First Learn Stand
Episode 2 of Cobra Kai Season 4 starts with Johnny and Daniel both falling out over their teaching methods. In order to remedy that, they decide to teach each other their styles and synchronize this into one cohesive, free-flowing form of karate. That’s the idea, anyway. Speaking of synchronizing, Robby begins teaching the Miyagi “Wax On Wax Off” method at Cobra Kai. This, combined with core Cobra Kai principles of aggression and striking first, launch them into a brand new style we haven’t seen before. Meanwhile, Amanda visits Tory at work and tells her to stay away from Sam. After her stunt of bringing Cobra Kai into their house, Amanda promises to take her down hard if she touches Sam before the tournament. Thanks to Amanda’s interjection, Tory lashes out – and it gets her fired for her troubles. At Cobra Kai, Tory is brought into Kreese’s office with her concerns. She reveals everything that happened, as Kreese convinces her to use that aggression and channel it into her fighting. Kreese immediately confronts Amanda in the grocery store. She reveals everything about Tory’s issues, including her mother and how she’s paying all the bills. Just before he leaves, Kreese reminds her that not all kids are as lucky as Sam. It’s also enough to guilt trip her too. When she shows up at the Auto shop, she promises to get her own back against Sam and humiliate her at the tournament. Remember what we said last episode about the soapy teen drama? Well, there’s a separate subplot here involving new kid Kenny who’s bullied by Daniel’s son, Anthony. He who pretends to be a girl from gym class on an online game, convincing him to show up at the park that night cosplaying as his favourite character. Now, obviously this isn’t exactly LaRusso’s methods, and he’s encouraged to hit Kenny by the other kids. Thankfully Kenny manages to slip away before they get him. Unfortunately for Kenny, his video is spread across school, leaving him alone and worried. So naturally, he looks to turn to karate to help him out. Both Daniel and Johnny get a chance to show off their differing styles this episode, with Johnny working reasonably well with the Miyagi teachings and Daniel getting a taste of Johnny’s training, which is both unorthodox… and incredibly effective. At a hockey game, Daniel strikes first against a whole bunch of players when they badmouth his wife. Of course, this comes off the back of Johnny antagonizing one of the players first. A wry smile when the fight ends seems to hint that LaRusso is actually enjoying this. What a revelation!
The Episode Review
The second episode introduces new kid Kenny while the rest of the characters all fall by the wayside in favour of this Johnny and Daniel-centric chapter. Seeing the pair get to know the others’ fighting style certainly serves up a nice change of pace and adds an extra dimension to this series too. Everything looks to be building up toward this All Valley tournament but at times Cobra Kai has buckled under the weight of so many characters and I’m not sure adding another in Kenny this late in the game does anything to help that. Thankfully it hasn’t undone any of the character work thus far, which remains well written and enticing. Quite who will come out on top in this tournament though remains to be seen. One thing’s for sure – it’s going to be an unmissable season!
