Cobra Kai - S02E01 - Mercy Part II

Let's Talk - Cobra Kai
Episode 12: Cobra Kai - S02E01 - Mercy Part II

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

Synopsis: In the aftermath of Cobra Kai's win at the Under 18 All Valley Karate Championships, Johnny questions his dojo's philosophy and deals with a figure from his past. Daniel searches for the right way to respond to Cobra Kai's dominance.

Original Episode: S02E01

Recorded: 09-16-19
Studio: Just Curious Media
https://www.JustCuriousMedia.com/

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Transcript

Episode 12: Cobra Kai - S02E01 - Mercy Part II

[00:00:00] JC: Welcome to Just Curious Media. This is Let’s Talk – Cobra Kai. I’m Jason Connell.

[0:00:07.1] SR: And I’m Sal Rodriguez.

[0:00:07.1] JC: Here we are, season 2. Super excited. It came out like all episodes for this season on April 24th, 2019. Episode 1 is entitled “Mercy Part Two,” 8.7 rating on IMDB. Here we are.

[0:00:23.8] SR: Yeah. Well, because he visits that word “mercy” in a few moments.

[0:00:27.6] JC: Exactly. In the spirit of movie sequels, we opened with the final scene from season 1. Basically, it's post All Valley Tournament. Miguel and Cobra Kai are champs and Johnny's back at the dojo when who walks in?

[0:00:46.0] SR: Well, Kreese arrives smoking a damn cigar, reminded me of an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie villain, or Arnold Schwarzenegger smoking cigars.

[0:00:53.4] JC: Predator.

 [0:00:54.2] SR: Yeah, that's what he did. I mean, Kreese is very much like Johnny where he doesn't know what era it is. You don't go smoking in buildings anymore in LA, in the Valley. You just don't. He does. He does it anyway. 

Oh, wait. First, he's a silhouette in the doorway. You don't know who he is, but then he comes forward. You see his face you go, “Oh, no.” Because you know why? Everything is going great right now. Kreese can only make things worse, or so you would think at this moment. Kreese is only going to screw things up, ruin the party.

[0:01:26.9] JC: Kreese might be the last person that Johnny wants to see in the doorway.

[0:01:30.1] SR: Yeah. Well not to mention, he legitimately thought he was dead, right?

[0:01:32.8] JC: He thought he was dead.

[0:01:34.3] SR: Yeah. You see, it's almost like a ghost arriving on your doorstep. Again, which should be a happy time. Everybody should be happy right now. Well, obviously except Daniel and Robby. Otherwise, the Cobra Kai should be in high celebration mode right now. Instead, this blast from the past shows up, this ghost, the specter.

[0:01:53.7] JC: Yes. He shows up and there's a heated exchange with him and Johnny. I mean, the last time these two saw one another was the very beginning of Karate Kid 2, when he tried to – I don't know if he tried to kill Johnny.

[0:02:07.5] SR: Well, he had him on a choke.

[0:02:08.5] JC: He had him in a chokehold. He fought off a couple of guys that tried to help Johnny, a couple of former Cobra Kai students and trashed his second-place trophy.

[0:02:17.7] SR: Yeah. That was the worst part, I think. I mean, it's one thing to assault – I guess it's one thing to assault somebody, but then another thing to trash their prize? Trash what they just won and worked hard for?

[0:02:28.3] JC: Maybe remind the audience exactly how Johnny got out of that situation.

[0:02:32.1] SR: Johnny got out of that situation with Kreese attacking him, destroying his trophy, by Miyagi coming over and rescuing Johnny from his own sensei. Then he gives him that little nose tweak, right? The little nose –

[0:02:43.8] JC: Yeah. Basically, Kreese attacks Miyagi and Miyagi has I would say, cat-like reflexes. He puts his fist through two different car windows, he's got bloody fists. Then I guess he has Kreese dead right on his knees and he could have chopped him, taking him out.

[0:02:59.1] SR: Oh, he could have knocked him out for sure.

[0:03:00.3] JC: Or killed him.

[0:03:01.2] SR: He could have done anything.

[0:03:02.9] JC: He chose not to kill him. He chose to pinch his nose and make a honk noise and then Kreese passed out.

[0:03:08.5] SR: Yeah. In fact, this is a good time to mention what I recently purchased and that is my Karate Kid Mr. Miyagi action figure. I wanted to show it to you, Jason.

[0:03:16.0] JC: Oh, my goodness. These chopsticks?

[0:03:18.3] SR: Yes. He has chopsticks and he has a little bonsai tree. This is the single pack Mr. Miyagi action figure made by NECA from The Karate Kid. Have a look at that, Jason. I think it's fantastic.

[0:03:29.2] JC: That is really nice.

[0:03:30.4] SR: I think I'm going to get one for my brother-in-law who does bonsai trees. In fact, I visited his bonsai garden recently and I looked around, I said, “You need a Miyagi here,” I said.

[0:03:37.1] JC: Frank White?

[0:03:37.9] SR: Larry White.

[0:03:38.6] JC: Larry White.

[0:03:38.9] SR: Yeah, he has a bonsai garden and I want to give him one of those, so we can have it in his garden.

[0:03:42.3] JC: This is really great.

[0:03:44.5] SR: I think it's one of the best ones. I think that really looks like Pat Morita a lot.

[0:03:46.6] JC: Tell us where will we see your review?

[0:03:51.1] SR: Well, I just did the review of the All Valley finals 2 pack made by NECA. I did the review of that. The views count is going really great. I may do a review of Mr. Miyagi. Maybe I will. I mean, this is just such a great figure. The clothes are great, the likeness is fantastic. I'm already doing a review now. This figure is beautiful, and I might open it up on the Salvador, Los Angeles channel. We'll see.

[0:04:12.1] JC: That's really nice. I'm still holding out for the Miyagi drunk outfit.

[0:04:18.4] SR: Oh, where he's in the military outfit.

[0:04:19.4] JC: Yeah, the whole bit.

[0:04:20.3] SR: That would be good.

[0:04:21.0] JC: A little sake. Back to present day, Johnny and Kreese, they go at it.

[0:04:27.1] SR: Kreese says, “Congratulations. You did what I always thought you could do. You won.” He's giving them a congratulations and letting him know that, “I knew you could do this.”

[0:04:38.2] JC: Johnny was a previous champion.

[0:04:40.3] SR: He was, but he did lose.

[0:04:42.8] JC: The last time, he lost.

[0:04:43.4] SR: Their last interaction was he lost. Now he's back not officially winning himself but coaching the winner.

[0:04:47.1] JC: Nor did he go back and fight the year after that.

[0:04:53.0] SR: No, he did not, right? Didn't you research that?

[0:04:54.9] JC: I saw Karate Kid 3, finally. There is no Johnny Lawrence. You're right, he lost and then was not in the subsequent tournament, but he was a previous, previous champion.

[0:05:04.4] SR: Yeah. In other words, he could have went back the next year and try to get his title back.

[0:05:07.9] JC: He could have.

[0:05:08.7] SR: I wonder why he didn't. It just brings up an interesting point. If you follow fighters as I do, particularly mixed martial arts, a lot of guys don't come back after defeat. Kreese shows up. “Congratulations. You did what I always thought you could do. You won.” It's almost like he's giving him a pat on the back at that moment, letting him know I always believed in you. At that moment you're like, “We'll see where this goes.”

I realized that I have to approach Cobra Kai with a neutral attitude, because people that were bad can become good and people that were good can become bad. I got to see how this all plays out.

[0:05:39.9] JC: Like Johnny?

[0:05:41.2] SR: Well, yeah. Again, in Karate Kid, you're obviously not rooting for Johnny, but now are you are. I'm approaching this with an open mind. I'm willing to see what Kreese has to offer, what he has to say, why he's there. I want to know. Yeah, they get into a fight.

[0:05:57.8] JC: Johnny has obviously a lot of resentment for what happened and how things concluded with their relationship.

[0:06:02.7] SR: The last time he saw him was in that parking lot, right? That was the last time he saw him. 

[0:06:05.8] JC: He was still a teenager. 

Yeah. He's choking him out and smashing his trophy. This is the last memory you have of this guy.

[0:06:11.2] JC: This guy shows up at your dojo 30 years later and it just boils out. They get into it. It's a pretty good little fight.

[0:06:20.0] SR: Yeah, it's a really good fight. I do like that moment where you think that it's all over with, Kreese is on the ground and then Kreese says, “Showing mercy to an old man? That's very honorable and stupid.” Gets him with a kick, gets him on the ground, gives him an elbow. Then they're both laying on the ground. Though he kicked out that cigar, the cigar landed in the trash can and there's a fire and then the sprinklers go on.

These guys are laying on the mats, a fire happens, the sprinkler goes on. Talk about a disaster. This was his first night back visiting and you're laying with a fire, with a sprinkler above you. That's a sign of things to come hopefully. Hopefully not.

[0:06:54.6] JC: He did have Kreese in a very similar chokehold that Kreese had him in back in the 80s before. Probably could have choked him out, probably should have choked him out. Not killed him, but released, took mercy and –

[0:07:08.0] SR: Well, he started having those flashbacks.

[0:07:10.6] JC: Exactly.

[0:07:11.5] SR: Flashbacks to Karate Kid 2, parking lot scene.

[0:07:13.3] JC: Although when I read the book, I'd actually read Karate Kid the book.

[0:07:16.5] SR: What?

[0:07:17.1] JC: Yeah, I did.

[0:07:18.0] SR: I didn’t know there was a Karate Kid book.

[0:07:19.5] JC: Well, back in the day before you could go buy the screenplay, they would release a book. I would read those if I couldn't make it a theater on time, or when it came out. I read Karate Kid the book. The ending of the book was the opening of Karate Kid 2. I had already seen the movie and I was just reading the book and I was blown away by this scene I did not know of. Then when the sequel came out, it all made sense. That scene existed. That was supposed to be in the original. They may have tested it and the audience didn't like it. I don't know.

[0:07:52.3] SR: Well, because it doesn't end on a happy ending. Otherwise, Karate Kid ends on a happy ending. Even with sort of a peacemaking between Johnny and Daniel – very brief peacemaking.

[0:08:03.7] JC: If you watch the movie again and we did, and I advise people to check out our Karate Kid special edition episode, which Sal and I go through the great film in detail, but it does end very abruptly. That's like, you see Daniel, he's hoisted up in the air, tight shot of Mr. Miyagi, out.

[0:08:23.2] SR: Yes. I heard, or I read, that how it ended on Mr. Miyagi's face giving the approving smile, people argued about that. The director, John Avildsen, I think that's what he wanted, but maybe the studio didn't want that. There was some fighting about that. I'm okay with that ending, because if you would have went to that ending in the parking lot, what kind of ending is that?

[0:08:43.3] JC: Oh, no. I don't think that should have been the ending. I'm just curious if they shot any of that and while they were doing Karate Kid 1, before Karate Kid 2 was even greenlit.

[0:08:51.9] SR: I don't think so. No, there's a different tone –

[0:08:54.3] JC: Well, they look older, but I wonder if there was anything we don't know about. There is a director's commentary on the first DVD, Karate Kid. John Avildsen, rest in peace. We lost him a couple of years ago. We're going to go and investigate and listen to the commentary.

[0:09:10.6] SR: I'd love to hear the commentary.

[0:09:11.2] JC: Mark what we don’t know. That is the present I have for us.

[0:09:13.8] SR: Okay, because the problem with downloading stuff as we do nowadays, you don't get those behind the scenes. If you don't have a hardcopy DVD, you don't get all those little sweet treats and nuggets that you would otherwise get.

[0:09:26.7] JC: All right, so great fight. Way to start season 2 with a bang. Johnny faces his sensei and Johnny was able to deal with some demons that have been in him for a long time. As you say, the water is pouring in the dojo. To be clear, not on fire. There was just smoke.

[0:09:46.2] SR: No. The dojo was not on fire. The trashcan was on fire, which then triggered the sprinklers. Yeah, I like that they're both laying there and then the sprinklers go on and then it says just “Cobra Kai.”

[0:09:56.7] JC: Yeah. Kreese is literally back for seven minutes and hell breaks out. Now we're at Miyagi-do dojo and Daniel shows Robby the classic car that Mr. Miyagi gave him from the 80s.

[0:10:11.2] SR: That is the 1948 Ford Super Deluxe yellow convertible.

[0:10:15.7] JC: Beautiful car.

[0:10:16.1] SR: Which was the car that Danielson chose. Remember, he gave him the option. Choose. He said, “Choose.”

[0:10:23.5] JC: Daniel always had his eye on that car.

[0:10:24.4] SR: Well, I don't know who wouldn't have chosen the yellow convertible out of –

[0:10:28.5] JC: Oh. There was another car –

[0:10:29.4] SR: Was there?

[0:10:30.8] JC: There was a black car that I don't know the type, but it had my eye.

[0:10:33.0] SR: Oh, really. You might not have chosen that?

[0:10:34.5] JC: At that age though, I probably would’ve wanted the convertible, to be honest. I think I also liked it.

[0:10:40.7] SR: That’s also the car that was used in Grease.

[0:10:43.5] JC: Exactly. All right, so after he shows Robby the car, it kicks off our first 80s montage of the season. They're cleaning up the house, because it had been neglected after many years. They're cleaning the vehicles. They're fixing a water feature. That was never there before, right Sal?

[0:11:03.5] SR: The pond?

[0:11:04.3] JC: Yeah.

[0:11:05.2] SR: Yeah, there's the pond there. They're putting the bonsai trees on it. What I did find interesting though is that if you understand today's real estate market, but also in the Los Angeles and also in the San Fernando Valley, he wasn't renting that place. He could have been renting that place all these years.

[0:11:18.5] JC: All these years. Airbnb.

[0:11:20.0] SR: He could have been Airbnb’ing that place all these years. He didn't. It was just sitting there.

[0:11:23.3] JC: He's been busy with his empire.

[0:11:24.8] SR: Yeah. How many years later is this?

[0:11:26.2] JC: 30?

[0:11:27.2] SR: 30 years later. That house has been sitting there for 30 years.

[0:11:29.5] JC: Well, no. Miyagi didn't pass away for all of that. He passed away on the show in 2011. It's been sitting for, when this episode aired, eight years?

[0:11:37.1] SR: Okay. That's different.

[0:11:39.1] JC: Yeah, that's okay. He probably didn't want to deal with it for a while. He'd had two younger kids. I get it.

[0:11:45.3] SR: Okay, so now is the time and they're taking sheets off the cars.

[0:11:49.4] JC: Sal, does it bother you as much as it bothers me that those classic cars are not in a garage somewhere?

[0:11:55.9] SR: You'd have to have a pretty big garage. At least they had tarps over them, but there's spiders living in there and maybe some mice living in there.

[0:12:01.1] JC: It’s hot in the Valley.

[0:12:02.2] SR: Yeah. If you know about leaving a car set – I mean, my girlfriend left her car set for several months and there was mice living inside the car, or at least visiting, because we saw mice poop. They just visited, pooped and left. They were hanging out in the frame of this car. Yeah, you got to look out. Look after that Ford Super Deluxe.

[0:12:20.2] JC: I'm glad that they are renovating the place. It is beautiful and nothing like a good montage. It can clean anything up.

[0:12:27.4] SR: Yeah. Then Robby takes – his arm is in a sling. After a while, after working for a while, takes his arm out of the sling, he's starting to feel better.

[0:12:34.3] JC: Yup, absolutely. Now we're back at LaRusso's and Daniel's happy that Sam has ended things with Miguel.

[0:12:40.2] SR: He refers to Miguel as Mr. Cheapshot. Where's Sam? She's upstairs, torn up over her breakup with Miguel, Mr. Cheapshot. That's what he calls him.

[0:12:50.5] JC: He hates all Cobra Kais. Then Daniel tries again to recruit Anthony to train in karate.

[0:12:57.9] SR: Yeah. I think Anthony says something like, “Are we going to have actual karate, or is it going to be the cleaning stuff?”

[0:13:01.1] JC: Exactly. He fails yet again.

[0:13:05.8] SR: Amanda is questioning him, asking, “Are you sure you can take this on right now with everything you do, with all you have going on? Are you sure that you can balance it all?” That's that magic word, balance, that we always hear in the Cobra Kai universe and the Karate Kid universe. Can you balance it all?

[0:13:19.0] JC: Does she say that here? I thought it was later. Maybe it is here. It is here.

[0:13:22.0] SR: She says, “Can you balance it all?” Then I think he responds with something like, “Balance is my middle name,” he says something like that.

[0:13:27.7] JC: Meanwhile, not true. Then Daniel shares with Amanda just how fixated on beating Cobra Kai he is. You can see the disappointment in her.

[0:13:38.2] SR: Yeah, because they're starting all over again. She thought that it was over like, “Oh, him opening up a dojo, getting back in karate this is going to be a good thing, a way to peace, a way to fulfillment.” No, he still is fixated on using Miyagi-do to defeat Cobra Kai.

[0:13:53.4] JC: Yes. It's a mask to go after his rival more. We cut to Johnny who is icing his hand at his apartment post-fight with Kreese and who knocks at the door?

[0:14:04.4] SR: Miguel's mother. Actress Vanessa Rubio. When you look up all these actors, you find out where they're from. Vanessa Rubio, Miguel's mother, who plays Miguel's mother, from New Jersey. Interesting. 

You find the San Fernando Valley has so many roots, or should I say that Karate Kid has so many roots in the San Fernando Valley. Also, I had forgotten New Jersey, hello, where Daniel and his mother are from.

[0:14:24.8] JC: Correct. Is she a potential love interest? Or is it just me?

[0:14:29.2] SR: No. I started thinking that. I think the tension is there, but maybe not yet. I mean, she's single, he's single, they both love Miguel.

[0:14:38.3] JC: The grandmother likes Johnny.

[0:14:39.5] SR: Yeah, and they're having tres leches cake, three milk cake. Yeah, I was thinking that too like, what's going to happen here? Then the phone rings.

[0:14:47.2] JC: Not just the phone, Johnny's landline. Classic. Who calls him?

[0:14:54.8] SR: It’s Kreese saying, “Meet me somewhere at 8 in the morning.”

[0:14:58.6] JC: At Smitty's Diner.

[0:15:00.7] SR: Yeah. I wonder where that is really in real life.

[0:15:03.6] JC: In Pasadena.

[0:15:04.4] SR: Is that what that is?

[0:15:05.3] JC: Oh, yeah. On the lake.

[0:15:06.3] SR: Okay. He says, “Meet me at 8:00 in the morning,” and then Johnny hangs up and goes back to eating the tres leches.

[0:15:10.6] JC: Says, “Wrong number.”

[0:15:13.1] SR: Yeah. They're talking. They're having their moment talking – she’s relaying to him how she wasn’t really into it at first, but she’s I think okay with it now. I mean, she did say “Congratulations sensei,” when he first opened up the door, right? Yeah, so she's on his side. Yeah. She gave him the congratulatory hello.

[0:15:28.7] JC: She's seen the positive impact it’s had on Miguel, having a father figure. She's not blind to what's happening.

[0:15:36.0] SR: No. One thing I also found interesting, I hadn't noticed before is that she refers to Miguel as Mickey. Did we know that before?

[0:15:42.1] JC: Never.

[0:15:43.9] SR: I hadn't caught that before. She calls him Mickey, which is funny. We'll see if she calls him that again, or if that name Mickey ever comes up again.

[0:15:50.0] JC: Mama calls him Mickey, I'll call him Mickey.

[0:15:52.5] SR: Mickey.

[0:15:53.1] JC: Nah, I'm sticking with Miguel. I'm used to it. Now we see Samantha in her room looking at Miguel's Instagram, which is Miguel_Diaz818. I looked it up, seems to be a fake account. Speaking of Instagram, for those who like and follow our show, please go on Instagram and follow us there. It's Let's Talk – Cobra Kai. Pretty easy.

[0:16:12.6] SR: Yeah. I'll start taking pictures of maybe some of my Karate Kid merchandise.

[0:16:16.2] JC: Exciting. Sam's torn as she reviews the photos of her and Miguel and she eventually blocks Miguel. Is that cold-hearted?

[0:16:29.4] SR: Yeah. I think that's pretty extreme in today's young cyber-dating era. That's the finality.

[0:16:36.5] JC: That’s it. It's over.

[0:16:37.0] SR: Would that be the equivalent of crossing someone's name out of your yearbook? I mean, what would that be the equivalent?

[0:16:41.5] JC: Taking them off of speed dial.

[0:16:42.0] SR: Okay. I take them off of speed dial.

[0:16:44.0] JC: Like the Seinfeld episode.

[0:16:45.2] SR: Yeah, and then where are we? Are we in the restaurant yet?

[0:16:48.9] JC: Well, no. Almost. Then Sam switches over and looks at Aisha's account and she's got a live Instagram story going on. The Cobra Kais are at Applebee's.

[0:17:01.3] SR: Yeah, and they're having a celebration of their win and they're all having nachos, right? They're having celebratory nachos.

[0:17:08.4] JC: Victory nachos.

[0:17:09.5] SR: Yeah, they're having victory nachos, but Miguel who should be joining – I mean, he's the number one guy. He's the All Valley champ. Instead, he's sitting off to the side checking Instagram and seeing that he got blocked.

[0:17:20.3] JC: Exactly. He’s totally in the dumps.

[0:17:23.2] SR: Yeah. I'm there going, “What are you doing, dude? Go celebrate.”

[0:17:25.5] JC: Hawk is kicking it with Moon, you've got Demetri there, Aisha, they're having a great time.

[0:17:31.4] SR: I like when Hawk said, “You're the champ now. You can get any chick in the Valley you want.”

[0:17:35.0] JC: Yeah. Ooh.

[0:17:37.4] SR: Wow. Any chick that I want.

[0:17:38.2] JC: This is the tournament that changes lives. When Hawk says that him and Aisha came over to cheer Miguel up, who's at a different table across the Applebee's. Speaking of which, Sal, do you like Applebee's?

[0:17:52.4] SR: I actually do like Applebee's. As a matter of fact, one time a couple of years ago where I really wanted to visit Applebee's I'd never been before, I was like, “I want to go to Applebee's.” I was saying to friends, “Hey, let's go to Applebee's.” I swear to God, every friend I had was like, “Are you crazy? What do you want to go to Applebee's for?” 

Nobody wanted to go to Applebee's, until I joined the Big Brothers Program. I was a big brother and I said to my little brother, Angel, “Angel, would you like to go to Applebee's?” He said, “Sure, Sal.” I said, “Here we are.” He and I went to Applebee's, had a nice meal and I really enjoyed it. I liked Applebee’s very much. I had a real nice visit.

[0:18:23.8] JC: I do love a good Applebee's experience. Growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, there was Applebee's. I think Applebee's was a step above the competition and I always enjoyed it. If you go in one blindfolded, you’ll know your way around. They're all laid out the same.

[0:18:38.6] SR: I think we had Applebee's here all my life. We just never went.

[0:18:42.7] JC: Well, speaking of Big Brothers, Big Sisters, I was a big brother and that's the beautiful thing. You can just say, “This is what we're going to go do.” They’re just happy to go do it. That's great. We also learned that Hawk’s fake ID failed him in this encounter. Unlike the liquor store.

[0:18:58.5] SR: Oh, yeah. I like when Aisha mentions that on the Instagram live and then Hawk is like, “Hey, don't say anything. My parents follow you.” Oops.

[0:19:07.3] JC: Now we cut to Smitty's Diner, which we just discussed. It’s in Pasadena on Lake. Another place that we should visit. Another SoCal location. Johnny's there to meet Kreese.

[0:19:18.8] SR: Yeah. Kreese was sitting there. Ordered a Sanka.

[0:19:23.6] JC: Yeah, red hot.

[0:19:24.7] SR: Yeah. He says to the waitress, “Red hot like you,” said something like that.

[0:19:27.3] JC: Really a different era, Kreese. Yeah, you know what? I'm thinking that that waitress had a stick up her – I mean, come on. She could have just laughed it off. Instead, she seemed really annoyed. Maybe Kreese goes in there often and does this a lot.

[0:19:40.6] SR: That’s true.

[0:19:41.3] JC: I just thought her reaction was like, “Come on, lady.” She probably gets it all day long.

[0:19:45.4] SR: Loosen up a bit.

[0:19:46.2] JC: Kreese types.

[0:19:47.0] SR: I like when Kreese starts explaining brumation, which I didn't know about.

[0:19:50.8] JC: Kreese shared that he helped the Delta boys back in ’89 in Panama get Noriega.

[0:19:58.0] SR: Yeah, helped the guys defeat Noriega and then helped the seals in Afghanistan.

[0:20:04.6] JC: He's hell-bent on running Cobra Kai with under 18 year-olds.

[0:20:08.9] SR: He wants to groom them to be soldiers, it seems like. Now that I'm realizing it, I think that's what his motive is. He's got some paramilitary mercenary background now at this point and he wants to I think start grooming the youth, because he starts talking about, “Oh, they got participation, trophies,” and he's one of these guys that's like, “Back in my day, you hit your kids with a switch.” He's got that attitude.

[0:20:28.2] JC: That's true.

[0:20:29.2] SR: He wants to yeah, maybe groom some of these kids for his bidding.

[0:20:31.2] JC: In Karate Kid 3, which I recently finally watched, that was a plan of his and Terry Silver's was to open up Cobra Kais all over the nation, which you and I joked about, talked about. There is no one dojo that rules the US and it could be Cobra Kai.

[0:20:02.2] SR: No. There's no LA Fitness of dojos, there's no 24-hour fitness of dojos, but I think it would be great. I think the time is ripe right now to make that happen.

[0:20:57.1] JC: Their idea back in the 90s when that movie came out is fresher than ever now. Maybe that's part of his plan. Maybe we'll see a Terry Silver who is actually the really good karate expert and very wealthy. Maybe we'll never see him again. We're not sure.

[0:21:11.8] SR: Wait. Oh, in Karate Kid 3 you learn this.

[0:21:12.4] JC: Yes.

[0:21:13.9] SR: I see. Okay.

[0:21:14.7] JC: I'm way up on you, buddy.

[0:21:16.4] SR: I'm very sorry to the listeners. I have to apologize. I have seen the Karate Kid. I may have seen Karate Kid 2 when it first came out many years ago. I've seen now first season of Cobra Kai and I'm now on episode 1 season 2 of Cobra Kai. That's where I'm at right now. Thanks to Jason, I'm going to be seeing Karate Kid 2, 3.

[0:21:36.4] JC: The Next Karate Kid.

[0:21:37.9] SR: Next Karate Kid. That's one with Hilary Swank. Yes.

[0:21:39.9] JC: Correct.

[0:21:41.5] SR: Then the recent Karate Kid with Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan. I'm going to be making my way through the entire universe and how we may do shows on all of these.

[0:21:47.4] JC: I think that should happen.

[0:21:48.2] SR: May as well.

[0:21:49.7] JC: Let's do it.

[0:21:50.3] SR: While we're here.

[0:21:51.8] JC: Let's do it. All right, so Kreese goes on to drop some more knowledge on us.

[0:21:55.7] SR: Yeah, he talks about brumation. Brumation unlike hibernation, because Johnny's like, “Well, you mean hibernation.” No, brumation is like hibernation, but it is for the cold-blooded animals like snakes. 

A snake will go into this brumation and be in this waiting period. Kreese is making the analogy that that's where he's been. He's been in this brumation waiting for the moment to strike and the moment is right now. He wants to, at the very least, be involved with Cobra Kai, help direct it, or at worst or best depending on how you look at it, run Cobra Kai again.

[0:22:32.3] JC: Johnny says no. Gets up, leaves without even ordering anything.

[0:22:37.4] SR: Yeah. He said, “We don't need you.”

[0:22:39.1] JC: That's it.

[0:22:40.8] SR: He said, “You may be right. Your point is you may be right about everything you're saying, but we don't need you.”

[0:22:45.0] JC: Go open up another dojo.

[0:22:46.3] SR: Ooh. Then Johnny walks away and he takes a sip – as Kreese is sipping that I'm thinking, “He's drinking Sanka.” What is Sanka? That's a fake coffee, isn’t it?

[0:22:55.0] JC: It’s instant coffee.

[0:22:56.2] SR: Oh, it's instant coffee. Oh, I'm thinking it was like Postum. Remember Postum?

[0:22:59.6] JC: No.

[0:23:00.5] SR: Postum was some grain coffee substitute. It was from World War II, where there was a coffee shortage or something. Here in the States, they're sending all the coffee to the soldiers. I think here in the States, people started drinking this thing called Postum, which is like a grain-sourced, like a coffee drink. I thought that's what Sanka was, but Sanka is just instant.

[0:23:20.1] JC: Okay. You can get it hot or cold, whatever.

[0:23:23.3] SR: It's interesting to order that. Why would somebody order that?

[0:23:25.7] JC: Because he’s Kreese. Now we're back at Miyagi-do dojo. Daniel puts up old artifacts as Robby finds something from Karate Kid 2.

[0:23:35.8] SR: Yeah. Well, because what happens is, Daniel is in there doing what looked like katas, what look liked some exercise, or Tai Chi or something. Robby sees this, walks in –

[0:23:44.5] JC: No, he's putting up artifacts here.

[0:23:46.4] SR: No, this is where Daniel is setting up the dojo –

[0:23:48.4] JC: He's not doing katas.

[0:23:50.0] SR: Oh, he's not. Where did that happen?

[0:23:51.4] JC: It’s later.

[0:23:52.9] SR: That's later.

[0:23:53.3] JC: Right now, he’s just putting his – he’s literally hanging stuff on the wall.

[0:23:56.1] SR: Oh, okay. Daniel is setting up the dojo, Robby arrives –

[0:24:00.1] JC: Yeah. I think it's Miyagi's room, but I couldn't tell if it was Miyagi’s room, or Daniel’s old room. He is hanging up some photos.

[0:24:04.9] SR: Okay, I got it. Then that's when Robby picks up the den-den daiko. That's what it's called. That's that little drum with the little beads on it that you put in your hands.

[0:24:13.5] JC: Since I know you haven't seen Karate Kid 2 or remember it, that is something that does save Daniel’s life as he says in the scene.

[0:24:20.3] SR: Okay. That's called a den-den daiko. Then he sees Mr. Miyagi's Medal of Honor and he asks about the Medal of Honor and then Daniel explains to him, that's the highest honor that the military is going to give you and that was Mr. Miyagi. He's setting up a shrine to Miyagi, sort of?

[0:24:37.1] JC: Yeah. Yeah. Mr. Miyagi is the heart and soul of Miyagi-do dojo. I think it's wonderful that these artifacts remain. I think it's also great this house wasn't demolished. Or as you said, someone came in and bought the real estate and it's gone.

[0:24:51.6] SR: Oh, yeah. It would be condos now. Yeah.

[0:24:52.7] JC: Condos. I also love when he goes, “Robby reminds me of young Daniel at times. Young, Danielson.” Very inquisitive. Doesn't really know a lot. He teaches him about the rules of karate.

[0:25:07.7] SR: Yeah. They’re on the wall in Japanese writing called kanji. Is that kanji?

[0:25:12.4] JC: That, I don’t know.

[0:25:13.1] SR: Well, I don’t know if kanji is just a term in Japanese. There’s Japanese writing there on this banner. Karate is for self-defense only. Rule number one.

[0:25:20.4] JC: Rule number two.

[0:25:21.5] SR: Go back to rule number one.

[0:25:23.9] JC: Exactly. They enter and cut a scene from Karate Kid 2. That's a great sequence when Mr. Miyagi –

[0:25:29.8] SR: Oh, yes, yes. When –

[0:25:30.6] JC: – shows him.

[0:25:32.0] SR: They have the flashback of Miyagi showing Daniel the same rules that now Daniel is now showing Robby.

[0:25:36.5] JC: It's a great moment. I even like Daniel's line when he says, “Really all about that first rule.” It’s a nice moment. You can see these two really bonding. It's very Johnny and Miguel. I mean, I know they're a little behind, because they haven’t spent as much time, but they're both on the same trajectory right now.

[0:25:52.5] SR: Yeah. They're both at a turning point. Everybody right now is at these turning points. Everybody, both Miguel, Johnny, Daniel, they're all at these turning points where you can – you go that way to the right, which is the darkness. You go right to left, which is the light. You go to the light, or you go to the darkness. You choose. I think they're all at that moment now.

[0:26:10.4] JC: Yeah. It would have been a good title for this episode. Charting points. Okay, so now we're at the Cobra Kai dojo and Miguel and Hawk roll up on scooters. These guys are looking too cool for school.

[0:26:22.6] SR: Yeah. I wonder if those are rental scooters. They didn’t look like rental scooters, but I mean, they look liked rental scooters, but they didn't have any labels on them showing that they’re rental. These are what we see a lot right now going on all over Los Angeles, and I'm assuming it’s happening nationwide.

[0:26:35.2] JC: Those dangerous scooters.

[0:26:36.3] SR: Are those lime scooters, these bird scooters? Yeah, Hawk and Miguel roll up on these things.

[0:26:40.4] JC: Hawk mentions he's getting his license soon, his mother's going to give him her Sentra and he wants to put a blue tail from head to toe on that thing. Hawk style.

[0:26:51.2] SR: Yeah. I like that he says Sentra. Because I have a Nissan Xterra, so I have a special place in my heart for Nissans.

[0:27:00.6] JC: I had a Nissan Leaf for a while, so I too like a Nissan. I also like electric. Speaking of which, let me just plug if I may, I have an electric scooter, GenZe 2.0. Beautiful bike. It's more like a Vespa.

[0:27:15.7] SR: Where you sit on it.

[0:27:16.4] JC: A more traditional scooter, but it's a 100% electric. When people say scooter, I almost wish these things were called something else.

[0:27:23.1] SR: No, you're right.

[0:27:23.9] JC: Like blades, or just death traps.

[0:27:25.3] SR: It's true.

[0:27:27.5] JC: Because a lot of people are going to the emergency room with broken collar bones, because they're not trained. They’re on the sidewalks spilling into people.

[0:27:34.7] SR: My mom is 75 and just yesterday we were talking about these scooters, these lime scooters. She says she wants to start riding them. I go, “Mom, you're 75. When was the last time you were on one of these things? Anything similar?” She goes, “Oh, when I was a young girl.” “Yeah, in the 50s? Come on.” 

My mom thinks she's going to hop on one of these scooters. Come on. No, I do agree with you. When I think of scooters, I'm thinking – because I grew up with the Spree scooters, of course the Vespas, but also Mopeds.

[0:28:01.4] JC: Mopeds.

[0:28:03.1] SR: We had the Aero 50 scooter. Yeah, these things definitely actually should not officially be called scooters. Back in my day, we wouldn't have called them a scooter.

[0:28:10.9] JC: Remember Divo had their little scooters they were on? Remember Divo?

[0:28:12.8] SR: Yeah.

[0:28:14.7] JC: Okay. These guys are obviously champs, and very cocky now.

[0:28:20.2] SR: Yeah, and they roll up to the dojo and there's all these kids wanting to be a part of Cobra Kai now.

[0:28:24.2] JC: Well, that's already happened.

[0:28:25.5] SR: What?

[0:28:26.1] JC: I mean, that has been a theme.

[0:28:27.4] SR: Oh, yeah. People wanting to join Cobra Kai.

[0:28:29.9] JC: They’re just some new students.

[0:28:31.3] SR: Yeah, but there were other people –

[0:28:31.8] JC: There was some guys behind, but there's just more new students.

[0:28:34.6] SR: Yeah. There's more people wanting to be a part of Cobra Kai. People that have seen maybe the Instagram, seeing some of these live videos, maybe the video of Miguel kicking ass in the cafeteria.

[0:28:43.8] JC: Well, now he's champ. Now he’s All Valley tournament champ. Look what that did to Daniel’s career and life? Miguel is in that company now. Johnny Lawrence, Daniel LaRusso, Miguel Diaz.

[0:28:57.4] SR: Miguel Diaz could have a row of car dealerships one day.

[0:28:59.0] JC: Yes, exactly. He is on his way to success.

[0:29:04.4] SR: Hawk would be there too. In fact, there was that moment where Hawk might have almost been the champion, but he screwed himself by – remember, he kicked the guy in the back?

[0:29:11.1] JC: I don't think he would have bested Miguel.

[0:29:13.7] SR: They would have had to have fought, right?

[0:29:15.0] JC: Yeah. Now we're inside the Cobra Kai dojo. What does Johnny do?

[0:29:19.6] SR: Well, they start milling about, ready to start a class, these visitors come in wanting to join these two guys, especially wanted to be a part of Cobra Kai. Johnny just comes in says, “Get out.”

[0:29:28.0] JC: All new students.

[0:29:29.8] SR: Yeah. “All new students, Cobra Kai is closed. Come back tomorrow with your checkbooks.”

[0:29:33.6] JC: Exactly.

[0:29:34.4] SR: Kicks everybody out and then says, “Hawk, Diaz. Front and center.” Gets them up there and chastises them about the way they handle themselves at the tournament. They did pussy moves, kicking someone in the back, as Hawk did. Going after an injury as Miguel did.

[0:29:52.2] JC: Yeah, when he yanked on Robby's arm.

[0:29:53.6] SR: Yeah. Would you say Johnny's backpedaling now a little bit? He's now seen the light, especially after Kreese coming back. Kreese now showed Johnny right now who he does not want to be. Therefore, he's backpedaling on his approach a little bit.

[0:30:07.7] JC: I don't know if it’s backpedaling, but maybe it's evolving. He's making a new way of Cobra Kai. Well, you can be tough, but you can fight a worthy opponent. You don't have to be a bully.

[0:30:22.2] SR: Yeah. He says to Aisha, “If you're a snake and you can either beat up a crippled monkey, or a strong lion, which would you rather be?” Aisha said, “Well of course, I'd rather be the snake that beats up the strong lion.” Exactly. You want to beat your opponent when they're at their strongest.

[0:30:37.7] JC: I agree.

[0:30:38.6] SR: I don't know who could argue with that.

[0:30:37.1] JC: You can walk away from the weak. There's no reason to get in a battle with someone weaker than you. In fact, you should probably walk away from anybody. If you have to, at a tournament if you're fighting someone, I'd much rather go up a bell or fight someone my level or above, rather than someone beneath me. That's all sports though.

[0:30:58.4] SR: Well, it's the old iron sharpens iron thing also. He gives them a group chastisement and then he has Aisha then run the class, as he has Hawk and Miguel do 50 pushups on their knuckles.

[0:31:09.9] JC: Let's not forget, everybody's reset to a white belt. That’s a big thing. Having trained in martial arts myself and still training, being a youth and having all your belts taken away, now I know this Cobra Kai world they go from white to black very quickly. In the real world, it takes you a few years to make that progression. To get it taken away by your sensei and you resetting would be a hit to the ego.

[0:31:35.9] SR: Does that happen? Do they do that?

[0:31:37.6] JC: I've never heard of it.

[0:31:39.2] SR: Can you strip someone's belt?

[0:31:40.3] JC: If you go to a new dojo and begin training, you might reset. No, this is a different universe we're dealing with.

[0:31:47.1] SR: Yeah, he resets everybody at white belt.

[0:31:49.7] JC: No pushback from anybody. That we know of.

[0:31:50.7] SR: No.

[0:31:52.2] JC: I think much like a good coach, or a good leader, if you find the leaders within and you discipline them, everyone else will follow. Hawk being the biggest personality and Miguel being your greatest student, he can pull them up front and center, make them do push-ups, who else is going to argue with them? Johnny's got him right where he wants them. Johnny's now in his office and Miguel comes in with questions.

[0:32:15.6] SR: Yeah. He's like, “Hey, what's going on sensei? Why are you doing this to us? We just did what you taught us,” is essentially what he was saying, right, also?

[0:32:23.8] JC: I got to say, Miguel was pretty astute in his assessment saying, “What was it about me hurting Robby that's changed your view on things?”

[0:32:35.0] SR: Yeah. At that moment is where I thought, “Is Johnny going to tell Miguel who Robby is?” I thought he was going to do it, but no, he didn't.

[0:32:42.4] JC: It was much like that scene in Samantha's car when Robby could have told her who his father was, but he held back.

[0:32:48.1] SR: Yeah, there’s these little moments where you think, are they going to say something? Then they don't. Johnny says to Miguel, “Stop whining like a little bitch and get out there and finish your drills.” Then they both give each other a little smile, a little smirk, then they do the bow and then Miguel goes back to the floor.

[0:33:03.2] JC: Classic Johnny.

[0:33:04.7] SR: Yeah. They have their moment where they have the understanding, the common ground at that moment.

[0:33:09.2] JC: Absolutely. Class ends. Sam pulls up to meet Aisha, which is nice to see that they're beginning to speak again and build their friendship back. Aisha can't join Sam, because –

[0:33:24.6] SR: Now this is hilarious. “Yeah. We can't hang out, because sensei wants us to watch Over the Top.”

[0:33:32.4] JC: Stallone's ’87 classic film about a truck driver who's a great arm wrestler.

[0:33:37.7] SR: Yeah. The winner of the arm-wrestling tournament gets this fantastic tractor truck.

[0:33:41.6] JC: Yeah, a classic. Johnny wants to discuss it after the students have watched it.

[0:33:46.9] SR: Aisha invites Sam to hang out. Sam declines. Aisha goes off with everyone else and Sam takes off.

[0:33:52.5] JC: Aisha took a rain check. They're going to hang out. Aisha can't join Sam now, but you can see that they're reconnecting.

[0:33:59.7] SR: Yes. I don't know how realistic their friendship is at this moment in time.

[0:34:03.1] JC: I'd say their friendship is still fractured. Now we're at some Home Depot knockoff?

[0:34:09.1] SR: Yeah, some hardware store.

[0:34:12.3] JC: It looks like a Home Depot, because it's massive.

[0:34:14.3] SR: Isn’t the guy wearing a vest?

[0:34:16.6] JC: Yeah, he's got a vest on. Johnny's getting the items to fix what him and Kreese broke while fighting, like a mirror and some paint. We meet Raymond, a very energetic and talkative employee.

[0:34:29.8] SR: Well, what's funny – what does he see? A Metallica shirt on –

[0:34:30.8] JC: Oh, yeah.

[0:34:31.9] SR: Yeah. Johnny's wearing a Metallica shirt and this guy is like, “Hey, 80s dude. Remember the 80s? Remember Caddyshack?” What? This guy's going off on the 80s.

[0:34:40.9] JC: Who pulled this guy's string? He was hilarious. While talking to him about what he needs, Johnny overseas of all people, Daniel and his son Robby, also getting supplies.

[0:34:52.6] SR: Yeah. Yeah, these are these moments – I mean, almost when Robby saw Johnny hugging Miguel, now Johnny sees his son Robby with Daniel at a hardware store and it's a father-son thing to be at a hardware store together. Yet, you're seeing your adversary with your son there. That's a painful moment.

[0:35:14.6] JC: I want to see the writers room with all of these things happening. How far do they have this mapped out? Because this is really good. It's true. It's like a parallel universe. This happens over here, but it makes sense and it's happening over here. It's a lot. It's a lot to take in. Raymond asked if Robby's Daniel's son.

[0:35:36.3] SR: Yeah. He said, “You guys look every resemblance.” Yeah, in other words that's more of a dagger in Johnny's heart.

[0:35:42.5] JC: Totally.

[0:35:43.8] SR: “Hey, is this your son? He looks like you.”

[0:35:45.7] JC: “No. He's my son. Shut up.”

[0:35:48.2] SR: Then, so Daniel though, I think in this moment did something nice. “Hey, I'm going to go pay for these,” and then just excuses himself.

[0:35:54.7] SR: Raymond goes off to get Johnny’s supplies.

[0:35:56.6] JC: Yeah. Then now, Robby and Johnny can have a little moment together to communicate about whatever. It doesn't go well.

[0:36:05.1] SR: No.

[0:36:09.7] JC: Doesn't end well anyway. Because Johnny tries to apologize, right?

[0:36:13.5] SR: Yes. “I'm sorry.” Then Robby’s like, “Oh, you're sorry. Well, I don't know if I can forgive you now.”

[0:36:17.3] JC: Because Robby assumes that he commanded his team to hurt Robby.

[0:36:21.8] SR: Yeah. He said something like, “You made Miguel fight dirty.” Didn't he say something like that?

[0:36:26.9] JC: Yes. Of which he did not. He is not Kreese. He did not command that, but Robby doesn't know that.

[0:36:32.9] SR: Yeah. Then he says something – Johnny said something like, “That prick,” referring to Daniel, “Oh, are you going to hang out with that prick?” Then Robby gets in his face, “Mr. LaRusso is a better man than you will ever be.”

[0:36:45.1] JC: Ouch.

[0:36:47.9] SR: Ooh! I felt pretty bad for Johnny in that moment.

[0:36:50.1] JC: Johnny is regretting this trip to the hardware store.

[0:36:52.9] SR: I'm thinking that as soon as he saw Daniel and Robby, he should’ve walked out.

[0:36:59.2] JC: I’m out.

[0:37:00.8] SR: Just walked out. “I’ll come back later.”

[0:37:02.5] JC: It’s crazy. Now we're back at LaRusso's and Sam is in the dojo doing a kata. Daniel oversees this. I'm sure he's touched by it, and then he enters, and they have a really nice conversation, a good father-daughter heart-to-heart, if you will.

[0:37:22.5] SR: Daniel tries to relate to Samantha by telling his story of his first love, Judy from New Jersey. He starts telling the story of how he thought she was the one, but then she wasn't the one. He's just trying to tell Samantha there are other fish in the sea, basically is what he's saying. There will be other special people in your life.

[0:37:40.4] JC: Then he said, “After Ali, there was another girl and then there was another one,” because I'm sure he was in college and post-college. He was letting her know that he had a lot of these close calls and Miguel might just be one of many on that ride. I know it didn't help, but I liked his effort.

[0:37:58.8] SR: Yeah. Definitely. You can appreciate the effort. When you're a kid and you're hurting and your parent tries to help you, you blow it off.

[0:38:05.0] JC: Do you think Daniel listens to people when they tried to help him when he was younger? Absolutely not.

[0:38:10.6] SR: No.

[0:38:11.3] JC: Then he mentions how he wants to take down Cobra Kai. Sam says, “I don't want to defeat Cobra Kai. They’re my friends, or at least they used to be. They're not my enemy.” That was really well said by her, but it's lost on Daniel.

[0:38:27.5] SR: Daniel heard something similar from Amanda, right? Amanda was like, “What are you doing?” Now his daughter is saying, “I'm not looking to defeat Cobra Kai.”

[0:38:33.3] JC: More than anything in this scene, I think Daniel shares with his daughter and I believe that it was well-intended, but Sam's blue and she's done with heartbreak and you got to get through that. What she tells Daniel about how she doesn't want to fight Cobra Kai, it really hit Daniel.

[0:38:51.4] SR: Yeah. I guess, he was hoping his whole family would be onboard in wanting to kick Cobra Kai's ass, including his wife and daughter.

[0:38:58.7] JC: His son’s probably onboard, but he's a rubble rouser that kid.

[0:39:02.9] SR: Daniel's son, Anthony, is onboard with kicking Cobra Kai’s ass, but he's probably the one in family who could not kick anyone's ass.

[0:39:07.4] JC: Right. Daniel has learned something by having women in his life. If his wife and daughter feel a certain way, let's reevaluate this. Hanging onto that hatred is not in the Miyagi-do spirit.

[0:39:23.9] SR: Well, if I do admire anyone, in this instance, Daniel, who has an ideology and a path. Then someone comes along and kicks knowledge and then they go, “Hmm.” Then you make a shift. That's called intelligence. That's called wisdom. That's called respect, also for the people you spoke to. You'd consider their words, even your own daughter. Daniel is starting to take a turn and maybe realize that his whole life mission should not be about Cobra Kai.

[0:39:51.9] JC: He had an amazing sensei. When I go back and watch any of the Karate Kid films with Mr. Miyagi, he realizes how special he was. I would think that Daniel has a little bit more of that, more than Johnny has. 

Daniel should probably come to his senses quicker more often and not even have the spirit of fighting them, but he gets sucked into it, because he's more hot-headed. He's not Mr. Miyagi. Mr. Miyagi had to reel him in a lot. Even when I watched Karate Kid Part 3 recently, you see how irrational young Daniel was.

[0:40:25.0] SR: What was the timeframe between original Karate Kid and Karate Kid 3?

[0:40:28.6] JC: Karate Kid 1 was ’84, part two was ’86, part three was ’89. Yeah, five-year difference. He's like you said –

[0:40:38.5] SR: Well, because he was – 17? 16, 17 in the first one, right? Because Under-18 All Valley Tournament. Then five years later, early 20s. Yeah, you start maturing though. I was different at 23 than I was at 17.

[0:40:51.7] JC: He was rebellious, and he did some of the same things he did in the first one. Mr. Miyagi obviously comes from a very different place and he has a lot of wisdom.

[0:41:03.4] SR: Who was Miyagi’s sensei?

[0:41:04.2] JC: His father. Back at Cobra Kai dojo, Johnny flashes back to early training with Kreese.

[0:41:10.5] SR: Yeah. He's there with Kreese during the Walkman era when Johnny used to ride around on his bicycle with his Walkman when he first discovers Cobra Kai. He's crying and then Kreese says something like, “What are you crying about?” He starts to say about a stepfather. Who knows? Maybe a stepfather slapped him around or something, or at least yelled at him. Who knows? Kreese was like – you know what? I had to agree with them for a moment. I had to agree with Kreese when he said, “The moment those tears start coming out, you lose.” I was like, “He's right. He's totally right.” Again, Johnny's a kid at this moment. He's a young teenager.

He's like, “Basically, once you cry, you lose. I don't want to train losers. Are you a loser?” That's when Johnny says, “No sensei.” Kreese says, “I can't hear you.” That's when you start to see the character of Kreese being yeah, hard on a kid. You start to see the shift in Johnny. 

Maybe he was a sweet kid at one point, but then Kreese comes along, these people that can turn your pain into your anger. That could be very dangerous and that's what Kreese was doing. He was turning Johnny's young pain and sadness into anger and resentment, or then harnessed to strength. You can take it a lot of different ways.

[0:42:26.4] JC: Darth Vader.

[0:42:27.0] SR: Yeah, exactly. Take your weapon, strike me down with all your hatred. Yeah. You take someone's pain and you see how can we use this? In that instance, you can see. Well, Kreese crease has his methods and that was definitely come down hard on young Johnny.

[0:42:37.0] JC: I believe Johnny was a sweet kid. In those flashback scenes at the dinner table, on his bike, he was just a young, impressionable young kid, had a lot of joy. His mother seemed very sweet natured. I believe Kreese had a lot to do with Johnny's behavior. He was hard on him.

[0:42:55.1] SR: Yeah. I mean, you look at the two main men in their lives were his stepfather and Kreese. Basically, two jerks, but at least Kreese can teach him karate.

[0:43:02.5] JC: Just think if Mr. Miyagi had met Johnny as well, in a different setting.

[0:43:08.8] SR: What if Johnny and his mother had moved into the – where is that? Seven Seas?

[0:43:10.4] JC: Seven Seas.

[0:43:11.0] SR: What if Johnny and his mother had moved into the Seven Seas apartment? 

[0:43:15.7] JC: They could have, right? Without Sid, they would have.

[0:43:16.8] SR: Without the stepfather putting him up in Encino, they could have been at the Seven Seas in Reseda and then he could have met Mr. Miyagi.

[0:43:22.5] JC: Wow.

[0:43:23.2] SR: Wow. All these what-ifs.

[0:43:26.9] JC: All right, so now we cut to Miyagi-do. Robby hangs the new logo sign. Looks pretty good. Miyagi-do Karate. Beautiful, handcrafted sign. Not sure who did that, but wonderful craftsmanship. He then sees Daniel doing a kata.

[0:43:45.4] SR: Or what he thinks is a kata.

[0:43:46.8] JC: Correct.

[0:43:47.8] SR: Robby asked him about these katas. Daniel says, “These aren't katas. These are meditations taught to me by Miyagi for when I lose focus.” Then Robby says, “Did you lose focus?” This is where we realized that now Daniel is realizing that he was starting to spiral. Now he had to rein himself in and bring himself back, do his meditations, get back into – they haven't used this terminology whatsoever and I don't know if they will and I don’t know if they need to. 

He’s starting to get back into the spiritual aspect of his training, the spiritual aspect of the discipline of karate. It's not just about kicking ass. It's a whole lifestyle. He's starting to rein himself in. He's starting to realize he was going off the deep end.

[0:44:32.7] JC: He says, “Not anymore.” I mean, he's not lost focus anymore, he's re-centered, and he shares with Robby the new plan.

[0:44:41.5] SR: Yeah. This is where they walk outside, right? See the work that they have done on the place. This is where Daniel says to him, “The new plan is not to fight Cobra Kai,” because that would be vengeance, right? That would be revenge. In other words, he doesn't say that word, but what he's saying is, we're not going to seek revenge.

[0:45:57.9] JC: We’re going to show them another way.

[0:45:58.8] SR: Yeah, we're going to teach them.

[0:45:00.9] JC: We’re going to teach them another way.

[0:45:01.2] SR: Wow.

[0:45:03.6] JC: Then who joins them?

[0:45:04.4] SR: Samantha walks up, ready to join Miyagi-do.

[0:45:08.7] JC: Just like that, Daniel has two students. We cut back to Johnny at the Cobra Kai dojo and Kreese enters to say goodbye.

[0:45:20.0] SR: Yeah. He says, “Just let me say one thing.” Johnny allows him to speak and he said, “I'm sorry.” I wasn't expecting that.

[0:45:26.7] JC: No.

[0:45:28.3] SR: It was a tender moment. It's one of these moments where we start to think, “Wow, maybe Kreese is now getting better, being better. Maybe Kreese realized he was going off the deep end like Daniel.”

[0:45:38.7] JC: Or he knows exactly what to tell Johnny.

[0:45:39.8] SR: Well, exactly. That's where you’re watching going, “Well, what's up his sleeve?”

[0:45:42.3] JC: Or what's in his bag?

[0:45:44.5] SR: He apologizes. Then he says, “Maybe I was hard on you. I was only hard on you, because I believed that you could win. You were young. I'm sorry. I repaired your trophy.” He pulls out the second-place All Valley karate championship trophy that he destroyed and it's now repaired and he hands it to Johnny. I got to tell you, that moment got to me.

[0:46:06.2] JC: Then he says, “It may say second place, but in my opinion, you were always the better fighter.” 

[0:46:16.2] SR: I’m almost going to cry.

[0:46:18.2] JC: He knew how to get right in there. Not for a moment, unfortunately, do I believe any sincerity is coming out of Kreese’s mouth? I think he wants him the good graces for his own reasons and he knows how to manipulate someone who he helped grow and train and mentor all those years.

[0:46:37.2] SR: Yeah. I mean, if anything, especially when you heard Kreese’s story when they were in the diner, after the Cobra Kai and Karate Kid Universe and he goes off on these military tours, comes back, you're not assuming he's now a better man.

[0:46:53.3] JC: No.

[0:46:54.4] SR: No. Especially when he says, “I've seen some things.” What have you seen? Horrible things is what you've seen. I want to be neutral with Kreese. I wanted to give him a chance, but yeah, so he apologizes, he gives him the fixed trophy. He says something like, “Give me a chance.”

[0:47:13.6] JC: After he says that, I think my first viewing yeah, Sal, I wanted to believe Kreese. He walks outside knowing Johnny's going to follow. When Johnny says, “Hey, wait a second,” what does Kreese do?

[0:47:26.2] SR: He gives a little smirk –

[0:47:28.6] JC: To us, the camera.

[0:47:29.9] SR: Yeah. The smirk illustrates, “Ha ha. I got him.”

[0:47:33.2] JC: Just like a hook. “I got him. He's on my hook. I'm reeling this guy in and I'll be back in the good graces before we know it.”

[0:47:41.7] SR: Yeah, it's not much different than like a romantic relationship. You break up with your girlfriend, or she dumps you and then you just say, “Well, I'll just be alone then.” You know that by saying that, she's going to feel sorry for you, give you sympathy. You walk away and she comes chasing you. It's not much different. You're right, he used the manipulation and the strategy. He gives the trophy. He walks out. Johnny comes back says, “Hold on.” Kreese delivers that smirk and we go, “Oh, no. What's going to happen next?”

[0:48:10.8] JC: Yeah, here we are season 2. Exciting.

[0:48:13.2] SR: Well, I'll tell you what I'm especially excited about is that I got my Karate Kid 2 pack with Johnny and Daniel. I've got my Mr. Miyagi single pack and his janitor custodian outfit and his bonsai tree. There's also a crease action figure, which was a recent Comic-Con exclusive at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con also by NECA. All these figures are by NECA.

[0:48:33.3] JC: Is he in a Cobra Kai –

[0:48:34.8] SR: He's in the Cobra Kai black. Yeah, well it's a black gi that looks like Cobra Kai, but I don't think he has the logo on it. It's a non-logo Cobra Kai.

[0:48:41.4] JC: Is its sleeves cut off?

[0:48:43.3] SR: Yeah. Especially after seeing this episode, especially after seeing the return of Kreese, I need to get it.

[0:49:47.5] JC: I'm super excited as well, because we've brought Kreese back. We thought he might leave. It will be exciting to see if he fits inside Cobra Kai, how he fits inside Cobra Kai, how will him and Johnny co-exist. In the meantime, I want to see the two new students Samuel and Robby training at Miyagi-do dojo. I am excited to see how this starts to play out.

[0:49:10.3] SR: Yeah, what will be Kreese’s place in all this? What does he have planned and what will Johnny fall for, or allow?

[0:49:16.4] JC: Johnny's a man now. He's not going to get walked on, but how much can Kreese manipulate him? We shall see.

[0:49:23.8] SR: Well, we're starting to see.

[0:49:25.8] JC: Thanks so much for listening and we'd greatly appreciate it if you could subscribe and rate us on Apple iTunes, Google Podcast, I Heart Radio, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever.

[0:49:35.8] SR: We also want to encourage our listeners to follow us on social media @LetsTalkCobraKai for Facebook and Instagram and @TalkCobraKai on Twitter. If you have any questions, that's a great place to message us.

[0:49:48.0] JC: By the way, you can also stream Let's Talk – Cobra Kai, as well as our future shows on our website, which is justcuriousmedia.com. Thanks so much.

[0:49:57.7] SR: No mercy.