Episode 06: Cobra Kai - S01E05 - Counterbalance

2:29PM Jan 15, 2023

Speakers:

Jason Connell

Sal Rodriguez

Keywords:

johnny

daniel

cobra kai

miguel

dojo

robbie

thought

karate kid

miyagi

episode

amanda

bullied

moment

feels

fight

karate

samantha

students

rent

armand

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, comedian and toy collector.

So here we are. This is Episode Five, counterbalance 9.0 rating on IMDb. Oh,

wait, is that higher than the other ones?

Yeah, it's one of the higher rally. Yeah, pretty good episode.

It almost brought me to tears. In fact, it did bring me to tears. I'll be honest.

There's a moment there is a mulligan to that. So I know that you recently ordered this Karate Kid Toy.

Yeah, it is the action figure two pack of Johnny and Daniel facing off at the All Valley karate tournament made by NECA, which is national entertainment collectibles Association. It's so fantastic. I'm so excited to see and get my hands on it. And I am waiting and chomping at the bit. It is not here yet. So is

it because of the show Cobra Kai, you think these toy companies are now reissuing Karate Kid merchandise?

I don't know. That's a very good question. Because I think that I heard about the Karate Kid two pack coming out right around the same time as I heard about Cobra Kai coming out. So yeah, they might have just started opening up licenses. Because I don't think before this series of figures that we have out right now by NECA that we've had any real good legitimate Karate Kid action figures. When I say good and legitimate. I'm referring to today's standards of toys. Not necessarily at standards, there may be figures from the 80s. But you know, action figures have evolved over the years, their action figures today are way better than when we were kids. So in a way I'm making up for lost time. Because when I see an action figure today, one of my thoughts is we didn't have toys like this when I was a kid. We had cheap stuff comparatively speaking. So this two pack that's coming out never before seen nothing has existed like this before.

So why is it not a three pack and throw Miyagi in there? Or the referee there in the arthro Alley in there, make it a four pack if I actually they do have

separate single pack Miyagi, separate single pack, Daniel, and then they have the two pack of Daniel and Johnny and then they have a single figure of Johnny in the skeleton costume. That looks fantastic.

Exciting, why I'm also excited to get into this episode. So we begin with Miguel, he wakes up and he goes right into training mode. some push ups in his room cut to Cobra Kai studio, and he's still doing push ups. And all of a sudden we get like a montage going on. And he's training with Johnny. So we see Miguel getting better. We see Johnny's creativity introducing a baseball pitching machine training.

Brutal. That looks majorly brutal, because I think he's using actual baseball.

Oh, yeah, he's taken Miyagi training to a whole other level.

He's taking creased training to another level. Yeah, Chris has never so creative. But I mean, Chris would probably do something like that if he had the technology today.

That's true. And then Miguel sweeps Johnny's Lake, which is like Johnny's textbook moved from the original Karate Kid. Yeah. Which I really enjoyed. And then of course, Johnny takes him down. He fires up the baseball machine with the remote and bounces one off his head

right off his ear.

Right off his here. Yeah.

So Miguel is there writhing in pain from his ear,

but Miguel is getting pretty tough. I'm impressed with his training. He's really coming a long way.

I admire the commitment you see right now is where the rubber meets the road as far as McGill's commitment to karate commitment to Cobra Kai. You see it really taken a stronghold here. Yeah. It's a real turning point for Miguel. I think he's got

a father figure. Johnny's got a son. Ish. And there's real bonding, but he's running out of money. He has one student. And so what do we see come in the dojo right after this great montage.

A bunch of yoga students coming in who sublease from Gianni and they start their yoga class and then they put a big banner over the Cobra Kai verbiage on the wall. This is strike first,

which I think's a bit overstepping your subletting.

What did they say we need to light what did they say we change

the energy of yam or something. Yeah. And immediately I've taken a lot of yoga, and they come in and within five seconds, they're in Downward Dog or they're doing back stretches and they're going at it so it was a pretty funny transition.

They don't waste any time they walk in there and and start doing their thing. But John is trying to

make it work looking for other revenue streams while he lowers and more students cut to the Encino oaks Country Club. And we see Daniel meeting with Armand, who you've probably recognized before from Borat, right? Exactly. Yes, you can. I'm gonna butcher this last name, but D A v i t i A and you want to take a shot at that? No. Okay. Because you're reading it. I can daveh tn. We definitely recognize this actor from many other films. He's always a pretty good comic relief, and he's the owner of the receipt of flats over on victory Boulevard. And Daniel is inviting him to the country club. Why?

He's buttering him up, so to speak.

I guess while he's dipping his lobster and butter. No, yes, literally.

I couldn't figure out if Daniel legitimately wanted to buy the strip mall or if that was part of his plan to just make the strip mall seem exciting. Popular so that Armand will raise the rent on Cobra Kai.

And I guess our mind wants to get back into becoming a Club member. He lost his membership at some point in time. He lost

his membership at some point. We don't know why, but we find out later in passing, but I liked the line from Arman. You want me to scratch your balls? How you gonna scratch my balls?

And I was like, I don't think that's how the expression goes. But yeah, pretty funny sequence. And now we see Amanda and Samantha and my opinion, it's their first mother daughter moment. Finally, for the first time, I can see Amanda, that is her daughter.

Yeah, I don't think we've had any moments like that. So far. She always

pushed it on Daniel. And that's why I really thought she was a stepmother for the first few episodes, so it's nice to establish that rapport. So now we cut to Robbie's bringing home groceries, he's in good spirits. His mother is on her way out, as usual. But she mentioned that Johnny wanted to possibly take Robbie in.

Well, she's not just on her way out, she's getting ready for a date. She's messing up. She's letting us know, the viewer is her priorities aren't to get a man she does say something kind of telling where she goes, Oh, Robbie, you're gonna grow up one day and go out into the world. Some of those you're going to dump me. Anyway. So obviously, his mother has some sort of abandonment issues where he thinks people are just gonna dump her, even her own son, and we

kind of feel for Robbie here. He got the pizza that she actually likes. And he asked her if she wants to watch a movie and you know, just he's getting no love. No, it's got no father figure. And his mother's already checked out. Yeah,

yeah. So he really is alone. I mean, we see his juvenile delinquent friends but whatever, but not in

the same. So now we're back to Miguel training at the Cobra Kai dojo, and Aisha wants to join. i You should have been Sam's friend. And Johnny says what does he say? So

no girls in Cobra Kai, exact. So Miguel has to give them a hey, snap into reality here.

He does a little differently. Miguel, his head salesman, takes Johnny in the backroom and just says, you know who her father is. And I guess I use his father was a Hall of Fame lineman for the San Diego Chargers now the Los Angeles chargers. And he says her parents have money and other people would follow. And so Johnny changes his mind smartly changes his mind.

Sure you want to get in with the crowd that has the money to pay you.

And so what I liked in that scene, too, is there's a whiteboard in the background. I don't know if you noticed it. I just said current students, Miguel, empty whiteboard.

Pretty funny. I didn't see that.

So then I Isha is allowed to join. And she shares how she's been cyber bullied. Yeah. What's Johnny? He says there's no honor and cyber bullying. No, back in his day. You have someone to bully. You do it to their face. That's honor. There's some honor insane and in somebody's face. So So have you ever been bullied or cyber bullied?

So I was never really bullied? Online. However, I did experience pushback when I uploaded my first stand up comedy video and we're going back to about maybe 2000 2001 I uploaded my first stand up comedy video onto YouTube. And oh boy, the hate I didn't see where it was coming from. I

didn't know why you were going to your racist face back then.

I wasn't telling any racist jokes yet. But I found it interesting that all these strangers felt the need to insult me. They don't even know me. They don't know who I am. Why are they watching my video at all? If they don't like me, if they don't like it, why not just move on like I do. If I don't like something I just move along sort of interesting as a sociological study as well, that people are just willing to sit home and and let the hate out. Wow. I don't feel the need to have to lash out. If I don't like a video. You're not a hater. No. So yeah, I did experience that. But now I'm toughened up. I mean, look at all the years I've been online now on YouTube on MySpace on Facebook. So I'm pretty tough. Now. I'm pretty bulletproof as far as the internet now. If I were a teenager today, experiencing the hate that people can do and perform in social media. Oh, yeah. It must be pretty rough.

You're still on MySpace, aren't you?

I think I still have a profile. I think.

So. Wait. So that's not called the cyber bullying. Okay. Why is it term for that?

It would probably be more trolling. That's bullying. That's the term. Yeah. So yeah, I definitely have been trolled. But you never did any bullying either. Oh, no, no, I'm not that kind of first.

I was really fortunate. I was never bullied. I guess it seen some of it. But really, I remember it from Karate Kid.

Yeah, more than anything. Well, there was a lot of bullying going on in 80s movies. Wasn't the revenge of the nerds. Weren't the weird science guys believed for sure. Yes. Okay. So bullying. It didn't come out in the social arena so much this term bullying, but all those 80s movies, people getting bullied.

It was like high school hazing. Yeah. Okay. So I used to share cyber bullying. Johnny's upset about it, and he's ready to train these two Cobra guys to fight. Okay, now we're at LORUSSO auto Daniels on the phone with Armand. And he's offering more for receipt of flats

10% over market value, and Arman thinks something's

going on declines the offer and he senses something as if Daniel has ulterior motives, and Daniels denied

arm and says something like, I didn't get to my level of success by listening to car dealers or something like that. And I hate this MOBA. Yeah, he tried the boba. A lot of business people don't want to sell their property, they just want to jack up the rent. So much of what's happening in Cobra Kai, with the rent in this episode and the lease and the doubling of the rent that is actually happening all around us. And particularly in this area in the San Fernando Valley. A lot of small businesses are being pushed out by landlords jacking up the rent, and unfortunately, renters have no protection, right?

And so although Arman thinks his receipt of flats is a dump, having someone interested in it makes him reevaluate it. And essentially, he's gonna go and jack up that rent.

Oh, and Daniel does say to Armand, enjoy pissing in your own shower, and we learn that is how Armand was kicked out of Encino Country Club is by being in the show.

Everybody does it.

At home, maybe.

So now we see Jasmine and Moon. They're getting high. And they're getting spooked by the local kind of comedic vagrant.

Yes, she is the one who Johnny originally recruited to be assigned spinner, and was an episode one or two.

But she was actually in the first episode when Johnny went into got the pizza at the convenience store. So she pops in and out of lots of

episodes. Good character actress has some recurring work. And

then it's kind of a weird scene. But then Sam jumps in the car and it spooks them.

One of them says, oh my god, we thought you were a poor person. I love that line.

So Sam is confronting them because they've given her they've ostracized her. They invited her to a concert, didn't take her calls. And all of a sudden, she's seen videos of them at the concert. So she wants to know what's going on. Essentially, Kyler told some lies about Sam

Cuyler said, you said you think you're better than us. That's what Yasmin said. Which of course, Samantha never said that. No. But doesn't everybody know that he's a piece of garbage. And what else did he say? So Kyler has convinced everybody in the school that Samantha gave him a blow job at the movie theater, which we all know is not true.

Absolutely. In fact, she used her karate moves and embarrassed him at the theater.

She did make some pretty cool moves. I think at that moment is where we learned Oh, Samantha knows a few karate moves.

Absolutely. So we're back at the Cobra Kai dojo, and it's the first lesson for Aisha and Gianni has Miguel fight Aisha. Yeah. Which is pretty funny. And Miguel is really standoffish and doesn't want to engage with someone who's never had a lesson. And what happened? Well,

he apologized. And then he gives her a front kick and knocks her down.

But she's tough. Yeah, she gets up and body slams Miguel.

Yeah. She doesn't take down maybe she has a wrestling background. Who

knows when her father is a Hall of Fame football player. She

tackles Miguel. That's what she does have to learn how to tackle from her dad. That's right, who's a football player who was a lineman. I just figured that out. Okay, so she tackles Miguel takes him down and then jumps on him. And I think drops a knee on his chest.

And Johnny says she's a natural, our natural Cobra Kai natural

Cobra Kai.

Yeah, that was a great moment.

That was a pretty cool moment.

So Armand is yelling with the convenience store owner, because he is doubling his rent. And of course, Johnny comes in, he hears this yelling, and he finds us out at the same time. And now none of the shop owners know what they're gonna do. In fact, I

even realized later on Johnny's paying rent on his apartment, and he's paying rent on his dojo, that's double rent, he should just limit the dose. He's just live at the dojo. I thought of that, too.

So we cut to Robbie, who is viewing the Cobra Kai website, as his mother comes home with a random guy. Probably not that unusual for Robbie to see.

Was that the same guy from the bar scene? Oh,

that was a different different guy.

So he's trying to hook up. I wonder what a website she's used or you think she's on Tinder.

She probably is on Tinder. And she doesn't even know he's sitting there in the living room. He puts the headphones on Robbie's just disgusted. But he is checking out the website. You know, there's a level of interest. He's trying to see what Johnny is up to. Now we cut to Johnny at the pawn shop, because he's got to make some extra money now because his rent is doubled At the Dojo.

Was he trying to sell an old issue of Sports Illustrated with Ellen McPherson. Yes,

that is right. And he had an Atari. Then he busted out some old gold coins like Franklin Mint. And he thought with his letter of authenticity, he was going to get his 1200 that he needed, and the pawnshop owner said yes. 60,000 more of these and you might get your 1200

if you've seen Pawn Stars, you know the deal. Oh, yeah, you go in there thinking you're gonna strike it rich on what you're bringing in but you realize, no, you're not. I

might get $5 Yeah, so Johnny's disappointed and just takes the box and leaves doesn't sell anything. I liked

that. He goes back to the dojo looks in his own fridges. No beer in the fridge at all.

Exactly. No coolers. So Johnny goes to the store. And this is an interesting thing to me, Sal. Daniel comes in and asked for a red spray paint can.

I think that Daniel went there to try to just see if they sold it? Yeah. And I don't think that a convenience market like that would sell spray paint and they had it in the back. Yeah, that was interesting. So that's when Daniel realizes, okay, they sell spray paint right next door to the Cobra Kai dojo. That's it.

And then he saw Gianni. And I think you're right. I guess Initially, I thought that he really stalked Johnny to go in here. But you're right, he was probably going to check it off the list. If they didn't sell it. He could assume maybe Johnny didn't do it, as if Johnny couldn't get spray paint somewhere else. So Johnny feels very guilty because he knows what he did. And then to add insult to injury, Daniel pays for Johnny's beer.

Yeah, let's put it on my tab. He

says he's already feeling guilty about what he did. And he's just kind of defeated.

Wait, do you think Johnny feels guilty about drawing the big dick on the Billboard?

I do? And that's really,

I don't know, I'm kind of thinking that Johnny is just caught off guard in that moment, holding his beer, being depressed, feeling hopeless, doesn't know if he's gonna be able to keep the dojo he's overwhelmed financially. And then here is the hotshot enemy still at this point, walking in. I think that what Johnny was feeling was shame about his scenario, not necessarily about the billboard. That's not what

he's had that happen before the shame being caught. I think he felt some guilt because he also did that spray painting when he was pretty hammered. Yeah. And I think there's a little regret there. Okay. But now Daniel has his answer. He knows in all certainty that it was Johnny that did the spray painting.

Yeah, whatever detective work Daniel went through. He is now satisfied that he has his man. Johnny's the one that drew the dick. Not not Tom Cole, not Tom Cole.

Now Daniel is pouring wine for him. And Amanda,

I liked that moment. Because we go from Johnny buying 12 pack to then cut to Daniel opening up a bottle of wine in his beautiful home with his beautiful wife. Yeah, those moments of dichotomy. I love those contrasting want

to add one thing to your story. There's Daniel but Johnny's beer. Yes.

Which, to some people makes matters worse for Johnny. Yes. Because then he feels like oh, you know, I can't even buy my own beer.

So he's pouring this wine and he shares the flyer. And he explains who tagged his sign and His great plan,

which Amanda does not like, and I really liked Amanda's reaction. She's like, What are you doing?

So explain his plan.

His plan was to get Cobra Kai's rent jacked up so that they would have to close. That was always his plan. Yeah. And a man is like, what are you doing?

What about the other shop owners? She said? Yes. And Daniel didn't even think about that for two seconds. No, the convenience store person and anyone else located and the receipt of flats. What else

could be there? I'm thinking, oh, there's got to be a foot massage place. Liquor Store, karate studio foot massage place.

I would assume there'd be a subway there.

Mm hmm. Yeah,

I could see but I guess the convenience store does all the food offerings in these episodes.

So the delicious pizza of the receipt of flats liquor store,

please come here and have the owner man handle your pizza. Okay, so one thing about the scene which I thought was interesting was that is a tight shot of the Cobra Kai flyer of which we saw on a previous episode when Robbie picked it up, but I looked at it again. And the top is learn to fight. Join Cobra Kai, not many karate studios promote learn to fight. Yeah, it's more about self defense or, you know, learn some valuable lessons in life. But Johnny's just driven the crease way,

if you will. Yeah. It wasn't like increase the discipline.

No, learn to fight learn to kick ass. So Amanda, as you said, is not pleased. And it was a really good point she makes. And she even goes on to say, you know, ever since your childhood Nemesis came back into your life. You're embarrassing. Sam at the dance. You're kicking Tom calls Bobo out of his hands, whatever. You're doing anything to stop. Yeah. And she's 100%. Right?

Yeah, because this goes back to the moment. And I think the first episode, when Daniel is in his car, looks over and sees the Cobra Kai Dojo for the first time. And you just see him start to shrink inside his life on off the tracks. What happens in those moments is the inner child peeks out? Yep. And so this is now Daniel Russo's inner child lashing out because he thinks he's been bullied when really he's not. No, he's goes back to the 80s emotionally is what he does.

So now we're back at school and Sam is rejected in the cafeteria by the rich girls, as well as by Aisha

ie she doesn't want to sit with her. And the rich girls, moon and Yasmin don't want to sit with Samantha.

So she confronts Kyler in front of everyone knocks over his tray, right? Yes, and he sticks to his lie mentions the billboard penis and Miguel enters and what happens,

Miguel can comes in. I think he says something like stop being a jerk. And then that's when Kyler says, Oh, I can handle your lay mass karate he says something like that. And Miguel says it's not lame as karate. It's Cobra Kai.

Great line. Great seeing. Yeah. And it sets up. Pretty damn good fight.

Oh, yeah, Miguel kicks ass in this scene. I mean, reminiscent of Johnny kicking these guys asses in the first episode, right? Yes. So Miguel does what his sensei did earlier. And he's

not just fighting Kyler it's Kyler and Company, the guys that have bested him a couple of times. They used to call him Maria after they poured the Pepto Bismol on him in the first episode reassured for diarrhea, but he does incredible. He uses karate tables, food trays. Yes. And all the while. What are kids doing?

Everybody's filming it. You know, they're posting it to social media.

It's already going viral. This incredible fight sequence which in this day and age, if that really happened, it would be a huge deal. Oh,

sure. Yeah, that's reality based If that really happened that would go viral. Absolute everybody would be sitting home like who is this kid?

I liked it when he yells no mercy. Yes. Yeah, she's into it. Everybody is physically help. But she was rooting him on his fellow Cobra Kai student. Okay, so now we are back at the Cobra Kai studio. And Miguel is sharing the news of Johnny about this great fight. Yeah. And Johnny is impressed. Yeah. And so much. So what does he give Miguel?

Johnny gives me Gil, the GI that he trained in for his first tournament from 1981.

And it's a beauty. It's all folded up nice and neat in the back of the car, probably waiting for Miguel to earn this from Johnny. And it was a great moment. I thought I haven't thought

about that word Johnny was maybe expecting for this moment to happen some moment. Yeah. And have that ready. Right. Yeah. So he's that was planned. So he presents that to Miguel. And then they give each other a hug.

Yeah, like double hugs, fist pumps. He's really proud of this pupil, and probably his first moment to being a father figure. But in the background, who's overseeing this entire exchange? In the

background? We see Robbie, Johnny son. We don't know why he's there. I guess. We assume that he just came to say hello to his dad or just to see the dojo may probably did. Okay, so he then spies. His dad hugging Miguel Miguel hugging his dad. And I guess we assume he gets jealous and doesn't about face and walk the other way

because they're in the parking lot. Robbie is on a skateboard and was gonna just pop in see the Cobra Kai studio sees Johnny's close to another kid of his same age as Pierre. Yeah. He just turns and runs. Yeah. You know, it's just too much for him. And now we go to a very touchy moment in the episode. As Daniel visits Mr. Miyagi is great.

Okay, at first I didn't think it was Miyagi he's see right after that scene, with Johnny with Robbie, with Miguel right after that scene. And we see Daniel walk to the gravesite, I'm thinking all we're finally going to know who Daniel's father is. Well, that would have been in New Jersey, probably okay. And then I thought, Maybe it's his mother. We haven't heard anything about his mother. So I was even thinking the gravesite was going to be his father or be his mother. Wow. And instead, we're way off. I was completely off. So then when it was Mr. Miyagi, I'm like, Oh, I did have a few margaritas before I saw this episode. But it did bring tears to my eyes seeing him kind of broken, right at Mr. Miyagi is gravesite incredibly touching. And again, I'm not even necessarily pro Daniel, in this moment yet, necessarily. I'm kind of more pro. Johnny so far, right? But still Just knowing the relationship that they had, knowing how Daniel feels about Mr. Miyagi, incredibly touching scene at his grave site where Daniels sort of has a breakdown. He says, I don't know what I'm doing. I feel clueless.

He went there to get centered and it works. But what I noticed from the grave site, besides all the touching moments that you spoke of, is that Mr. Miyagi was born June 9 1925. He passed away November 15 2011. lived to be 86 years old. Pat Merida. born June 28 1932, they have been born the same month, died November 24 2005. Died in the same month. 73 years old. Interesting Miyagi outlived Marita by 13 years.

Very interesting. I wonder why they did that. There's got to be something relevant to the storyline and Cobra Kai

now that's a question for the writer of the show creators are Daniel or someone. I geek out on that kind of stuff. I'm not gonna lie. I know you do

notice those things. I often may not notice little things like that. And then Daniel's trimming a bonsai trees right here's a little bonsai tree there at Miyagi graves. I was kind of like, oh, there's something in my excuse me as I was watching this, I have to admit

and then as Daniel gets back in his car we have which I do love about the show when it does Is this we have a Karate Kid flashback. Yeah. And you see Mr. Miyagi speaking to Daniel.

This is right after he gave him the car. And Daniel sat in the car. That was his birthday gift, right? Yes. This is that moment.

He's talking about lessons about balance, not just karate only lesson for a whole life. Yeah. And he's really talking about balance, which goes back to the title of the episode, which is counterbalance. And that's what Daniel is probably seeking right now. Because like I mentioned earlier, and you alluded to his life's a little off track, introduce Johnny and Cobra Kai, and it's frazzled. Daniel. Sure. And he's got us from the past, and he's got no one to really connect with his daughter right now. It's going through her things. Amanda, his wife's kind of like, just get over this midlife crisis. He doesn't have Mr. Miyagi. And so he's not sure what to do, but come into the grave. Help Center him

now that you mentioned that it doesn't seem like Daniel has any buddies or any actual friends, like colleagues that he can confide in or or have a drink with? No, it seems like in this episode in the next Daniels reaching for things reaching for people.

Exactly. And notice Johnny, to be completely honest, even less, so

they're both very isolated, because at least Daniel has employees that he can boss around. That's right. And he's got a wife and he has a beautiful wife.

So now Johnny pulls up to the cobra, Kai dojo, and students are lined up. I mean, this is like a blockbuster. They're lined up and they're all watching the fight video. Yeah. And Johnny is just like, What is going on?

Yeah, he's excited. Miguel tells them hey, everybody saw the video. Everybody wants to join. And so we're thinking, hey, we're gonna get some some traction here. This Miguel is a hell of a Salesman. Miguel is not only kicking ass and karate, the guy's a marketer. He's in

real. He built a website. He gets this incredible fight wins goes viral. And he's literally brought in what 30 students? Yeah, lock this guy up. He's wonderful. Now at home, Daniel clears his dojo, which had become a storage room. Yeah. And he's putting pictures of Miyagi back on the shelf and kind of making this that place again, where he can start practicing. Yes, because that's something that's been missing, as we've talked about in previous episodes. That probably was his center. Yeah. And obviously, he trained Samantha for a few years in her youth. Yes, but it's been void ever since

he just became busy with his automotive Empire is what he did. Yeah. But when Amanda walks by and sees him setting up the dojo, and you can tell she looks pleased, or she knows that he's starting back on a good path again.

Exactly.

So he was missing the karate was what was missing in his life.

Yeah, he didn't turn to the bottle. He's not going out late with the guys. He's just fixing the dojo and getting that Zen back in his life.

I wonder if we're going to be getting into at some point how they met. How did Daniel meet Amanda? What was their courtship? Like? What was it about him that she found interesting in the beginning, because remember, she says, You know, I want the old Daniel Lewis sort of comeback like so there was a Daniel that was present when they met when he was wooing her probably. I wonder what level he was at in his automotive Empire when they met as well.

I'd say probably very early. I bet issues a big part of his success.

Well, behind every great man is a great woman as the old saying goes, and that's Johnny's problem. Yeah, Johnny doesn't have a good one he's got he doesn't have Ali anymore. That's right.

Okay, cut to the Russo Otto and Amanda's hiring Robbie.

Yeah, Robbie is sitting there to get a job. At LORUSSO auto.

He's got some sort of mocked up resume though. Yeah. Oh, he. He took some liberties.

Amanda refers to it as your high school transcripts are so impressive and you're like, what? This kid doesn't have any damn high school transcript skipping months at a time. He probably faked these transcripts like he faked his uniform at that computer repair shop that one time right. He's a con art Eduardo's. Yeah, uniform. Robbie is a con artist. And that's why at this very moment, I don't really know what to make of Robbie yet.

His character will continue to evolve. It's all I'm gonna say. So now we're back at Daniel's dojo. It's all clean, spick and span. And he's donning the infamous bandana, from the Karate Kid. And as we pan out, he's also wearing his GI, which still fits wonderfully. And kind of a Karate Kid theme song starts to play. Yeah. And it's kind of a cool moment. Very

cool moment. Because right there is where you're thinking. Daniel Russo was back or should I say let me be clear. The Karate Kid is back. There you go. Yeah, that's it. The Karate Kid is back when he puts on that headband, puts on his GI starts doing some cocktails. I think he delivers an elbow at the end guys.

And I like the very end tag of the episode. Yes. And loving memory. Noriyuki Pat Merida. Yes. 1932 To 2005

Yeah, it was a very touching episode with the Mr Miyagi sequence and then at the end when they have the homage, very touching episode if you're a Karate Kid fan, if you love Pat Marieta this is definitely the first hopefully of many homage is to Nora you Keep at Marina

and that was a nice photo of him and

Daniel it's a beautiful shot.

Yeah it's a great shot there's a scene in the background these cliffs at Marina it looks a little bit older and this more distinguished and, and rough matches. So looks like a kid. Yeah, it's

a beautiful picture. And I love how they put it there at the end. A wonderful send off of that episode, Episode Five.

All right, that concludes Episode Five. Hopefully you give us a rating or subscribe to us on iTunes or wherever else you get your podcast. Anything you want to add.

No mercy,

no mercy. Well, we'll see you soon. Thanks a lot.