Cobra Kai Midseason-Finale Recap: Fightstarter

We’re already at the tournament?

In the last episode, Cobra Kai took some much-needed time for the supporting characters, finalizing the complete lineup for the upcoming Sekai Taikai we’ll see play out when the show returns for its next (and second-to-last) batch of episodes in November. But this midseason finale refocuses the story on the leads — the kids who were pretty much always guaranteed spots at the Sekai Taikai, along with the senseis doing their best to prepare them.

At the beginning of this season, I was curious about how exactly the show would keep generating conflict with all of its main long-standing beefs squashed. But these last two episodes in particular have done a great job building friction into the character dynamics without undoing any of the progress from the last few seasons. “Best of the Best” resurrects two of the most important rivalries in the show (Miguel vs. Robby and Sam vs. Tory), but it doesn’t feel repetitive because the context is different. Both pairings actually get along now, so in some ways it’s even tenser to see them go head-to-head.

Miguel and Robby each bring baggage into the fight for male team captain. Miguel got deferred from Stanford and thinks winning the Sekai Taikai as a captain will solidify an acceptance, thanks to some well-meaning but possibly misguided encouragement from Sam. In his mind, beating Robby suddenly means going to Stanford. Then there’s Robby, still haunted from only making it to second place in two different All Valley tournaments. Miguel warning him that he “really needs this” rubs him the wrong way for obvious reasons: It implies that Robby, who has no college plans, has less to fight for. Their argument outside the Lawrence-Diaz household doesn’t get too intense, but it sets up the fight by attaching personal stakes.

When they do fight at the dojo the next day, Robby wins, recovering from a two-point deficit when Tory arrives late and he’s able to refocus on what matters. Miguel, on the other hand, might lose for the same reason: He’s too invested in this, too convinced that his education is in trouble if he doesn’t win. He fights well — and his win back in season one shows that an aggressive style of fighting can pay off — but there’s a lot of pressure, so he’s not as calm and in control as he should be. He insists there are no hard feelings for Robby, but it doesn’t feel like this tension will just evaporate.

Unfortunately, Tory is also going through it, dealing with issues much more serious than Miguel’s. At the beginning of the episode, she’s optimistic about her mom’s improving health and optimistic about her own chances of crushing the competition alongside her boyfriend at the big tournament — and when Kreese makes contact again to seduce her back to Cobra Kai, she’s secure enough in her identity to brush him off and stick with Miyagi-Do. But then she arrives home to find her mom dead on the floor, the result of a blood clot the doctors didn’t see.

Without another parent to turn to, Tory just shuts down, ignoring Robby’s calls and showing up to the fight at Miyagi-Do without telling anyone what happened. She can’t stop dwelling on the lesson her mom taught her as a kid: that the two of them needed to fight for themselves, not wait for some prince to save them. It’s an empowering idea, in theory, but Tory’s mom wouldn’t have wanted her to reject help when it’s offered. Karate is almost magically therapeutic in the Karate Kid universe, but fighting can’t alleviate grief if you don’t also have a solid support system. Tory has people who care about her, but she won’t accept it.

So we get the second match of the episode where deeper feelings are obviously at play. Tory is fighting a little dirty, and the LaRussos interrupt the fight to stop her when Amanda gets a call with the news that her mom died. Unfortunately, that just plays into Tory’s paranoia about Sam getting special treatment, a fear stoked by Kreese during their run-in. All of this is happening at the worst time possible, pushing Tory away from Miyagi-Do and back toward Cobra Kai. She storms out, leaving the senseis to announce Sam as the female captain for the Sekai Taikai. And with Tory apparently out of the tournament altogether, Eli is chosen to fill her spot in the roster.

All this drama also plays into the tension between Daniel and Johnny, who have been butting heads the whole episode. Daniel sees Johnny as disrespecting Mr. Miyagi with his goofy lesson plans, like launching beer bottles at kids, and feels nervous about handing off the full-time sensei-duties reins to his old nemesis once this year is over. He even sabotages another training period by putting Johnny on the test-drive schedule at work before the captains’ tests and then taking Miguel and Sam to train off-campus. When he gets caught, Johnny hilariously attempts an Eagle Fang–esque mutiny at the LaRusso dealership.

Amanda, always the voice of reason, does award-worthy work in this episode to get ahead of the building conflict, offering Johnny some insight into where Daniel’s head is at. He’s clearly still messed up from seeing a new side of Mr. Miyagi in that box and insistent that he knows what his sensei would really want for the dojo. But Amanda is also straight with Daniel, forcing him to acknowledge that he’s been ignoring a key tenet of Miyagi-Do: balance, that all-important concept. By pushing Johnny away, it’s like he’s defending the spotless record of a man who never really existed. It’s no surprise that when Johnny weaponizes those hurt feelings against him — calling Miyagi a “liar and a thief” at the exact moment he knows it will trigger Daniel most — Daniel lashes out and punches him.

We’ve seen so many of these Daniel-Johnny splits over the years, which makes sense; it’s the relationship that the whole show is built upon, a rivalry stretching back to 1984 with the original movie. But again, I really like that the writers are determined to push forward with new wrinkles to the dynamic instead of rehashing the usual breakup/reunion cycle. This time, Daniel and Johnny aren’t splitting the dojo before the big tournament. They’ll keep teaching together despite their personal issues, then go their separate ways after the Sekai Taikai. It’s a smart way of keeping the two in the same room for the next batch of episodes.

I have to say, though, I was not expecting the tournament to be coming up quite so fast. We still have ten episodes left of this show, and I figured the Sekai Taikai would take place toward the end or at least around episode ten. So I was pretty surprised when this episode cut to the various teams’ arrival at the tournament in Barcelona, with Tory showing up at Kreese and Kim Da-Eun’s side.

It’s a bit of an abrupt jump, and I might’ve liked at least an episode or two to breathe after the captains’ tests. What has Tory’s re-enrollment with Cobra Kai looked like? Has she continued to just ignore Robby’s calls? Did Johnny and Daniel chat at all on the long flight from L.A. to Spain? How is Kreese traveling between countries so easily? On a larger structural level, what comes after the Sekai Taikai, besides Carmen giving birth and the kids figuring out their post-graduation plans? There are a lot of questions heading into the next phase of this final season, and I can’t wait to see what happens. It’s just annoying we have to wait another four months. Oh well, I’ll take a page from Daniel LaRusso’s book — if you need me before this fall, I’ll be meditating. Wake me up when November ends.

Mr. Miyagi’s Little Trees

• “Daniel’s just … He hasn’t been himself lately. He’s been going through something.” “Wow, you’re finally leaving him, huh? He’s gonna shit when he finds out you’re working for me and Louie.”

• Kenny still hasn’t been seen since the pants-shitting incident, but he’s also not competing at the Sekai Taikai, anyway, so I guess his story is on pause for a bit.

• Daniel also realizes that Miyagi himself fought in the Sekai Taikai when he finds a blood-stained headband in the box. Are there even more unflattering stories we’ll learn about Miyagi as the season goes on?

• Sam hasn’t gotten a ton of time to shine individually in this season outside of her improving relationship with Tory, but it’s a nice moment when she tells her dad she’s fighting for closure after her loss at the All Valley.

• Demetri got into MIT, but he’s still bitter about Eli not applying, so the conflict could bleed into the Barcelona trip.

• This was fun! See you again in November for the next five.