Recap and Review of Cobra Kai Season 5
The last time we left off with Cobra Kai, things got extremely chaotic. Daniel and Johnny were forced to shut down Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang due to the agreement they had with Sensei Kreese. However, Kreese brought in his old friend Terry Silver who has never been known to play by the rules. At the end of Season Four, Silver had Kreese thrown in jail for a crime he didn’t commit. Silver also paid off an official to help Cobra Kai win the All Valley and Tory is the only one who knows about it. Miguel ran off to Mexico to find is biological father and Johnny decided to go looking for him. Meanwhile, Johnny and Robbie reunite and try to heal their wounds. Lastly, the LaRusso’s have their fair struggles with Sam losing the tournament and Anthony goes from being a bully to being helpless by not knowing karate. The last thing you see at the end of Season Four is Chozen returning and standing side by side with Daniel at Miyagi’s gravesite. This left with a lot of questions as to where things we’re headed.
Leading up to Season Five, there were a few trailers that showed Terry Silver building up his empire and expanding throughout the valley. It showed Daniel, Chozen, and eventually Johnny coming together to try and get rid of Cobra Kai. Did these three succeed in taking down Cobra Kai? Let’s journey through Season Five to find out.
Episode 1: Long, Long Way From Home
Terry has already begun his expansion and growth of Cobra Kai. He’s opened up multiple locations and is using his wealth to make training even more efficient. Meanwhile, there are struggles with the LaRusso household as everyone adjusts to Chozen being a presence and living there. Daniel shuts down Miyagi-Do and introduces Chozen to all the problems he’s dealt with Cobra Kai all of his life. The highlight of this episode for me was Johnny and Robby going down to Mexico to find Miguel, who was down there looking for his biological father. It was very emotional to see Johnny and Robby bond and Miguel having tons of feelings about searching for his father.
Episode 2: Mole
One of the things, I always wondered about how Chozen was raised. In this episode, you start to see the glimpses of how hard Sato was on him. Chozen infiltrated Cobra Kai and pretends to be a Sensei from another land. He begins to challenge Tory about honor and you can tell she’s conflicted. He also finds out Silver’s plan while visiting him at his home. Silver finds out Chozen’s identity, but it was Chozen who had the warning for Silver. Meanwhile, Johnny and Robby are running into obstacles in Mexico while trying to find Miguel. They learn that Miguel is with his father at a club that he owns. When they are there, they end up in a fight with a couple of MMA fighters. Miguel begins to learn more about his father and realizes his mother Carmen was right about him. Miguel finally heads home with Johnny and Robby
Episode 3: Playing With Fire
Miguel is home and he’s feeling the pressure for his argument with Sam. It seems that Sam has had a chip on her shoulder ever since she lost the All-Valley tournament. Hawk and Demetri try to help Miguel make things right with Sam, while Moon and Yasmine try to get Sam to clear her head and find herself again. Unfortunately, Sam realized that can’t be in a relationship right now because she’s not sure who she is and Miguel Is left heartbroken. The highlight for this episode was watching Daniel track down Mike Barnes. I thought for sure that Mike Barnes was going to be the same guy he was but he’s not the same guy. Mike and Daniel make amends, but Chozen doesn’t realize what’s going on and all hell breaks loose. By the end of the episode, Barnes’ life is turned completely upside down. His life isn’t the only one whose been turned upside down.
Episode 4: Downard Spiral
A lot of people are on different paths in this episode. Johnny is trying to work that doesn’t involve karate and it’s not going great at all. Anthony is trying to redeem himself but Kenny continues to turn the tables and bullies. Last episode, Miguel and Sam took a break and now it seems that Tory and Robby are odds about Cobra Kai and it spills over at the waterpark between all the rivals. Prior to this episode, Terry Silver only messed with Daniel. Now he’s interfering with all aspects of Daniel’s life which is creating many issues for Amanda. You’ve seen Amanda and Daniel argue in the past, but not to the level they did at the end of this episode. This had me wondering how the rest of the reason was going to play out for them.
Episode 5: Extreme Measures
We finally see Stingray, but he’s not walking around with the same energy that he used to. He has definitely been influenced by Silver. Johnny is doing everything in his power to get Robby and Miguel to co-exist. Johnny finally has a solution to let Miguel and Robby fight to get their animosity out once and for all. Amanda goes to visit her family and it turns out that Jessica Andrews (From Karate Kid 3) is her cousin. Amanda leaving has pushed Daniel over the edge and he is acting out of desperation. Jessica fills in Amanda on all the hell that Silver put Daniel through when he was a kid. When I said Daniel was acting out of desperation, he terrorized Stingray at the beginning of the episode. Daniel tried to apologize to Stingray, but was met with some heavy consequences. The highlight of the episode was Tory finally coming clean to someone about the tournament. That person reassured her that everything would be okay.
Episode 6: Ouroboros
Silver continues his mission of expanding and growing Cobra Kai by bringing in new sensei’s. This is where we are introduced to Sensei Kim Da-Eun and her team. Kim begins her teachings and they are something we’ve never seen the likes of before. After dealing with the consequences of everything he’s attempted to do, Daniel seemingly gives in and gives up. Amanda, Johnny, Chozen, and Sam don’t want to him to quit, so they begin taking matters into their own hands. Amanda reveals a conversation that she had with Mr. Miyagi the night before she married Daniel. This was a very emotional moment and Daniel was shown that he is no longer alone in the fight.
Episode 7: Bad Eggs
During this episode both Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai begin some unique training for what’s coming. The kids from both camps are struggling with their training. While the kids are training, Johnny and Daniel are making a deal with the devil to try get rid of Silver. Throughout the episode you see a change in some of the students and their progress with training. You also see Daniel and Johnny outsmart and get the best of an old nemesis. I really felt by this episode that things were getting ready to reach a boiling point and that things could explode at any time.
Episode 8: Taikai
Silver’s plan was revealed and it was to make Cobra Kai a global name by entering a tournament called Taikai. The Board of Directors from TaiKai observed both dojos as they both tried to present their case. The Board of Directors decided that a male and female from each dojo will fight it out. The fights were downright dirty and had some surprising results. I was actually really shocked how things went down. At the end of this episode, there was a big party and we are left with a lot of drama romantically and it appears a shocking confession was about to be made.
Episode 9: Survivors
Once everyone finds out that it was Silver who framed Kreese and bought the referee, I feel like all hell breaks loose. Robby confronts Silver and the rest of the kids confront Stingray. When the kids confront Stingray, he finally comes clean about what really happened with him, but won’t officially tell anyone that happened because he is scared out of his mind due to what Silver might do to him. Silver. He should be scared because Tory felt the wrath of Silver and his staff. The adults were out partying and Johnny and Chozen formed a bond over their experiences with Daniel. They seemed to bond a lot over this season and it was entertaining, but what happened at the end of this episode was anything but funny.
Episode 10: Head of the Snake
This was an intense episode where all of the kids and adults waged war. I cannot even put into words how intense this episode was. All the fights were just pure mayhem. There seemed to be a few casualties in all the fighting, but the ending to the season finale was shocking to say the least. It appeared Cobra Kai might be done for, but is it really?
Season Five was really great in the fact that multiple characters progressed and grew. You could tell that some of them are maturing and realizing the difference between right and wrong. I love how they continue to use some of the old sayings from the original movies and the fact they continue to use music from the 80’s. Cobra Kai Season Five definitely knocked it out of the park with the story they told. The last question that needs to be answered is, when does Cobra Kai Season Six come out?
