Let's Talk - Cobra Kai

Cobra Kai - S01E02 - Strike First

August 29, 2019 Just Curious Media Episode 3
Let's Talk - Cobra Kai
Cobra Kai - S01E02 - Strike First
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Show Notes Transcript

Let's Talk - Cobra Kai
Episode 03: Cobra Kai - S01E02 - Strike First

Jason Connell and Sal Rodriguez break down Season 01 - Episode 02 (Strike First) of the Cobra Kai series and much more.

Synopsis: Daniel is dismayed to find a new Cobra Kai dojo has been opened up. Johnny learns his dojo has to pass several safety requirements before he can actually start teaching.

Original Episode: S01E02

Recorded: 06-27-19
Studio: Just Curious Media
https://www.JustCuriousMedia.com/

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Hosts:
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https://www.instagram.com/SalvadorLosAngeles/

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Episode 03: Cobra Kai - S01E02 - Strike First

[00:00:00] JC:
Welcome to Just Curious Media. This is Let's Talk - Cobra Kai. I’m Jason Connell, documentary filmmaker turned podcaster. 


[00:00:08] SR: And I'm Sal Rodriguez, toy collector and standup comic. 


[00:00:12] JC: So now, we’re on to season 1 episode 2, Strike First.


[00:00:16] SR: I’m still totally Kai’d out. 


[00:00:18] JC: You are always Kai’d out. 


[00:00:20] SR: I want a pat on the back. Can I get a pat on the back?  


[00:00:21] JC: Yeah. Sure. So this episode gets an 8.6 rating on IMDb, and this starts out with a bang, I got to say, with one of my favorite songs of which I have used in a short film before many years ago. It’s Dean Martin's Ain’t That a Kick in the Head. 


[00:00:39] SR: Which is the antithesis of the beginning of episode 1 where we see Johnny's intro. 


[00:00:46] JC: Exactly.


[00:00:46] SR: His intro in the beginning of episode 1 versus Daniel LaRusso's intro at the beginning of episode 2. Very, very different.


[00:00:53] JC: There was a lot of patting each other on the back as the music supervisor found this track, because it is perfect. It took a crane kick to the head to change the fortunes of Daniel LaRusso forever. So this song kicks in. First, we see like a sweeping helicopter shot going over the Hollywood sign. Now, we are in the LaRusso residence.


[00:01:17] SR: Yeah. We are getting the behind-the-scenes sneak peek of Daniel LaRusso's life.


[00:01:22] JC: What we see right away is that there's no Ali, no Elisabeth Shue. But there’s an attractive woman there who was his wife, and we’re having yet another ‘80s montage. 


[00:01:31] SR: I must say though, I was really trying to see the chemistry with him and his wife, and this is nothing against her as an actress. But then again, maybe that’s the whole idea, right? He’s been married a while. Maybe they’re a little bored in their marriage. Who knows? 


[00:01:42] JC: This is a great opening. Daniel now lives. I'm not sure where, but it could be the Encino Hills where Ali lived. It’s a beautiful home. 


[00:01:49] SR: Sure. Well, he owns like, what, 5 dealerships? We learned in episode 1 that not only does he have automotive dealerships. He has auto body shop in-house as well. 


[00:01:57] JC: Yeah, and this montage is great. You got not only Daniel at home. We see Daniel also at LaRusso Auto, helping out guys. 


[00:02:04] SR: Yeah. He’s hands-on.


[00:02:04] JC: Hands-on. 


[00:02:05] SR: Yup. 


[00:02:05] JC: I guess it goes back to when he got the car from Mr. Miyagi, which Sal has the actual Karate Kid Hot Wheel. 


[00:02:13] SR: I do have the Karate Kid Hot Wheels car, the ‘48 Ford Super Deluxe. It is the yellow car that Mr. Miyagi gave to Danielson. 


[00:02:23] JC: It’s a little smaller than the actual. 


[00:02:24] SR: It’s a 164-scale, which is the Hot Wheels and Matchbox size. I would've loved to have seen the car sitting in the LaRusso showroom as an homage. 


[00:02:33] JC: That's a really good point, because I have read that Ralph Macchio owns that. So why not bring that in the show? It’s a really good point. 


[00:02:39] SR: Well, we’re seeing Daniel’s life. We’re seeing him at work. We’re seeing him with his family. We’re seeing him with his wife. 


[00:02:45] JC: You’re seeing a day in the life of Daniel. 


[00:02:47] SR: Again, this is such a dichotomy as compared to Johnny's life from the beginning of episode 1. Obviously, we’re seeing his pathetic life. Now, we’re seeing Daniel LaRusso's fantastic life. Again, so it seems. I mean, we don’t know what goes on behind the scenes, particularly in marriages and all that. 


[00:03:05] JC: We’re only seeing a montage. 


[00:03:06] SR: We’re seeing a montage, but –


[00:03:06] JC: Things look good in a montage. 


[00:03:07] SR: His montage looks fantastic. 


[00:03:09] JC: The song is still going on, by the way, Ain’t That a Kick in the Head. Daniel looks to his left, and what does he see?


[00:03:15] SR: He’s at a stoplight, casually glances over to the left. He’s in the Reseda Flats. Yes, and he sees the new Cobra Kai dojo.


[00:03:25] JC: It's like Daniel gets hit with PTSD. 


[00:03:28] SR: I love that moment. At that moment, you were just seeing him start to devolve, go back to becoming a teenager. 


[00:03:36] JC: Pre-All Valley Tournament. 


[00:03:38] SR: I love that moment. I really did. I think I even rewound that moment. I just wanted to see him. 


[00:03:42] JC: The song ends on that beat. 


[00:03:43] SR: I wanted to see him deteriorate in that moment, and he does. He’s sitting in the car, he sees the dojo has all the flashbacks, and he starts to mentally deteriorate at that moment. 


[00:03:53] JC: Next thing, we’re in Cobra Kai. It's the first class, and Johnny is kind of a hard ass. 


[00:03:59] SR: Yeah. So far, Miguel is the only student at this present moment. 


[00:04:02] JC: And in comes an inspector. 


[00:04:04] SR: He’s saying you got to have everything up to code before you get your insurance. Basically, giving them a hard time, kind of being a little bit intimidating. But then he refers to the emblem on the wall, Cobra Kay. 


[00:04:14] JC: Cobra Kay. 


[00:04:14] SR: Like Mary Kay. 


[00:04:16] JC: Then he calls the cobra a –


[00:04:18] SR: He calls the cobra a rattlesnake. 


[00:04:19] JC: It's also quite obvious that Johnny has no idea how to run the business. 


[00:04:23] SR: No. 


[00:04:24] JC: So there's that. 


[00:04:24] SR: No. It's almost like when you think about encashing his stepdad's check. 

Probably the equivalent of a lottery winner, just like, “Woohoo!”


[00:04:33] JC: The next thing you know, we are back at the Encino Oaks Country Club where Danny was once restricted. But, hey, now he's a big member. 


[00:04:41] SR: Oh! Was that the same club from Karate Kid?


[00:04:42] JC: Yeah. Where Ali belonged and Johnny. 


[00:04:45] SR: Wow!


[00:04:45] JC: And the scene where he went in the backdoor and all that. This is it. 


[00:04:49] SR: And bumps into the waiter and all that. I didn’t relate the two. 


[00:04:52] JC: That’s why I’m here. 


[00:04:53] SR: Okay. So now, he’s at the party at the country club. 


[00:04:56] JC: And we meet his younger son, Anthony. He’s totally glued to his phone. 


[00:05:01] SR: Basically, just orders Daniel to get him a drink, right?


[00:05:03] JC: Yeah. Kind of snarky that old kid. And we meet his wife, who is Amanda. Then they go to the bar and get a – Not just a drink but an ice cold dirty martini. Let me just tell you, Sal. There is nothing like an ice-cold dirty martini from Musso and Frank’s. Him and Amanda are enjoying their drink, and they’re interacting with a guest. 


[00:05:28] SR: This guy comes over with his daughter. 


[00:05:30] JC: Correct. 


[00:05:30] SR: Who's around the same age as Danielson's daughter. 


[00:05:33] JC: Samantha?


[00:05:33] SR: Yeah. They chat for a little bit, catch up. Maybe they haven't seen each other in a year, but they know each other through the club. In that moment when Daniel drinks that martini with his elbow up at the bar, that encompasses everything. He’s a man at a country club, drinking a martini. 


[00:05:48] JC: Somewhere, he did not use to have the keys to get into. We cut to Cobra Kai dojo, and Johnny's pulling on Miyagi and having Miguel do some dirty work. 


[00:05:58] SR: Yeah. 


[00:05:59] JC: It’s a pretty funny scene. He’s drinking Coors, of course, and –


[00:06:03] SR: He was almost like the anti-Miyagi. 


[00:06:05] JC: How much is Coors paying this show? Are they the lone sponsor to the YouTube Red show? They’re like in every scene that Johnny’s in.


[00:06:13] SR: Well, what the funny thing is that if you are Coors and this guy who’s at this moment in time a low life and he’s drinking your beer, that doesn’t really paint your beer in a positive light, does it? 


[00:06:25] JC: That’s true. 


[00:06:25] SR: I like this moment because, A, it’s obviously an homage to Miyagi and Danielson. He has some cleaning, but this is where you start to see a little bit of the bonding. These little tender moments like when Miguel reveals that he doesn’t know his father. 


Then you start to wonder, “Well, what about Johnny’s dad?” Obviously, we know that he had a stepdad. So what happened to his real dad? So you start to kind of put pieces together.  


[00:06:45] JC: Johnny’s kind of fighting that until you see that. Beneath it, there’s a decent guy, and we’ve seen him show up sometimes. But he’s definitely suppressing that.


[00:06:53] SR: Yeah. 


[00:06:54] JC: So then we cut to Samantha who didn’t go to the country club. She’s still in an all-out party to get in with the cool girls at the LaRusso residence.  


[00:07:03] SR: I thought that was pretty daring because not like your parents are out of town or out of a country. 


[00:07:07] JC: Yeah. They’re just at the country club.


[00:07:09] SR: They’re at the country club, and she has a pool party with all kinds of teenagers there, taking videos for their YouTube channels and so forth. Just having a great time at this pool party. 


[00:07:18] JC: And lots of guys wearing Danny’s swimsuits. 


[00:07:21] SR: I would be so pissed if my daughter gave my swimming trunks to a bunch of her friends because guess what? You don’t wear underwear with swimming trunks. 


[00:07:28] JC: No. 


[00:07:29] SR: I think he even references it later. He’s like, “Just make sure your friends bring their own swim trunks next. 


[00:07:33] JC: Oh, he tells them?


[00:07:34] SR: Yeah. 


[00:07:35]JC: So Daniel comes home and immediately shuts the party down. Samantha had obviously crossed the line, and we learned from that seen at the country club with her friend that she's kind of going through a Mean Girls Heather's phase when she’s trying to in with the cool kids and giving her more nerdy, bookish friends a pause.


That’s kind of what’s happening with Samantha. So she's kind of caught in-between two worlds, starting to like guys, doing things unorthodox, doing the ill-advised and unauthorized pool party. 


[00:08:05] SR: Yes. But that was also – I did want to catch that one moment where we hear a mention of Daniel's mother. 


[00:08:12] JC: Right. 


[00:08:13] SR: Where he's make some reference too that his daughter doesn't even call his mother. I don’t know if that maybe a foreshadow. Maybe we’re going to be seeing his mother at some point. Is the actress still alive who played his mother originally?


[00:08:25] JC: Yes, she is alive and she does make appearances.  


[00:08:28] SR: Really?  


[00:08:28] JC: Yes. 


[00:08:29] SR: That’s so cool. Okay. So I just want to be clear to listeners that I have only seen episode 1 and episode 2, whereas Jason has seen, what, all two seasons already.


[00:08:39] JC: I did. It’s what gave me the inspiration to do this podcast. So it is true. 


[00:08:43] SR: Okay. But I have not jumped ahead. So anybody who’s along the same lines as I am, I just finished episode 2. We’re doing this show here on episode 2. I have not seen episode 3 and beyond that. 


[00:08:53] JC: I don’t do spoilers to you either. I’ll say things. If you ask me a direct question, I will tell you. 


[00:08:58] SR: I think that’s cool if the mom makes an appearance. 


[00:08:59] JC: I do too. It’s been fun to go back and watch the second time before we do the podcast, so it's fresh. It does start to bleed together watching two seasons of a show. 


[00:09:08] SR: Sure.


[00:09:08] JC: But Samantha, she's evolving. She's a teenager. She's late in the high school and she –


[00:09:13] SR: A rich teenager.


[00:09:14] JC: Very rich. 


[00:09:15] SR: That means you get to do bad things badder. 


[00:09:20] JC: Okay.


[00:09:21] SR: I mean, if you don’t have a pool, you can’t have a pool party. Right?


[00:09:23] JC: It’s true. 


[00:09:23] SR: So you got a pool –


[00:09:25] JC: Rich people problems. 


[00:09:26] SR: Yes.


[00:09:27] JC: So we see Daniel cleaning and putting things away, and we see a photo of Mr. Miyagi, which is a nice little moment. You can tell that in his house he has a dojo, his own little personal dojo that's become more of a storage closet. So obviously, we know right then and there, Daniel hasn’t been practicing, Mr. Miyagi has passed on, and it's a nice little like, “Oh, there's more to learn from this.” 


So now, Daniel and Samantha have a very 16-candles father-daughter type scene. Ironically, both characters are named Samantha and they have that –


[00:10:03] SR: Cool trivia.


[00:10:04] JC: A little trivia. That’s when you kind of see they do have a bond, and there’s even like a little bit of a flashback to when Daniel was training Samantha in the dojo, a little bit of that.


[00:10:13] SR: Yes. 


[00:10:13] JC: A little bit of that. 


[00:10:14] SR: In that moment, when I'm watching what, he is wearing a black belt. So that's where I'm thinking, “Is that a legitimate black belt? Is that the same black belt that Mr. Miyagi stole from the tournament?” I'm wondering at that moment how far Daniel has progressed to become an actual karate master. 


[00:10:29] JC: I would say he earned it. From Karate Kid II, Karate Kid III, having a dojo in his house, I think he's legitimately earned a black belt. 


[00:10:38] SR: Okay. Then there is like being a sensei for his young daughter in this flashback sequence. She looks like she’s about 6 or 7. 


[00:10:44] JC: What color was she wearing? Was she wearing a black top?


[00:10:46] SR: She was wearing a white gi with a white belt.  


[00:10:48] JC: Okay, good. If they put a black belt on her, that’s where I would have some problems. 


[00:10:52] SR: There was also this one moment. I think it might have been back at the country club when Daniel and his wife were talking about their kids, and Daniel said something to be effective, “I just don't want my kids to be privileged Encino brats.” That's the quote. That moment, as a viewer, is where I go. “Ah, he lives in Encino. That’s where he lives.”


[00:11:12] JC: Encino Hills. 


[00:11:12] SR: Encino Hills. So this is where the tables turn, because now Johnny, who grew up in Encino, now lives in Reseda.


[00:11:20] JC: A very Seven Seas-esque. 


[00:11:22] SR: Yes. Then Daniel who lived in Reseda now lives in Encino Hills. 


[00:11:26] JC: Where he’s felt like such an outcast, going to pick up Ali on that date back in Karate Kid.


[00:11:31] SR: When they had to jumpstart the car.


[00:11:32] JC: Pop the clutch. 


[00:11:33] SR: Yes. The tables have turned.


[00:11:35] JC: Now, we are at school for the first time, and we see Miguel. He is befriending two outcasts, Demetri and Eli. Demetri is kind of a funny, sarcastic guy. Eli’s the quiet type.


[00:11:48] SR: Yeah.


[00:11:48] JC: So Miguel has had a lesson with Johnny about, “Hey, don't be afraid. Don't get in your own way.”


[00:11:54] SR: The Cobra Kai terminology is strike first. So when Miguel gets up to go wrap at this chick, Eli or Demetri says, “What are you doing?” He says, “Striking first.” I loved that.


[00:12:04] JC: It was good. Yes. So he spotted Sam, and it was a spark there, if you will. 


[00:12:09] SR: There was a little bit. When he started walking over, smiled at her, you could tell that she was kind of into it.


[00:12:14] JC: Sam was at the table with the cool kids, Yasmine and Moon, who are kind of the influencers at the school, who probably talked her into having the party at her pool.


[00:12:23] SR: Yes. Remember she made a reference at the pool. She goes, “It’s better to host the party.”


[00:12:26] JC: So you could tell that she’s new to this to be in the elite, if you will. But Miguel starts to make his move, but he is stopped by –


[00:12:35] SR: Kyler.


[00:12:36] JC: Kyler and crew, the rowdy kids who bested him at the minimart. There’s not enough fight sequence. It’s just abort the mission. 


[00:12:44] SR: Yeah. He does an about-face and walks back to Eli and Demetri. 


[00:12:47] JC: So now, we’re back at Cobra Kai dojo. Sal, I got to say. It feels like Miguel is there every day after school.


[00:12:53] SR: You remember going back to the original Karate Kid where you worked between the math and realizing that Danielson didn't go to school. He just went to go clean for Mr. Miyagi for a while. 


[00:13:05] JC: Exactly. There's a lot of that. 


[00:13:06] SR: Yes. So there these lapses in time, I guess.


[00:13:08] JC: It’s like he's bootstrapped. It’s a startup. 


[00:13:11] SR: Yeah.


[00:13:11] JC: So he's going over there to help him out. So he’s in there, and there’s a phone call. Now, we learn that Johnny has a son. 


[00:13:20] SR: Yeah. His son is wearing a Misfits T-shirt, which I found very interesting. 


[00:13:25] JC: He’s kind of a real jerk on the phone. 


[00:13:27] SR: Well, the vice principal calls up Johnny and says, “Your son was found with Molly,” and for those of you who don't know is what we used to call ecstasy. 


[00:13:38] JC: Immediately, he says, “Why are you calling me? Call his mother.” 


[00:13:42] SR: Yeah. 


[00:13:42] JC: So he’s like the estranged dad. He's got no relationship with this guy. 


[00:13:46] SR: The son just says, “Hey, you're a loser. What the hell are we calling you for?” The son just like totally dismisses. 


[00:13:52] JC: The principal is like, “Ah.” His son’s name is Robbie, by the way. So that was a big reveal. Now, we’re back to the lesson. He's continuing his training with Miguel, and you start to see Miguel tap into his anger a little bit.


[00:14:08] SR: That's when he has him punch that torso that you punch.


[00:14:11] JC: Right. 


[00:14:11] SR: Oh, yes. 


[00:14:12] JC: This was a little bit of Star Wars and tapping into the dark side. Miguel’s a good kid, a goodhearted kid, who doesn’t have a father. He’s very impressionable, and Johnny doesn't know another way. You can tell he’s pushing him to be a little bit dark. 


[00:14:26] SR: Well, when I started seeing Miguel start to punch – Remember when Johnny says, “Picture your enemy,” and then all of a sudden Miguel starts throwing those punches and giving the, “Ha! Ha! Ha!” At that moment, I was like, “I wouldn’t want to take that punch.”


[00:14:39] JC: So now, we are back at the LaRusso residence, and I forgot to mention this in the 16-candles father-daughter thing. Daniel took the high road after the party and let Sam invite the boy that she's interested in, who was also Kyler, who’s also the bad guy. He invited him over to dinner on Friday night with the family.


[00:15:01] SR: She said they had been texting. 


[00:15:02] JC: They had been texting. 


[00:15:03] SR: And there was a little –


[00:15:03] JC: Not sexting. 


[00:15:04]SR: No, because he actually goes, “Ah. Only words, right?” She’s like, “Ah. Gross, yeah.” 


[00:15:09] JC: Daniel’s made a feast of it. He has his knife from Okinawa, and he’s got fresh sushi. 


[00:15:15] SR: Well, it’s kind of like you’re watching this going, “Is he offering sushi to Kyler because –” Once upon a time –


[00:15:24] JC: Because Kyler’s Asian? 

 

[00:15:24] SR: Okay. When I was in middle school, this is a true story, I went to a friend’s house for dinner. So white family invites their son Aaron's friend Salvador for dinner. I get there. I'll never forget the mom said, “Sal, I knew you were coming for dinner so I made enchiladas.” I’d never forget that. 


So when I watch this scene, I’m like, “Is that what Daniel is trying to do?” Like, “Because he’s Asian, I’m going to give him sushi?”


[00:15:50] JC: But he's not Japanese.


[00:15:52] SR: No. 


[00:15:52] JC: He’s Korean. 


[00:15:53] SR: He could've been any –


[00:15:54] JC: I think it was just a fancy thing that he was trying to do, show off. 


[00:15:56] SR: So he wasn’t trying to give him sushi, because he’s Asian?


[00:15:59] JC: No, I don’t think so. 


[00:15:59] SR: Remember also when he says to Kyler, he goes, “Oh, where were your parents from?” Kyler was like, “Ah, Irvine, I think.” He’s like, “Oh, okay.” 


[00:16:07] JC: So he’s making a big production out of it, and you can kind of tell by seeing Kyler’s face like, “Something’s off with this guy. He's not enjoying it.” Then it happens. He doesn't even eat fish. 


I think that I would accept sushi in the moment. You’re trying to win over the parents. You’ve got the girl there that you like. So Samantha says, “Yeah, but you like fish sticks.” He says, “Do you have any of those?”


[00:16:35] SR: Yeah. Then I remember Daniel goes, “Oh, no. I just have this fish I picked up from the Japanese market this morning. I don't have any Gorton’s fisherman fish sticks. Sorry.”


[00:16:45] JC: So then Amanda and Samantha both leave to get something that Kyler would eat, which is ridiculous. So now, we have a scene with Kyler and Daniel, which is very uncomfortable scene. 


[00:16:56] SR: I remember once I picked up a girlfriend on a date. Her dad invites me in to say hello, and he was polishing his rifles. He’s like, “So what time do you think you’ll have my daughter back?” I was like, “Uh, whatever time you tell me to is what time I’ll have her back.” 


[00:17:11] JC: Wow! That really happened?


[00:17:13] SR: That really happened.


[00:17:14] JC: But Daniel wasn't even being intimidating. Kyler is just kind of a dead person.


[00:17:18] SR: Well, Kyler wasn't trying to impress him. Otherwise, he would’ve said, “Sure, I'll take the sushi,” and just muscled it down. Instead, he was like, “No, don’t like it. No, thanks.” So he didn’t care. 


[00:17:26] JC: It’s kind of an uncomfortable scene, but just because they didn't how to connect with each other until Daniel asked Kyler where he got the black eye from. Kyler squirms in his chair and says he got it from wrestling.


[00:17:39] SR: No. But then Daniel notices his fists. 


[00:17:41] JC: Then he shares the fact that he was jumped in a minimart by a guy, and that's it. It just clicked in Daniel's mind, and he knew that Johnny was responsible. So we cut back to the Cobra Kai dojo, and Miguel is still working. It’s late in the evening, and he’s still working. He’s washing the window, and he asked Johnny, “Any particular way you want me to wash these windows?” Johnny just says, “No, I don't give a crap.” He didn’t say crap. It’s very funny, a call back to Karate Kid. 


[00:18:14] SR: We’re thinking there should be some sort of official karate method. 


[00:18:17] JC: Wash right. Wash left. But no. Daniel knows that Johnny attacked Kyler and his friends. Now, Daniel opens the door and enters the Cobra Kai dojo to confront Johnny about beating up Samantha's friends. So what happens here?


[00:18:35] SR: Daniel walks in their thinking that Johnny attacked these teens. So obviously, he was just sort of being a good dad at that moment. 


[00:18:44] JC: Correct. 


[00:18:45] SR: Hey, what are you doing attacking my daughter's friends? Quit being a jerk. But this is where then the truth comes out. 


[00:18:51] JC: So Johnny shares the fact that Miguel had been jumped by multiple friends of Samantha's. Daniel’s taken back with this information.


[00:19:00] SR: Yeah. 


[00:19:00] JC: It’s a great sequence, because he got Johnny on the left, Daniel on the right, and there is the Cobra Kai creed.


[00:19:06] SR: Daniel steps into that frame, and you’re like thinking, “Here we are again in 1984.”


[00:19:11] JC: Here we are. 


[00:19:12] SR: It's happening again.


[00:19:13] JC: Yeah. 


[00:19:13] SR: Then I think right around that time, then Miguel comes out because he was cleaning the bathroom, cleaning the toilet to be exact, addresses Johnny a sensei and that's when Danny goes, “Sensei?” He says, “Really? Sensei?” 


[00:19:26] JC: He knows then and there that Cobra Kai is beginning to develop students. But what cracks me about this sequence too is that they just don’t take an extra like beat to explain the facts. You can tell that both of them have these predisposed ideas of one another, and they’re always going to assume the worst. 


Johnny could come out and really explain the facts and much like Daniel. He's hanging onto his own resentment. Even though he has the better life now, he still is affected by Cobra Kai. 


[00:19:54] SR: Well, you may look at the surface and think automatically, “Daniel has a better life. Fine.” There's something missing in Daniel's life that he may actually envy how he started breaking down when he even saw the Cobra Kai dojo. So obviously, there are some things stirring inside of him, maybe some regrets, maybe some dissatisfaction with his life. Who knows?


[00:20:16] JC: He’s also not training karate anymore. 


[00:20:18] SR: Yeah. That may be a moment where also Daniel’s like, “This guy is opening up a dojo. I own car dealerships. What the hell am I doing with my life?”


[00:20:24] JC: That’s probably a lot of it. They’re very similar characters. They’re very hotheaded. They’re almost too alike. 


[00:20:31] SR: Daniel then walks out, gets in his car. They have another face-off, and I love this ending where they have that twangy guitar music, and you see Johnny then give us a little smirk at the end. At that moment in time is where Johnny thinks to himself, “I got them.” It’s like you see the tables turning again. 


[00:20:51] JC: Yes, and that's it, episode 2. We have eight more episodes in this season. 


[00:20:56] SR: Wow! 


[00:20:57] JC: So this has been Let’s Talk - Cobra Kai. Please subscribe to us on iTunes or anywhere else you get your podcast.


[00:21:04] SR: I’m really excited. I haven’t seen episode 3 yet. 


[00:21:06] JC: I love it. All right. Thank you again.

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