Season 1 of Cobra Kai reintroduced us to
Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso.
It's like going to a reunion and bumping into
someone you haven't seen for a long time.
We started off with Johnny Lawrence,
the kid who seemed to have it all.
The privileged golden boy who was a karate champion.
We find out that present day, his life is not going too great.
"I'd say, get your life in order,
but at this point, you're like the meat in your fridge."
Meanwhile, Daniel has become the auto king of The Valley.
"Bonsai! Daniel LaRusso here from LaRusso auto,
bringing you specials on all of our inventory."
The underdog has become a huge success.
He's got a wonderful wife and beautiful family.
He's going through life selling cars off of his karate past.
-Make that, cha!
Which he doesn't realize is getting under the
skin of his old nemesis Johnny Lawrence.
And so it becomes a little more complex in the adulthood
as they navigate their own midlife crisis's.
"This guy really had it in for me."
"Yeah well you did move in on my girl"
"Well she actually wasn't really
your girl anymore, was she?"
These are grown ass men, like still like
"I'm gonna karate fight you!"
"Come on Johnny! You wanna do this? Let's go!"
Everything changes for Johnny when he meets
a bullied teen named Miguel Diaz.
We come in on Miguel who's getting beat up,
parallel to how Daniel was in the original Karate Kid.
He's not immediately jumping the fence to stop a beating,
he's more a little bit annoyed
that this beating is maybe going to spill onto his car.
"Hey, watch the car man."
"See this guy? Eat his dinner at the mini-mart like a bum?"
"But you guys are pissing off the wrong guy on the wrong day, alright?"
The bullies turn their attention on Johnny,
and they awake a sleeping giant.
Johnny kicks all their asses, amazes Miguel,
begs him to become his sensei.
"Are you sure you are ready?"
"You're going to be my karate teacher?"
"I'm gonna be your sensei."
This seems to be the path back for Johnny.
And then Johnny ends up re-opening Cobra Kai
which creates all kinds of problems in Daniel's world.
Me being Daniel's daughter has her own set of problems in a
kind of love war where she's the Juliet to Miguel's Romeo
on the opposite sides of these warring dojos.
So Johnny brings it back. He's reluctant at first.
But he actually ends up changing
a bunch of these offbeat, weird kid's lives.
"It doesn't matter if you're a loser, or a nerd, or a freak."
"All that matters is that you become badass."
Along the way, his estranged son is not so happy
that he's spending all this time with these other kids
while he didn't even raise him.
To spite Johnny, ends up working for Daniel LaRusso
at his car dealership,
which quickly leads to him being trained for karate.
"That was kata."
"That's the foundation of my karate."
"It's cool."
"You wanna stick around? Learn a few things?"
It all culminates in course at the All Valley Championships.
It's this big showdown between Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do.
Daniel LaRusso returned to the mat as a sensei
across from Johnny Lawrence in the final match.
And Miguel Diaz is victorious,
defeating Johnny's estranged son.
What seems like a huge, amazing victory,
turns out to be a painful experience for Johnny as well,
because in reclaiming victory,
he's even further apart from his son
than he's been in the past.
"I'm sorry."
"It's ok dad."
"You got what you wanted Johnny"
"You won. Congratulations."
And he's seeing that even though he's made this
positive change in Miguel,
he's turned all these kids into
bullies and I think he realizes for the first time
maybe Cobra Kai isn't the right solution for these students.
"You don't have to fight dirty."
"Dirty? There's nothing dirty about winning sensei."
"No mercy."
And then to add a wrench to the situation,
in walks Marty Cove, AKA, John Kreese.
We see that this powerful character from his
background is now in the picture.
"The real story's only just begun."