Recap / Cobra Kai S2E6 "Take a Right"

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Season 2, Episode 06:

Take a Right

Johnny and his friends take the last ride.

Written by Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz & Hayden Schlossberg
Directed by Josh Heald

Johnny: What do you have in mind?
Bobby: Road trip. Give the guy a wild night to remember.

In the wake of the attack on Miyagi-Do, Daniel starts to clean up the mess, but has to mediate a dispute between Demetri and Chris, a Cobra Kai defector who was part of the gang that assaulted Demetri at the mall. Although Robby and Demetri do not trust the crop of new students from Johnny’s dojo, Daniel reveals that he himself used to be Cobra Kai before seeing the error of his ways, and tells the class that it doesn't matter who they were before — as of now, they are all Miyagi-Do. As a result, Demetri and Chris make peace and work together to raise a heavy stone slab that Hawk's gang knocked over.

At the Cobra Kai dojo, Johnny punishes the students with strenuous exercises, seeking to root out who was responsible for trashing the Miyagi-Do dojo. He then receives a call which brings him to the hospital to visit his old friend Tommy, who is suffering from a terminal illness. Along with Bobby and Jimmy, the former Cobras resolve to treat Tommy to one last day of fun.

In Johnny's absence, Kreese begins corrupting the students. He considers them all equally responsible for trashing Miyagi-Do (for if one Cobra commits an act, all are complicit), and orders Tory to strike her downed opponent during a sparring match. The only one to object is Miguel, who insists that Johnny would never teach them in such a way. Kreese commends Miguel for his loyalty, but states that Johnny has lost his way and wants to help him find it again.

Meanwhile, Johnny and his old crew embark on a motorcycle road trip and end up at a rough bar. Catching up on old times, the men express concern about Johnny re-opening Cobra Kai and allowing Kreese back into the fold, but Johnny reassures them that Kreese has changed and that everyone deserves a second chance. The gang then gets into a bar fight with a sexually-harassing jerkass and his friends, who they defeat with their old Cobra Kai training.

After the fight, the Cobras camp out in some nearby woods. Johnny and Tommy reminisce about Ali before the latter passes on some words of wisdom, encouraging Johnny to make the most of what time he has left — time that Tommy no longer has. Though both men regret what they did as teenagers, Tommy expresses confidence that Johnny will lead his students right, addressing him as "the champ". The conversation ends on a brotherly note, but the Cobras awaken the next morning to find that Tommy has passed away in his sleep.

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Tropes:

• Armor-Piercing Question: After Bobby, now a preacher, criticizes Johnny's decision to let Kreese back in the fold, Johnny asks him whether The Bible encourages forgiveness. Bobby has no response for this.
• Analogy Backfire: Demetri makes another Game of Thrones analogy (which involves comparing the ex-Cobra Kais to the wildlings) to Daniel, which he again counters. Demetri immediately comments on how he should've used a different analogy.
  Demetri: I'd be careful about this, Mr. L, letting the Cobra Kais into Miyagi-Do. It's like letting the wildlings behind the Wall.
  Daniel: Didn't the wildlings help Jon Snow win the Battle of the Bastards?
  Demetri: ...Should've picked a different analogy.
• Ascended Extra: Johnny's gang in the first film had a little distinction between them but were more secondary to Johnny as the leader, while this episode gives each one more screentime than they ever had in the movie. Jimmy specifically, unlike Tommy and Bobby (and for that matter Dutch), didn't get any really memorable scenes or lines, and he was never even referred to by name. Here Jimmy finally gets to shine.
• Badass Preacher: Bobby grew up to become a preacher, but he can still use his Cobra Kai training to kick ass when the situation calls for it.
• Bar Brawl: When Johnny and his old gang go to a bar, of course a fight breaks out. We wouldn't want it any other way.
• Bar Slide: The server slides a longneck glass down the counter to assist Johnny against the jerkass who harassed her.
• Bittersweet Ending: For Tommy at least; while he may have died, he already knew he was dying and passed away peacefully in his sleep while out doing something he loved in the company of his best friends, rather than just fading out of existence in a hospital bed.
• Brutal Honesty: Jimmy isn't afraid to dismiss Johnny letting Kreese back into Cobra Kai as "the stupidest thing [he's] ever heard". Bobby isn't a slouch at that, either.
• The Bus Came Back: Johnny's old friends, who haven't been seen since the beginning of Part II, make a return this episode (excluding Dutch), where they and Johnny reunite and go out for a final field trip like they did back in their teen days.
• Call-Back:
  • The title ("Take A Right") refers to one of Tommy's lines at the start of the original Karate Kid.
  • Having two students brawl and instructing the victor to "finish him" is straight out of the first film, except back then, the student didn't hesitate after the order.
• Cassandra Truth: Bobby and Jimmy attempt to warn Johnny of the danger Kreese poses now that he's involved with the new Cobra Kai. Johnny ignores their warnings, however, adamantly believing that Kreese can get out of his old ways and change for the better. (Unfortunately for Johnny, the rest of season 2's storyline will prove that the OG Cobra Kais were right.)
  Jimmy: This is the stupidest thing I've ever heard.
  Johnny: It's not stupid.
  Bobby: John Kreese is bad news. All that crap we dealt with after high school, taking that "no mercy" bullshit out into the world.
  Jimmy: And you got it the worst, man. Don't you remember?
  Johnny: Of course, I remember, but people can change. Just like Cobra Kai can change.
  Jimmy: Yeah, right.
  Johnny: No, I'm serious. I'm trying to change Cobra Kai. And Kreese is on board.
  Tommy: Do you trust him, Johnny?
  Bobby: You know Kreese. He's always got something up his sleeve.
  Johnny: Nah, he's a different man. Besides, doesn't it say something in your book about forgiveness? 'Cause all I know is, everyone deserves a second chance.
• Cerebus Call-Back: Tommy is best known for exclaiming "Get him a body bag! Yeah!" way back during the finals of the 1984 All-Valley Tournament. Three decades later, Tommy succumbs to a terminal illness, and his corpse is wrapped in (yes) a body bag.
• Chairman of the Brawl: At one point in the bar fight, Jimmy uses a chair to dispatch Bobby's opponent.
• Christianity is Catholic: Subverted. Tommy calls Bobby a priest. Bobby corrects him and tells him he's a pastor.
• Combat Pragmatist: When the OG Cobra Kai crew get in a Bar Brawl, they all use this trope to varying degrees. The very first thing Johnny does is rip out a guy's piercing, while most of Jimmy's time is spent ramming opponents into hard surfaces or using chairs and other objects around the bar as weapons.
• Curse Cut Short: Some jerkass in the bar insults Tommy's sickly appearance. Before he can finish his insult, Johnny is throwing down with him.
  (looks at Tommy and scoffs) "That is the ugliest Make-A-Wish kid I have ever seen. I'll tell you what. Here's my wish: you can suck my di-"
• Downer Ending: Tommy winds up passing away in his sleep while the group is camping, as Kreese is seen further corrupting the Cobra Kai students.
• Ear Ache: Johnny rips out one of the earpieces of the punk who harassed the barmaid and thought it would be a great idea to make fun of Tommy's condition.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • As much as Johnny hates Daniel, he doesn't approve of his students vandalizing Miyagi-do. He forces them to do continuous burpees (a squat thrust) to make the perpetrators confess, only to be stopped when he gets a call about Tommy.
  • Tory is initially visibly disturbed at Kreese ordering her to hit her opponent after she's scored a point, but her facial expression after his ensuing monologue suggests that she's come around to his way of thinking.
• Face Death with Dignity: Even though Tommy knows he's dying, he rips out the cords connected to his body so that he could have one last ride with his fellow Cobra Kais despite concerns about him going out in his condition.
• Fake Shemp: At the start of the episode, we see a flashback of Mr. Miyagi setting up the Miyagi-Do dojo... but as with Kreese's flashback appearance in season 1, Miyagi is only shown from behind.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Daniel's speech inspires Demetri and Chris to work together to help clean up the garden, which also helps them learn to respect each other.
• Flatline: One is heard briefly when Tommy gets up from his hospital bed for his road trip. As Johnny and Bobby were in the next room at that moment, their reaction suggests that they feared Tommy had already died.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The OG Cobra Kais, especially during the segments at the bar. Johnny is sanguine (highly susceptible to swaying); Bobby is choleric (reasonable if somewhat angry at the news of their old dojo returning); Jimmy is melancholic (finally getting the chance to shine in this episode after being all but Out of Focus before); and Tommy is phlegmatic (The Stoic in comparison to the others).
• Freudian Excuse: Tory is given one for her aggressive attitude: Her mother used to work at a restaurant and would bring home leftovers so that Tory and her brother would be able to eat. When the manager found out, he fired her mother without question, despite that the leftovers would have ended up in the trash anyway. Tory took this as a sign that the world would screw you over unless you fought tooth-and-nail for everything you wanted.
• Greeting Gesture Confusion: After Demetri and Chris manage to lift the heavy decorative stone in the garden, Demetri goes in for a high-five while Chris goes for a fist bump.
• Grievous Bottley Harm: When the jerkass who accosted the barmaid pins him against the end of the bar counter, she slides an empty longneck glass down the table to assist Johnny.
• He's Dead, Jim: A paramedic checks Tommy's pulse, then turns to the others and shakes his head to show that he's truly gone.
• Hypocrite: Kreese often talks about his Glory Days while in the military in an attempt to awe the students. But when Hawk stole Mr. Miyagi's Medal of Honor, for just about any veteran that would be an unforgivable act. Instead Kreese doubled down and reinforced Hawk's behavior, all part of his plans to corrupt the Cobra Kai students.
• I Am Spartacus: Inverted. When the Cobra Kai start to turn on each other, Kreese asks if they all would like to know who did it. He first names Hawk (who actually did it and we know Kreese knows), but then goes on to name every other member of the dojo. He says that if one of the Cobras does something, then they've all done it. It's Kreese's way of brainwashing the Cobras into his little private army.
• Insistent Terminology: Bobby's a pastor, not a priest.^note "Pastor" is a commonly used term for the spiritual figurehead of a church without any upper hierarchy, as are those of several Protestant denominations.
• Internal Reveal: Daniel tells his students about the events of the third film, which he had never told anyone about before, so they will realize anyone can be seduced by Cobra Kai's philosophy and all that matters is that they're all Miyagi-do students now.
• Ironic Death: Tommy exclaimed "Get him a body bag! Yeah!" way back in the 1984 All-Valley Tournament finals... and he ends up in a body bag himself after his untimely death thanks to a terminal illness.
• Kick the Dog: The rude customer at the bar outright calls Tommy, a dying man, the "ugliest Make-a-Wish kid he's ever seen" and tells him to "suck his di—..." It doesn't get more cathartic when Johnny punches him mid-sentence.
• The Last Dance: By the time Johnny meets up with Tommy, the latter knows that he will soon die, yet is past despairing or raging about his fate. All Tommy wants is one last ride with his Cobra Kai brothers.
• My Greatest Failure: With current Miyagi-Do students having some issues with Cobra Kai transplants, Daniel confesses to them the events of The Karate Kid Part III, how he was drawn in to Cobra Kai teachings during a brief falling out with Miyagi and it turned him into a violent monster. He uses this as a lesson that there is an appeal to the Cobra Kai style and that it is possible to turn away from it. Even Sam never heard that story, as Daniel was not proud of it.
• Old Shame:
  • In-Universe, Johnny's friends aren't proud of how they acted when they were teenagers and Cobra Kai students. Tommy is happy to hear that Johnny is working to make sure none of his students make the same mistakes they did.
  • In the same episode, Daniel confesses he used to be in Cobra Kai, and when Sam mentions he never told her, he says he's not proud of it. He uses his experience to encourage his current students to accept Chris and the other former Cobra Kai students into the dojo.
  • Chris is ashamed of having been part of Hawk's gang, though it takes a long time for Demetri to accept his Heel–Face Turn.
• One Last Field Trip: The goal of the original Cobra Kais is to have one last day of fun together before Tommy passes away. They do it just in the nick of time.
• Only Sane Man:
  • Miguel is the only one of the Cobra Kai who questions what Kreese is teaching them in Johnny's absence.
  • Inverted in the case of the OG Cobra Kais; Jimmy and Bobby, who have both long distanced themselves from Kreese's teachings, attempt to dissuade Johnny from getting Kreese involved in the new Cobra Kai, but their warnings are ignored as Johnny adamantly believes Kreese can change his ways for the better.
• Pet the Dog: Initially, Hawk is willing to confess to vandalizing the Miyagi dojo so the others will be spared from Johnny's punishment. Unfortunately, Kreese tells him to keep quiet.
• Please Wake Up: The following morning after Tommy has passed in his sleep, his friends sob for him to wake up and desperately try to resuscitate him to no avail.
• Reflexive Response: When an attacker tries to punch him during the bar fight, Jimmy blocks perfectly with one arm while striking back with the other, and then immediately stares at his own hands in shock, making it clear that he acted purely out of reflex/muscle memory and is surprised by his decades old training kicking in.
• Reformed Bully:
  • Downplayed in the fact that the former Cobra Kai students (with the exception of Chris) weren't actually bullies, but all of them feel uncomfortable enough with the abusive philosophy of Cobra Kai that they decide to join Miyagi-Do instead. Chris, who reluctantly assisted Hawk in attacking Demetri in the previous episode, even tries to make it up to him.
  • Bobby, Tommy, and Jimmy are all shown to have become mature, well adjusted adults who regret how they acted as teenagers. In particular, Bobby has become a pastor, Jimmy is implied to be a happy family man, and Tommy offers some words of encouragement to Johnny before he passes on.
• The Reveal: We finally get an answer as to why Ali broke up with Johnny: he was hung over after a night of drinking with the Cobra Kai gang and missed her birthday.
• Still Got It: Johnny's friends prove that they still remember what they were taught when they take on a group of jerkasses at a bar. Despite the ages of everyone in the former Cobra Kai gang, and being out of training for who-knows-how-long, they lay out the whole lot in short order. Slightly downplayed in that Bobby and Jimmy wind up relying more on standard bar fighting and Combat Pragmatist tactics of using the surroundings as a weapon instead of their old martial arts training. Jimmy does one karate move due to a Reflexive Response, and otherwise spends the fight ramming opponents into the bar counter or hitting them with chairs. Bobby starts out with some martial arts kicks, but soon another patron gets him in a grapple and he finishes the fight by smashing his opponent into a nearby table instead of trying to do more with his old martial arts training. Tommy, who is on the edge of death and weakened by cancer, throws a single punch and otherwise (wisely) stays as far away from the action as possible. Only Johnny relies almost entirely on his martial arts skills.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Tommy is introduced dying of cancer and passes away by the end of the episode.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: When Daniel sets Demetri and Chris to lift a heavy stone back to its place, the two of them at first spend more time insulting each other than trying to move the stone.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Bobby (though he was the least jerkass of the Cobra Kai in the first place), Tommy, and Jimmy have all grown out of their bullying ways, and are quick to help Johnny teach some sexually-harassing punks some manners.
• Very Punchable Man: The jerkass at the bar who sexually harasses a waitress and makes fun of Tommy's terminal illness exists solely for the purpose of being a big enough asshole to justify the OG Cobra Kais beating up him and his friends in a Bar Brawl.
• What the Hell, Hero?: The Cobra Kai OGs are not happy about Johnny reviving Cobra Kai, or bringing Kreese back into the fold, and are not afraid to tell him so. Bobby sums it up ever-so succinctly:
  "You brought back Cobra Kai?"
• Written-In Absence: Dutch is the only one of the original Cobras to not reunite with the others as he's in prison for an unspecified crime. ^note Chad McQueen was asked to appear, but the scheduling didn't work out.
• You Are Too Late: Way too late, in the paramedics' case. Not only is Tommy already dead when they get there, but even before the gang began their road trip, Tommy made it clear to Johnny that medical science has already done all that it can for him.

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"You'll do it, Johnny. You're the champ."