It’s season finale time again, and fights have broken out across the valley. Things with Silver come to a head as Daniel, Johnny, Chozen, and their kids do whatever they can to finally expose and stop Silver.
Warning: Spoilers exist in this dojo.
My Way
The episode opens with a Kreese-centric montage. As “My Way” by Frank Sinatra plays, Kreese watches a fight brew between Gabriel and someone else. Mixed within this, he talks to Dr. Folsom, feeling especially down about lack of purpose for himself in jail. Teaching gave him purpose and now, after what Johnny said, that will be gone, too. She moves close to him and says to keep fighting, with his heart and his soul. Kreese then intervenes in the fight. Gabriel doesn’t like that and shanks Kreese multiple times, and Kreese bleeds out on the floor.
Party Limo Posse
The limo stops, and Daniel starts to get out until someone grabs him and throws him to the ground. And who is this mystery person? Mike F*cking Barnes. Chozen is next to emerge while Mike screams at Daniel for ruining his life. Johnny follows with a cascade of empty beer cans trailing him. He throws one intending to hit Mike but instead hits Daniel in the face. He starts to fight Mike until Chozen breaks them up. Daniel explains that what happened to Mike was Silver’s fault, and it was never Daniel’s intention to get Mike caught in the middle. He says he will do anything to make it up, and Mike wants to go confront Silver, like, NOW. Daniel thinks it’s a bad idea, but the ship has sailed, and Johnny and Chozen are on board, too. So, they drive off and leave Daniel stranded.
At Silver’s, he and Sensei Kim are talking when Kim sees the limo break through the gate on the security feed. Meanwhile, Mike wants to kick in the front door, but Johnny thinks he should. Chozen, though, stops them both and simply pushes the door open. Silver seems relatively unphased as he reminds drunken trio 2.0 that they’re trespassing; violence on them will be warranted. Another of Silver’s senseis shows up, and he and Mike fight. Mike almost wins until yet another one knocks him out from behind while the rest surround Johnny and Chozen.
Hack the System
Miguel, Robby, Eli, and Demetri (with tech gear in tow) all meet but aren’t sure why; Sam called them. Sam and Tory show up and tell them about the video, but after the dojo move, the OG was cleaned out. Demetri says if Silver took the whole system to the flagship, the footage should still exist (and he did). Eli chimes in that they can then post to the Cobra Kai YouTube Channel, with Sam saying to call everyone else.
They get to the flagship, and when the others arrive, they’re all wary of Tory at first. She can also get them into the building. Mitch asks why they’re there, and Miguel fills him in. The main crew heads inside while the rest stand guard. In the office, Demetri and Eli get everything set up while Robby disconnects a security camera. Joke’s on them, because there’s another, smaller one in the wall right behind the computer. It pings Silver, who sends Kim to deal with it. Unaware of the camera, Demetri finds the video, only it’s almost entirely deleted. Tory remembers another one (that we don’t see) as a ruckus is heard downstairs. Everyone but Demetri and Eli check it out, and it’s the Cobra Kais, who were tipped off by Mitch. Kyler thinks it cancels out now that both groups have traitors (meaning Tory). Tory tries to reason with them, Robby chimes in, and Kenny gets confrontational. Miguel steps in and the fight begins.
Cobra Kai to the Rescue
At the LaRussos’, Amanda and Carmen unwind with some tea and are ready for things to go back to normal. Daniel calls her and tries to explain what happened. She needs to pick him up, and he sends his location. However, his cell service is awful, and the call drops just as someone pulls up to the house. Amanda is nervous, because it’s Cobra Kai.
Daniel finds a guy with a truck and needs a ride, but the guy is a total donkey and refuses. Daniel is ready to duke it out when more guys come out of the truck. Just in time, Stingray comes zooming around the corner (“Mr. LaRusso, come with me if you want to live”) and Amanda tells Daniel they need to go save the kids. In the car, Stingray apologizes, and the other three (Carmen is there, too) can’t get in touch with Sam, Anthony, Miguel, or Johnny.
Homefield Advantage
Chozen and Silver have started fighting and are back in the sword room. Silver brings up how Chozen said he would make Silver beg for mercy, wanting to test that theory. Thus, the fight begins. It escalates and Silver pulls out a sword while Chozen pulls out his sais. The fight heads outside near Silver’s reflecting pool. Silver gets Chozen’s arm and then his leg, but Chozen soon gets the advantage. Until he turns for a millisecond, and Silver slices his back open, sending Chozen into the water and bleeding out.
Inside, Johnny is doing pretty well against the others (“I’m running on whiskey and White Claw”), but then he isn’t. He holds out for a while, but by the time Silver comes back in, he’s barely hanging on. After he throws a threat at Silver, Silver says he never saw why Johnny was Kreese’s best student. He’s angry they all attacked at his home, adding that at least Johnny won’t be around to “screw up another kid.” (O U C H.) Silver tells the others to finish him while he goes to deal with the mess at the dojo.
A bit later, Johnny is, still, getting beat, and they wind up in the sword room. A hefty punch knocks him over, and the ultrasound result flies out of his jacket. When he sees it, he goes absolutely berserk. He manages to take on most of them with a well-timed dodge that causes someone to lose a finger, and by throwing another into the TV. (Take a shot every time Johnny Lawrence breaks a TV in this show.) However, the final two corner him, but thanks to some great timing by Mike, he and Johnny get out of there.
“A man can’t…”
Back with the kids at the flagship, Eli tells Demetri things are madness, but Demetri only needs a few minutes to log into YouTube and start the upload. People are coming upstairs, so Eli tells Demetri they need to go mobile. Kyler and two others walk in. Eli, and eventually Demetri, fends them off. They get the upload started and get out of there.
Outside, the adults arrive, and Stingray takes down the Cobra Kais blocking the door. Back inside and downstairs, Devon and Tory are facing each other, and Devon feels betrayed. Meanwhile, Kenny hits Robby with the Silver bullet. Sensei Kim also arrives and is on Tory now. Eli and Demetri get downstairs, and Eli tells Miguel the footage is uploading. But Kyler knocks him over and the tablet goes flying. Anthony grabs it and the Miyagi Fangs put their egg lesson to use to protect him. Sam briefly joins Tory until Devon realizes Kim’s true colors and sends Sam back with Anthony. Cobra Kai is beginning to overwhelm, but the footage uploads and Anthony gets it playing on the TVs. It’s when Tory confronted Silver about the All Valley ref. Silver shows up and begins monologuing about how he’s not really the bad guy. But the damage is done. The Cobra Kais aren’t with him. Still, he continues, trying to sway them. He turns it back on Daniel, saying he caused nothing but pain. He got beaten, and now he can accept it or go again. Daniel chooses to fight. And Daniel isn’t worried about what will happen to Miyagi-Do, despite what Silver says.
The fight begins and Daniel gets in a solid hit. When he does, we hear and see when Silver taught Daniel his three-rule Quicksilver technique from The Karate Kid III. When each rule is stated, Daniel enacts the matching attack. By the time he reaches the third rule (“A man can’t see, he can’t fight”), Daniel assumes a position we know all too well: the infamous crane kick. Silver is distracted for a moment, and when he turns back, Daniel kicks him in the face, and he goes down for the count. The Cobra Kais are shook. Following Kenny’s lead, they remove some of their Cobra Kai clothing and toss it onto Silver.
How the Mighty Fall
After the excitement (read: stress) dies down, first responders are on the scene. Kyler claims credit for Silver’s takedown, Stingray redacts his initial claim about Kreese to the detective, and two characters we only ever saw in the background have a nice moment. Robby tries to talk to Kenny, who can’t hear it right now. Tory comes over and Robby says he owes her an apology, though she doesn’t want to hear it, either. Instead, she wants him to kiss her. Another pair finds solid ground, as Sam asks Miguel about the octopus necklace. He didn’t really want to break up with her, but he knew that’s what she needed. Sam appreciates that, and Miguel responds by saying that’s what you do when you love someone. Sam is surprised, but she loves him, too.
The Party Limo Posse arrives, and we see Johnny first. Carmen wants him to go to the hospital, but he wanted to see her first. He tells her about how he went into overdrive, because “I couldn’t stand the thought of missing the rest of our lives together.” Daniel and Amanda walk together when Mike helps Chozen out of the limo. Chozen is a wreck but still standing, and Daniel takes him to an ambulance. He also sees that Mike stole a Rembrandt from Silver’s place. And speaking of the peskiest snake in the valley, Silver is being escorted to a cop car. Daniel remarks he never thought he’d see the day. Johnny joins them and tosses in a remark about Kreese. This gets the detective’s attention, who realizes they didn’t hear something about Kreese.
My Way (Reprise)
Kreese’s body is wheeled into an exam room. The doctor examines the wound but seems a bit confused. Much to the dismay of the others with him, he tastes what is presumably blood, only to find out it’s actually Jello. Kreese pops up and a brief time jump sees him walking down the hall in doctor attire. He uses Dr. Folsom’s keycard (which he stole when she was close to him) to move through the building. The alarms are blaring, Sinatra is singing, and Kreese walks right on out of the jail.
Cobra Kai season 5 is streaming now on Netflix. Find the rest of our season recaps and additional coverage here.
