and I think it is the most important one in the story.
The latest batch marks a turning point. Nisha has revealed herself as the Avatar and has been forced to flee Ellora, a fugitive from a terrified populace raised on anti-Avatar propaganda. Agam is now revealed as the Faceless Queen. Chancellor Kayoko’s fascist tendencies, hardly unexpected for one in a position of such unnecessary power, are now laid bare. And Pavi, who had only just gotten used to having people on her side, is left behind in a city coming apart, with the White Lotus imprisoned and no one outside it aware she exists.
It all begins in “What Lies Beneath,” in which the sisters follow the Anomaly underground and glimpse memories of Korra’s final years. What they see is Korra destroying Republic City without hesitation. Taken at face value, this might seem to confirm what the world believes, that the Avatar became a villain. However, I do not take it at face value. The series has spent its whole run hinting that the hatred of the Avatar is manufactured propaganda, and a story that has taught us to distrust what the powerful tell their people ought to invite the same suspicion of what it shows us. I suspect that this fragmented footage is misdirection, and that the final episodes of the season will vindicate Korra. It would also be a rebuke to those who have always been too eager to judge Korra harshly while granting Aang a grace they never extended to her, a misogynistic tendency that even the show’s creators have remarked upon.
Separating the sisters is a bold choice, and I think the right one. Nisha is desperate to prove herself the Avatar, and she has the bending talent to back it up. What she lacks is a spiritual connection, and she must also face the fact that she may be ready for the world before the world is ready for her. Meanwhile, as the show’s protagonist, Pavi has the opposite problem. She has a bond with the Anomaly that Nisha does not share, and it keeps calling her. Each girl must endure alone before the two can be whole again. Nisha stumbles through the Harshlands, perhaps toward the Faceless and their destination, Republic Forest. Pavi must stay hidden, with only Jae to protect her, as his seeming betrayal more likely suggests quick thinking under extreme pressure.
The two-parter “The Envoys” widens the map significantly. We meet other havens beyond Ellora such as New Ba Sing Se and Akasha, each with its own troubles. Republic Forest stands out because it has cut itself off from everyone else. While the other havens struggle for resources, it appears to have everything, and no one knows why. A closed door is an irresistible thing in a mystery, and I suspect that what lies behind this one has much to do with the cataclysm itself.
Whatever the finale decides, this has been a patient, absorbing stretch. Karthik tells Pavi that the Avatar must remain centered, the eye of the storm. The storm is now fully upon them. How this resolves in the season’s final episodes next week, I cannot say, but there are plenty of moving pieces to make it worth watching.