Nature Vs. Nurture
Written by Josh Heald (Story), Jon Hurwitz (Story), Hayden Schlossberg (Story), Joe Piarulli (Story & teleplay) & Luan Thomas (Story & teleplay)
Directed by Jon Hurwitz & Hayden Schlossberg
Directed by Jon Hurwitz & Hayden Schlossberg
"We just need to know if you have any idea where Robby might've gone after he got the car. You know him the best."
— Daniel LaRusso
In a flashback to 1965, a young Kreese works as a busboy at a diner. He is bullied by a pair of football players, who he beats up when he catches them abusing a pretty girl named Betsy. Kreese and Betsy fall in love, and when he joins the army, she promises to wait for his return.
Reflecting upon this experience in the present, Kreese impresses upon his students the need for cruelty, chastising them for losing the school brawl and stating that their defeat must not go unanswered.
Daniel and Johnny have begun their hunt for Robby, with their teamwork being as awkward as all their other interactions have ever been. They visit Shannon at the Malibu Canyon recovery facility, in the hopes that she will have a clue where Robby has gone, and she points the duo in the direction of Trey and Cruz. Daniel and Johnny confront the two criminals at the detention center, using a good cop (Daniel) and bad cop (Johnny) ploy to interrogate them for information about Robby. Following this lead, they luck out by catching sight of the minivan stolen by Robby. Pursuing the van leads the duo to a chop shop, where they are attacked by a gang of criminals. After soundly defeating them, Johnny brutally interrogates the driver of the minivan, but Daniel intervenes, causing Johnny to lash out at him. After fighting to a stalemate, the two angrily part ways, having gained no further leads on Robby.
Kreese teaches a new lesson in cruelty to his students when he introduces a mouse, allowing Bert to hold it and name it "Clarence". The Cobra Kai instructor then produces a large cobra, which he instructs Bert to feed Clarence to. When Bert objects to this, Kreese asks the students to raise their hands if they also object. Several do, and Kreese expels all of the objectors from the class (including Bert).
After class, Hawk approaches Kreese — he, too, is uneasy with Kreese's cruelty, but hides his concern by questioning whether Cobra Kai should be making cuts at this time, given the losses from the school brawl. Kreese explains that Cobra Kai will expand again in due time, but first the dojo must have a strong "core". He begins to groom Hawk by adding that with Miguel down, Cobra Kai will need a new champion.
Tory has an altercation with her landlord, as she is past due on her rent. The landlord hints that if Tory were to have a "real man" like him, things would be easier for her. Tory responds by putting him in a painful armlock, only to let him go when he reminds her that she's on probation. Kreese later visits Tory, seeking for her to rejoin Cobra Kai. Learning of her poverty and her mother's illness, he goes behind her back to intimidate the landlord.
Miguel awakens at the hospital, with his mother bringing a Dungeon Lord comic from Demetri and a basket from the LaRussos. He is disheartened by his loss of mobility, and the dismal prognosis for his recovery. Johnny again sneaks in to visit him, but Miguel furiously blames his former sensei for his condition and orders him to leave.
Daniel catches up to Robby when the latter visits Shannon at the recovery clinic. Daniel offers to keep guiding Robby, who is remorseful about what has happened. However, before he can convince Robby to surrender in exchange for a lighter sentence, the police arrive to take him into custody. Although Daniel promises to visit him every day, Robby tells him not to bother, feeling betrayed by his former father-figure.
Tory rejoins the Cobra Kai dojo, as her money issues with the landlord have suddenly been "worked out" in her favor. Kreese goes on to teach his class that while their enemies think they're good, in reality there is no good or bad, there is only weak or strong.
Tropes:
- Above Good and Evil: Kreese doesn't believe in good or evil. To him, there is only weak and strong.
- Answer Cut: Kreese says that Cobra Kai needs a new champion to a satisfied-looking Hawk. The camera however then cuts directly to Tory.
- Artistic License – Animal Care: Feeding live rodents to snakes is not only cruel to the rodent, it also risks the snake getting chewed on. It is hard to tell whether Kreese makes a habit of feeding his snake this way, but knowing him, probably.
- Asshole Victim: Kreese is a monster, but no one is going to feel sorry for the jerkass landlord that he roughed up and intimidated into giving up on Tory's back rent.
- Bait-and-Switch: It seems at the beginning, Kreese was a high school jock who actually once owned the car Miyagi gave Daniel, especially as the man is played by Martin Kove's son, holds the same "no mercy" mentality as him, bullies a waiter, and was offered a chance to serve in Vietnam. Turns out he's just a random Jerk Jock and Kreese is actually the waiter that the guy mocked.
- Bash Brothers: Daniel and Johnny pull a good show of this when tracking the stolen SUV to a chop shop, handling five criminals and assisting each other when needed.
- Beware the Nice Ones:
- Daniel lays it out to Trey and Cruz during the Good Cop/Bad Cop scene:You better be telling the truth... or I’m sending him back alone next time. (points to Johnny)
- In the flashback diner scenes, Kreese is never anything but a nice young man. Yet when David and his friend attack Kreese two-on-one, he manages to beat them both up.
- At one point in their brief fight, Daniel has Johnny in what could have easily been a very painful joint lock. He shoves him away instead of dislocating his shoulder, but the potential is there.
- Daniel lays it out to Trey and Cruz during the Good Cop/Bad Cop scene:
- Big "SHUT UP!": When Daniel and Johnny play Good Cop/Bad Cop with Trey and Cruz, the criminals initially don't take Johnny seriously, mocking him until Daniel interrupts their banter with a loud "ENOUGH!"
- Bitch Slap: Johnny only has to deliver two to get Cruz to start talking.
- Blatant Lies: When Johnny and Daniel meet up with Shannon, Johnny opens by telling Shannon that she looks good. Shannon, wishing to keep things polite, looks back at Johnny's bruised face and awkwardly replies "You, too".
- Blunt "Yes": At one point in their search, Daniel is dismayed when Johnny eats some crappy gas station food, which prompts Johnny to derisively ask Daniel if he's too good for gas station food. After a moment's hesitation, Daniel replies "Yeah, I am."
- Buddy Cop Show: Johnny and Daniel try pretty hard to be this during this episode.
- Bullying a Dragon:
- Trey and Cruz think Johnny can't hurt them in the middle of a prison yard while in clear view of the guards. Johnny shows Cruz just how wrong he is.
- The landlord tries to sexually extort Tory, and nearly gets his arm broken for his audacity. He escapes with his arm (and leverage over Tory) intact, but fares much worse when Kreese enters the picture.
- Casting Gag: The bullying varsity captain who the audience is initially led to believe is a younger Kreese is played by Jesse Kove, Martin Kove's son.
- Chekhov's Gun: Kreese is seen using a cigar cutter in the beginning of the episode. He then uses said cutter to force Tory's landlord to stop his sexual extortion of Tory.
- Cruel to Be Kind: Daniel arranges for the police to capture Robby as soon as he finds him, as the longer the manhunt goes the less leniency he will have in the judicial system. Robby feels betrayed and Daniel is pained to do it, but it's the best option given Robby's existing record and what he did.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Even with a garage full of Improvised Weapons, the chop shop gang are no match for Daniel and Johnny.
- Cycle of Revenge: It turns out that, during his adolescence, Kreese was bullied by a group of football players with a "no mercy" attitude. Also, he fought in the Vietnam War, which resulted in a lot of mental problems for those who fought in it (especially as later episodes reveal that Kreese became a POW).
- Death Glare: Upon realizing what Tory's landlord is trying to pull with him, Kreese gives him a look that just announces the intentions of destroying him.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Young Kreese was an outcast amongst his peers in the 1960s because his mother had committed suicide and the greater stigma placed on it (and mental illness in general) during this time made him a pariah.
- Distracted by the Sexy: When Daniel and Johnny hit the rehab clinic, Johnny is momentarily distracted by some passing women who are in their workout gear.
- Do Wrong, Right: Kreese considers the school fight an embarrassment to Cobra Kai, not because they caused a riot that resulted in two students being hospitalized and another two being expelled, but because they were outfought by Miyagi-Do.
- Double-Meaning Title: The title could be interpreted as referring to...
- ...Robby, as Daniel and Johnny argue over whether his current predicament is the result of Daniel's teachings or him being too much like Johnny.
- ...Kreese, who is revealed to have once been a heroic young man before his experiences in Vietnam warped him into The Sociopath, but also had a mother who committed suicide due to mental illness.
- ...Tory, who seems to at least want to climb out of the hole she's dug for herself before Kreese's influence leads her back down a violent and self-destructive path.
- Downer Ending: By the end of the episode Daniel and Johnny have both failed miserably in making any progress towards setting things right — their shaky alliance falls apart, Miguel makes it clear that he never wants to see Johnny again, Daniel fails to patch things up with Robby (who is also arrested), and Kreese is not only still on the rise and escalating his cruel nature, but he's also regained his most violent student, Tory.
- Dramatic Irony: Kreese's last words to Betsy before he leaves for Vietnam are that he'll be coming home a hero. The audience already knows he'll be doing the exact opposite.
- Ephebophilia: As if the landlord’s sexual extortion wasn’t bad enough, Tory is also a minor.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Kreese doesn't take well to Tory's landlord attempting to sexually extort one of his students.
- Fell Off the Back of a Truck: The chop shop.
- Fingore: Kreese threatens to sever Tory's landlord's finger with his cigar chopper if he does not back off from Tory and cancel her back rent.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Sam succinctly points this trope out in regard to Tory. Everyone’s got a sob story but that’s no excuse to be a bully.
- Get Out!:
- Kreese evicts Bert for refusing to feed Clarence to a snake, along with everyone else who objects to the feeding.
- Miguel is not yet ready to welcome Johnny back into his life and thus tells him off.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: Daniel and Johnny employ this tactic while getting information from Trey and Cruz, with Daniel being the good cop and Johnny the bad one. Amusingly, while Johnny assumes he will be the bad cop to intimidate the two, they remember Daniel beating them up not long ago and are more afraid of him. Johnny starts slapping Cruz randomly to compensate. However Daniel also slips into bad cop when he threatens to send Johnny back alone if Trey and Cruz lied. When she learns of this, Amanda calls them out on the fact that they're not actually cops.
- Good Is Not Nice: Daniel calling the cops on Robby. He makes a show of trying to persuade Robby to surrender (in exchange for a lighter sentence), only for it to be revealed that the cops were waiting out of sight all along. Daniel was doing the most merciful thing for Robby in the end, but at no point did he truly give Robby any choice about it.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: The guards at the detention center don't lift a finger when Johnny starts bitchslapping Cruz for a lead on Robby's whereabouts, presumably because Johnny is just doing to Cruz what the guards themselves wish they could do.
- Hate Sink:
- Tory's landlord is a sleazy jerkass, who threatens to evict her for not paying her rent on time. That on its own may be standard procedure for any landlord, but he shows no sympathy towards Tory's situation with her sick mother and (worse yet) attempts to use the rent issue to pressure her for sexual favors. When Tory tries to retaliate against him, he points out that he can call her probation officer if she doesn't go along with it. When Kreese learns about this, he threatens the man with a cigar chopper.
- While the two jocks both bully a younger Kreese, David is the perfect example of this trope. He picks on Kreese for just looking at his girlfriend Betsy, repeatedly calls him a freak, mocks his mother's suicide, crumples a U.S. Army pamphlet, trips Kreese (causing almost everyone else to laugh at him), hits his girlfriend, and finally he and his friend assault Kreese in a two on one fight. Luckily, Kreese was able to beat both of them up and he ended up dating Betsy.
- I'm Not Afraid of You:
- How Trey and Cruz initially (and foolishly) respond to Johnny.
- Before Kreese knocks out David with a final punch, he emphatically tells his victimizer that he isn't afraid of him."I've been fighting my whole life. I sure as hell ain't scared of you."
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: After the fight at the garage, Johnny goes a little too 24 on the perp, causing Daniel to intervene.
- Jerkass: Both Tory's landlord and David are such unsympathetic assholes that they make Kreese look likable by comparison. They even get their own violent comeuppance courtesy of Kreese.
- Jerk Jock: The two football players who bullied Kreese in his youth.
- Karma Houdini Warranty:
- Taken even further this episode, Tory is revealed to also be on probation and doing community service, with the only reason she wasn't locked up being that she is the sole caretaker for her sick mother and little brother. Even so, she's on very thin ice. She's also working two jobs, living in poverty, trying to find time to complete her GED, and being harassed by a sexually predatory landlord. Honestly, you could argue jail would have been a lighter punishment for Tory.
- Trey and Cruz are finally where they belong, in a detention center, for their nonstop criminal activity.
- Kick the Dog:
- Basically every damn moment with Betsy's Jerk Jock boyfriend in the flashbacks. Only when Kreese beats him senseless does he stop acting like a flaming douchetorrent.
- After Tory's landlord points out that her parole makes her helpless to physically retaliate against him for attempting his Sexual Extortion scheme, he walks away laughing cruelly at her.
- Kreese feeding the mouse to the snake — after allowing Bert to name and become attached to the poor animal — would have been bad enough, but he goes an extra mile with the cruelty by throwing out Bert and every other Cobra Kai student who objects to the feeding.Kreese: "You're off the team. GET OUT!"Bert: "But..."Kreese: "I said, OUT! GET!" [Proceeds to feed the mouse to the snake]
- Laser-Guided Karma: A mild example, but before meeting Johnny and Daniel, Cruz is disrespectful to one of the guards watching the yard. Moments later, once Johnny starts slapping Cruz around, the same guard looks the other way.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Only the scumbag landlord who doesn’t give a shit about Tory’s seriously ill mother and tries to extorts her (a minor) into sex can make
the audience root for (present day) Kreese. - Love at First Sight: Betsy and Kreese. Made obvious by her glance at him when he was taking her group's order.
- Match Cut: When Kreese looks like he's totally going to sever the landlord's finger... cut to Miguel slicing a hot dog.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Robby feels betrayed when Daniel summons authorities to arrest him and accuses him of selling him out. Daniel, however, insinuates that it's for his own good and promises to visit him daily, but it makes no difference to Robby.
- Minor Injury Overreaction: A variation. While Tory did have the right to physically rebuke her landlord when he tries to stroke her, rather than simply brush him off and back away, she (almost on instinct) puts him in a submission hold. This doesn't help her case as it gives the guy potential legal leverage on Tory.
- Mook Chivalry: The leader of the chop shop gang patiently stands by and watches Daniel and Johnny beat the crap out of his friends before he feels any need to get involved in the fighting himself.
- Odd Couple: As usual whenever they decide to put their differences aside, Johnny and Daniel make a pretty good team and have an almost Vitriolic Best Buds dynamic. Shame it doesn’t last (again).
- Pet the Dog:
- A younger Kreese saving his future girlfriend Betsy from being abused by her then-boyfriend (who was the Jerk Jock who looked like Kreese).
- Before that, Betsy was probably (with the cashier) the only person who did not laugh when her then-boyfriend tripped Kreese (while he was carrying a load), and also called out her boyfriend and his friend on both the tripping and having mocked Kreese.
- The present-day Kreese saving Tory not from only being sexually exploited by her landlord, but also from having to pay him her back rent. He also allows Tory to return to the Cobra Kai dojo free of charge, simply because she's more of a fighter than most of his current crop of students.
- Refuge in Audacity:
- Johnny smacks Cruz in the face at the prison, twice, right in front of a guard. Luckily, Cruz had just finished verbally abusing that same guard a minute earlier, so he shamelessly pretends not to notice.
- After Johnny and Daniel's falling out, Johnny drives away in the 93 Dodge Caravan that Robby stole from LaRusso Auto, with Daniel yelling after him to return it to the dealership. Johnny ends up keeping it for the rest of the season and Daniel either doesn't notice or (more likely) doesn't care that he never brought it back.
- Rousing Speech: Kreese issues a villainous one to his students at the start of the episode, chastising them for their defeat and emphasizing the need for retaliation.
- Secret Test of Character: Kreese executes an evil version of this trope when he test his students to see which of them objects to feeding a live mouse to a snake. Those of them that do are immediately kicked out of Cobra Kai.
- Sexual Extortion: Tory's landlord tries to pull this by telling her that if she had a "real man" like him, her rent situation would be easier, going as far as to say he would either see her "tonight"... or later in the week with her rent check, while threatening to tell her parole officer about having assaulted him when he was harassing her. She is later seen counting her money with a desperate look, suggesting that she's considering accepting the landlord's "offer", but Kreese intervenes behind her back before that comes to pass.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Daniel and Johnny's team-up turns out to be one of these, as they have yet another falling out, their search for Robby hits a dead end, and Robby ends up going to visit Shannon by himself, making the entire search pointless anyway.
- Shout-Out: Amanda compares Daniel and Johnny to Tango & Cash when they point out they interrogated Trey and Cruz, Good Cop/Bad Cop style.
- Technician Versus Performer: Daniel and Johnny are forced to use Bash Brothers against some criminals while trying to track down Robby. Johnny's rough street fighting/throw the guy into a windshield style is contrasted with Daniel's calculated joint locks and hip throws.
- Time-Shifted Actor: A young John Kreese is played by Barrett Carnahan in the 1960's flashbacks.
- Troubled Backstory Flashback: The episode features several flashbacks that show Kreese's mother committed suicide, he was ostracized by jocks in his youth, and he left behind a woman he loved to fight in the Vietnam War.
- Unstoppable Rage: In the aftermath of the chop shop fight, Daniel learns the hard way that it's a really bad idea to interfere with the Johnny Lawrence Interrogation Technique when the guy is sufficiently wound up.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Related to the above, Kreese was actually a nice young man before the war.
- Very Punchable Man:
- David and his friend's treatment towards Kreese is despicable, to the point that watching Kreese pummel them in a fight is all the more satisfying.
- The landlord. Dealing with this jackass for two minutes was enough to get Tory on the edge of violating her parole. Later, he is terrified by (and very nearly loses a finger to) Kreese.
- Would Hit a Girl: David has no problem smacking Betsy across the face, all because she made eye contact with Kreese.
