All In
Directed by Josh Heald
In a flashback to Season One, Eli Moskowitz’s mother calls the school to complain about her son being bullied, but Eli insists that it will only make things worse and runs to his room in tears. In the present day, Hawk finishes updating his tattoo with a red mohawk (having dyed his own hair to match) and shows off a new crescent moon tattoo for his girlfriend Moon.
Demetri begins his training at Miyagi-Do, but struggles to cope with Daniel’s training methods. After several unproductive sessions, Daniel questions whether Demetri even wants to learn karate. Demetri explains that all his friends have become Cobra Kai jerkasses, and he needs to learn how to fight back. Hawk, meanwhile, discovers that Demetri posted a one-star review of the Cobra Kai dojo on Yelp, drawing his ire.
Miguel creates a sentimental video in the hopes of winning Sam back, but upon viewing it, Tory claims that it just makes him look desperate. She tells him to delete it and pretend that he is over her. She encourages him to just have fun and forget about Sam. To that end, Tory takes Miguel out on a date, where she reveals a more whimsical side of her personality, and the two share a kiss.
Johnny is encouraged by Kreese to lure Robby into Cobra Kai, but finds out that Shannon and Robby have been evicted. He later interrogates Daniel’s employee Anoush and learns that his son has been staying with the LaRussos. Johnny then drinks himself into despair, but Miguel's mother Carmen helps to sober him up. She tells Johnny that if his rivalry with Daniel is ever going to end, he needs to be the "bigger man" and stop the cycle of conflict.
Demetri goes to the mall with Sam and Robby, where he is confronted and attacked by Hawk and several other Cobra Kai students as a reprisal for his Yelp review. Demetri flees into the food court where Sam and Robby come to his aid. Despite being outnumbered, they utilize the "wheel technique" to soundly defeat their opponents. Proud of his students, Daniel resolves to continue training Demetri at a slower pace. Sam and Robby share a moment afterwards where they nearly kiss, but Robby is not quite ready to commit, fearing that it might complicate his relationship with Daniel.
Fed up with Hawk's bullying, Moon breaks up with him after the fight, infuriating him. Kreese notices Hawk blowing off steam and encourages him to continue the fight. That night, Hawk and his Cobra Kai followers trash the Miyagi-Do dojo and steal Mr. Miyagi's Medal of Honor. Enraged, Daniel confronts Johnny in front of the students at the Cobra Kai dojo. Although Johnny honestly denies any knowledge of the incident, the two nearly come to blows until Johnny remembers Carmen's advice and stands down. While Daniel predictably fails to get any restitution out of Johnny, he nonetheless succeeds in convincing a number of Cobra Kai students to walk out and join Miyagi-Do instead.
Tropes:
- Accentuate the Negative: Demetri wastes no time leaving a 1-star review of Cobra Kai on Yelp, following his experience with Kreese at the beginning of the previous episode."Where to begin??? This establishment doesn't warrant the name. How they are still in business, I have no idea. The dojo employs a very unprofessional sensei, like they just picked someone up off the street! He does not take into account the safety and personal boundaries of the students at all! Now, beyond that, the facility is in dire need of a major facelift. I almost expected to see cockroaches running past the entrance. It may look badass on the outside, but this dojo leaves so much to be desired."
- Adults Are Useless: When Demetri is chased out of the comic book store, the camera turns to the on-call security guard, who is oblivious to the events of what is happening around him as he enjoys a break.
- Analogy Backfire: After the mall brawl, Demetri makes a Game of Thrones analogy, in which he dejectedly calls himself Sam Tarly (to Sam's Daenerys Targaryen and Robby's Jon Snow). Daniel encourages him by reminding him that the character was able to kill a White Walker.Demetri: I can't sand the floor, I can't wax on, I can barely wax off. Meanwhile, we've got Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen in there and I'm just... Sam Tarly.
Daniel: Sam Tarly did kill a White Walker.
Demetri: ...You watch Game of Thrones?
Daniel: Oh, I am so down with GoT. And if it's taught us anything, it's that anyone could be the hero. - Badass Boast: Subverted. Demetri gloats that he, too, knows karate in an attempt to intimidate Hawk, but this fails as Hawk wastes no time flooring him in the comic book store.
- Bash Brothers: Sam and Robby finally understand the purpose of the Wheel Technique, and easily protect each other and keep Dimitri from being harmed.
- Battle Couple: Sam and Robby team up to save Demetri from Hawk and his gang.
- Big Damn Heroes: Sam and Robby initially seem to have left the mall when Demetri looks to them for help, but they step in a few minutes later to protect him.
- Brutal Honesty: Tory doesn't mince her words when she tells Miguel that the music video he made about himself and Sam makes him look desperate.
- Call-Back:
- The Demetri and Hawk chase scene, complemented with "No Shelter" by Broken Edge playing in the background, is reminiscent of the Daniel and Johnny chase scene during the Halloween party back in Part I.
- Tory throws an ice cube at Miguel, a Call-Back to the "alpha move" described by Johnny and used by Hawk in the first season.
- Sam and Robby use the wheel technique that Daniel taught them to take on Hawk and his gang. Sam also uses the kick she was practicing at the beginning of the season.
- Cerebus Retcon: The bit in season one when Counselor Blatt tells the student body about the call she received from Eli/Hawk's mom was Played for Laughs. Here we get a flashback of Mrs. Moskowitz making the call as he's having a mental breakdown from the bullying. It ends with Eli sobbing in his room and it's not humorous at all.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: When things come to a head with Hawk at the comic store, Demetri actually forms a fighting stance to take him on... and is on the floor five seconds later. Unsurprisingly — and wisely — Demetri then seizes an opportunity to run.
- A Day in the Limelight: Demetri functioned pretty low on the recurring cast of characters, always a tagalong but very ineffective at everything. This is the first episode that spends time focusing on him, his response to the Miyagi-Do training and his feelings on what happened to Miguel and Eli/Hawk.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Demetri posts a bad review of Cobra Kai on Yelp. In response, Hawk (his former best friend) leads a gang of Cobra Kais and threatens to beat him to a pulp (and pretty clearly would have, if he hadn't escaped).
- Drowning My Sorrows: As usual, Johnny tends to get plastered whenever he gets bad news related to Robby, in this case learning that he is now staying with the LaRusso's.
- Everyone Has Standards: Despite being into bad boys, Moon scolds Hawk in the evening for picking a fight with Demetri over a Yelp review, reminding them that they were friends. When Hawk insists he's a "pussy", Moon has had enough and leaves him.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Hawk looks briefly remorseful for his actions at the end when he realizes the medal he stole was actually the Medal of Honor.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Around 11:40 — when Johnny arrives at the LaRusso dealership to look for Robby — we see that he's left his car in Daniel's reserved parking spot, just to be extra-douchey.
- I Just Want to Be Badass: Demetri continues to be whiny during training, causing Daniel to question why he wanted to join Miyagi-Do. Demetri says it's because all of his friends have left to study karate, and he felt pressured to learn just so he could show them he could fight back.Demetri: My whole life I've been, let's just say... less than popular. But at least I had a few friends. And then Cobra Kai comes to town, and the next thing I know, my friends are taking karate and becoming alpha jerks. I'm literally being threatened by my best friend. I just wanted to show I could fight back.
- I'm Not Afraid of You: When Hawk confronts Demetri at the comic book store, Demetri is unfazed and tells him he's not afraid of him. Then comes the You Wouldn't Shoot Me realization...Demetri: You think I'm afraid of you? I know who you really are, Eli. So, why don't you, Rocksteady, and Bebop just leave me alone, okay? (turns around to see two other Cobra Kai members approaching him) Great. So this is what it comes to: gang assault.
Hawk: Take it down, or we take you down.
Demetri: ...You'd actually hurt me? - Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Okay, Johnny doesn't exactly torture Anoush... but in his frustration to find Robby, he doesn't hesitate to rough up the poor guy for a minute.
- Kick the Dog: By "finishing the fight," Hawk and the Cobra Kais (Mitch, Edwin, Big Red) disrupt Mr. Miyagi's legacy by trashing Miyagi-Do, going as far as to steal his Medal of Honor.
- Lampshade Hanging: Anoush calls Johnny and Daniel's rivalry a "karate soap opera" and points out how ridiculous it is for Johnny to use karate on him in the middle of the auto dealership.
- Manly Tears: Daniel is doing everything possible not to cry after seeing Miyagi's Medal of Honor was stolen."You don't earn a Medal of Honor by stealing it."
- Mook Chivalry: Chris suggests to Hawk that they should stop chasing Demetri, but Hawk only tells him off and insists they give him a beatdown. Unhappy with the bullying, Chris is the first to leave the Cobra Kai after Daniel confronts them.
- Not What I Signed Up For: Chris found himself turned into one of Hawk's stooges, and he notably did not feel comfortable with the mall encounter long before getting trashed by Robby and Sam. After Hawk vandalizes Miyagi-Do and Daniel confronts them about it Chris is the first to pack up, saying he never enjoyed the Cobra Kai environment, and several others follow him.
- Precision F-Strike: The show has one per season, and Hawk gets this one's."[Demetri]'s a FUCKING nerd!"
- Product Placement: This episode states at the start that it contains paid product placement, the first episode to do so. Whether this be for Yelp, or anything seen in the mall chase scene is left unclear.
- Rage Breaking Point: Daniel doesn't receive it well at all when he notices the car Miyagi gifted him was spray-painted with "COBRA KAI NEVER DIES" in red, and wastes no time driving to Cobra Kai using the exact same car to confront Johnny over the vandalism of the Miyagi-Do dojo.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After Daniel confronts Johnny over the vandalism Hawk and his gang did over at the Miyagi-do dojo (the former thought it was on the latter's orders, but it was actually under Kreese's influence) and invites the Cobra Kai students over to Miyagi-do, Chris is the first to leave stating he's never really liked Cobra Kai. He is followed by over half of the class.
- Shirtless Scene: Robby while training on the wheel with Sam.
- Too Clever by Half: Dimitri is a Motor Mouth and tends to ramble about anything and everything in his line of sight. While he is usually correct about what he is talking about, he will also critique the wrong person and it takes him WAY too long to realize he's in a bad spot. He notably identifies the purpose of Wax On, Wax Off immediately; but all the while complaining about it he doesn't recognize how long the conditioning takes.
- Underestimating Badassery: This happens twice over.
- When Demetri first assumes a fighting stance against Hawk in the comic book store, he ends up on the floor seconds later.
- Hawk calls the imminent battle between his gang and the Miyagi-Do students "five against two-and-a-half". The synergy between Sam and Robby, however, allow them to make short work of the Cobra Kais.
- Unstoppable Rage: Hawk is livid when Moon abruptly breaks up with him and takes his anger out on a punching bag at Cobra Kai. Kreese decides to take advantage of this and encourages him to turn his rage towards Miyagi-Do.
- Wax On, Wax Off: When Daniel tries to train Demetri this way, Demetri immediately guesses that the point is to build muscle memory. Unfortunately he's rather lacking in the "muscles" department, as he points out, and is too busy rambling about everything to even recognize Daniel was trying to test that muscle memory. Daniel has to take things slower with him and be a lot more hands on compared to the already athletic Robby.
- Who's Laughing Now?: The episode opens up with Eli's mom calling his school about bullying, and Eli frightened that she made it worse. He expresses that he's never going to have a girlfriend or make friends other than Demetri. The scene cuts to present time, where he gets another tattoo for his girlfriend Moon and has underlings who follow his every move.
- You Wouldn't Shoot Me: Demetri tells Hawk, "You'd actually hurt me?" when he realizes Hawk is serious about beating him up.
Daniel: Yeah. We'll see about that.
