Welcome to Just Curious Media. This is Let's Talk - Cobra Kai. I'm Jason Connell, documentary filmmaker turned podcaster.
And I'm Sal Rodriguez, toy collector, comedian.
Alright, so this is episode three ESCWA Leto. Which means skeleton. Spoiler alert. And this episode got an 8.5 rating on IMDb. So Sal, what do you think third episode? What's your initial thoughts?
I feel like we're starting to get into a groove here,
US or the show?
Well, all of us actually, we're starting to establish characters. We're starting to get into the three dimensionality of each person. I'm really liking where things are going. As far as the backdrop. We're learning more about Miguel, we're meeting his family. I'm really happy with where we're at right now.
So this episode starts with Miguel training, playing classic rock, obviously, influence from Johnny. Yeah. And his grandmother comes and checks on him.
His grandmother comes to invite him to eat I think doesn't shake, right. And then he's doing all this grunting in the room training in karate. But the grandmother thinks he's beating his meat
are jerking off, she's,
she does a translation.
So then we're around the table and Miguel's mother's referencing the Halloween dance which is coming up which all I can think of is the Karate Kid saying
Halloween is the most prominent holiday in the Karate Kid slash Cobra Kai folklore. I gotta admit, when they started talking about a Halloween costume at the Halloween dance, I'm thinking are we going to see Miguel in the shower curtain. That's why when we see what Miguel arrives in, I was like, whoa.
So we cut to the Cobra Kai dojo, and Miguel is the only Cobra Kai student to this
day. And John is looking at all these bills, the bills are a pile and that goes back
to how much money he received, and it just wasn't that much.
Okay, so in other words, he had enough money from his stepdad right from episode one at Asner. Yes, had asked her to open up the dojo, maybe pay a month or two of rent. And that was about it. He's got to go out and start recruiting
at a small runway. So Johnny needs students and it's not like he's ever run any sort of business even in the handyman job. He worked for someone else. Yes. So crease from karate kid. He had a loyal dojo, your parents who had money, very fluent. Yeah. And there was a lot of students in there and they're all black belt. So they've been in his program for years, Johnny has just turned on the switch, put the Cobra Kai logo out. He doesn't know how to recruit yet. And he doesn't know how to do that very soon, Cobra Kai is going away. Well,
Chris almost had a cult like, follow. It's true. Those are his minions. Those are his disciples. So leadership at that time was on another level.
All the more reason that John is going to recruit some students and learn how to run a business immediately.
Yeah, so here's where Miguel starts doing outside sales. Now he's got to bring some new disciples into the new cult of Cobra Kai.
Exactly. So now we're back at the school cafeteria. And Miguel is trying to recruit Dimitri and Eli to be Coburg guys. And Dimitri is sarcastic and he has no interest and Eli is just a very quiet, reserved character at this point in time.
Well, neither kid is going to think oh, yeah, I'm gonna learn how to kick ass right.
Then you see how you show who's Sam's old friend? And Sam's somewhat out growing right now because she's running with the cool kids. Yes, Yasmin and company. And if she comes over and wants to do a fun Halloween costume to be salt, yes. She'll be sodium and Sam would
be chloride was it? That's right. Yeah, as a combo, they would be so dynamic duo. Yeah, you have to know the Periodic Table of Elements for it to be super hilarious. Hilarious is a stretch. And I Isha knows her from the country club because their parents know each other. And
they've been best friends all growing up really, since that time when he started to get different friends. And so Sam tells her I'm sorry, we've already decided to go as Laker Yes. So Johnny hires this lady to do sign spinning sign spinning Cobra Kai sign. And he's also distributing fliers, he goes to the playground guys are playing basketball. And he's like, Hey, guys, you want to pick up these babes over here? Join karate, just the worst salesman that one could be sure. And the two girls he's talking about. They could be with these guys. We don't even know this. Yeah.
So it's kind of out of touch. You're noticing that as Johnny's living his life. Here he is in present day, but he's not exactly present day. No, he's sort of a throwback still.
So not good at recruiting. Bad at sale. Okay, so now we cut to Miguel who created a website? Yes. Somehow I got the Cobra Kai logo. Yeah, it's got a little snake sound and a mailing list. And Johnny is impressed and even more impressed when Johnny hears Miguel's new ringtone, which is a rat track. Yes. And Johnny kind of smirks like this guy's pretty cool.
Well, Miguel says that he went down this rabbit hole of 80s music. In other words, he started to get into Johnny's world a little bit. Yeah, John is getting in his world he's getting in Johnny's world. So it's,
I think Johnny Stan in his world.
Well, Johnny is now looking at a website. He understands
the significance of it. And even Miguel is like, Oh, get some social media going on here. So he understands that to reach this younger demographic, these millennials, he's going to need this guy. Yeah. So now Johnny, inspired by what he's saying. He tells Miguel who had asked earlier in the episode, when am I gonna learn how to kick? He says, meet me at midnight at the school. Yeah, now it's a weeknight and Midnight's late for anybody. So this is a high schooler who's gonna go meet his sensei at midnight to start training yeah far fetched
in the Cobra Kai slash Karate Kid folklore. Maybe not so much. Mr. Miyagi, had Danielson paint the whole damn fence all day long.
That's true. So data by nine probably at this point,
I'm thinking anything goes Expect the unexpected, but
I would just say this. They have a dojo there at the Cobra Kai dojo. Let's just walk out here out of the office and work on some kicks. So Johnny's going off script, and he's got a little Mr. Miyagi, actually.
Yeah. What did he say? He knows the night watchmen or something like that.
So we're at the school. It's kind of a dark scene. Yeah. And no lights are on, and they're by the pool. And once you do to Miguel,
it's an indoor pool. So it's really dark in there. Correct. He ties up Miguel's hands, pushes them into the pool. And Miguel has to survive by kicking. So he's practically drowning.
Miyagi never went so dark.
He never went life threatening. No. It's pretty harsh. Because Miguel
is struggling. He doesn't know what's going on. disorienting, probably can't even see down there, I'm assuming. And so it pulls him up by the hair. And then kind of gives him some motivation, like
the motivation was drowning is for pussies. That's his motivation.
It worked. Yeah,
he kicks his legs and he surfaces and we realize, hey, he's got some strength and power and his legs. He's learning how to kick well
before that, though, are in the midst of that, I should say. We go into an 80s training montage.
Oh, yes. With lots of kicks to wood.
We end the montage. And now Miguel is trying to wear this ridiculous costume. Yatta shower curtain. I don't even know what this thing is.
It was just a really bad handmade costume by his mother and grandmother. I
was a mess. Johnny says he can't go out like that. He's representing Cobra Kai. And we cut to nice slomo intro Miguel is wearing the infamous skeleton costume from Karate Kid. Yeah. Beautiful. Now the only difference is he's one of one of my karate kids. It's like 20 of those costumes. It's
not a skeleton crew.
But it sure looks cool.
It was pretty badass him walking in. I'm telling you. I was like, wow.
It made me just realize just how I conic that costume was Yeah. So he goes up and he sees Demetri Who is he a warlock? What was Dimitri again?
Well, I first Miguel refer to him as a sorcerer, sorcerer. But then I think he corrected him that he was something else probably from some nerd game or something like d&d
Nerd game. So Eli is not just a doctor. He's a plastic surgeon and I believe a facial plastic surgeon that the character
has, I believe maybe a hair lip had surgery, but he still gets made fun of feels bad about it. So he has a Halloween costume where he gets to wear a surgical mask and cover up his hair lip. Like he's got the bird flu or something. Yeah, it's one of those bird flu things
he does get made fun of which will feel him later. Okay, Daniel is at the dance as a he's there
as a chaperone,
which Samantha hates.
Oh, imagine you're at a high school dance and your parent is there lame. Yeah. What are you doing? And then he's there. Not necessarily to chaperone the dance. He's there to keep an eye on his daughter.
Trust Kyler. No. And nor should he know. So now Johnny is at the dance as well. But he's in the hallways flyering the school.
I loved that moment so much because it's very similar to the moment in the previous episode, when Daniel Russo is sitting in the car looks overseas, the dojo for the first time, and you see starts to wilt.
And they show some flashbacks from Karate Kid
him getting beaten by the skeleton crew,
and he still harbors all
of that. Yes, I love that moment because I like these moments where you see behind the facade and to the vulnerability of someone. So those little moments when you just see him start to wither inside. But then he has to obviously come back to reality as a parent, he's chaperoning. He's got to mind his p's and q's. But inside he's still Daniel Russo boy from New Jersey, new kid in school, getting beaten.
And then he's distracted by Kyler and Sam exiting the dance and going somewhere private. So Daniels hot on the trail, walks out in the hallway runs into Johnny. It's not a showdown. But it's an exchange and you can tell that Daniels hanging on to what he believes Cobra Kai was and assumes making a huge assumption that that's what Johnny's creating now. Sure, and there's words but Johnny's not having much of it. He's just trying to get students because he knows this is going to be a different Cobra Kai There's no time for that. Because he's got to go see what Sam and Kyle are up to.
Johnny does say the words, and I quote, I'm not crease, because Daniel made some reference to all you're bringing back Cobra Kai, even after what your sensei did to you. And so that's when Johnny said something like, I'm not crease. In other words, this is different now.
Yeah, that's what's funny about the show. There's a lot of assumptions. Sure. And they're both hotheads. And they have a hard time seeing eye to eye on anything. Sure, which also makes for a great show. Yeah,
because what makes for a lot of rivalry or argumentation or miscommunication is lack of understanding. If you don't have those come together, come to Jesus moments as they say yes, because what we're seeing is we're seeing these parallels of their lives. We're seeing two men who are living life with all of its struggles, its ups and downs, its trials and tribulations. Two guys just trying to make their way in the world. And so you see how their lives kind of counteract each other, right? Different but kind of balance each other out also,
and neither that happy with where they're at right now.
No, neither that happy. I think that neither person is completely satisfied with their lot in life. You know what I'm getting a feeling as I'm watching Daniel, more and more, that he kind of still feels bullied. Yeah, he's a successful businessman with multiple auto dealerships, right. He has a whole multitude of dealerships with five six dealerships in the San Fernando Valley successful billboards everywhere, yet, I think he still feels a little bullied.
Well, Daniel never bullied anyone. So he's only been bullied and he bested them in a safe forum. But that is still there. He still feels what he felt as a young kid still harbors that. And he hasn't had Miyagi to fix him.
No. So then, are we all just children walking around in adult bodies with all the hurts and pains and all the feelings that we have? As kids as teenagers? It's still there and never goes away.
And kid's body is just old. So I Yeesha still goes to the dance. And her sodium costume. Her periodic table? Sure. Yes. Not. So she did her part. And Yasmin makes fun of her eating. Yeah. And films it
Yeah. And puts a little snout a little pork snout on her through some little app sends it to everybody. All of a sudden everyone at the dance is looking at this on their phone.
Yeah, somehow she filmed this edited it and somehow got it out to the entire school made her look like a pig at a trough and she's just eating something at the table like everyone else's there's
a buffet she's eating from the buffet and just makes fun of her and makes
her feel bad. So I you should looks over see Sam next to Yasmin and assumes she was part of it. Sure.
It's almost a carry moment. Very much.
They're gonna laugh at Yeah, very much carry. Yeah. So
all of a sudden, everybody's telekinetic powers, we're all in trouble. Everyone would have been dead. If she would have had telekinetic powers. At that moment, if
Travolta had made an appearance, I would have definitely been on the lookout. But before that, before the video went viral. Sam goes to a classroom of Kyler. And Daniel breaks in assuming that something's going down.
Well, because at one moment, Kyler and Samantha are there and they're making men he's like, oh, I want to show you something. And then he starts reaching down and then he's like, help me with my belt. I have something he's got
like some sort of like Buccaneer costume. Yeah, he's a pirate, I guess. So he can't even get into his pirate belt. Daniel breaks and can't handle it and then realizes he was reaching for something that like a family heirloom? Yes. A little bracelet or something and Sanders embarrassed mad and just tears out of there. Yeah.
When he pulls out the little thing and says this is what I was gonna give her. I'm not really buying it necessarily. Tyler's
got more plans. Yeah, yeah, I'm
not really buying that his motive was that pure? I don't trust him. But
I wouldn't say Sam's there to have sex with a guy. No, not necessary. So Sam is probably thinking, trust me in this situation. Yeah, you know, and she's not happy with her dad because he's there. And not just at the dance. Now he's tracking her.
Well, speaking of 1980s It was one of those Three's Company moments where they're doing something that from the outside looks like they're doing something else.
Mr. Furley is outside. Jack. Yeah, he's
outside listening. He thinks something's going on. He barges in. And it's really just jack and Janet hurt teaching him how to hold a golf club. You know, it's always something like that. And it was no different here. So they were doing something that was actually innocent in the moment, but he just saw her undoing his belt,
or the ropes could have been missed. Okay, by the way, I keep calling her Sam for short. I'll go back and forth. We can say Samantha Sam,
I think that Daniel refers to her as Sam at a few points.
I think I'm doing that. I'm assuming that we're on the same page we're talking about. Okay.
And by the way, Samantha, played by Mary Mouser. from Arkansas, born in 1996. Yeah, young woman but 22 When She's filming the show playing a teenager. If she was in that old a tend to play younger category,
you were a little bit of that Sal on 902 When I want you back in the day, I didn't realize how fantastic
a place 18 to look younger, such a fantastic place to be.
But to be clear, you were on episodes of the original 90210 as an extra. Yes, I
was an extra monotone Oh, Saved by the Bell.
But how old were you when you were on? 90210
When I was on 90210 I was probably actually about 17. Okay, you were younger. I got a fake ID to be an extra nine to one Oh, to play a high schooler and I was a high schooler so I was a high schooler who faked it as an adult play a high schooler why the cast was older playing younger when I was on the set of nanotubes. No, I looked at the stars. And I thought they don't look like high schoolers. Look at our cast. Miguel. Samantha. Miguel is Alex Young. He well he is a team. Yeah. As they're filming this. He's
18 years old. Eli and Demetri are also quite young.
I'm assuming that everybody is at least 18. Yeah. You know, for all the laws with their cat.
They're catching it closer, you know, to real unlike 90210
Yeah, they were all I think a lot of them in their mid 20s. I know. 20 Oh, okay.
So now we are still at the dance. We're in the restroom, and defeated by not meeting any women at the dance. We have Miguel Demetri and Eli. And all the sudden here comes Kyler and company. And Kyler is telling them the story of how he didn't hook up with Sam and blah, blah, blah. And what happens next?
Well Kyler is gloating about the fact about this bracelet scam that he does with girls that he dates Correct. Some family heirlooms. Yeah. Like it's part of his little plan to get into her pants obviously. So our heroes over here Kyler joking with his friend, Joe. Well, Miguel and his buddies over here Kyler and his plans about what we're just foiled
but I'm saying to meet you and Eli quickly accent so it's really just oh my gal.
Okay, so they are out of there quick, fast in a hurry. And it was interesting that Miguel just didn't hightail it out of there, too. He's
been training and he has a little bit that Cobra Kai mindset in him now,
which is strike first.
strike first. Strike. No Mercy. Yep. So what happens?
Well, they start what picking on him poking at him? Yep. And then he does precisely that, right. Doesn't go for the kick.
He goes for the kick and an over confident Miguel gets beaten down. Kind of like it reminded me of a beating the Daniel took on the same Halloween night on Mr. Miyagi, broke up the fight and he took a beating.
Well, actually, it's a little bit worse, because if I'm not mistaken collagraph some sort of weapon,
so he had no help. No Mercy, and they got him good.
And what he's like, uh, what's that crossed it? Yes. That's what it looks like. That's
what initially Eli knocked over some lacrosse sticks. Okay. And they heard them.
Okay, so Kyler beats Miguel with the lacrosse stick. Yeah. Kyler
deserves caller wasn't alone. It's, you know? Yeah. Oh, it's horrible. Horrible. So now we see Johnny in the hallway, and he sees a photo of Ali. Yeah, there's like a trophy case. And Ali's in there black and white photo of her with a football. And he's just reminiscing. And then he hears Kyler and his crew leaving the restroom. thinks you hear something at a distance, goes to investigate and discovers Miguel. Completely beaten. Probably bloody bruised. Yeah. And I think Johnny right then felt compassion, probably some mercy. But he knows the acid train Miguel much more. So he can defend himself against these bucks.
Yeah, Miguel is just a broken heap on the ground. Remember, also at this moment in time, Miguel represents Cobra Kai.
This is his first student ever, as far as we know. So right now Johnny probably feels a little bit like a failure. I failed this kid, I've got to do better. And he lives next to him. He knows he has to take this kid home. And what that consequence is going to look like
Yeah, so I think the episode ends with him looking down at a broken heap that has Miguel.
It's exactly how it ends. Kind of dark, kind of like Empire Strikes Back.
But I hadn't thought of that. They possibly went to the Halloween dance together in the same vehicle.
They did. They did it because he got in that costume. They said we're gonna go and he'll be marketing and doing flyers. Okay. Wow. Yeah. Now had Johnny been more like Freddy, from Karate Kid Daniels friend, he would have left him. Oh, yeah.
I remember that moment when Freddy just vanishes at the beach. I would encourage anybody who loves Cobra Kai. In fact, I was just on Facebook the other day and there were people there who watched karate kid who'd never seen Cobra Kai people who saw Cobra Kai never saw Karate Kid. It's so crazy. Yeah, so I definitely would encourage anybody who likes Cobra Kai to watch karate kid I would encourage you to do so if you don't I think you can still enjoy the characters and still enjoy the show.
But I would encourage and you say credit card the 1984
the original Karate Kid with rough macho and will Jim Zabka the stars of Cobra Kai in their original roles, yes.
And then listen to our special episode. Please listen to this special episode. So that concludes episode three. This has been a lot of fun. I hope that you guys can like us subscribe to us on iTunes or any other place where you get your podcast and I look forward to coming back for episode number four.
Looking forward to episode four big time I'm totally cut out. All right, take care.
