Episode would have been a lot more better if
a) Korra never took the metal out of her body and the toph scenes didn't happen until AFTER the first fight
b) Korra went completely aggro and was ready to kill Kuvira and wipe out the whole army and just went full crazy like she did with Zaheer except now she stays in that crazy state of mind.
Also Varrick was amazing in this episode.
Yeah, see I agree with you. I think the Korra plot should have been done a little differently. I think her getting the metal out, or having finished her training later with Toph (with more focus on the training, or her getting the metal out) -- would have been for a better plot pacing. I even think the way they handled it initially was strange. Like how it bounced around from the various side plots. The problem was, the scenes with her and Toph always kind of felt a tad short for me. Like, her training and her over coming her demons should have had more focus and more power to it. Of course, now we know it's because she didn't really solve her demons. But then it's like, well then why even have the training plot the way it was done in the first place? (It being the focus of 4 episodes, while the other stuff kind of got crammed in, in the background).