Recap / Cobra Kai S3E10 "December 19"

RECAP:
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Season 3, Episode 10:

December 19

"Heard you were throwing a party. Hope you don't mind if we crash."

Written by Written by Josh Heald (Story), Jon Hurwitz (Story), Hayden Schlossberg (Story) & Bob Dearden (Story & teleplay)
Directed by Josh Heald

Daniel: You keep your Cobra Kais away from our kids!
Kreese: It's a free country.
Johnny: Not for you. Cobra Kai's gotta go. For good.

In North Vietnam in 1969, John Kreese and his fellow Green Berets are prisoners of war. Their captors force the men to fight each other to the death two at a time on a narrow bridge suspended over a snake pit. Although his panicked squad mate Twig blames himself for their predicament, Kreese insists that the fault is his own. He defers to Captain Turner for leadership, but the captain states that rank is irrelevant — it is now every man for himself.

At the Oaks Country Club, Ali blissfully introduces Johnny to Daniel, unaware of their ongoing feud. She clears the air about the UCLA football player she supposedly dumped Daniel for in 1985, revealing that Daniel jumped to conclusions about the whole thing while admitting that she did egg him on. Ali also counsels Johnny and Daniel about their feud, declaring that while there are two sides to their story, the truth is usually somewhere in the middle. She concludes that Daniel and Johnny are more alike than either want to admit, a truth that neither man denies.

At the LaRusso house, Sam tries to convince both Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang to put aside their differences, but to no avail. When Eagle Fang begins to leave, however, Demetri stops them by calling them all pussies. In an uncharacteristically profane rant, he points out that their division is exactly what Cobra Kai wants, and that in order to combat the "worst collection of assholes in the Valley", they will have to work together. After a table meeting to discuss the details of their merger, a cat is heard mewling at the door. Even as Sam realizes they don't have a cat, Bert goes outside to let it in, only to be sent crashing through the kitchen window as Hawk and the entire Cobra Kai dojo enter the house. Surrounded by the invaders, Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang have no choice but to defend themselves, and each other.

In a reprisal of the school brawl, Cobra Kai violently clashes with the other two dojos, with their battle wrecking the household. Kyler singles out Miguel, who finds himself at a severe disadvantage due to his lack of conditioning. Tory and Sam have their long awaited rematch, but Sam initially retreats out of fear of her old rival, only to be cornered in Daniel's dojo, where Tory kicks Sam to the ground before attacking her with a pair of nunchucks. When Tory breaks a portrait of Mr. Miyagi, however, Sam regains her resolve and fights back with a bo staff.

Elsewhere in the house, Cobra Kai is gaining the upper hand. After taking Miguel down once more, Kyler celebrates with Hawk, but this causes the latter to have second thoughts, as Kyler is his former tormentor while all the people they're beating on — Bert, Mitch, Demetri, and Miguel — were once his friends. As Hawk surveys the battleground, both Johnny and Kreese's words echo inside his head. At the same time, the Cobras restrain Demetri for Hawk to attack. His decision made, Hawk sprints toward his helpless target but veers at the last second, instead attacking his fellow Cobra Kai to free Demetri. He then apologizes to Demetri, and their back-to-back teamwork turns the tide of battle. Now severely beaten by Kyler, Miguel seems to be overmatched by his former bully. As Johnny's encouraging words echo in his mind, he gains a second wind and quickly defeats Kyler with a takedown counterattack.

In the dojo, Sam finally disarms Tory with her bo staff and emphatically declares that she is not afraid of her, just before Miguel, Hawk, and Demetri enter. The reunited friends declare that the fight is over and that Cobra Kai has lost. However, Tory assures Sam that their fight is not over and denounces both Miguel and Hawk as traitors to Cobra Kai. She warns Hawk to watch his back, but Demetri points out that he won't have to, sticking up for his best friend.

After finding closure with Ali and bidding her farewell, Johnny returns home to declare his love to Carmen, but is angered to find Miguel battered and bloody as a result of the fight.

At the POW camp, Captain Turner is chosen to fight against Twig, but Kreese volunteers to fight in Twig's place. As they walk to the fighting pit, Turner finally informs Kreese about Betsy's death, shocking the young man.

Johnny storms into the Cobra Kai dojo to confront Kreese, but is dismayed to find Robby training with him. Kreese offers Johnny one last chance to rejoin him, but instead Johnny attacks Kreese and they engage in a brutal fight. Johnny pulls a sai off the wall, but Robby dissuades him from using it. He continues the fight unarmed, taking Kreese down and furiously pummeling him, only for Robby to intervene and pull Johnny away from Kreese. Johnny tries to explain that Kreese can't be trusted, but Robby declares Johnny his worst enemy and attacks him. Unwilling to hurt his son, Johnny deftly fends off Robby's strikes before finally pushing him away into a set of lockers, accidentally knocking him out cold. While Johnny tends to Robby, Kreese gets back on his feet and reaches for a weapon.

In the past, young Kreese is beaten down on the bridge as Turner tells him that he purposely withheld the information about Betsy because he knew it would distract him. However, Kreese rebounds with an improvised weapon and overcomes the captain, leaving him dangling over the venomous snake pit. As American forces deliver airstrikes to the camp, Turner implores Kreese to save him, but Kreese shows his former captain no mercy and callously steps on his fingers, sending Turner plummeting to his death.

Similarly in the present, Kreese strikes Johnny from behind with the sai and proceeds to strangle him. Daniel arrives just in the nick of time, kicking Kreese away from Johnny. Enraged over his house being invaded and his daughter attacked, Daniel picks up where Johnny left off, battling with Kreese before the latter tackles him through the dojo's plate glass window.

As Daniel recovers, Kreese picks up a shard of broken glass, intending to fatally stab him. Daniel utilizes the pressure point strikes he learned from Chozen to disarm and subdue Kreese. With Johnny's approval, Daniel poises to strike a fatal blow, but Miguel and Sam suddenly arrive, bringing Daniel back to his senses. He warns Kreese to keep his Cobra Kai students away from their kids, but Kreese proposes they settle things once and for all at the All Valley Tournament, with the condition that if he loses, Cobra Kai will shut down. Robby emerges from the dojo and sends Daniel and Johnny away, having firmly sided with Kreese.

The next day, Kreese recalls freeing his imprisoned squad mates, with Twig — now revealed to be Terry Silver — swearing a life debt to him. He picks up the phone and calls Silver for the first time in decades.

The Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang students assemble at the Miyagi-Do dojo for their first joint training session. All the friends who had been separated by Cobra Kai line up with each other — Bert with Nathaniel, Mitch with Chris, Sam with Miguel, Hawk with Demetri, and (last but not least) Johnny with Daniel. The two men bow to their students and then to each other, having finally put their longstanding issues aside to unite against a common enemy.

---

Tropes:

• Allegiance Affirmation: Robby Keene shows their loyalty to Cobra Kai by attacking Johnny, his own father, after the latter nearly kills John Kreese; and then telling them, as well as Samantha (his ex-girlfriend), Miguel and Daniel (who he used to see as a father) to Get Out! of the Cobra Kai Dojo while he returns to Kreese's side to train for the next All-Valley.
• Always with You: After Ali reassures Johnny to go after Carmen and to start living in the now and for the future, the two hug and tell each other that they'll always be there for each other no matter what.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • It's not made clear whether the Cobra Kai students invaded the LaRusso house on Kreese's orders or it was something Tory decided to do herself based on what Kreese told her about Sam and Miguel's alliance (that being said, Kreese being the Manipulative Bastard that he is, it's entirely probable that he didn't have to give an order).
  • It's also not made clear as to how the Cobra Kais were able to find out that the Miyagi-Dos and Eagle Fangs were meeting at the LaRusso house. Unless someone like Hawk, Tory, and/or Kyler assumed they were going to meet there, a Cobra Kai spied on either Miguel and the Eagle Fangs (or Sam and the Miyagi-Dos) planning out their meeting, or there's a mole hidden in one of the two dojos.
• Amicable Exes: Despite being the initial catalyst for their rivalry way back at the beginning, Ali gets along well with both Johnny and Daniel.
• An Ass-Kicking Christmas: The episode takes place a few days before Christmas and features another brawl between the teens, plus Johnny and Daniel both taking on Kreese in an all-out fight. For bonus points, the soundtrack during the teen brawl is a remix of the school brawl's theme with "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen".
• Asshole Victim: Captain Turner, given how he tried to break Kreese psychologically by telling him that Betsy had died. Even as he begs for his life at the end, Kreese stomping on his hand feels deserved.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Sam and Miguel, Hawk and Demetri, others.
• Bait-and-Switch: After their fight, Kreese suggests they "settle things the old fashioned way". Daniel looks at him like, "I thought we just did", before Kreese clarifies that he means by tournament.
• Bash Brothers: After Hawk and Demetri reconcile, the two prove to be a highly effective fighting team as they dispatch several Cobras with their combined skills.
• Battle Couple: Downplayed with Sam and Miguel. They make an ass-kicking pose together at the start of the home invasion, but ultimately fight separately against Tory and Kyler respectively.
• Battle Cry: Tory yells "NO MERCY!!!" before kicking off the brawl at the LaRussos'.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: The idealistic Kreese is no more after he kills his own captain, having embraced his Social Darwinist teachings.
• Big Damn Heroes: After Kreese puts Johnny in a stranglehold, with the clear intent to kill him, Daniel shows up out of nowhere, kicks Kreese off of Johnny, and starts fighting Kreese.
  Daniel: You sent them to my house?! You came after my daughter? You wanted a fight, you son of a bitch? Well, now you got one!
• Big Damn Reunion: Daniel and Ali encounter each other for the first time in over three decades at the Christmas party, and the two share a hug.
• Bilingual Bonus: A subtle one hiding in plain sight since the first movie is revealed in this episode after the reveal that Kreese's live-or-die approach to karate may or may not stem from being forced into an impromptu life or death karate tournament suspended over a deep trench filled with lethal snakes. Notably, Japanese, Cobra Kai is typically rendered as "コブラ会" (コブラ being the katakana rendering of "Cobra"), where 会 (pronounced "kai") means "a meeting or gathering" (as in a dojo). However, in light of this new information, a clever observer may be inclined to note that "Cobra Kai" may also be rendered as "コブラ峡", where 峡 (also pronounced "kai") means "gorge or ravine". Thus "Cobra Kai" may be dually translated as both a meeting of cobras and a ravine or pit of cobras.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • The episode starts with the Cobra Kai students performing a home invasion on the LaRusso residence to attack Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang students. While they are eventually fended off (with the added bonus of Hawk making a Heel–Face Turn and rejoining them), this pushes Johnny and Daniel to confront Kreese, while also discovering that Robby has turned to him for lodging and guidance. Afterwards, Johnny and Daniel combine their dojos and start training together. All in all, this was a more uplifting season finale for the show, but hampered by Robby's continued allegiance with Kreese.
  • For Kreese's backstory, veering more towards bitter than sweet. Young Kreese's squad is liberated by their fellow American troops as they invade the Viet Cong camp and Twig a.k.a Terry Silver is genuinely grateful towards Kreese for saving his life and swears a debt to him. But the combination of the experience of being a POW, Turner's indoctrination, and the news of Betsy's death has taken its toll on Kreese and he winds up killing Turner when he didn't have to, showing that the idealistic, chivalrous young man is no more.
• Blatant Lies: Daniel denies complaining to Miyagi that Ali totaled his car (and more) when she asks him about it.
  Ali: I hope you didn't tell [Mr. Miyagi] that it was my fault [the car] crashed.
  Daniel: ...No, of course not.
• Call-Back:
  • Ali and Daniel recall meeting at the Encino Hills Country Club, how the latter had to come in through the kitchen. And in the tradition of this series, Johnny is now the visiting guest while both Ali and Daniel are members.
  • Ali also repeats a truncated version of the first season after learning that Johnny and Daniel have run into each other "once or twice" over the last couple of years.
  • Ali jokingly calls Daniel "Daniel with an L", the same way she introduced herself to him way back in the original movie, and Tory presented herself to the Cobra Kai dojo back in the 2nd season.
  • The date is the same date as the All Valley Tournament in the original move.
  • Tory wears a skeleton sweatshirt, recalling how both Johnny and Miguel wore skeleton costumes during fights which they lose — Johnny when Miyagi protected Daniel, and Miguel when he fought Kyler and his gang in Season 1. Inevitably, Tory ends up losing her fight just as Johnny and Miguel did.
  • Kreese again puts Johnny in a deadly chokehold, just like he attempted in the opening of The Karate Kid Part II.
  • Again we hear of the old children's toy Daniel discovered in Okinawa and how it is the basis for Miyagi-Do karate, just like in Part II. This time it's Miguel who runs into it and Sam who explains its story.
• Chaos of the Bells: "Carol of the Bells" plays forebodingly as Tory and the rest of Cobra Kai invade the LaRusso house.
• Chekhov's Skill:
  • Daniel uses the new pressure point moves he learned from Chozen to defeat Kreese.
  • Miguel uses the Drum Technique to block one of Kyler's attacks after Sam taught it to him in the previous episode. He also struggled with a basic spin kick a few episodes ago while training and managed to use it against Kyler when he really needed to. He even thanked him afterwards for giving him the incentive.
  • Daniel helped Sam recover her confidence with staff training. She recovers from her fear of Tory by grabbing a staff to go against her nunchucks.
  • In a downplayed example, Sam uses more offensive moves in the brawl and one-on-one with Tory as Miguel suggested that offense can be a solid defense in certain fights in the last episode.
• Choke Holds: Kreese restrains Johnny this way, nearly killing him until Daniel arrives and kicks Kreese off of Johnny.
• Christmas Episode: Downplayed. The episode is set six days before Christmas Day, but the festivities are already up in the air throughout the Valley, with Daniel, Ali, and Johnny all spending it reconciling at a Country Club Christmas diner.
• Combat Pragmatist: Defied. A disadvantaged Johnny draws a sai from the wall and prepares to attack Kreese with it, but quickly discards it after Robby tells him not to use it.
• Conflict Killer:
  • The disagreements between Miyagi-do and Eagle Fang go away the second Cobra Kai launches their attack and the students are forced to fight alongside each other.
  • Re-bonding with Ali helps convince Daniel and Johnny to once more try to bury their hatchet. Though Kreese and his orchestrated assault on both men's students deserve a lot of credit for this one, too.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Johnny vs Robby. Johnny easily fends off all of Robby's attacks, and the only reason their fight continues as long as it did is because Johnny doesn't want to harm his own son. Hell, when Johnny finally knocks Robby out cold, he does it by accident.
• Designated Girl Fight: Sam and Tory once again get into a one-on-one battle, within the LaRussos' house. Unlike in the school fight, though, it doesn't start that way as they each fight their way through several male fighters apiece as they advance towards one another.
• Destination Defenestration:
  • Cobra Kai announces their presence at the LaRusso household by throwing Bert through a window.
  • Daniel and Kreese go flying through a plate glass window during their showdown.
• Determinator: In the flashbacks, we learn that young Kreese was determined to survive Vietnam to return to Betsy no matter what. When Captain Turner callously reveals that he knows Betsy is dead, it hits Kreese hard.
• The Dog Bites Back:
  • In the Vietnam flashback, Kreese kills Captain Turner, after the latter has proven more than willing to sacrifice Kreese to save himself.
  • Having had enough of Kreese's shit after his students attack the Miyagi-Dos and Eagle Fangs, Johnny confronts and fights Kreese in the Cobra Kai dojo, with Daniel later joining in to save Johnny from the brink of death.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: Miguel takes some of the worse injuries of just about anyone in the home fight due to his previous injuries, but he still manages to rebound and beat Kyler. It's pretty clear that the fight would have been a lot more one-sided if Miguel was at full strength.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: While it isn't by any means a happy ending just yet, it is the closest thing we've got to one so far in the entire series. After three seasons of ups and downs, feuds, fights, conflicts, and teases about whether or not they will make up, Daniel and Johnny are finally on the same page, teaming up and combining their respective dojos together to take down Kreese and Cobra Kai once and for all.
• Easily Forgiven:
  • Various former friends between Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai/Eagle Fang were not on good terms at the start of the episode, but Sam and Miguel took the step to try and mend those rifts. The home invasion fight helped resolve any lingering issues, and when the two dojos combine at the end Chris and Mitch, and Nathaniel and Bert, are shown happily greeting each other.
  • In the middle of the final brawl, Hawk realized just how horrible things had become seeing Demetri pinned by two Cobra Kai opponents, and he instead attacks the two of them to rescue Demetri. Immediately afterwards he offers a simple apology to Demetri "for everything," and that is enough for Demetri and Hawk to team up against the rest of the Cobra Kai. Later, they are shown warmly embracing when the dojos combine.
• Enemy Mine: As Demetri eloquently, if coarsely, explains, Miyago-Do and Eagle Fang must combine to take on their common enemy.
  Demetri: Cobra Kai is the worst collection of assholes in the Valley, run by the King Of All Assholes. So if by merging with Eagle Fang — weird name, by the way — can keep us all from getting shit on anymore, then we'd all be assholes not to do it!
• Evil Gloating: After young Kreese and Captain Turner are brought out of the POW cage to fight, Turner can't help gloating evilly, particularly after he reveals to Kreese that Betsy is dead.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang had come to an agreement to try and work together, but they were debating on a lot of the fine details. After having to fend off a home invasion attack from Cobra Kai, they dropped all pretenses of their rivalry and welcomed each other as part of one dojo. Hawk, after a Heel–Face Turn, managed to regain Demetri's trust while using Bash Brothers to turn the tide of the fight.
• First-Name Basis: When Daniel and Johnny part ways after the party and wish each other a Merry Christmas, Johnny calls him LaRusso as usual, before calling him "Daniel" for the first time in the series.
  Johnny: Merry Christmas, LaRusso... Daniel.
• Frying Pan of Doom: Chris uses a frying pan to land a blow on Rickenberger's head. Rickenberger is barely fazed.
• Get Out!: Robby tells off his father, Daniel, Sam, and Miguel, affirming his allegiance with Kreese.
• Gilligan Cut: While reminiscing about the events of the first film with Johnny, Daniel and Amanda, Ali says she hopes their kids have more sense than they do. Cut to a massively violent karate brawl at the LaRusso home with basically all the kids.
• Go Through Me:
  • At one point during the house fight, Demetri pulls Bert and Nathaniel behind him to protect them from a Cobra Kai fighter who was advancing on them.
  • A Miyagi-Do student tries to block Tory before she could harm Sam. Predictably, Tory knocks him out of the way within seconds.
  • Robby drags his father away from Kreese, not letting him hurt the Cobra Kai sensei without dealing with his own son first.
• Heel–Face Turn: After realizing the degree of his actions in the middle of the fight at the LaRusso home, Hawk turns on his fellow Cobra Kais, helping Demetri fight them all off. He subsequently joins Daniel and Johnny's new dojo to fight back against Kreese.
• "Hell, Yes!" Moment: Demetri gets this when Hawk saves him from the other Cobras and apologizes for everything he did to him. The two proceed to kick the others' asses together.
• Heroic Second Wind: Happens four times: three times during the LaRusso house attack and once with Daniel vs. Kreese:
  • Because of the PTSD, Sam is on the defensive throughout most of her fight with Tory, until Tory smashes a picture of Mr. Miyagi. Then she finds her balance and starts fighting back.
  • Miguel is getting beat up by Kyler when he remembers all of Johnny's encouragement and turns the tables on him, knocking him out.
  • Having Hawk save him from two Cobras and apologize to him for everything he did gives Demetri renewed confidence and the two proceed to demolish several Cobras together.
  • Kreese is about to stab Daniel with a shard of broken glass, until the latter remembers the lessons he learned from Chozen, which he uses to subdue Kreese.
• He Who Fights Monsters: This is notably defied several times in the episode.
  • Johnny is so enraged at Kreese over Cobra Kai injuring Miguel that he willingly picks up a sai to kill Kreese, only to drop it upon realizing Robby was watching him; Johnny is not willing to kill a man, even Kreese, in front of his son.
  • Daniel defeats Kreese and seems about to kill him, with Johnny implicitly agreeing with Daniel through a nod, but the timely arrival of Miguel and Sam convince the two men to step away from the abyss and spare Kreese.
  • Hawk had gone all-in with the Cobra Kai philosophy, losing himself to its power in an effort to never be bullied again and Kreese told him "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." But between the Cobra Kai students who defected to Miyagi-Do, Johnny's new Eagle Fang karate, and Cobra Kai, all Hawk could see was former friends getting beaten up and himself fighting alongside former enemies. The insanity of this made him pull a Heel–Face Turn mid-fight, coming to Demetri's rescue and helping to protect the others.
• History Repeats: Much like in Part I, Kreese agrees to keep his students on a tight leash in exchange for settling the conflict once and for all at the All Valley Tournament. If Cobra Kai loses, Kreese will close his dojo.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Captain Turner belittles Kreese for failing to grasp his Social Darwinist, kill or be killed teachings when in the POW camp. During the death battle staged by their captors, which ends right as the camp is being liberated, Kreese internalizes this lesson and kills Turner.
  • Doug offers a "free shot" to Hawk by putting Demetri in a deadlock. Hawk does, but towards Doug instead.
  • Kreese insisted all season that Johnny ought to return to the old Cobra Kai ethos of "Strike First, Strike Hard, and No Mercy", and then...Johnny does exactly that when he's pummeling the crap out of him. He barges into Cobra Kai and starts the fight with Kreese, therefore "striking first", Johnny hits hard with every single strike he directs against Kreese, therefore "striking hard", and it's clear when you look at Johnny's face while he's endlessly wailing on Kreese's face that mercy was the last thing on his mind. Had it not been for Robby intervening, Johnny may very well have beaten Kreese to death right there and then. And then Daniel does the same thing. He "strikes first" by kicking Kreese to break his chokehold on Johnny, "strikes hard" by not holding back either and "no mercy" when he has Kreese immobilized, the look on Daniel's face shows that unlike when Mr. Miyagi had Kreese in this position 34 years ago, mercy is far from Daniel's mind after Kreese's students invaded his house and assaulted his daughter and it's clear that Daniel would've murdered Kreese if his daughter and Miguel didn't show up with the former calling out to him.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: After Kreese and Daniel's initial exchange of moves sees the latter use strictly defensive moves, Kreese mockingly tells him he can't keep fighting defensively forever.
  Kreese: You can't keep up this "defense only" shit forever.
  Daniel: Good thing I don't have to! (nails Kreese with a karate chop)
• Idiot Ball: Sam not immediately telling Bert she doesn't have a cat. Even if she thought it was a stray cat, strays can carry rabies, fleas, or other medical issues that can make it a bad idea to approach them (in fairness, given how quickly Bert got up, it's possible she didn't have a chance).
• Immediate Sequel: This episode immediately follows on the previous one, with Johnny seeing Daniel hug Ali and the Miyagi-Do students meeting with Eagle Fang at the LaRusso house.
• Insane Troll Logic: Kreese's response to Daniel ordering him to keep his Cobra Kai students away from Daniel's kids is to smugly state that it's a free country. Apparently he forgot that even free countries have laws against things like assault and breaking and entering.
• I Owe You My Life: Silver is grateful to Kreese for saving his life and will do anything to return the favor.
• It's Personal:
  • Kyler is eager to get his revenge on Miguel for the school cafeteria fight back in Season 1.
    "It's payback time, 'Rhea."
  • Johnny and Daniel both learn of Cobra Kai's attack on their dojos' students, and they confront Kreese at his dojo to make him pay.
• Karma Houdini: Zig-zagged. Johnny and Daniel both get to pound on Kreese as comeuppance for all his bullshit this season... but Kreese and the Cobra Kai dojo remain, agreeing to stop his hostilities only if Cobra Kai loses in the upcoming All-Valley Tournament. Season 4 also reveals that there are no legal consequences for anyone as a result of the house fight or the brawl with Kreese.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Captain Turner in the Vietnam flashback. Being totally nonchalant about your readiness to kill your subordinate in a forced blood match? Sure, war is hell. But to first give the poor guy a shock by revealing that you withheld a letter stating that his woman back home — the woman he was determined to survive to come back to — had died? Yeah, that's a Crowning Moment Of Douchebag.
  • Kreese announces his intent to not only dominate the next All-Valley Tournament, but also to "melt down the entire snowflake generation" in a condescending tone.
• Lampshade Hanging: When Mitch asserts only Eagle Fang students can call him "Penis Breath", Chris asks him why he's okay with his teammates constantly giving him demeaning nicknames.
• Love Confession: Johnny is prepared to deliver his feelings for Carmen when he visits her, to the point of cheerfully rehearsing what he's going to say as he's walking up to her door, but the sight of Carmen's fretful expression (and then the reveal of a battered and bloodied Miguel) instantly shifts him to Papa Wolf mode instead.
• Men of Sherwood: A villainous example. Despite there being far more named characters on the Miyagi-Do/Eagle Fang side of the house brawl, the unnamed (or only named by the credits) members of Cobra Kai are more than capable of holding their own against them, with one Mook even being seen fighting off Bert and Nathaniel simultaneously with no assistance. In fact, before Hawk switches sides, Cobra Kai seems to be on their way to a decisive victory, although this is somewhat justified by the fact that Miguel wasn't able to be of much help to the good guys as he was still recovering from his paralysis, while Sam's PTSD kicked in and Tory chased her out the house for a one-on-one fight to keep her away from the others.
• The Missus and the Ex: Ali and Amanda enter into the "friendly" version of this dynamic practically the second they meet each other. It only gets better when Ali starts dishing out all the delicious gossip from back in the day, delighting Amanda.
• Mistaken for Cheating: Daniel assumed that Ali left him for a football player from the UCLA, six months after the 1984 All-Valley Tournament. The fault lies on Daniel, however, for reading too much into a conversation between Ali and an old friend.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • The humorous scenes of Daniel, Johnny, Ali, and Amanda talking at the country club Christmas party are intercut by the absolutely brutal karate fight between Cobra Kai and Miyagi-do/Eagle Fang at the LaRusso home.
  • In-universe, for Johnny when he goes to the Diaz apartment. He approaches with eager anticipation, rehearsing the words, "I love you, Carmen." Then he enters, and sees a fearful Carmen standing next to a badly-battered Miguel.
• Morality Chain:
  • If there was anyone who could help deflate Johnny and Daniels' egos and get them to see eye-to-eye on anything, it was going to be Ali. She helped them realize that the source of their rivalry came from being stupid teenagers, and that the "truth" was going to be something other than how they saw those events.
  • The arrival of Sam and Miguel also prevent Daniel and Johnny from killing Kreese.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Johnny is shocked by his own actions when he accidentally shoves his son towards a set of lockers and knocks him out cold.
  • Building on several episodes of Hawk showing some hesitation regarding Cobra Kai attitudes, he pulls a Heel–Face Turn after seeing Demetri in the same arm bar he put him in several episodes prior.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The attack on the LaRusso house turns out to be a complete disaster for Cobra Kai, as they not only lost the fight, the incident also gave Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang the last motivation they needed to set aside their differences and team up against Cobra Kai. It also causes Hawk to defect, helps Sam and Miguel finally overcome their season-long issues from the school brawl, and ultimately got Johnny and Daniel completely on the same page, with the two training their students together at the end.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
  • Kyler pins a bloodied Miguel to a wall and repeatedly slugs his helpless opponent in the kidneys. Reversed in the end when Miguel gets his Heroic Second Wind and knocks out Kyler within seconds.
  • Johnny gets a moment to pummel his former sensei, before his son drags him away and attempts to attack him.
• Not Afraid of You Anymore: Sam overcomes her fear of Tory after reminding herself to not let it conquer her better judgment, and fights back with a bo staff. She eventually disarms her opponent of her nunchucks and emphatically states that she's not afraid of her.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • During his Rousing Speech, Demetri reminds the Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang members that nearly all of them had trained at Cobra Kai at one point so it's pointless to hold that fact against each other.
  • With much of the series highlighting the many similarities between Daniel and Johnny, Ali is the first one to vocalize it and helps them understand their own bias when it comes to their rivalry.
    Ali: There's [Johnny's] side, and [Daniel's] side, and then there is the truth. And the truth is, you guys are more alike than you want to admit. And maybe you recognize parts of yourselves in each other, and maybe you don't always like what you see.
    Johnny: ...I guess it's possible, some small part of all of this is my fault.
    Daniel: Yeah. Me too.
• N-Word Privileges: When Chris starts addressing Mitch as "Penis Breath", Mitch indignantly informs him that only Eagle Fangs are allowed to call him that.
  Mitch: OK, you can't call me "Penis Breath". Only they can call me "Penis Breath".
  Chris: Why are you OK with anyone calling you "Penis Breath"?
• Ominous Latin Chanting: The music played during the final battle between Daniel, Johnny, and Kreese has this. Notable that the part of the battle where Daniel disables Kreese with the pressure points is the same music that played during Daniel and Chozen's sparring match, but with the singing bits added in.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When it looks like negotiations between Miyagi-do and Eagle Fang are going south, Demetri suddenly raises his voice and starts dropping curse words like crazy during his Rousing Speech (see below). For an awkward kid who takes pride in his eloquent speaking, to hear him speak so loud and coarsely, everyone present was taken aback, and after his speech he even apologized for the language.
  Demetri: I'm sorry about all the 'assholes'. I usually take pride in my grandiloquence, but it's an emotional time.
• The Oner: The bulk of the LaRusso house brawl is shown in one uninterrupted take that switches from combatants to combatants all across the house.
• Once More, with Clarity:
  • With a surprise shot of Daniel and Ali embracing at Encino Oaks Country Club ending the previous episode, this episode we see exactly how they ran into each other and what they were talking about seconds before Johnny arrives.
  • Ali recounts the story of the breakup with more context. She ran into a friend at UCLA, and Daniel, being the hothead he is, got the wrong idea. Ali admits to egging him on due to being angry at him, and the fight ended the relationship. It's also revealed why Ali refused to pay for damages for crashing Daniel's car: the accident wasn't her fault. The brakes on the 40-year-old car gave out while she was driving it, and she even warned Daniel that might happen, but he ignored her warnings.
• Only Sane Woman: After learning about everything that has happened during the series, Ali tells Johnny and Daniel they need to realize their side of the story isn't the only one and they're more alike than they want to admit.
• "Open!" Says Me: Johnny goes to the Cobra Kai dojo and kicks open the door leading to the back training room to confront Kreese.
• Pacifism Backfire: Robby attacks his father, but Johnny refuses to make any hard moves against his own son and retaliates only with a shove. However, this accidentally knocks Robby out as it causes him to hit his head on a locker.
• Papa Wolf: Upon returning to Carmen and seeing Miguel seriously roughed-up, Johnny immediately heads off to make Kreese answer for it. Daniel also does the same after he learns that Cobra Kai raided his house.
• Pass the Popcorn: Once Amanda sees Daniel, Ali and Johnny together she insists on hearing the entire story of what happened in high school, doing so while snacking on the olives from her martini.
• Pet the Dog: When Mitch sees Demetri down for the count during the fight, he encourages him to get up and keep fighting.
• Plot Parallel:
  • While Ali is meeting up with her high school exes and the wife of one of them, Tory is attacking Sam over jealousy that both the boys she finds interesting have shown more interest in Sam.
  • The Vietnam flashback has Kreese kill a man who was just trying to kill him, while in the present-day Kreese tries to kill Johnny, who attacked him and at least considered stabbing him with a sai.
• Police Are Useless: We don't yet know if Johnny and (particularly) Daniel even tried to involve the police before confronting Kreese, but you'd think a massive home invasion would be something the authorities would take a keen interest in, especially given the valley's ongoing controversy with karate violence.
  • Season 4's opener reveals that Daniel didn't bother calling the cops, as Sam didn't want to drag her ordeal out and LaRusso Auto can't afford any more bad publicity. So the house fight ends up being Karma Houdini (for Tory and crew) rather than this trope.
• Poke the Poodle: When Ali is recounting the events leading up to her breakup with Daniel and the wrecking of Daniel's car, Johnny delightedly remarks "This is the best story I have ever heard. Please keep going."
• Rage Breaking Point: Daniel and Johnny have both had enough of Kreese's shit, and they confront him at his dojo after his students attack the Miyagi-Dos and Eagle Fangs.
• "Ray of Hope" Ending: With Robby having fallen under Kreese's influence and Kreese making it clear to Daniel and Johnny that he will never stop, Johnny gets Kreese to agree to settle things at the next All Valley once and for all. With the fate of their students at stake, Johnny and Daniel finally team up as one dojo and begin to instruct Miguel, Sam, Hawk, Demetri, and the others together with all the teens having made up. The final moments are beautiful, as friends who had been divided by Cobra Kai rejoin each other side by side — Sam and Miguel, Chris and Mitch, and (perhaps best of all) Hawk and Demetri. Even Bert and Nathaniel seem friendly by the end.
• Relative Button: Kreese tells Daniel that he'll be joining Miyagi soon, before he attempts to kill him with a shard of broken glass. This triggers Daniel's Heroic Second Wind.
  "Time for you and Miyagi to reunite!"
• Revenge Before Reason: Tory's hatred of Sam is so strong that she leads an all-out attack on the LaRusso home to assault her and the two rival dojo's students. This despite being on probation as a result of the school brawl and running the risk of getting sent to juvie.
• Revision: The circumstances of Daniel and Ali's breakup are retconned in such a way that it doesn't contradict The Karate Kid Part II: the story about Ali dumping him for another guy was Daniel reading way too much into her conversation with an old friend, and the story he told Mr. Miyagi about the damage to the car was a total fabrication on Daniel's part to avoid admitting that he didn't listen to Ali's warnings about the brakes on the car being bad. The fact that the previous version of events was only told to the audience second hand via Daniel makes the retcon easier.
• Rousing Speech: When the sitdown between the Miyagi-do and Eagle Fang students goes south and Mitch and Bert are about to leave, Demetri makes a speech where he reminds everyone that their disputes are meaningless with Cobra Kai having marked all of them as targets.
  "Hey, pussies! This is exactly what those assholes at Cobra Kai want. Since you were one of 'em, you're an asshole, too. So are you. So was I. Well, at least I wanted to be one. But now, Cobra Kai is the worst collection of assholes in the Valley, run by the King of all Assholes. So if by merging with Eagle Fang — weird name by the way — can keep us all from getting shit on anymore, then we'd all be assholes not to do it!"
• Sequel Hook:
  • Tory walks away from the fight (for now) but has completely given into her rage and warns both Miguel and Hawk (who has made a Heel–Face Turn) that she and Cobra Kai will be gunning for them just as much as Sam.
  • Robby has fallen under Kreese's influence and has begun training with him for the next All Valley Tournament, much to Johnny and Daniel's dismay.
  • Kreese agrees to call off Cobra Kai's attacks on Daniel and Johnny's students and they will settle things once and for all at the next All-Valley. Back in his office, he calls up Terry Silver.
  • Daniel and Johnny put aside their differences and combine their dojos so they can prepare their students for the All-Valley and defeat Cobra Kai for good.
• Shout-Out: Daniel sees Johnny wearing a white suit and calls him Scarface.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Tory rants at Miguel and Hawk, viewing them as traitors:
  Tory: Traitors! (Glares at Hawk) You better watch your back.
  Demetri: (Glares back at Tory) He won't have to. He's got friends watching it for him.
• Significant Reference Date: The episode takes place on December 19, same date as the tournament fell on in 1984.
• Soft Glass:
  • Bert gets thrown through a window, but it's clear that most of his injuries are more from Cobra Kai beating him up than from the glass.
  • An aversion at the end, when Daniel's fight with Kreese culminates in them crashing through the storefront window of the dojo, Daniel is left bleeding from a cut above his right eye.
• Sophisticated as Hell: When Eagle Fang students are about to leave, Demetri stands up and calls them pussies for letting Cobra Kai push them around, saying it makes everyone assholes for tolerating such assholes. He then apologizes for using "asshole" so much, as he prefers to be more eloquent than that.
• Sore Loser: Tory rants like a brat that the fight isn’t over until she takes Sam down, after the latter had scored the hits and disarmed the former into a disadvantageous situation. This coming from someone who had taunted Sam for “not putting up much of a fight”, but gets angry once Sam delivered.
• Start of Darkness: Kreese's is revealed this episode when he kills Captain Turner when he didn't need to, since the POW camp was being liberated at the time.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Robby's showdown with Johnny is built up as if it's going to be an epic father vs son fight akin to The Empire Strikes Back, but turns out to be a complete Curb-Stomp Battle in Johnny's favour. Robby is a very good fighter, but he's still a teenager and doesn't stand a chance against a fully trained adult sensei.
• Threat Backfire: When Tory leaves, she warns Hawk, who just defected back to his friends' side, to watch his back. Demetri steps in to defend Hawk.
  Demetri: He won't have to. He's got friends watching it for him.
• Threw My Bike on the Roof: The Cobra Kais have no problem destroying the LaRussos' household items while fighting the Miyagi-Dos and Eagle Fangs.
• Underestimating Badassery: Kreese scoffs at Daniel's attempts to fight him, taunting that he can't keep up his defensive style forever. Daniel retorts he doesn't need to and proceeds to beat the crap out of him for everything he's done. Once Daniel disabled Kreese's arms and leg with new Miyagi-Do techniques he learned from Chozen, Kreese actually gets a scared expression on his face, a nod to how Miyagi had him at his mercy at the parking lot many years prior.
• The Unfettered: Even after Tory is left disarmed and trapped against the wall with Sam pointing a bo staff right at her, she refuses to quit until Miguel, Hawk, and Demetri arrive and tell her that the fight is over and she and Cobra Kai have lost.
• The Un-Reveal: We never find out what Kreese's terms are for Johnny and Daniel if their side loses at the All Valley as Johnny tells him they're not going to lose before Kreese can lay them out.
• Unreliable Narrator: With Ali to clarify a lot of events, both Johnny and Daniel have come to realize that they have been skewing that story in their favor their entire lives.
• We ARE Struggling Together: The two dojos may had agreed to start working together to fight against Kreese but there are still grudges between them and they still have opposing combat philosophies. So naturally, they go into a share of arguments about how to work together.
  Demetri: (reading a list) We're all in agreement that our new combined dojo should train at Miyagi Do. But we're deadlocked on "new name", "gi design", "post training snacks", and "sensei dispute resolution protocol".
• Wham Episode: The climax of Season 3 culminates into an all-out fight between Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do/Eagle Fang, followed by an assault on Kreese by Johnny and Daniel. This ends with Daniel and Johnny finally working together (by merging dojos), Robby fully aligned with Cobra Kai as Kreese's top student, and Kreese giving a phone call to Silver.
• Wham Line: Shortly after Kreese's confrontation with Daniel and Johnny, he phones Silver to enlist his help for the first time in decades. See also Wham Shot.
  "Hey. Long time."
• Wham Shot:
  • When Bert hears what he thinks is the LaRusso's cat outside and goes to bring it inside.
    Miguel: I didn't know you had a cat.
    Sam: ...We don't.
    (cut to Bert crashing back through the kitchen window)
    Miguel: (as he and the others rush to Bert's side) Bert, what happened?!
    Bert: No cat.
  • After the Christmas party Johnny is eager to confess his love to Carmen, but when he knocks on the door Carmen opens to show him a badly battered Miguel.
  • Kreese looking at an old war photo of himself, Ponytail, and Silver, followed by a phone call with the latter.
  • Daniel stands with the Miyagi-Do students, then Miguel and Johnny join them with the Eagle Fang students all in the same yard.
• What You Are in the Dark: Even though they were about to be rescued by their fellow troops and there was no need to continue their fight, Kreese chose to kill Captain Turner anyway.
• Would Hit a Girl: Members of all dojos. Before Sam and Tory have their Designated Girl Fight, each fights several male combatants from their opposing dojos. To be fair, both girls are among the most capable fighters of their own schools, so the guys aren't exactly picking on the helpless.
• Written-In Absence: Daniel mentions that Anthony is at a sleepover, making him conveniently absent for the home invasion.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Ali lets Johnny know that she has faith that he'll be able to move forward with his life in happiness, even if he feels like he'll screw things up.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Kyler congratulating Hawk for dispatching a Miyagi-Do/Eagle Fang combatant is the final straw that spurs Hawk's Heel–Face Turn.

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Daniel: You ready?
Johnny: Let's begin!