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.
All right. So here we are episode eight, molting. Let me say that again, molting.
What does that mean? Isn't that like melting iron or something
that just sounds exactly something that I've tea to your molting. It did get an 8.8 rating on IMDb. So it's another fantastic episode.
I am completely emotionally invested at this point. And we have
two more episodes after this for season one. And just think there's a whole offseason waiting for you.
I don't want to jump ahead. Now. You can't. I don't want to know what happened. I love suspense. I actually realize as a TV and movie lover. I don't want to know what's up. I want to think what's going to happen, but I really don't want to know what's going to happen. I like to be surprised.
So let's tell the audience what happens.
We're assuming that if you're listening to the show that you've seen Cobra Kai, like if you're listening to season one, episode eight Cobra Kai podcast, you've seen season one, episode eight already, right? Would you assume that?
I would assume
they have seen it? Okay. Because there will be spoilers.
This whole show is a spoiler. And I would also assume, and if not assume I would hope that they've seen the karate kit.
I would hope so too.
So we opened this episode at of all places and auto junkyard Yeah. And Johnny is drinking coolers, no surprise. And he's wearing a Cobra Kai shirt, which I used to have one of those exact same shirts, part of my Halloween costume and two subsequent years. And he has a red jacket on not a Cobra Kai jacket, but a red jacket. And he's done in his famous bandana. And he's standing on top of a van while he addresses his students. Yeah. And once he's saying,
Well, what an interesting place to train a junker. I don't know if they've ever used a location like that in some sort of training montage ever in a movie or TV show.
The last junkyard scene I can remember a stand by me and then there was one in Pulp Fiction, and Breaking Bad, of course.
But if you think about a junkyard, it's a dangerous place and not a place for kids. No, there's broken glass everywhere. There's pieces of metal that are going to dig into you and give you tetanus. You know, it's not a happy, fun place. In fact, if you're there as a student, what are we doing here is what you're probably thinking.
So next thing you know, we're in the midst of a training montage. Yeah, they have baseball bats, they're bashing the window. It looks like fun. They're running over dumpsters. If they fall, they're gonna get cut to smithereens. There's a tire course. And that leads up to what happens next.
Johnny breaks out a dog whistle blows it. And here come while junkyard dogs che whities? Yeah, chasing the students and these students make a break for it running for their lives. Literally. I think Hawk might have gotten caught.
He's bitten. Yeah. And Chinese like they can sense fear. And these aren't just little dogs. These are vicious, low gain, German Shepherds and other tough dogs like a few episodes earlier when Johnny installed the baseball pitching machine he's really taken this Miyagi type of training to another level
then makes you think well how did crease train people what kind of methods decrease employ that now? Johnny's doing all these wacky I think Johnny's
seen a lot of movies and just got some ideas. Johnny was never trained by Mr. Miyagi. So I'm only using that out of respect for Mr. Miyagi. Yeah, his ways. Daniel is maintaining that through line. Yes. I don't know where Johnny came up with these ideas. Yeah, but I like them. Yeah.
So we're not to assume that crease took his students? No, I think he
was into raw Bare Knuckle fighting. I don't think that it dealt with this type of ingenious thinking. So back at La Roussos. Anthony plays a game on his phone, man versus dog. Is that what it is? I don't know the name of the game but a dog is attacking right after the scene. And Samantha is looking at photos of her and Miguel. Yes,
they are starting their love story. Samantha and Miguel
interrupted by the doorbell. And who's there?
I could not believe it. I was besides myself besides or beside I both when Daniel Russo's mother shows up such a throwback to Karate
Kid, his mother from the original. Absolutely right.
I mean, because you're wondering this whole time you're watching Cobra Kai. Well, what happened to Russell's mother? She was a pivotal character. Yeah, so here she is making her appearance.
She looks great as ever. She's enthusiastic. Happy to be there
brought by Louis. So Louis must be her nephew. Yeah, I would imagine so.
And now we can kind of see the family dynamics, which is kind of funny between the mother in law and Amanda. They have their own typical strain, if you will. Yeah. But the kids are happy to see her. And right away they're talking about Cobra Kai, which I found interesting. The Russos Yes, referencing Cobra Kai and Samantha is a little bit like whoa, I can't divulge too much here I'm dating. Yeah, Cobra Kai,
and then Daniel asked Sam to promise to stay away from Cobra Kai.
That's a tough promise. They have no idea that she's even dating Miguel. No. And after the experience with Kyler Yeah, she's just kind of keeping it to herself. Yeah. And Louise mentioned in some sort of ploy to get Johnny's car back from him from the work that LORUSSO Otto did.
Oh, like Louise like you should just take that car back. Exactly. Yeah, like you should take Johnny's car that you worked on
nothing bonds a family more than some Cobra Kai bashing. Miguel is now training alone. Because Johnny says that's his best chance to win the tournament. I found that to be odd. No one else comes in that day to train and Miguel is going out solo. But I think
the idea is, is that Johnny believes that if any of his students have any opportunity at this tournament, it's going to be Miguel. Well, I mean, Hawk has an awesome hairstyle, but I guess he doesn't have the skills that Miguel has yet but I
would venture to say, keep training. Don't keep the students away. Let them train and let Miguel just keep doing what he's doing. But hey, listen, that's Johnny's. Joe, Joe. Maybe they're all recovering from the junkyard. So Miguel gets a alert from his phone, and it's from Sam. And so he's going to show Johnny who his girlfriend is. And Johnny recognizes her.
Oh, yeah. Johnny discovers that Miguel is dating, quote, A LORUSSO
immediately pissed. Oh, yeah.
Well, because he has the flashback to his car getting hit. As to while a Russo even worked on his car, because Samantha and her friends hit Johnny's car and not just hit it took off. Yeah, they did a hit and run. So as a criminal act officially.
So Johnny has a very different point of view about the law Russo's
Yeah, well, at this point from Johnny's perspective, it's not just Daniel Russo. It's the law Russo's?
Yeah, don't be the Russos. Yeah,
it's like the whole family's a problem.
Yeah. He doesn't even know about Anthony, but if he did, he wouldn't just know. So Johnny tells Miguel, that he's got something to tell him. Yeah. So they leave the training session. With Coors and hand Miguel drinks a Coca Cola. He begins to tell him a story that blew my mind.
It blew my mind too, because you get to hear Johnny Lawrence has side of his early meetings of Daniel Russo, and also how they're related to alley
and pre Karate Kid. Oh, it's like a prequel is happening. Yeah.
It was so fantastic.
So he starts with, it was the summer of 82. Rocky three had just come. Like I remember seeing rocky three in the theater with my cousin. So he says they go to see it in the theater and Dutch is throwing popcorn at girls. Yes. And that's how he met Ali. Dutch disturb these girls enough. But Ali wasn't having any of it. She was a strong personality. And she stood up to Dutch. And Gianni right then in there probably fell for Ali. Yeah.
And then he says that they went to golf and stuff on their first date. I love hearing another side of the story. And now we get to hear Johnny Lawrence's side of his early dealings with the LA Roussos.
So he says that he dated Ali for two years. She gave him the classic bandana that he wears to this day. They broke up but he figured it was temporary. This happens at that age, so probably going to work it out. But Daniel arrived. Yeah. And they
go back to the beach sequence. Absolutely. When Daniel Russo first meets Johnny Lawrence on the beach.
And so in Johnny's words, he's saying they're trying to work through some things and La Russo's button in Yeah.
the Russos the bad guy in Johnny Lawrence's story and a
second punches him. Yeah. Now you and I know there's two sides of that story too. He also shoved him and they show the show. Yeah, but LORUSSO punches him. And then true to Johnny's point. Months later, when the storm had calmed down. Daniel does So Johnny at the Halloween dance.
Johnny is sitting in a toilet stall, listening to music rolling and rolling his joint minding his own business. And here comes Daniel Russo in his shower curtain costume and picks up a water hose and douses Johnny Lawrence,
and that led to the Miyagi attack, because Johnny now has to face Daniel for what he did in the bathroom. And Miyagi attacks them. Yeah, he's like, he has his own karate expert. And what do you say one of his friends still had brain damage? Yeah, something like
Wow, I wonder which one still has brain damage to the state for Mr. Miyagi.
So then he goes on to say that they both were in the valley tournament in 84. And he wound up losing and to watch out for the La Russa. Yeah. So Miguel is taking all this in and he's probably torn he's overwhelmed with this great story but yet he has feelings for Daniel's daughter.
Sure. He's between a rock and a hard place. Miguel is and Samantha also,
have you ever dated someone Sal that people said don't date her are don't mess with that family.
I think that women have dated me that people told not to date me. Oh, that's
definitely a problem. Yeah. So now we're back at the Russo cookout if you will. And they're at a full fledged family argument.
Yeah, particularly Daniel's mother and Daniel's wife, Amanda. They're going at it arguing about cooking meals. And his mom makes a statement like, oh, well, you don't have to worry because you just have every event catered. And that was kind of a low blow. Yeah. This is the classic wife, mother in law spat. Absolutely. And then they're arguing about Louis, and I think we're learning here that Amanda is not so crazy about Daniel's cousin Louis. Now, Louise,
definitely the black sheep of this family. Yeah, there's no doubt about it.
Yeah. And she even says, if it wasn't for her, meaning, Daniel's mother, we would have never hired Louis in the first place. So a man is not too keen on Louis. We definitely learned that.
So Johnny and Miguel get back to the apartment complex. And the girl's mother invites Johnny to dinner. Yeah. And that's kind of a cute scene. Johnny probably hasn't had a good cooked meal in a long time. Well, because
I think Miguel's mother says something like, Oh, what are you gonna have for dinner and Johnny's like, oh, hockey, Hot Pockets.
Johnny's a little out of his element. He's calling plantains, bananas, which is not crazy.
No, but I did learn something here. So I myself as an American Mexican, I've always wondered, like, what is Miguel's character? Is he Mexican? Is he from El Salvador is I've always wondered that, you know? So when she says, No, those aren't bananas. Those are plantains in my head. I got oh, they're not Mexican because Mexicans, I don't think make plantains. So that's what I knew there. Were somewhere further south. And that's when we learn that Daniel's mother and grandmother are from Ecuador. Wellesley, I don't go. Yeah. All right. So we learn more about Miguel's family lineage, which particularly to me as an American Mexican, I found very interesting. And the father is dangerous. We find out Yeah, I guess we're assuming he was part of a drug cartel or something. Something
so they moved very far away from him. Yeah. And during this dinner, Sam calls Miguel. He excuses himself to talk to her. And she tries to get him to join another dojo.
Yeah, she tries to get him to join another Dojo leaf Cobra Kai,
well just kind of throws the idea out there. You know, like, there's other dojos and he doesn't know what to make of that. Although he has been instructed not to trust LORUSSO. Well, he
says, I couldn't do that to sensei Lawrence. So we know that Miguel has allegiance. Absolutely. Johnny long, very loyal to him. And then Daniel walks in as Samantha's on this FaceTime call. And he says, Oh, who's that? And Samantha says, No, buddy. And we see Miguel's reaction to Samantha say no, but
she says my lab partner. Is that what she said? Oh, buddy. Yeah. And so yes, he's got a good moment for Miguel. No, no, he's feeling that rejection. Yeah. He doesn't even know Daniel. And he's not even mentioned by name. Yeah, he's filling dismissed. And what Johnny is telling him is starting to resonate. Yeah. So after dinner, Johnny goes home and just has had enough of the pigsty that he lives in?
Well, because I think this piggybacks on what Miguel's mother said, when she talks about her past talks about being a young mother talks about having to break up with Miguel's father, and she says, You can't let the mistakes from the past determine your future. That's it. So Johnny goes back to his apartment, and he has one of those moments where he's like, You know what, I need to change things. And he starts cleaning has literally cleaning, which can be very therapeutic and cathartic.
And the place looks great. Yeah. I mean, really, he could have made a lot of money from the Coors cans, aluminum and his place. And now we cut to the Russos where Robbie meets Samantha for the first time.
Yeah, he arrives at the LORUSSO house, and Sam is sunbathing. He sees her sunbathing. Obviously, you know, the hormones are there. You could
tell there was a connection. Sure. And Daniel arrives and informs Robbie, that they're going to be training outside today. Yeah, he has no idea where, what how, but he's along for the ride.
No. And Daniel even does a last ditch effort to invite Samantha because Oh, my current student. This is my former student. Hey, not too late to join us if he wants. She declines. To Samantha's
credit, she was going to the mall with her mother and grandmother. Yeah, to kind of make sure they get along.
Yes. So at this point, Daniel and Robbie are driving to the woods. You don't know where they're going, you know, they're going somewhere to
the sticks. It looks like Big Bear or Lake Arrowhead or can be in Georgia for all week.
Yeah, somewhere, some beautiful landscape, you know, rural woodsy foresty. And Daniel tells Robbie, close your eyes listen to the sound. And he's like what do you hear it goes nothing goes Yeah, exactly. This is what Miyagi do. Karate is all about exact so he started to get in some of the film is a fee of Miyagi, do karate.
So back at Johnny's apartment, it's now very clean. We see an eagle and American flag painting on the wall. Kind of funny. There's actual groceries and the refrigerator for the first time.
Because usually when you look in his refrigerator, that's just beer. Yeah.
And so he looks for beer, goes past the beer and has a glass of OJ Yeah.
And then you see that little moment. This is where good acting comes in. You could tell that he's drinking that orange juice and suddenly realizes how good the orange juice tastes right. He can actually taste something. Yeah, he can actually taste something besides alcohol.
Exactly. So next thing you know, iron eagle is playing on the television.
This is the second or third time he's watched iron Eagle. I got to see them. We have never seen Iron. I think
it's on a loop. I've always loved it. It's like a teenager version of Top Gun. Okay, but a lot of fun. And if you'd like Louis Gossett, Jr. Sure. It's right up your alley. Okay, I gotta check it out. Daniel and Robbie are now training. And Daniel's donning the Karate Kid catcher outfit. Yes, he's teaching balance complete
with the face mask and everything. And that was kind of cool to see. Yeah, because that is the same outfit that Miyagi wore. Right? Exactly. Did Miyagi have the face mask and everything you
wear the face mask? Wow. Everyone, Daniel was like going around like a boxer. Yeah, a little too. You know, fancy footwork, fancy footwork and Miyagi takes him down. Yes. Okay. So and then Daniel shares that his father died when he was young. We never knew that.
Yes, that is a reveal as well, because I think along the way, throughout the Karate Kid and Cobra Kai folklore, we don't hear anything about Daniel's biological father
and Robbie wants to share his father. Yes, it's
on the tip of his tongue. In fact, they even do a flashback to Robbie seeing Johnny hugging Miguel. So you think well, he's just gonna say, Mr. LORUSSO, my father is Johnny Lawrence. But he doesn't
somebody flashback to that. Was it reaffirming his plan? Or was it just I didn't know the purpose of the flashback?
I think the purpose of the flashback was for us to think the viewer to think that he's now about to reveal the truth to Daniel about who he is and who his father,
but that moment also fueled this fire in him and his new plan. So
I thought, oh, okay, so that kind of affirm was like, Oh, wait,
I gotta hang on to this, because that's where it happened. But whatever, you could tell that he's looking and feeling quite vulnerable. Yeah. But he held back. And they continue their training. Yeah. And
instead he says, Thank you for teaching me. Exactly. So he puts Robbie up on a tree branches as a horizontal tree brand pretty high off the ground. It's at least six, seven feet off the ground. Yeah, at least put some up there. Hasn't worked on kicks. Oh, kick. And the hook kick is what brings them down. So then that's when Robbie falls master all the kicks and let me know come find me. Yeah, but then. So Robbie falls. And then Rob is like, well, what now? Dan was like, get back up.
Yeah. And we also find out that Daniel is a big hockey fan. Yeah, a big New Jersey Devils fan. Go figure.
We don't ever see him play hockey in Karate Kid whatsoever. Right.
never talked about sports in any way either. Other than playing soccer. Yeah,
right. Yes. It's hockey big in New Jersey. Well, they have the devil's okay. And then he goes off. He excuses himself to go find a good cell phone reception so he can watch hockey. So meanwhile you I love these parallels the training that Rob is not going through with Daniel the training that Miguel is going through with Gianni we're seeing both these grown men groom and raise
these young men. And one of them's the other one son.
Yes, that makes it very complex.
So we're now at the movie theater again. And Hawk is pulling a Dutch here and throwing popcorn at girls.
Yes, it's Miguel, I Isha. And Hawk in the movie theater,
and Aisha Miguel are talking naturally during a movie. And he shared that Mr. La Russo hates Cobra Kai. Yeah. And I should knows Daniel. Oh, yeah. Through her relationship with Samantha and it says he's a good guy just got to give him time. And so they're interrupted because hawk has gone beyond the girl had a gentleman who's not happy about getting it.
Yeah. And so the guy says up all right, who did that and hot
collars very quickly. Yeah. Back to the outdoor training and Robbie has mastered the hook kick.
Now this is an interesting scene, because then Robbie goes to find Daniel, and then sees Daniel doing what I can only think is the impossible. He's doing a double arm handstand on this rock. Then he turns it into a Single Arm Hammer. It's pretty impressive. It is incredibly impressive. But then Robbie interrupts breaks Daniels concentration and then Daniel comes crumbling down.
And then we learned that this was the most powerful karate kick that he was practicing and only Mr. Miyagi can execute it properly.
Yeah. Did we see that in karate kid at all? We didn't see this kick that he's talking about. No,
no, all we ever saw Was Mr. Miyagi working on the crank?
Yes. So this is extra mysterious Extra. I'm thinking we're gonna revisit this at some point.
I will not say anything. So back at Johnny's old house, in Encino hills, his stepfather said, is eating and not very cleanly. He's got stuff on his face. He's yelling at his nurse slash character. Yeah. So Johnny enters and what does he do?
Johnny gives an envelope of money to Sid said, Here's your money back. And of course, I'm thinking, What are you doing? Why are you doing this?
I guess the dojos profitable now?
Yeah, but I wouldn't have done it. I wouldn't have kept the money. And
so how much money was it?
Well, this goes back to how much money did sit originally gave him when he attempted to buy him out of his life.
I've always said it was 25k tops. But seeing this handoff, it could have been 10k. I don't
know why Johnny would return $10,000. Really,
you know, I think that moment was just to show that Johnny has changed.
Yeah, it's not just Johnny, a grown man, teaching Miguel a young man to grow. Johnny is growing. Johnny is evolving. So this is part of Johnny's evolution. I totally get why he did it. I'm just saying I wouldn't have done
it. Because he probably doesn't care for Sid anyway. So what's the harm? Keep it but John is not a person seeking money. While he has a lot of pride too. And he has a lot of pride in principles. And he lives a very simple life. And he's doing what he loves. So I could also understand why he did it just to get set out of his life for good.
Sid says something like, Oh, of course you want my money. That's what I always give you. And then Johnny says something like, that's all you could give. And then you see a little moment and said, Where Sid kind of realizes. Oh, yeah, I guess that is all I've ever had it as was such a good actor that you see that little shift where you see that Johnny's words meant something to
sit. He always had power over Johnny. Yeah. And now he doesn't. Yeah, that's it. So
Johnny is now completely a free man, you would say so we may never see sit again. I love it as dinner, but I guess you may never see it again. Yeah, maybe. I mean, again, I haven't gotten ahead. So I don't know what happens. All right,
so now at law Russo's Amanda and the mother in law are getting along famously
got well thanks to Sam because Sam is the peacemaker of the family. Now, I experienced that in my family for many years, where I was the peacemaker, as the youngest of the siblings, until I said, You know what, not anymore, that you guys can kill yourself. You guys go on ahead. I'm gonna go about my business. So Daniel comes
in, sees this interaction is pleased by it knows that Samantha played a role in it, and invites Robbie to have dinner. Sure. And Miguel shows up. Yes, on his bike to see Sam, me Daniel, just kind of like here I am, except me. And what is he saying?
Miguel arrives at the LORUSSO house to introduce himself to the family, in particular, Samantha's father Daniel, but then he catches a glimpse inside. I think they're little they're outside. They're outside, like in the back patio. He sees the LA Russo family having dinner, and he sees Samantha getting along quite well, with Johnny son, Robbie,
and Miguel, again, probably thinking back to what Johnny told him. Don't just LORUSSO. He sees something. He can't believe it. He's out
at that moment. He doesn't know who that guy is. No, but it doesn't matter. Right? He just sees some other young guy. He just knows
it's not him. Yes. And he's not been asked in. So what is he to believe?
It's also the opposite of when Robbie saw Johnny with Miguel. And now we see Miguel. See Samantha with Robbie. So it's very similar moment I've never
met but they've both overseen something very pivotal in their life. Yeah. So Johnny is now writing a letter to Robbie. And he has a photo of Robbie that shows he was a soccer champ back in 2010. And then he over here something. Louis has recruited some motorcycle guys to do what
this was so out of the blue and really upset me a lot. Because everything's kind of going well at this moment for Johnny Lee got the Cobra Kai Dojo into the tournament. His relationship is going really well with Miguel. He's getting along great with his mother who was not in favor of him doing karate. Yeah, everything's going great. He goes outside. Here's Louis, Daniel's cousin, and two biker thugs smashing the hell out of Johnny's Firebird ridiculous. This made me so mad. Now, this was foreshadowed earlier, when they asked about these two biker guys showed up, and then Louis lied about it and said, Oh, yeah, I want to do some sort of sales of motorcycles. So that's what this was about. This was about him recruiting these biker thugs to help him destroy Johnny law. weren't as Firebird
because LORUSSO auto had rebuilt it.
Yeah. And then he's yelling out. Don't mess with my family. Louis said something like that.
He says, this comes from Daniel. So Johnny's not having any of this and quickly takes care of the two bikers dogs.
Oh yeah, it was fantastic. He kicks their ass and then he's about to kick Louie's ass. And I wanted Louise asked, kicked so bad. But in that moment,
Louise a squirrely guy and starts to resend everything. He said, Danny had nothing to do with it. But Johnny wants to know where Daniel lives
and then doesn't. Louis, tell Johnny where Daniel lives? He
does. And Johnny gets on one of the motorcycles. Yes. As his car goes up in flames because they'd poured kerosene or gasoline and threw a lighter
on it. Even Louis wasn't in favor of that.
So the car goes up in flames. Johnny takes off and one of their motorcycles and he is Beelining for the LORUSSO residence. Yeah. So a great episode. And we have two more to go. Yeah. So again, thank you for listening to us. Please subscribe to us on Apple iTunes or anywhere else, you get your podcast.
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