Ouroboros
Directed by Joel Novoa
At the airport, Terry Silver greets Sensei Kim Da-Eun - the granddaughter of Master Kim Sun-Yung - who has brought along several of the best instructors from her dojang at Silver's request. Though she is disappointed Kreese is no longer with Cobra Kai and unimpressed with Silver's luxuries, Silver offers her full autonomy in training his students, as well as 50% ownership in his new dojos, but recognizes that perpetuating her grandfather's legacy is her true desire. While skeptical that Silver's American students will be able to withstand her harsh training methods, Kim accepts his offer.
One week after Daniel's defeat at the hands of Silver, Amanda, Chozen, and Johnny sit around the kitchen table plotting their revenge. However, when Daniel finally emerges from his bedroom dressed for work, he tells them he is done with Silver and karate entirely. Although they plead with him to not give up, Daniel states that he became a sensei to help kids, but believes his actions only served to hurt them and his family. Declaring it is not his job to fight the monsters of the world, he dons a pair of sunglasses to conceal his black eye and leaves for the dealership.
Tory visits Kreese in prison once again, masquerading as his granddaughter. She feels guilty that Daniel got hurt as part of their scheme, but Kreese shrugs it off as a means to an end. Though he can relate to Tory being uncomfortable behind enemy lines, he encourages her to remain in Cobra Kai a little longer and reveals he has a plan to escape, by playing the "good soldier". In the meantime, he instructs Tory to keep her eyes and ears open, confident that Silver will eventually slip up.
With Eagle Fang having closed down, Devon has joined up with Topanga Karate, but is shocked when Terry Silver and his entourage enter the dojo unannounced. After greeting Silver, Sensei Rosenthal informs his students that Topanga is now under new management, but is taken aback when Silver replaces him with Kim Da-Eun and Hyan-Woo as the new senseis. Rosenthal argues that was not part of the deal, but Silver ignores him and addresses the Topanga students, claiming their new leadership will mold them into winners. As the students assimilate into Cobra Kai, Silver starts to leave with Tory, but Kim insists that she stay, intending to use her to test the Topanga fighters.
Stunned that Daniel would surrender so easily, Amanda, Chozen, and Johnny plot their next course of action. Sam shows them a live video of Silver's takeover of Topanga, which spurs Johnny to confront Silver immediately. Amanda tries to dissuade him, but Johnny argues that Silver is now out in the open and vulnerable. Chozen offers to accompany him as backup, and the two quickly head out to the dojo.
At lunchtime, Kreese finds himself the target of a group of bullying inmates who mock him about his age and steal the food off his tray. The ringleader of the bullies states that Kreese will give him his jello from now on. Although clearly perturbed, Kreese continues his strategy of playing the good soldier, explaining to the prison psychologist that he actually gets along with the other inmates. At the end of the session, Kreese states that he enjoys their time together. Although the doctor suspects he is trying to sweet talk her into giving him a good recommendation, Kreese assures her that he is being honest.
Back at Topanga, Kim Da-Eun orders the students to pair up and practice their knife-strikes. Still in her blue Topanga gi, Devon finds herself without a Cobra Kai partner and is reduced to practicing by herself on the training dummy. When Tory walks by, Devon tells her to keep walking, but Tory observes her poor technique and tells her she will only break her hand that way. After showing her how to do a proper knife-strike, she asks Devon why she is still wearing her old gi; Devon responds that she's not convinced Cobra Kai has earned her as a student yet. Upon being asked why she is still here, Devon echoes her late mother's advice to never give up, drawing sympathy from Tory whose own mother is suffering from kidney failure. She advises Devon to focus her anger into her fists. At that point, Kim ends the exercise and announces that the students will soon be facing each other.
On the way to the Topanga dojo, Johnny and Chozen reminisce about their encounters with Daniel. Though they both claim he could be difficult to deal with at times, they mutually agree that he has never backed down from a fight before and talk up some of his most memorable achievements. Through the window of the dojo, Johnny notices Devon training alongside the Cobra Kai students and moves to confront her, but Chozen holds him fast, reminding him that they came for Silver first and they must wait for the right time to strike. Johnny grudgingly concedes the point.
At the prison, Kreese receives a letter stating that his petition for early release has been denied. He asks the prison psychologist why, but she calls him out for his insincerity in only saying what she wanted to hear. Kreese tells her he had no other choice, citing poor legal representation, but the doctor advises him to start taking his incarceration seriously if he hopes for early release.
Kim Da-Eun devises a new exercise for Tory and Devon - placing a length of bamboo on a short table and instructing Tory to use any means necessary to stop Devon from taking it. When she fails to do so the first time, Kim chastises her for holding back and demands that she try again. Although Tory successfully thwarts each of Devon's attempts thereafter, Kim orders her to strike Devon harder each time, ultimately leaving the former Topanga student crumpled on the mat. After Kim dismisses the class, Devon runs out of the dojo in humiliation.
Back in therapy, Kreese begins to imagine the psychologist as several people from his past and present: Betsy, Captain Turner, Terry Silver, Tory, Johnny Lawrence (in both his teenage and adult stages), and finally young Kreese himself. In doing so, he confesses the loss of Betsy allowed him to do what was necessary to survive in Vietnam. He then took the ruthless ideals he had learned from the war and poured them into Cobra Kai, hoping to teach children how to be strong. He claims to have no regret for his actions, except for wanting his students to be better than he was. Afterwards, the doctor suggests that despite all his hardships, Kreese still has some good left in him, and that all he has to do is find it.
Johnny and Chozen enter the Topanga dojo looking for Silver, but find themselves pitted against Sensei Hyan-Woo instead. Although they struggle individually, Johnny and Chozen manage to overcome the highly skilled fighter together, until Kim Da-Eun enters with the rest of the Cobra Kai senseis. Undaunted, Johnny appears eager to continue the fight, but with the odds now stacked in Kim's favor, Chozen convinces him to make a strategic retreat.
At the flagship dojo, Devon arrives dressed in a black gi, admitting to Tory that although she might have beaten her on the mat, she only loses if she gives up. Silver explains to Tory that Devon reached out to him after class yesterday and asked to join Cobra Kai, intending to learn more from Tory. Though Tory argues that Devon failed the test, Kim Da-Eun reveals the test was for Tory herself, as a measure of her strength to do what must be done - something that Silver hints is greater than she could ever imagine.
Regrouping at home, Johnny and Chozen relay their findings to Amanda and Sam, including how Silver now has an army of Elite Mooks at his command. Still unable to determine Silver's ultimate motive, Amanda stresses they will need Daniel in order to mount a defense. Johnny reminds her that Daniel is done fighting, but having given up on karate herself once before, Sam believes even Mr. Miyagi would not walk away from this fight. Amanda notes that while Mr. Miyagi may be gone, Daniel still has all of them to rely upon.
Fed up with the abuse from his fellow inmates, Kreese snaps and delivers a vicious beating to them as the rest of the prisoners cheer him on. Having successfully taken back his power, he orders the ringleader to give Kreese his jello from now on, to which the terrified inmate replies, "Yes, Sensei!"
Hoping to inspire Daniel to take up the fight again, Amanda brings him over to Mr. Miyagi's house, where she encourages him to access Miyagi's old room. Having not entered this room in many years, an emotional Daniel finds himself surrounded by a veritable "time capsule" of his old mentor's belongings. Amanda reveals she came to visit Mr. Miyagi the night before their wedding, and he put her heart at ease, explaining that while Daniel could be a handful at times, he would always fight for what he believed in. She urges him to stand up to Terry Silver for the sake of their family, but Daniel still fears it will only make things worse, and that he couldn't stand failing his students again.
Robby appears with Sam, stating that he didn't fail him and lists all the good Daniel has done for him. Daniel tries to apologize for sending Robby to juvie, but Robby owns up to what he did and admits he should have listened to Daniel about Cobra Kai. For the sake of Kenny and Tory, he implores Daniel to help stop Silver. Sam chimes in, telling Daniel it is time for all of them to join this fight.
To that end, Sam leads them outside where the Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang students have assembled in the dojo, along with Johnny and Chozen. The unified students bow to their senseis, and Daniel joins his partners in returning the bow, having officially rejoined the fight against Cobra Kai.
Tropes:
- Ambiguous Situation:
- During his session with the therapist, Kreese claims that he regrets nothing in his life and did nothing wrong, yet moments later states that he wanted his students to be better than him. It's difficult to know whether Kreese's initial claim was just blustering and (deep down) he wished for his students to tread a less horrible path in life than he did or if he's just a sociopath who can't keep his story straight from one breath to the next.
- Topanga Karate is getting rebranded as yet another Cobra Kai dojo, and its former sensei is getting the boot, but Silver does at least reassure the Topanga students that they can expect their membership dues to go down. It's unclear if this is a Pet the Dog moment, or just more of his villainous pragmatism; cheaper dues mean the students are more likely to stay on, after all, and it'll be easier for them to recruit yet more.
- Beware the Nice Ones:
- An understated example, but the prison psychologist is a sweet, caring woman who Kreese assumes he can easily manipulate. She quickly reveals that, having worked with multiple criminals for years, she's both smart enough and tough enough to see right through him, and even forces him to confront some of his emotional issues.
- In a twisted way, Kreese himself. At first, he was content to "play the good soldier" in prison, posing no threat to the other prisoners (despite their own bullying) in the hope of securing an early release. It was only when they escalated to physical assault (on the day Kreese learned he's not getting early release, no less) that he lost it and mowed them down in a Curb-Stomp Battle.
- Bullying a Dragon: Kreese's fellow inmates assume he's just a frail old man and steal his food. They soon have cause to regret that course of action.
- Call-Back:
- Daniel, after getting beaten up, again puts on sunglasses to hide his black eye. As a bonus, it's the exact same pair!
- When Sensei Kim and the rest of the Cobra Kai senseis show up to challenge Johnny and Chozen, Chozen manages to persuade Johnny not to escalate by reasoning "Too much advantage, their dojo". This echoes the first movie, when Mr. Miyagi said "Too much advantage, your dojo" in his own refusal to escalate violence at Kreese's Cobra Kai dojo.
- Commonality Connection: Johnny and Chozen bond over shared experiences: being bullies to Daniel and how much they hated him in their teens, which eventually segues into how noble and upstanding they think the guy is today, telling each other stories of his badass moments that they each witnessed.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: After being denied early release, Kreese loses the last molecule of his shit and quickly beats the hell out of the inmates who have been hassling him.
- Double-Meaning Title: The symbolic nature of the ouroboros refers to the dissolution of rivalries and forming of a new common ground. In a literal sense, Daniel spends his time eating himself up over what happened in the previous episode.
- Kick the Dog: It's clear that Silver's betrayal has done nothing to endear Daniel to Kreese, as when Tory informs him of the beating, Kreese uncaringly tells her that just means one enemy is down. Tory is taken aback by his comment.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Outnumbered by Kim and the elite Cobra Kai senseis seven-to-two, Johnny and Chozen pull back.
- Mistaken Identity: Kim Da-Eun, having never met either of them, automatically assumes the white guy with Chozen is Daniel. Johnny is baffled that anyone would confuse him for Daniel.
- Moving the Goalposts: The sensei of Topanga Karate realizes too late his "partnership" with Silver means having Silver's guys take over and the place becomes a Cobra Kai dojo.
- Papa Wolf: When Johnny spots Devon (his former favorite female Eagle Fang) training at Cobra Kai, he's ready to storm the dojo right then and there to get her out. Chozen convinces him to hold back, but this trope was still where Johnny's heart is.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Kim Da-Eun, good lord. Not only does she call Okinawa (or in her words, "little island") pathetic (especially when one considers Korea's and Japan's dark history with each other), but she quickly jumps to the conclusion that the white guy fighting with Chozen (Johnny) is Daniel LaRusso, then proceeds to call him a "blonde-dog". Kim Da-Eun also scoffs at the idea of the American students learning Cobra Kai, believing that America holds a lower standard of what it means to be a champion.
- Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Johnny and Chozen go to the newly acquired Topanga Karate to confront Cobra Kai, and encounter Sensei Hyan-Woo, who tells them that adult classes run on Wednesday. Johnny is instead about to throw down with him, but not before swearing to teach him a lesson.Hyan-Woo: Adult classes are on Wednesday.
Johnny: We're not here to take a lesson; we're here to teach you one.- Kreese also gets one before he beats the living tar out of all the prisoners who previously bullied him.
Kreese: You don't know me very well. - "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Kreese gets treated to a protracted one of these in his conversation with the therapist, which becomes (in his mind) a procession of everyone he has ever cared about — Betsy, Captain Turner, Terry Silver, Tory, teenage Johnny, old Johnny — dissecting his decisions and feelings.
- Villainous Friendship: When Tory visits Kreese, a guard announces to Kreese that his "granddaughter" is here. This prompts Tory to playfully greet Kreese with "Hi, grandpa", and Kreese just as playfully replies "Hi, granddaughter."
- What Happened to the Mouse?: In season one, Xander Stone — the All Valley champion before Miguel — hailed from Topanga Karate, but he is not seen or mentioned now. Whether he just wasn't in class that day or has moved on from karate outright, Xander's fate is left to the viewer's imagination.
- The Worf Effect: Lampshaded by Chozen himself. Just one of Silver and Kim Da-Eun's new Elite Mooks is able to fight Johnny and Chozen to a standstill, showing how serious of a threat they are. This is emphasized further by the fact that this comes just a few episodes after Chozen demolished six of the best senseis in the Valley by himself.
- You Are Not Alone: The entire good guy side of the cast bands together to do this for Daniel, in order to bring him out of his slump and back into the fight. Sam even tells him "You're not alone anymore" after revealing that everyone has gathered at Miyagi-Do to show him their support.
