Cobra Kai - S01E08 - Molting

Let's Talk - Cobra Kai
Episode 09: Cobra Kai - S01E08 - Molting

Jason Connell and Sal Rodriguez break down Season 01 - Episode 08 (Molting) of the Cobra Kai series and much more.

Synopsis: Johnny prepares his Cobra Kai students for the next All Valley Karate Tournament and in turn, he is inspired to clean up his life. Daniel is still unaware of his new pupil's background.

Original Episode: S01E08

Recorded: 07-15-19
Studio: Just Curious Media
https://www.JustCuriousMedia.com/

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Transcript

Episode 09: Cobra Kai - S01E08 - Molting

[0:00:00.8] JC: Welcome to Just Curious Media, this is Let’s Talk Cobra Kai. I’m Jason Connell. Documentary film maker turned podcaster.

[0:00:07.6] SR: And I’m Sal Rodriguez, Toy collector, comedian.

[INTERVIEW]

[0:00:09.9] JC: All right, here we are, episode eight. Molting. Let me say that again, molting.

[0:00:16.5] SR: What does that mean? Isn’t that like melting iron or something?

[0:00:19.6] JC: Yeah, it just sounds, exactly. Something out of T2. We’re molting and it did get an 8.8 rating on IMDB so it’s another fantastic episode.

[0:00:28.9] SR: I am completely emotionally invested at this point.

[0:00:31.9] JC: And we have two more episodes after this for season one and just think, there’s a whole other season waiting for you.

[0:00:39.6] SR: I don’t want to jump ahead.

[0:00:40.7] JC: No, you can’t.

[0:00:42.1] SR: I don’t want to know what happens, I love suspense, I actually realized as a TV and movie lover. I don’t want to know what’s happening. I want to think what’s going to happen but I really don’t want to know what’s going to happen. I like to be surprised.

[0:00:53.7] JC: Let’s tell the audience what happens?

[0:00:57.0] SR: We’re assuming that if you’re listening to this show that you’ve seen Cobra Kai. If you’re listening to season one episode eight, Cobra Kai podcast, you’ve seen season one episode eight already, right? Would you assume that?

[0:01:07.9] JC: I would assume they have seen it.

[0:01:09.4] SR: Okay.

[0:01:10.5] JC: There will be spoilers.

[0:01:11.7] SR: This whole show is a spoiler and I would also assume and if not assume, I would hope that they’ve seen the Karate Kid. 

[0:01:19.3] JC: I would hope so too.

[0:01:21.6] SR: We open this episode at, of all places, an auto junk yard. Johnny is drinking Coors, no surprise and he’s wearing a Cobra Kai shirt which I used to have one of those exact same shirts. Part of my Halloween costume in two subsequent years and he has a red jacket on, not a Cobra Kai jacket but a red jacket and he’s donning his famous bandana and he’s standing on top of a van while he addresses his students. What’s he saying?

[0:01:50.3] JC: Well, what an interesting place to train. A junkyard, I don’t know if they’ve ever used a location like that in some sort of training montage ever in a movie or TV show.

[0:01:59.3] SR: The last junkyard scene I can remember is Stand By Me and then there was one in Pulp Fiction and Breaking Bad of course.

[0:02:05.7] JC: But if you think about a junkyard, it’s a dangerous place.

[0:02:08.1] SR: They’re not a place for kids.

[0:02:09.6] JC: No.

[0:02:09.6] SR: There’s broken glass everywhere, there’s pieces of metal that are going to dig into you and give you tetanus, it’s not a happy, fun place. In fact, if you’re there as a student, what are we doing here is what you’re probably thinking.

[0:02:22.5] JC: Next thing you know, we’re in the midst of a training montage. They have baseball bats, they’re bashing windows.

[0:02:29.3] SR: It looked like fun.

[0:02:30.4] JC: They’re running over dumpsters if they fall, they’re going to get cut to smithereens, there’s a tire course and that leads up to what happens next.

[0:02:41.2] SR: Johnny breaks out a dog whistle, blows it and here come wild junkyard dogs.

[0:02:47.7] JC: JYD’s.

[0:02:49.0] SR: Chasing the students and these students make a break for it, running for their lives, literally. I think Hawk might have gotten caught, he’s bitten.

[0:02:56.5] JC: Yeah. Johnny’s like, “They can sense fear,” and these aren’t just little dogs, these are vicious looking German Shepherds and other tough dogs like a few episodes earlier, when Johnny installed the baseball pitching machine, he’s really taken this Miyagi type of training to another level. 

[0:03:16.7] SR: That makes you think, well, how did Kreese train people? What kind of methods did Kreese employ? That now, Johnny’s doing all these whacky things.

[0:03:23.4] JC: I think Johnny’s seen a lot of movies and got some ideas. Johnny was never trained by Mr. Miyagi, so I’m only using that out of respect for Mr. Miyagi and his ways. Daniel is maintaining that through line. I don’t know where Johnny came up with this ideas, but I like them. 

[0:03:37.8] SR: We’re not to assume that Kreese took his students?

[0:03:40.3] JC: No, I think he was into the raw, bare knuckle fighting. I don’t think that it dealt with this type of ingenious thinking. Back at LaRusso’s. Anthony plays a game on his phone. Man versus dog.

[0:03:55.0] SR: Is that what it is?

[0:03:56.3] JC: I don’t know the name of the game but a dog is attacking a man right after the scene and Samantha’s looking at photos of her and Miguel.

[0:04:02.2] SR: Yes, they’re starting their love story. Samantha and Miguel. 

[0:04:07.3] JC: Interrupted by the doorbell and who is there?

[0:04:10.6] SR: I could not believe it. I was besides myself, besides or beside?

[0:04:15.0] JC: Both.

[0:04:15.8] SR: When Daniel LaRusso’s mother shows up. Such a throwback to karate kid.

[0:04:22.7] JC: His mother from the original, absolutely right.

[0:04:26.0] SR: Because you're wondering, this whole time you’re watching Cobra Kai, well what happened to Daniel LaRusso’s mother?

[0:04:30.6] JC: She was a pivotal character.

[0:04:31.3] SR: Yeah, here she is. Making her appearance.

[0:04:34.3] JC: She looks great as ever, she’s enthusiastic, happy to be there.

[0:04:38.9] SR: Brought by Louie.

[0:04:39.8] JC: Louie must be her nephew.

[0:04:41.0] SR: yeah, I would imagine so.

[0:04:42.8] JC: Now they can kind of see the family dynamics which is kind of funny between the mother-in-law and Amanda, they have their own typical strain if you will. 

[0:04:53.1] JC: But the kids are happy to see her and right away, they’re talking about Cobra Kai which I found interesting. The LaRusso’s are referencing Cobra Kai and Samantha’s a little bit like, I can’t divulge too much here, I’m dating a Cobra Kai.

[0:05:07.7] SR: And then Daniel asks Sam to promise to stay away from Cobra Kai.

[0:05:12.9] JC: That’s a tough promise, they have no idea that she’s even dating Miguel.

[0:05:16.8] SR: No. After the experience with Kyler, she’s just kind of keeping it to herself.

[0:05:22.5] JC: Yeah. Louie is mentioning some sort of ploy to get Johnny’s car back from him from the work that LaRusso Auto did.

[0:05:29.4] SR: Like Louie’s like you should just take that car back.

[0:05:32.2] JC: Exactly. 

[0:05:33.7] SR: You should take Johnny’s car that you worked on.

[0:05:35.3] JC: Nothing bonds a family more than some Cobra Kai bashing. Miguel is now training alone because Johnny says that’s his best chance to win the tournament. I found that to be odd. No one eels comes in that data train and Miguel’s just going out of solo but hey. 

[0:05:52.4] SR: I think the idea is that Johnny believes that if any of his students have any opportunity at this tournament, it’s going to be Miguel. I mean, Hawk has awesome hair style but I guess he doesn’t have the skills that Miguel has yet.

[0:06:03.1] JC: But I would venture to say, keep training. Don’t keep the students away. Let them train and let Miguel just keep doing what he’s doing but hey, listen, that’s Johnny’s Dojo, maybe they’re all recovering from the junk yard. Miguel gets an alert from his phone and it’s from Sam and so he’s going to show Johnny who his girlfriend is and Johnny recognizes her.

[0:06:27.1] SR: Yeah, Johnny discovers that Miguel’s dating “A LaRusso.”

[0:06:31.7] JC: Immediately pissed.

[0:06:34.3] SR: Because he has the flashback to his car getting hit — as to why LaRusso even worked on his car because Samantha and her friends hit Johnny’s car.

[0:06:45.4] JC: Not just hit it, took off.

[0:06:47.6] SR: Yeah, they did a hit and run. It was a criminal act officially.

[0:06:50.7] JC: Johnny has a very different point of view about the LaRusso’s.

[0:06:55.1] SR: Yeah, well, at this point, from Johnny’s perspective, it’s not just Daniel LaRusso. It’s the LaRusso’s.

[0:07:00.7] JC: Yeah, don’t be LaRusso’d.

[0:07:01.8] SR: Yeah, it’s like the whole family’s a problem.

[0:07:04.2] JC: Yeah. He doesn’t even know about Anthony, but if he did, he wouldn’t trust him.

[0:07:08.0] SR: No.

[0:07:08.7] JC: Johnny tells Miguel that he’s got something to tell him.

[0:07:12.4] SR: Yeah?

[0:07:12.4] JC: They leave the training session with Coors in hand. Miguel drinks a Coca Cola. He begins to tell him a story that blew my mind.

[0:07:22.2] SR: It blew my mind too because you get to hear Johnny Laurence’s side of his early meetings of Daniel LaRusso and also how they’re related to Allie… 

[0:07:34.0] JC: … and pre karate kid. It’s like a prequel is happening.

[0:07:36.3] SR: Yeah, it was so fantastic. 

[0:07:37.8] JC: He starts with – it was the summer of ’82, Rocky three had just come out and I’m like, I remember seeing rocky three in the theater with my cousin. He says, they go to see it in the theatre and Dutch is throwing popcorn at girls and that’s how he met Allie.

Dutch disturbed these girls enough but Allie wasn’t having any of it, she was a strong personality and she stood up to Dutch and Johnny right then and there probably fell for Allie.

[0:08:06.9] SR: Yeah. Then he says that they went to golf and stuff on their first date. I love hearing another side of the story and now we get to hear Johnny Lawrence’s side of his early dealings with the LaRusso’s.

[0:08:21.6] JC: He says that he dated Allie for two years, she gave him the classic bandana that he wears to this day, they broke up but he figured it was temporary, this happens at that age and you’ll probably going to work it out but Daniel arrived.

[0:08:37.5] SR: Yeah, they go back to the beach sequence.

[0:08:39.6] JC: Absolutely.

[0:08:40.4] SR: When Daniel LaRusso first meets Johnny Lawrence on the beach.

[0:08:44.3] JC: In Johnny’s words, he’s saying, they’re trying to work through some things and LaRusso’s butting in.

[0:08:49.6] SR: Yeah. LaRusso’s the bad guy in Johnny’s Lawrence’s story.

[0:08:55.0] JC: And he sucker punches him.

[0:08:56.4] SR: Yeah.

[0:08:56.9] JC: Now, you and I know there’s two sides of that story too, he also shoved him and they show the shove but LaRusso punches him and then true to Johnny’s point — months later, when the storm had calm down, Daniel does soak Johnny at the Halloween dance.

[0:09:13.3] SR: Johnny is sitting in a toilet stall, listening to music, rolling a joint, minding his own business and here comes Daniel LaRusso in his shower curtain costume and hooks up a water hose and douses Johnny Lawrence.

[0:09:30.6] JC: That led to the Miyagi attack because Johnny now has to face Daniel for what he did in the bathroom and Miyagi attacks them.

[0:09:38.8] SR: Yeah.

[0:09:39.0] JC: He’s like, he has his own karate expert and what did he say? One of his friends still had brain damage or something.

[0:09:45.6] SR: Yeah, wow, wonder which one still has brain damage to this day from Mr. Miyagi? 

[0:09:50.2] JC: Then he goes on to say that they both were on the all valley tournament in ’84 and he wound up losing and to watch out for the LaRusso’s.

[0:10:00.3] SR: Yeah.

[0:10:01.6] JC: Miguel’s taking all of this in and he’s probably torn, he’s overwhelmed with this great story but yet he has feelings for Daniel’s daughter.

[0:10:11.2] SR: True. He’s between a rock and a hard place Miguel is. Samantha also.

[0:10:14.8] JC: have you ever dated someone Sal that people said don’t date her or don’t’ mess with that family?

[0:10:20.4] SR: I think that women have dated me that people told not to date me.

[0:10:25.0] JC: That’s definitely probably happened.

[0:10:26.5] SR: Yeah.

[0:10:28.2] JC: Now we’re back at the LaRusso cookout if you will and they’re in a full-fledged family argument.

[0:10:33.2] SR: Yeah, particularly Daniel’s mother and Daniel’s wife Amanda. They’re going at it. Arguing about cooking meals and his mom makes a statement like you don’t have to worry because you just have every event catered.

[0:10:44.2] JC: Yeah, that was kind of a low blow.

[0:10:45.7] SR: Yeah. This is the classic wife, mother-in-law spat.

[0:10:50.9] JC: Absolutely. Then they’re arguing about Louie and I think we’re learning here that Amanda is not so crazy about Daniel’s cousin Louie. Now, Louie’s definitely the black sheep of this family.

[0:11:01.4] SR: Yeah. There’s no doubt about it. Yeah, she even says, if it wasn’t for her, meaning, Daniel’s mother, we would have never hired Louie in the first place. Amanda’s not too keen on Louie, we definitely learned that.

[0:11:14.6] JC: Johnny and Miguel get back to the apartment complex and Miguel’s mother invites Johnny to dinner.

[0:11:20.5] SR: Yeah.

[0:11:22.6] JC: That’s kind of a cute scene, Johnny probably hasn’t had a good cooked meal in a long time.

[0:11:25.7] SR: Well, I think because I think Miguel’s mother says something like, what are you going to have for dinner and Johnny’s like – two hot pockets.

[0:11:32.1] JC: Johnny’s a little out of his element, he’s calling plantains, bananas which is not crazy.

[0:11:36.5] SR: No, but I did learn something here. I myself, as an American Mexican, I’ve always wondered, what is Miguel’s character? Is he Mexican, is he from El Salvador? I’ve always wondered that, you know? When she says no, those aren’t bananas, those are plantains. In my head, I go oh, they’re not Mexican because Mexicans, I don’t think make plantains. That’s why I knew they were somewhere further south and that’s when we learned that Daniel’s mother and grandmother are from Ecuador.

[0:12:02.1] JC: And Miguel.

[0:12:03.2] SR: Yeah, all right. We learn more about Miguel’s family lineage which particularly to me as an American Mexican, I found very interesting.

[0:12:09.4] JC: The father’s dangerous we find out.

[0:12:11.4] SR: Yeah, I guess we’re assuming he’s part of a drug cartel or something?

[0:12:14.2] JC: Yeah, something. They moved very far away from him and during this dinner, Sam calls Miguel, he excuses himself to talk to her and she tries to get him to join another dojo.

[0:12:26.8] SR: Yeah, she tries to get him to join another dojo, leave Cobra Kai.

[0:12:30.5] JC: Well just kind of throws the idea out there, you know, there’s other dojos and he doesn’t know what to make of that. Although, he has been instructed not to trust LaRusso’s.

[0:12:39.3] SR: Well, he says, I couldn’t do that to Sensei Lawrence. We know that Miguel has allegiance.

[0:12:44.2] JC: Absolutely.

[0:12:44.7] SR: To Johnny Lawrence.

[0:12:46.0] JC: Very loyal to him.

[0:12:47.3] SR: Then, Daniel walks in as Samantha’s on this face time call and he says, who’s that? Samantha says, nobody. We see Miguel’s reaction to Samantha saying nobody.

[0:12:58.0] JC: Well, she says, my lab partner.

[0:12:59.3] SR: Is that what she said?

[0:13:00.2] JC: Nobody. Yes.

[0:13:02.6] SR: Not a good moment for Miguel.

[0:13:04.0] JC: No. he’s feeling that rejection, he doesn’t even know Daniel and he’s not even mentioned by name.

[0:13:11.1] SR: Yeah, he’s feeling dismissed.

[0:13:12.9] JC: And what Johnny’s telling him is starting to resonate.

[0:13:15.6] SR: Yeah.

[0:13:17.6] JC: So, after dinner, Johnny goes home and just had enough of the pig sty that he lives in.

[0:13:23.0] SR: Well, because I think this piggy backs on what Miguel’s mother said. When she talks about her past, talks about being a young mother, talks about having to break up with Miguel’s father and she says you can’t let the mistakes from the past determine your future.

[0:13:36.6] JC: That’s it.

[0:13:37.0] SR: So Johnny goes back to this apartment and he has one of those moments where he’s like, “You know what? I need to change things,” and he starts cleaning house. Literally cleaning which can be very therapeutic and cathartic.

[0:13:45.6] JC: And the place looks great. I mean really he could have made a lot of money from the Coors cans and aluminum in his place and now we cut to LaRusso’s where Robbie meets Samantha for the first time. 

[0:13:58.3] SR: Yeah, he arrives at the LaRusso house and Sam is sunbathing. He sees her sunbathing, obviously you know the hormones are there. 

[0:14:07.2] JC: And you could tell there is a connection. 

[0:14:08.4] SR: Sure. 

[0:14:08.8] JC: And Daniel arrives and informs Robbie that they are going to be training outside today. He has no idea where, what, how but he is along for the ride.

[0:14:18.5] SR: No and Daniel even does a last stitch effort to invite Samantha. He goes, “Oh my current student, this is my former student, “Hey not too late to join us if you want” she declines. 

[0:14:27.1] JC: To Samantha’s credit, she was going to the mall with her mother and grandmother to make sure they get along. 

[0:14:33.3] SR: Yes. So at this point, Daniel and Robbie are driving to the woods, you don’t know where they’re going. You know they are going somewhere to the sticks. 

[0:14:39.0] JC: It looks like Big Bear or Lake Arrowhead or it could be in Georgia for all we know. 

[0:14:42.7] SR: Yes, somewhere, some beautiful landscape, you know rural, woodsy, foresty and Daniel tells Robbie, “Close your eyes, listen to the sound” and he’s like, “What do you hear?” he goes, “Nothing” he goes, “Yeah, exactly. This is what Miyagi do, karate is all about.” 

[0:14:58.0] JC: Exactly. 

[0:14:58.5] SR: So we started to get into some of the philosophy of Miyagi do karate. 

[0:15:02.9] JC: So back at Johnny’s apartment, it is now very clean. We see an eagle, an American flag painting on the wall, kind of funny. There is actually groceries in the refrigerator for the first time. 

[0:15:16.0] SR: Because usually when you look in his refrigerator there’s just beer. 

[0:15:18.5] JC: Yeah and so he looks for a beer, goes past the beer and has a glass of OJ. 

[0:15:24.7] SR: Yeah and then you see that little moment. This is where good acting comes in, you could tell that he’s drinking that orange juice and suddenly realizes how good the orange juice tastes. 

[0:15:32.2] JC: Right, you can actually taste something. 

[0:15:33.7] SR: Yeah, he can actually taste something besides alcohol. 

[0:15:35.5] JC: Exactly, so the next thing you know Iron Eagle is playing on the television. 

[0:15:39.5] SR: This is the second or third time he’s watched Iron Eagle. I’ve got to see that movie. I have never seen Iron Eagle. 

[0:15:43.3] JC: I think it is on a loop. I’ve always loved it. It is like a teenager version of Top Gun but a lot of fun and if you like Louis Gossett Jr. that is right up your alley. 

[0:15:53.7] SR: Okay, I got to check that out. 

[0:15:54.9] JC: Daniel and Robbie are now training and Daniel is donning the Karate Kid catcher outfit and he is teaching balance. 

[0:16:03.4] SR: Complete with the face-mask and everything. 

[0:16:05.3] JC: Yeah that was kind of cool to see. 

[0:16:06.6] SR: Yeah because that is the same outfit that Miyagi wore, right? 

[0:16:09.2] JC: Exactly. 

[0:16:09.9] SR: Did Miyagi had the face-mask and everything? 

[0:16:11.7] JC: He wore the face-mask. Remember when Danny was going around like a boxer? Getting a little too, you know hot – 

[0:16:17.2] SR: Yeah doing the fancy footwork. 

[0:16:18.1] JC: Fancy footwork and Miyagi takes him down. So and then Daniel shares that his father died when he was young. We never knew that. 

[0:16:25.4] SR: Yes that is a reveal as well because I think along the way throughout Karate Kid and Cobra Kai folklore, we don’t hear anything about Daniel’s biological father. 

[0:16:35.8] JC: And Robbie wants to share who his father is. 

[0:16:39.4] SR: Yes, it is on the tip of his tongue. In fact they even do a flashback to Robbie seeing Johnny hugging Miguel so you think he’s just going to say, “Uh Mr. LaRusso, my father is Johnny Lawrence” but he doesn’t. 

[0:16:53.8] JC: So when he flashed back to that was it reaffirming his plan or was it just I didn’t know the purpose of the flashback. 

[0:17:01.5] SR: I think the purpose of the flashback was for us to think the viewer to think that he is now about to reveal the truth to Daniel about who he is and who his father is. 

[0:17:12.0] JC: But that moment also fueled this fire in him and this new plan so I thought – 

[0:17:17.3] SR: Oh okay. So that kind of affirms..

[0:17:19.6] JC: so it is like, “Oh wait I got to hang on to this because that is where it happened” but whatever. You could tell that he is looking and feeling quite vulnerable but he held back and they continued their training. 

[0:17:31.1] SR: Yeah and instead he says, “Thank you for teaching me.” So he puts Robbie up on a tree branch. This is a horizontal tree branch. 

[0:17:37.7] JC: Pretty high off the ground too. 

[0:17:39.0] SR: It is six to seven feet off the ground at least, puts him up there, has him work on kicks. 

[0:17:43.8] JC: A hook kick. 

[0:17:44.4] SR: And the hook kick is what brings them down. So then that is when Robbie falls. 

[0:17:47.6] JC: Master all the kicks and let me know, come find me.

[0:17:49.9] SR: Yeah but then Robbie falls and then Robbie is like, “Well about now” and Daniel is like, “Get back up.”

[0:17:54.3] JC: Yeah and we also find out that Daniel is a big hockey fan. A big New Jersey Devil’s fan, go figure. 

[0:18:00.7] SR: Because we don’t ever see him play hockey in Karate Kid whatsoever right? 

[0:18:03.3] JC: Never talked about sports in anyway either other than playing soccer in the original. 

[0:18:08.0] SR: Yes, is hockey big in New Jersey? 

[0:18:09.7] JC: Well they have the Devils. 

[0:18:10.8] SR: Okay and then he goes off. He excuses himself to go find a good cellphone reception so that he could watch hockey. So meanwhile, I love these parallels. The training that Rob is now going through with Daniel. The training that Miguel that is going through with Johnny. We are seeing both of these grown men groom and raise these young men. 

[0:18:31.2] JC: And one of them is the other one’s son. 

[0:18:33.1] SR: Yes that makes it very complex. 

[0:18:36.0] JC: So we’re now at the movie theatre again and Hawk is pulling a Dutch here and throwing popcorn at girls. 

[0:18:44.1] SR: Yes, it is Miguel, Aisha and Hawk in the movie theatre. 

[0:18:47.9] JC: And Aisha and Miguel are talking naturally during the movie and he shared that Mr. LaRusso hates Cobra Kai and Aisha knows Daniel through her relationship with Samantha and says, “He’s a good guy, you just got to give him time,” and so they are interrupted because Hawk has gone beyond the girl and hit a gentleman who is not happy about getting hit. 

[0:19:12.0] SR: Yeah and so the guy stands up, “All right who did that?” 

[0:19:14.2] JC: And Hawk cowers very quickly. 

[0:19:16.0] SR: Yeah, 

[0:19:18.9] JC: Back to the outdoor training and Robbie has mastered the hook kick. 

[0:19:22.7] SR: Now this is an interesting scene because then Robbie goes to find Daniel and then sees Daniel doing what I can only think is the impossible. He is doing a double arm handstand on this rock and then he turns it into a single arm handstand. 

[0:19:37.4] JC: Yeah it is pretty impressive. 

[0:19:39.1] SR: It is incredibly impressive but then Robbie interrupts, breaks Daniel’s concentration and then Daniel comes crumbling down. 

[0:19:45.2] JC: And then we learn that this was the most powerful karate kick that he was practicing and only Mr. Miyagi can execute it properly.

[0:19:54.2] SR: Yeah, did we see that in Karate Kid at all? We didn’t see this kick that he is talking about.

[0:19:58.0] JC: No, all we ever saw was Mr. Miyagi working on the crane kick. 

[0:20:02.1] SR: Yes, so this is extra mysterious.

[0:20:04.1] JC: Extra mysterious. 

[0:20:05.3] SR: I am thinking we are going to revisit this at some point. 

[0:20:07.3] JC: I will not say anything. So back at Johnny’s old house in Encino Hills, his stepfather, Sid is eating and not very cleanly I might add. He’s got stuff on his face, he is yelling at his nurse/care provider. So Johnny enters and what does he do? 

[0:20:25.8] SR: Johnny gives an envelope of money to Sid. He said, “Here is your money back” and of course I am thinking, what are you doing? Why are you doing this? 

[0:20:37.5] JC: I guess the dojo is profitable now.

[0:20:39.9] SR: Yeah but I wouldn’t have done it. I would have kept the money.

[0:20:43.5] JC: And so how much money was it? 25 grand. 

[0:20:44.7] SR: Well this goes back to how much money did Sid originally gave him when he attempted to buy him out of his life. 

[0:20:52.8] JC: I’ve always said it was 25K tops but seeing this hand off it could have been 10K.

[0:20:59.1] SR: I don’t know why Johnny would return $10,000 really. 

[0:21:02.5] JC: You know I think that moment was just to show that Johnny has changed. 

[0:21:05.9] SR: Yeah, it is not just Johnny a grown man teaching Miguel a young man to grow. Johnny is growing. Johnny is evolving. So this is part of Johnny’s evolution. I totally get why he did it. I am just saying I wouldn’t have done it.

[0:21:21.2] JC: Because he probably doesn’t care for Sid anyway, so what’s the harm to keep it? But Johnny is not a person seeking money. 

[0:21:27.4] SR: Well he has a lot of pride too.

[0:21:28.4] JC: And he has a lot of pride and principles and he lives a very simple life and he is doing what he loves. So I could also understand why he did it just to get Sid out of his life for good. 

[0:21:38.9] SR: Sid says something like, “Oh of course you want my money. That is what I always give you” and then Johnny says something like, “That is all you could give” and then you see a little moment in Sid where Sid kind of realizes, “Oh yeah I guess that is all I ever had.” Ed Asner is such a good actor that you see that little shift where you see that Johnny’s words meant something to Sid.

[0:21:58.6] JC: He always had power over Johnny and now he doesn’t.

[0:22:01.5] SR: Yeah, that’s it. So Johnny is now completely a free man you would say. 

[0:22:04.6] JC: So we may never see Sid again. 

[0:22:06.2] SR: I love Ed Asner but I guess you may never see Sid again. Maybe, I mean again I haven’t gone ahead so I don’t know what happens. 

[0:22:13.1] JC: All right, so now at LaRusso’s, Amanda and the mother-in-law are getting along famously. 

[0:22:18.5] SR: Yeah, well thanks to Sam because Sam is the peacemaker of the family. Now I experience that in my family for many years where I was the peacemaker as the youngest of the siblings until I said, “You know what, not anymore.” 

[0:22:28.8] JC: You guys can kill yourselves. 

[0:22:30.1] SR: You guys go on ahead, I’m going to go out about by my business. 

[0:22:33.2] JC: So Daniel comes in, sees this interaction, is pleased by it, knows that Samantha played a role on it and invites Robbie to have dinner and Miguel shows up, on his bike to see Sam, meet Daniel, just like here I am, accept me and what does he say? 

[0:22:53.3] SR: Miguel arrives at the LaRusso house to introduce himself to the family in particular, Samantha’s father, Daniel but then he catches a glimpse inside, I think they’re like – 

[0:23:03.5] JC: Well they are outside. 

[0:23:04.2] SR: They’re outside like in the back patio. He sees the LaRusso family having dinner and he sees Samantha getting along quite well with Johnny’s son, Robbie. 

[0:23:12.5] JC: And Miguel, again, probably thinking back to what Johnny told him, don’t trust LaRusso, he sees something he can’t believe it, he’s out. 

[0:23:23.2] SR: At that moment, he doesn’t know who that guy is. 

[0:23:26.9] JC: No but it doesn’t matter. 

[0:23:27.7] SR: Right, he just sees some other young guy. 

[0:23:29.0] JC: He just knows it is not him. 

[0:23:30.6] SR: Yes. 

[0:23:31.0] JC: And he has not been asked him, so what does he to believe? 

[0:23:34.6] SR: It is also the opposite of when Robbie saw Johnny with Miguel and now we see Miguel sees Samantha with Robbie and so it is a very similar moment. 

[0:23:44.7] JC: They have never met but they both overseen something very pivotal in their life. 

[0:23:48.6] SR: Yeah.

[0:23:50.2] JC: So Johnny is now writing a letter to Robbie and he has a photo of Robbie that shows he was a soccer champ back in 2010 and then he overhears something. Louie has recruited some motorcycle guys to do what? 

[0:24:07.8] SR: This was so out of the blue and really upset me a lot because everything is going well at this moment for Johnny. They got the Cobra Kai dojo into the tournament. His relationship is going really well with Miguel, he is getting along great with his mother who is not in favor of him doing karate, everything is going great. He goes outside, he hears Louie, Daniel’s cousin and two biker thugs smashing the hell out of Johnny’s Firebird. 

[0:24:39.4] JC: Ridiculous. 

[0:24:39.7] SR: This made me so mad. Now this was foreshadowed earlier when they asked about this two biker guys that showed up and then Louie lied about it and said, “Oh yeah I want to do some sort of sales of motorcycles” so that’s what this was about. This was about him recruiting these biker thugs to help him destroy Johnny Lawrence’s Firebird. 

[0:25:00.9] JC: Because LaRusso Auto had rebuilt it.

[0:25:03.1] SR: Yeah and then he is yelling out “Don’t mess with my family” Louie said something like that. 

[0:25:07.9] JC: First he says, this comes from Daniel. So Johnny is not having any of this and quickly takes care of the two biker thugs. 

[0:25:14.7] SR: Oh yeah it was fantastic. He kicks their ass and then as he is about to kick Louie’s ass and I wanted Louie’s ass kicked so bad in that moment. 

[0:25:22.7] JC: Louie is a squirrelly guy and he starts to rescind everything he said, Daniel had nothing to do with it but Johnny wants to know where Daniel lives. 

[0:25:31.5] SR: And then doesn’t Louie tell Johnny where Daniel lives? 

[0:25:36.8] JC: He does. 

[0:25:37.7] SR: And Johnny gets on one of the motorcycles as his car goes up in flames because they have poured kerosene or gasoline all over it and threw a lighter on it, 

[0:25:49.8] SR: Even Louie wasn’t in favor of that. 

[0:25:51.9] JC: So the car goes up in flames, Johnny takes off in one of their motorcycles and he is bee lining for the LaRusso residence. 

[0:25:59.7] SR: Oh yeah. 

[0:26:00.7] JC: So a great episode and we have two more to go. So again thank you for listening to us. Please subscribe to us on Apple iTunes or anywhere you get your podcast.

[0:26:13.4] SR: Yeah, leave us some reviews too. We want to hear some feedback. Talk to us. 

[0:26:18.9] JC: Thanks so much.