Cobra Kai – First Learn Stand

A young boy named Kenny (Dallas Young) is at his computer playing “Dungeon Lord Legacies” –that is, until his alarm goes off to get ready for school. Between brushing his teeth and finishing off his game, Kenny makes it downstairs to eat breakfast in an empty house before heading over to the bus stop for his first day at West Valley Middle School. Taking a moment to listen to music while he waits, he dons his headphones and busts out some fun dance moves—until the kids on the bus start to pick on him while he boards. One of those joining in on the bullying is none other than Anthony LaRusso (Griffin Santopietro).  

In order to find common ground in their teaching, both Daniel (Ralph Macchio) and Johnny (William Zabka) agree to teach each other their respective styles of karate. For Miyagi-Do, Daniel shows Johnny the simple techniques that Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) used for teaching. While Daniel sits down and grabs a Blue Moon to watch, Johnny is made to paint the house but becomes frustrated by the lack of action. Initially giving up and grabbing a beer for himself, Daniel then chops the head off Johnny’s beer bottle with his bare hand. Impressed by the technique, Johnny goes back to painting the fence and continues Daniel’s lessons for the day. 

At work Tory (Peyton List) is confronted by Amanda LaRusso (Courtney Henggeler) and warned to stay away from Sam (Mary Mouser). Only angering Tory further, she ends up snapping at a customer and is promptly fired from her job. This anger ends up bleeding over into her time at Cobra Kai when during Robby’s (Tanner Buchanan) teachings of Miyagi-Do to the Cobra Kai students, she escalates the sparring match between her and Robby. Kreese (Martin Kove) pulls Tory aside and manages to find out what is wrong. Kreese later approaches Amanda at a grocery store to explain that while he understands Amanda’s protectiveness over her family, Tory must support her family and does not have the same help. This prompts Amanda to try and help Tory by leaving groceries at her doorstep, only to have Tory bring them to LaRusso Auto and dump them in front of Amanda and Anoush (Dan Ahdoot) before storming off.  

Since Johnny participated in Miyagi-Do teachings, it is now Daniel’s turn to learn Johnny’s style. Bringing Daniel to a dingy warehouse for training, Johnny understands how Daniel only teaches defense when it is necessary—but sometimes making the first move is just as important. Through shoveling out hot coals onto the floor to walk over to deflecting flying baseballs, Daniel starts to understand the rush behind accomplishing more aggressive tasks. Later that night Johnny takes Daniel to a local hockey game to continue their lesson. When Daniel points out a penalty on the ice Johnny makes sure to let the referee know, and the hockey player nicknamed “The Hammer” (Erik Bello) who committed the foul is put in the penalty box. Enraged by being taken out of the game the player and his friends later confront Daniel outside of the rink, Johnny slinking off to let Daniel put his new skills to the test. When the guys recognize Daniel and start making crude comments about Amanda, he snaps and goes into an epic fight sequence to take out the hockey cronies. Johnny returns with a pretzel in hand and when Daniel asks where he went, Johnny simply replies with Mr. Miyagi’s thoughts about best defense: no be there.  

At West Valley Middle School, Kenny’s time there is nothing short of tough. Although he manages to befriend a girl named Lia (Milena Rivero), Anthony is jealous of their interaction and hatches a plot with his friends to catfish Kenny on his favorite game. Believing that he is talking to Lia, Kenny is easily persuaded to dress up as his favorite cosplay character Dr. Scribblebottoms and meet with Lia in a local park. Unfortunately, it is Anthony and his friends who meet with Kenny and proceed to beat him up in their continual bullying efforts. Before Anthony can land a kick with the so-called karate moves, he does not have, Kenny manages to wriggle free and evade the bullies. Later, he is seen talking with someone about his issues at school and how he needs to learn karate in order to protect himself. The person who is with him is his brother Shawn (Okea Eme-Akwari), the same kid from juvie who first bullied then befriended Robby. Shawn assures Kenny that he knows someone who can help him.