History Recap / CobraKaiS2E10NoMercy

* EscalatingBrawl: What was initially meant to only be a DesignatedGirlFight between Sam and Tory, quickly escalates into an all-out brawl between Cobra Kai and Miyagi-do.

* AdultFear: UpToEleven for Carmen, Rosa and Johnny when Miguel suffers a potentially fatal injury. Amanda shows this in her concern for Sam and TranquilFury at Daniel.

** During Chris and Mitch's fight, when Chris kicks him into the cinderblock wall, Mitch turns around, puts his head down, and stares for a split second before attacking. This is a ShoutOut to ''Film/Terminator2''.

On the beach, facing the sunset, Johnny drunkenly and miserably reminisces about Miguel. Fed up with it all, he throws his smartphone into the sand and leaves his Cobra Kai car behind. As he walks away, a notification appears on his abandoned phone -- a Facebook friend request from Ali Mills Schwarber.

Eventually, the Miyagi-Do fighters turn the tide of the battle. Chris knocks Mitch out by hitting him in the head with a book, while Hawk stalks Demetri through the halls before Demetri puts Daniel's training to use, kicking Hawk through a glass trophy case. Tory, frustrated, shifts her spiked bracelet to her knuckles, slashing Sam's arm before threatening to slice her face with it. Sam regains the upper hand and knocks her down a staircase. The climactic moment of the brawl comes when Miguel pins Robby to the floor, but -- remembering what Johnny taught him about the difference between having no mercy and no honor -- releases his rival while attempting to apologize. However, Robby’s anger finally boils over and he seizes the opening to attack Miguel, inadvertently kicking him over the stairway balcony. Miguel’s back strikes the steel railing on the way down, leaving him critically injured after a two-story fall. Shocked by the result of his actions, Robby promptly flees the scene. Both Sam and Miguel end up hospitalized, with Sam having suffered broken ribs in addition to her lacerations. Miguel's prognosis is dire; the doctor tells Carmen the next 24 hours will be crucial to his recovery.

* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Because Rosa never told Carmen about the lunchroom brawl between Miguel and Kyler, Carmen never knew that Johnny teaching Miguel to fight also spared him from Kyler's wrath, which he was facing before he befriended Johnny. This ends up working against Johnny as she accuses Miguel having been a good kid who never got hurt before meeting Johnny, which is totally untrue

* VillainForgotToLevelGrind: The last time Hawk and Demetri faced off against each other, Demetri had barely completed his first few days at Miyagi-Do and decided to try and taunt Hawk with his new "skills," which [[CurbStompBattle predictably did not go well]]. In this episode Hawk targeted Demetri during the school fight, who tried his best to run away, but when they do throw down Demetri's newfound defensive moves catches Hawk off guard, and [[RealityEnsues now being a head taller Demetri was easily able to throw him into the trophy cabinet]].

* RealityEnsues: Several tragic examples.
** Because they are fighting outside any structure, the Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do fight without any regard for anyone's personal safety. Tory is technically correct when she counters Samantha's accusations of dirty play by indicating they're not in a tournament.
** Many of the participants are seriously hurt in the melee. Sam requires stitches for being cut with Tory's spikes and may have cracked ribs, while Miguel suffers a CareerEndingInjury and ends up comatose after a two-story fall.
** At the tournament last season, Robby experienced a FarmerAndTheViper moment at Miguel's hands. The roles become reversed on the stairway rails, an indicator that Robby still has a few emotional scars.
** None of the kids or adults are prepared for Miguel suffering potentially fatal injuries in the fight and react with horror almost universally.
** What appears to be SocialMediaBeforeReason (the other students taking shots of the battle) might have actually been a sensible idea. One, Moon already tried to get everyone to stop fighting, but to no avail. Two, the brawl escalated as far as it did ''because'' fighters on both sides kept jumping in to intervene for their teammates. Three, the authorities (school and police) will have multiple angles of footage of at least ''some'' of what really happened.
** The school staff from teachers to security guards are caught flat footed when it comes to dealing with a large school fight with well trained martial artists. Despite being adults the kids are not that much smaller and even they are not sure how to keep it in check, with one getting beat down hard and another saying [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere they aren't paid enough for this]] (the only person who is able to stop the confrontation, and actually stops it at some points, is Stingray, there applying for a security guard job, who of course is biased towards the Cobra Kai, being one of them). Though realistically, Tory would have been stopped outside the office after making her announcement, if she got to make it at all, which would have negated the entire event before it began.
** Handshake agreements are only as valuable as the integrity of the people who make them. Johnny's landlord doesn't like him much, and since Johnny has no written lease agreement, the landlord leases the Dojo to Kreese without a second thought.
** Cobra Kai emphasizes AttackAttackAttack, a mentality that Tory and Hawk have embrace wholeheartedly. Because of this, they sacrificed defense allowing them to get hit by attacks that would normally be very easy to defend against.

* WouldHitAGirl: Downplayed; Robby pulls Tory off Sam to try and stop the fight from escalating. Tory proceeds to manhandle him afterward, causing him to flip her into the line of lockers. When Miguel finally reaches them, he thinks Robby is playing this one absolutely straight. Oops.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: When a teacher attempts to intervene in the brawl and is assaulted by a Cobra Kai student for his trouble, even Hawk looks (briefly) shocked.

** At the start of season 3, Hawk (and Cobra Kai in general) are still enjoying this trope, but Tory gets hit ''hard'' by the KarmaHoudiniWarranty.

* MenOfSherwood: The RivalDojos' remaining unnamed students finally get their moment.

** Robby accidentally causes Miguel to fall off the second floor of their school during a fight. He becomes shocked and runs off without another word.

* PyrrhicVictory: You can argue that Miyagi-Do technically won the brawl. All of their main students -- Robby, Sam, Demetri, Chris, and Nathaniel -- outfought their counterparts from Cobra Kai. However, the fight has put Sam in the hospital, Robby horrifically injured Miguel (and only won because he [[FaceHeelTurn pulled the Cobra Kai move]] of attacking Miguel when the latter offered mercy) and is now on the run and could possibly go to jail, Daniel is shutting down Miyagi-Do out of guilt over the carnage, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Bert broke Nathaniel's glasses]]. On top of this, eight Cobra Kai fighters (which include Hawk, Tory, Stingray, and Mitch) have defected to [[EvilMentor Kreese]], who is only going to corrupt them further in the season to come.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Unfortunately, John Kreese with his "no mercy". When Miguel showed some to Robby was when the latter punched the former so hard he fell down the stairs.

* HonorBeforeReason: Miguel decides, based on Johnny's teachings, to do the honorable thing by apologising to Robby and letting him up when he has him at his mercy rather than decisively ending the fight. This backfires on him when and enraged Robby attacks him and accidentally kicks him over a railing.

* DarkestHour: The WHOLE episode. For BOTH sides.

%%* HonorBeforeReason: At the tournament last season, Robby attempted to do the honorable merciful thing toward Miguel. Now the roles are reversed.

** What started the brawl was misunderstanding and assumptions on both sides. It might also be literal with Miguel's grave injuries.
** Had Sam simply said to Tory "Yes, I kissed Miguel. I was drunk, it was stupid, and we both regretted it right away," Tory might have stopped after a punch or two. Likewise, had Johnny said "Your kid got drunk and my kid brought her here to sober up," Daniel might have behaved like a normal person rather than picking a fight.

* OhCrap: Happens more than once.
** Tory's intercom message unnerves Sam, Miguel, and Robby. The last two, in particular, take it the worst, since they know that all hell will break loose if Sam and Tory met up again. When the bell rings, both boys go on a full-blown sprint through the corridors, but by the time they reach their girlfriends, it's too late.
** Sam's expression when Tory produces her spiked bracelet:
---> '''Sam:''' Is that the only way you know how to fight? ''DIRTY?!''\\

* ApologeticAttacker: Demetri apologizes twice to Hawk during their fight: once for pushing him against the trophy cabinet, the second for kicking him into it. The second one may have been sarcastic, though.

* RockBottom: The elevator ride they share indicates this is how Johnny and Daniel see their respective and collective situations.

* EveryoneHasStandards: Despite all the violence that lead up to it, almost everyone (both Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do) looks horrified when Miguel is injured.

** Sam's expression after this exchange on the lobby stairway drives the brutality of the school brawl home:

** Tory's intercom message unnerves Sam, Miguel, and Robby. The last two, in particular, take it the worst, since they know that all hell will break loose if Sam and Tory met up again. When the bell rings, both boys go on a full-blown sprint in the corridors, but by the time they reach their girlfriends, it's too late.

* EveryoneHasStandards: While the Cobra Kai and Miyagi Do students are fighting and the rest of the students are watching and recording with there phones, (with very few exceptions) everyone is horrified when Miguel is injured.

** Miguel defeats Robby and, despite the cheers of the other students, ultimately remembers Johnny's words and decides to show mercy.

* NotNowKiddo: When Sam and Robby interrupt Daniel's fight with Johnny, Sam tries to plead for Robby's innocence, Daniel is having none of it.

** Tory's intercom message unnerves Sam, Miguel and Robby. The last two, in particular, take it the worst, since they know that all hell will break loose if Sam and Tory met up again. When the bell rings, both boys go on a full-blown sprint in the corridors, but by the time they reach their girlfriends, it's too late.

** Tory's intercom message unnerves Sam, Miguel and Robby. The last two, in particular, take it the worst, since they know that all hell will break loose if Sam and Tory met up again. When the bell rings, each of the two boys go on a full-blown sprint towards their lover, but it's too late.

--> '''Sam:''' Is that the only way you know how to fight? ''DIRTY?!''\\

* OhCrap: Happens more than once, but Sam's expression after this exchange on the lobby stairway drives it home: