I thought they were decent episodes. Nowhere ont eh scale of ATLA, but still pretty good fro a kids TV show.
Popular theories about Jinora:
Her light spirit butterfly guided her to the rainbow bridge to the real world and she implanted the light butterfly into Vatunaloq, thus seeding the revival of Rava.
Light spirit guided her to Iroh to get Wan's/Rava's teapot and she somehow extracted the final "essence" of Rava to implant into Vatunaloq.
Honestly, part way through the episode when Jinora was all "There's a disturbance in the force! I must attend to it!" I was thinking "OHGOD she's gonna die and become the second coming of Rava D:" But then I realized it's a kid show and killing pre-teen kids is a huge no no.
Varrick I think is set up to be the next season's villain perfectly. He escaped jail, he's rich and has connections to the mafia. Seeing as the next book is to be heavily focused around Lin and her background, I can totally see this as a "terrorist hits Republic city! Something needs team Avatar + Lin to kick ass and chew bubblegum!"