The Moment of Truth
"Let him go."
Written by Josh Heald (Story), Jon Hurwitz (Story), Hayden Schlossberg (Story), Kevin McManus (Story & teleplay) & Matthew McManus (Story & teleplay)
Directed by Michael Grossman
Directed by Michael Grossman
"Look, I've tried everything else to promote Miyagi-Do. If this doesn't work, nothing will."
— Daniel LaRusso
Kreese is alone when Demetri stops by the dojo to ask about karate lessons, but Demetri inevitably offends the elder sensei, who sends him away after bloodying his nose. Among the new students at the dojo is a stylish girl named Tory (who impresses everyone during a sparring match with Miguel) and Raymond, the employee from the hardware store who Johnny begrudgingly allows to join.
Daniel takes Robby and Sam to a beach club, where his attempts to promote Miyagi-Do to local parents are overshadowed by Cobra Kai's display at Valley Fest, with Aisha's mother praising the difference that Cobra Kai has made in her daughter's life. Meanwhile, Sam tries to make up with Aisha, who is upset about the slight against Cobra Kai in Daniel’s ad, but ends up in a quarrel with Tory, whom she accuses of stealing her mother's wallet (having witnessed Tory stealing liquor at the club beforehand). When Sam reaches for Tory's purse, Tory responds by pushing her into a dessert table and walking away with Aisha.
As Kreese regales the Cobra Kai students with stories of his military past, Miguel notices inconsistencies in his tales, and voices his concerns to Johnny. Growing suspicious of his old mentor, Johnny investigates and finds that Kreese has been destitute since the 80's, having lost everything when the original Cobra Kai shut down. Kreese admits to Johnny that his stories were fabricated and — playing on Johnny's sympathy — claims to feel like a "broken man". Johnny consoles him and offers him a fresh start, provided that he follows Johnny's rules in the dojo.
Robby's past catches up with him when the manager of the club threatens to have him arrested for previous crimes, but Amanda sticks up for Robby. He later finds Amanda's wallet in a stash of stolen goods amassed by his former friends Trey and Cruz, who ambush him with the help of a third criminal. Daniel comes to Robby's aid, defeating the thieves with ease. Having captured the entire confrontation on his phone, Robby offers to post the footage online to promote the dojo, but Daniel declines, as he does not want to adopt Cobra Kai's flashy (and violent) methods. He prefers to believe that — just as Daniel himself found Mr. Miyagi when he needed him most — the right students will inevitably come to him. At that moment, Demetri shows up at the Miyagi-Do dojo, wanting to take lessons.
Tropes:
- Badass Boast: When asked how many "warlords" he killed, Kreese responds with "Do you keep track of every ant you step on?"
- Bait-and-Switch: Kreese’s suspicious behavior (particularly his threatening phone call to the "hotel") lead Johnny and the audience to suspect he’s up to something criminal. He's actually homeless, but too proud to admit it to his former pupil.
- Berserk Button: As it turns out, you talk smack about Kreese's tattoo and you’re gonna get a bloody face.
- Big Damn Heroes: Daniel arrives to Robby's rescue in the nick of time, ambushing Cruz before he gets to knife Robby. He subsequently floors his attackers with an ease reminiscent of how Mr. Miyagi beat up the original Cobra Kai gang.
- Blatant Lies: Starting with his stay at the Universal Sheraton, Kreese's story gets thinner and thinner.
- Bond One-Liner: Daniel doesn't kill Robby's old gang (who have just dismissively called him "grandpa"), but after he's kicked their asses, he does quip "Your grandpa know how to move like that, huh?"
- Boring, but Practical: Daniel's vision of how Miyagi-Do should be. He passes up the opportunity to post footage of himself beating up Robby's aggressors with ease, because he doesn't see violence as something to be glorified — or Cobra Kai's methods as something to be emulated.
- Both Sides Have a Point: While it was wrong of Sam to accuse Tory of stealing Amanda's wallet without any proof the wallet was stolen then try to rifle through her purse, Tory didn't do herself any favors by openly admitting to stealing liquor (and saying she could have stolen the silverware) from the club before it was discovered the wallet was missing.
- Call-Back:
- Miguel explains that Tory is "telegraphing" (the sweep), the same way Sam pointed this out to Miguel in the first season.
- Trey and Cruz get an opportunity to make good on their season 1 threat to Robby. And they brought a friend!
- Tory introduces herself to Miguel as "Tory, with a 'y'", much like Ali introduced herself to Daniel in The Karate Kid as "Ali, with an 'i'."
- Daniel comes to Robby's aid by leaping down from above and taking on a fighting stance, just like Miyagi did for him years ago.
- Sam falling into a plate of food is a Call-Back to Daniel doing the same thing at the country club in the first film.
- Cassandra Truth: Zig-Zagged. Miguel tries to voice his concerns about Kreese's supposed military exploits during the '80s and '90s to Johnny, who quickly brushes him off and believes that Kreese can get out of his old ways and change for the better whether or not his backstory holds any credibility. But then Johnny follows Kreese to investigate for himself, and discovers — after Kreese confesses about his lies, no less — that Miguel's concerns about his veracity were well-founded.
- Continuity Nod: Terry Silver is presumably Kreese’s “old war buddy” who offered him a job.
- Covered in Gunge: Tory shoves Sam, causing her to fall onto the dessert table and end up covered in the food.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: "Grandpa" Daniel against Robby's antagonists, in another Call-Back.
- Death Glare: Kreese gives a murderous one to Demetri when he starts criticizing his tattoo. By the time Demetri notices, he realizes that he's in deep shit.
- Dirty Coward: A third, unnamed guy accompanying Trey and Cruz smacks Robby on the back of his head with a boat paddle out of nowhere when he prepares to fight the two delinquents. Said guy also restrains Robby while Cruz brandishes a switchblade and prepares to knife his unarmed, helpless opponent.
- Dynamic Entry: When Johnny asks if any of his new students would be willing to spar with "the champ" Miguel, Tory steps up — and has the audacity to question whether the Cobra Kais really know how to fight. In the ensuing duel, Miguel proves to be the better martial artist by some margin, but "Little Miss Hotshot" is skilled and ruthless enough to impress both Johnny and Kreese.
- Establishing Character Moment: Tory introduces herself by challenging Miguel in her first fight, flippantly questioning whether Cobra Kai are really good fighters or if their demonstration at Valley Fest was just for show, and then holding her own against Miguel, albeit only defeating him because she took advantage of his offering her a hand up when he thought the fight was over. This establishes her as a cocky Action Girl who possesses the skill to back up her big talk and despite not being as refined a fighter as Miguel is much more ruthless.
- Female Gaze: Samantha checks out a shirtless Robby by the pool, and Aisha comments on it."So it's just you and Abs all summer, training? God, that must be hard!"
- Five-Finger Discount: Tory swipes a bottle of vodka from the bar and when confronted about it by Sam says she could have also stolen silverware. Based on this, Sam later accuses Tory of stealing her mother's wallet.
- Foreshadowing: Both the "handshake deal" and Kreese's penchant for deception. Also Kreese's description of the move he and Johnny show the class in the last scene."The key to this move is making your enemy think you are retreating, but just when they let their guard down... that's when you strike the hardest."
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: Demetri is initially pleased to deal with Kreese instead of Johnny as he mistakenly thinks he’s the more reasonable of the two (rather than Bad Cop, Much Badder Cop).
- Hate at First Sight: The relationship between Sam and Tory curdles into mutual dislike within seconds of meeting each other. It only gets worse from there.
- He's Back!: By the end of the episode, Mr. Kreese is again Sensei Kreese.
- Honor Before Reason: Daniel refuses to use the video of him beating up Robby’s assailants to promote the dojo, despite the fact that flashy marketing (the footage of Miguel's lunchroom fight, the Valley Fest demo, etc) is exactly why Cobra Kai is so popular.
- Ignored Aesop: Demetri still hasn't learned to control his Mouthy Kid tendencies around aggressive karate experts, and this time it ends with him getting a bloody nose, courtesy of Kreese.
- Improvised Weapon: The "inside man" indicated in the Rewatch Bonus ambushes Robby by knocking him from behind with the blade of an oar.
- Meaningful Echo: "Defeat does not exist in this dojo, does it Mr. Kreese?"
- Mistaken Identity: Played with. Daniel encounters a stranger who resembles Mr. Miyagi, and the stranger's advice concerning fishing even sounds like something Miyagi would say. (To say nothing of how Miyagi's ancestors were originally fishermen.) Contrary to most examples of this trope, the incident isn't played for laughs, and Daniel is even thankful to have met the guy.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Kreese assaulting Demetri and Hawk subsequently threatening him to keep quiet about it ends up gift-wrapping Miyagi-Do its third student.
- No Name Given: The third thief (the one who whacks Robby with an oar) is named Derek. But only viewers who have played the Cobra Kai video game or consulted the IMDB would know that.
- No Social Skills: Quite the opposite of Tory's introduction to Cobra Kai, Demetri's first appearance at Miyagi-Do has him spending so much time commenting on everything around him that he forgets to tell Daniel why he's there!
- Not Me This Time: When Amanda's wallet goes missing, both Robby and Sam become suspicious and walk away. Sam accuses Tory of taking it, since she stole a bottle of vodka (and bragged she could have stolen the silverware and no one would notice), but she denies it. Robby's suspicions actually turn out to be correct, as he finds the wallet as well as Trey and Cruz in the same spot where he used to help them hide the things they stole from the club members... but it's too late to prevent the bad blood between Sam and Tory.
- Oh, Crap!: Basically Demetri's reaction when he realizes just how far he's gone in pissing off Kreese.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Robby learns that turning over a new leaf does not necessarily mean that his criminal past is forgotten — or forgiven.
- Rewatch Bonus: Trey and Cruz' hulking buddy can be seen tending to guests at the country club in a few earlier scenes. He was their new inside man who actually did the stealing.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Johnny at first does not want to teach Raymond in a class meant for teenagers, but after Raymond starts waving around all his spare money (as his mother does not charge him rent), Johnny grudgingly permits him to stay.
- Spotting the Thread: Kreese mentions Mogadishu, then says he was in Rwanda. Miguel calls him out that Mogadishu is in Somalia, not Rwanda. This prompts Miguel to ask Johnny about Kreese's history.
- Storyboard Body: Kreese's tattoos have always been an indicator of his character. Criticizing them proves to be a Berserk Button.
- Sympathy for the Devil: Unlike Kreese’s clearly manipulative attempts earlier this season to get into Johnny’s good graces, he genuinely opens up to Johnny about having had a really rough time since losing the dojo, unable to hold a job nor reenlist as a Shell-Shocked Veteran, and too proud to rely on his friends for support. (Not that he can’t also spin his vulnerable state to his advantage)
- Threat Backfire: After Demetri is beaten up by Kreese, Hawk warns him to keep quiet about it. His threats have little impact on Demetri (primarily because he still can't believe that his friend would actually harm him).Hawk: You know what happens to snitches?
Demetri: They get immunity.
Hawk: Snitches get stitches.
Demetri: I have stitches! I've got several stitches! - The Worf Effect: Downplayed. Tory establishes her badass credentials by holding her own against Miguel, but it's still made clear that Miguel is the superior fighter.
- Would Harm a Senior: Trey and Cruz, along with their inside man, don't hesitate to attack Daniel when he steps in to defend Robby. It doesn't end well for them, as he makes short work of them in seconds.
- You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With: Demetri is initially happy to see Kreese in the dojo rather than that "unhinged" Johnny. He quickly regrets that call.
"It's time we be patient. Let those who need us find us."
