The Fall
Directed by Josh Heald
The 51st annual All-Valley Karate Tournament opens with the main dojos being introduced to the audience: Miyagi-Do, Cobra Kai, and finally Eagle Fang. After all the senseis give a last minute pep talk to their respective students, the Skills Competition gets underway featuring a variety of categories; board-breaking, kata, and weapons exhibitions among them. Leading into the qualifying round of the fighting competition, Cobra Kai stands in 1st place with Miyagi-Do in 2nd, while Eagle Fang trails behind in 6th place. Devon tells Johnny that in order to catch up, they need to win as many matches as possible.
The qualifying round is presented in a montage, with special musical guest Carrie Underwood performing a cover of "The Moment of Truth" by Survivor. After the performance, Chris takes on Kyler, who promptly uses his new Miyagi-Do training to defeat him, much to Daniel's chagrin. Indeed, he notices all the Cobra Kai fighters deploying his own techniques to easily overwhelm their opponents, and realizes that Robby has been coaching them.
Entering the quarterfinals, Cobra Kai outnumbers Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang in the brackets, with only two students representing the latter. While Miguel advances, Devon is defeated in her first tournament by Tory, but surmises they still have a chance to win if Miguel makes it to the finals. Daniel confronts Robby for giving Miyagi-Do's secrets to his teammates, but Robby shrugs off his lecture, saying he will do whatever it takes to win. Daniel strongly advises him not to put passion before principle, because even if you win, you lose.
On the Miyagi-Do side, Demetri advances to the semifinals, but Eli finds himself matched against his old nemesis, Kyler. No longer sure of himself after losing his Hawk identity, Moon approaches and tells him that his haircut doesn't define him, giving him a passionate kiss for good luck. His confidence restored, he declares to Daniel that he's "the guy who's gonna win this whole fucking thing" and swiftly defeats Kyler scoring three unanswered points.
Sam squares off against Piper, who quickly scores a point and taunts Sam about fighting on defense. After peering over her shoulder at both Daniel and Johnny, she decides to switch gears and go on the offensive with her Eagle Fang skills, catching Piper off guard and defeating her in short order. Daniel criticizes her afterwards for not winning the right way, but Sam retorts that it shouldn't matter which style she uses if she wins, and she should be able to choose for herself.
When Robby loses a point to Kenny in the last quarterfinal match, Kreese notices that Robby is taking it easy on him and tells him to get serious. Channeling his anger, Robby strikes his smaller opponent down with brutal precision, appalling the audience and sending Kenny running off the mat with a bloody nose.
After Daniel speaks with Miguel before his upcoming match against Eli, cracks begin to form in the alliance as Daniel and Johnny argue over each other's influence on their top students, and warn each other to stay away from them. Now obsessed with beating Miyagi-Do as much as Cobra Kai, Johnny tells Miguel to take Eli out, considering him a traitor to Eagle Fang. Unwilling to hurt his best friend, Miguel is confused and disturbed by the order, leaving him to wonder whose side Johnny is on.
Miguel and Eli engage in a fight of equals with neither able to score a point on the other. However, as Miguel launches into a flying tornado kick, his back suddenly gives out and he crashes to the mat in agony, screaming for his sensei as the crowd looks on in horror.
Tropes:
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: After Eli lands his first point on Kyler during their quarterfinal match, Kyler tries to do this to Eli. Eli, anticipating this, is able to kick Kyler down twice for a 3-0 Flawless Victory.
- Badass Boast: Before his quarterfinal fight against Kyler, Daniel asks Eli if he's good:Eli: Never better. I know who I am now.
Daniel: And who's that?
Eli: The guy who's gonna win this whole fucking thing. - Big Damn Kiss: Doubling as a Motivational Kiss, Eli gets one of these from Moon, signaling the return of Hawk.
- Bullying a Dragon:
- Kyler dares to use his go-to "Lip" insult to Eli. Eli responds (with moral help from Moon) by beating the hell out of him in the quarterfinals.
- Piper smugly taunts Sam over her Miyagi-Do style being defence only. Sam quickly and easily curbstomps Piper in response, can also count as a very satisfying Break the Haughty.
- Call-Back:
- Daryl introduces Cobra Kai in the tournament by claiming that their name is still badass.
- When Daniel chastises Robby for using Miyagi-Do techniques against his students, he warns Robby not to put passion before principle, because he'll still lose despite achieving victory.
- Kyler witnesses Moon kiss Eli, finally getting his answer to the insulting question he’d asked Eli back in season 1: “What kind of girl would ever kiss this shit?”
- Like at Coyote Creek, Eli greets Miguel saying "finally, a worthy opponent".
- Chekhov's Gun: Robby teaching the Cobra Kais all of Miyagi-Do moves comes back into play, as it causes the latter team to lose several matches.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Eli quickly defeats Kyler 3-0. His last point comes from him simply front kicking Kyler in the chest as the latter runs at him.
- As soon as Sam embraces both Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang philosophies, she has no trouble beating the hell out of Piper.
- Tory also has no trouble taking down Devon, though it may be mitigated given the fact that she unknowingly had the advantage of a referee bribed by Silver on her side.
- Miguel and Demetri had no trouble taking down their opponents en route to the semis.
- Robby beats down Kenny rather badly when Kreese encourages the former to go all-out.
- Curb Stomp Cushion:
- Bert once again is defeated quickly in the tournament. But this time, he at least manages to land one hit.
- Piper, an inexperienced Cobra Kai recruit, scores a point against Sam before losing 3-1 against her.
- Didn't See That Coming: Daniel is so utterly convinced that his Miyagi-Do Karate is the only way and that that’s what they have that Cobra Kai doesn’t. But he forgot that there is someone in Cobra Kai who does in fact know Miyagi-Do Karate (Robby), and he taught it to the other Cobras. As a result most of Daniel’s students are rather easily eliminated when they go up against Cobra Kai due to not anticipating that Cobra Kai would know their moves.
- Downer Ending: The episode ends with Miguel about to land a kick on Eli's head, but he sprains his back and falls on the mat face-up, helplessly crying for Johnny.
- Epic Fail: Mitch's performance in the skills competition ends with him losing a bo-staff while twirling it above his head, sending it flying into the judges' table.
- Exact Words: Demetri mentions to Eli that Miguel has never lost in a fair fight. Granted, Miguel puts on a good showing against Eli, but he loses mainly due to his injury and his willingness to forfeit, not because Eli defeated him in the fight.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Right before Eli goes to fight Kyler, both Abe and Chris are smirking, knowing exactly what Eli is about to do to Kyler.
- Friendly Enemy: Despite being forced to fight each other in the semi-finals, Miguel and Eli assure each other they're still friends and they'll be rooting for whoever wins in the final. When Miguel injures himself, Eli is the first to arrive at his side.
- He's Back!: After Moon gives Eli a pep talk and a good luck kiss, his confidence returns and he's ready to "win this whole fucking thing".
- History Repeats: A Generation Xerox of Daniel LaRusso is injured during his fight against Eli Moskowitz in the semi-finals (Robby in Season 1; Miguel in Season 4). Unlike Robby (who was injured by Hawk kicking his shoulder), Miguel wasn't injured by contact from Eli—rather by his own flying tornado kick, followed by Miguel leaving the tournament (breaking the tradition of Daniel LaRusso expys returning to the matchup and continuing on their fight).
- Honor Before Reason: Even with everything at stake, Daniel wants Miyagi-do to win what he sees as the right way and does not appreciate Sam using Eagle Fang moves to win her matches.
- Humiliation Conga: Kyler's loss to Eli is one of the most embarrassing in the entire franchise, as Eli quickly beats him 3-0, with his last two points coming within a second of the referee signaling them to begin.
- Internal Reveal: Daniel and Sam realize that Cobra Kai is using Miyagi-do moves thanks to Robby sharing it with them.
- It's All My Fault: Hawk blames himself for Miyagi-do falling behind Cobra Kai in the skills competition since he missed his last board during his board breaking demonstration. Given Miyagi-Do's ultimate loss in the tournament (despite winning the male division of the actual fighting), this borders on For Want Of A Nail.
- Jerkass Has a Point: When Daniel confronts Robby about leaking all of Miyagi-do's moves to Cobra Kai, Robby tells him that all three dojos are so convinced their style is the only way to fight when the truth is they all have their value and can be used to achieve victory.
- Kick the Dog: When Johnny calls the ref for a blatant call against Devon during her match with Tory, Terry Silver gives him a "sorry" shrug. Also counts as Foreshadowing since the ref is on Terry's payroll.
- Kick the Morality Pet: When Robby and Kenny have to compete against each other and Kenny gets a hit on him, Kreese questions Robby on if he's competing against his friend or his opponent. When Robby starts fighting more viciously, everyone in the audience, and the other competitors, are disturbed by Robby's ruthlessness, which even Robby himself later regrets. It's sufficiently brutal that the audience are too stunned to clap or cheer for Robby's victory.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- Hawk finally gets his revenge on Kyler by delivering a Curb-Stomp Battle to him during the quarterfinals. In front of a crowd of hundreds, no less.
- Nathaniel being defeated by Kenny can be seen as this due to bullying him earlier in the season even though Kenny did nothing to provoke him.
- Motivational Kiss: Moon ends her pep talk to Eli by giving him one of these.
- Mythology Gag: In Miyagi-Do's introduction to the tournament, Daryl announces that this team is "ready to show the world that they're the best around". The last three words of that quote is taken from Joe Esposito's "You're the Best Around", which was the same song that played during The Karate Kid (1984)'s tournament montage. Then Carrie Underwood sings a cover of "Moment of Truth", which happens to be the basis for the original film's main theme and also played over the credit roll.
- Not Afraid of You Anymore: Despite being shocked when Eli beat Brucks to a pulp in season 3, Kyler dares to again call Eli "Lip" before their match. This is the "abuser is more dangerous than previously thought" variation, and it is very quickly demonstrated that Kyler is no better at fighting Eli than Brucks was.
- Precision F-Strike: Eli/Hawk once again gets the honor of delivering this season's one F-bomb. (That said, this season broke the tradition of having one F-bomb per season as Johnny previously told a bartender to "shut the fuck up" in episode 5).Daniel: Everything good?
Eli: Never better. I know who I am now.
Daniel: And who's that?
Eli: The guy who's gonna win this whole fuckin' thing. - Special Guest: Carrie Underwood makes a guest appearance (courtesy of Ron), and her performance becomes the start of a fighting montage.
- Truth in Television: While Miguel just pulled a muscle in his back, anyone who has done so can tell you the initial shock is every bit as painful as Miguel made it sound.
- Underestimating Badassery: After scoring the initial point, Piper mocks Sam for only having defensive Miyagi-Do moves which aren't good enough. She soon learns the hard way that Sam's toolbox contains plenty of Eagle Fang aggression, too.
- Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Kyler made a good showing for himself against Miguel in last season's house brawl, but his bout with Hawk (who is generally less badass than Miguel) is humiliatingly short.
- Wham Episode: Just as Miguel launches himself into a kick during his match against Hawk, he reinjures his back.
- Worf Had the Flu: It's clear that Miguel can beat Hawk if he wants to, but between his spine just being barely recovered and the stress throughout the season, Miguel's journey to the championship ends here.
- Worthy Opponent: Eli proclaims Miguel as this before their matchup, with both promising to not hold back, and even doing a fist bump before their fight.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Moon tells Hawk he doesn't need a badass-looking mohawk to be confident and gives him a kiss for luck. It works.
