Cobra Kai – The Rise

While a John Doe aka Stingray (Paul Walter Hauser) waking up in a nearby hospital, the All-Valley Karate Tournament has given pause to Miguel’s (Xolo Maridueña) match with Eli (Jacob Bertrand) to allow him a 30-minute recovery window to compete. It is only a pulled muscle and Miguel is ready to stretch it out and continue after the recovery window. But a run-in with Kreese (Martin Kove) in the hallway sparks emotions in Johnny (William Zabka) that he unleashes on Miguel. Knowing that Miguel potentially declining to compete could spell ruin for the dojos, Johnny pushes his student a little too hard and Miguel reluctantly agrees to continue despite his back feeling off. However, when the clock runs out and Miguel is a no-show to the floor, Eli (Jacob Bertrand) is declared the winner of the match and advances on. He will be competing against Robby (Tanner Buchanan), who just defeated Demetri (Gianni DeCenzo) in his last match.  

Realizing just how much he screwed up with Kenny (Dallas Young), Anthony (Griffin Santopietro) decides to approach Kenny in the locker room and apologize for his actions. But the sweet and innocent Kenny has now been replaced by a meaner, darker persona. Instead of accepting the apology, Kenny proceeds to use his fists and beat up Anthony to release the anger. Robby enters and tries to break up the fight, finally learning that Kenny’s bully this whole time was Anthony LaRusso. As Kenny promises Anthony a hellish high school experience and being bullied every chance he can, Robby is unsettled by what he helped unleash when he was only trying to help Kenny protect himself. 

In the hallway Sam runs into Miguel. When she wants to know why Miguel decided not to compete, he realizes that if he had gone out to finish the match, he wouldn’t be fighting for himself. The couple makes up and Sam wants to make sure Miguel will be out there to support her. Promising her that he always will, Sam heads out and leaves Miguel in the hallway—he still appears troubled by something.  

But no time to reflect too much as the final matches are set between Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai. Tory (Peyton List) and Sam (Mary Mouser) will have their showdown for the girls division, but Eli and Robby are up first. In order for Cobra Kai to win the Grand Champion title, they need to win at least one of the two matches. Otherwise, Miyagi-Do will be Grand Champion.  

Eli and Robby head into their match to fight, Robby landing his hit and frustrating Eli. Unsure of how to proceed, Eli calls a timeout to ask Daniel for advice. While Miyagi-Do focuses on defense, Robby clearly knows how to anticipate those defensive moves. Daniel has a moment of clarity and looking over at Sam and the rest of the students, realizes that the only way Eli can win his match is by using Johnny’s methods and putting Robby on defense.  

Heading back onto the mat, Eli manages to land a hit and tie the match at 1-1. The fight intensifies further as the evenly matched duo land their moves with precision, but still no additional hits when the clock runs out. With time up, Daryl comes to announce that the match will go into Sudden Death Overtime—a move that hasn’t been seen since Daniel fought Mike Barnes (Sean Kanan) in The Karate Kid: Part III. Before heading out to the mat, Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) tries to push Robby to win at all costs. Discarding his open top, Robby goes shirtless to the mat—Eli deciding to follow suit and evening the playing field. Their match has become more than just Cobra Kai vs. Miyagi-Do. This time, it’s personal and after lots of epic back and forth action between these fighters—Eli lands the hit to clinch the win in the mens division for Miyagi-Do.  

Robby heads towards the locker room after the fight, looking conflicted over tonight’s events. Tory catches up to Robby to check on him but is then approached by Amanda (Courtney Henggeler) in the hallway. With Robby walking off, Amanda checks in with Tory to make sure she is getting the help that she needs—Tory thanks Amanda for everything she has done for her. Amanda is glad to hear this development and now requests only one more thing of Tory: play by the rules in her fight with Sam. More than anyone else, Amanda is ready for the feud between Tory and Sam to end. 

Prior to Sam’s match, Daniel approaches Johnny and asks him for his help with Sam’s fight. Realizing that he forgot one of Mr. Miyagi’s most important lessons, Daniel now understands that he learned karate from Mr. Miyagi—but eventually he would forge his own path and style from there. Since Johnny has encouraged Sam to learn the offense style, he becomes a co-sensei for the last fight of the night. Johnny and Daniel have finally made amends for hopefully the last time—and the most vital match to ending Cobra Kai once and for all. 

When the match begins, Sam manages to land the first hit on Tory. But when Tory manages to land the next two, Sam immediately runs over to Johnny and Daniel to ask which style she should use now. Rather than choosing from one distinct style, Daniel and Johnny urge Sam to use her own style instead. Sam heads back to the mat and heeding the advice, lands one hit that does not count before finally getting her second point to tie the match. During their final round, Tory accidentally elbows Sam in the face—a move that Silver thinks was deliberate and prompts her to cheat to win. Having a flashback to his pep talk with Johnny when he fought Daniel at the All-Valley, Kreese reminds Tory that this is her fight to win.  

Emboldened by Kreese’s words, Tory goes in for the final round and after another epic match—lands the third hit on Sam to win the division and earn Cobra Kai the title of Grand Champion. Before realizing her win, Tory tries to make sure Sam is alright and shows compassion towards her competitor. The win is quickly followed by Silver taking to the microphone to announce the new Cobra Kai franchises opening soon—Sam dejectedly walking off the mat toward her teammates. Since Cobra Kai won the tournament, Daniel and Johnny are now banned from teaching.  

Feeling the high off their win at the tournament, Tory and her teammates are ready to celebrate! Needing to grab her bag inside before joining the group in festivities, she heads inside and witnesses Silver paying off the head referee (Marcus Young) for throwing the match in favor of Cobra Kai. What once felt like a victorious win now leaves Tory upset and conflicted.  

Heading out, Carmen (Vanessa Rubio) finds Johnny and tells him that she cannot find Miguel. Figuring that he took an Uber home, Carmen and her mother Rosa (Rose Blanco) head back to the apartment. Johnny decides to head over to the Cobra Kai dojo, seeing that it now has a “For Lease” sign in the window. Walking in, there is a sense of nostalgia since Johnny originally put the Cobra Kai motto on the wall when he first rented out the property. Robby then walks in and admits to his father that he has remorse over teaching Kenny and carrying the anger towards his father. Johnny and Robby embrace, ready to repair their relationship. 

At Silver’s residence, both Silver and Kreese toast to their victory at the tournament. But Silver did not invite Kreese over just to celebrate—instead, bringing up that he is aware how Johnny is Kreese’s weakness, alluding back to when Kreese questioned Silver about that very lesson. For Silver, Kreese is his weakness as evidenced by the way he always knows how to manipulate him with the reminder that Kreese saved his life in Vietnam. The only difference between Kreese and Silver? Silver is ready to shed his weakness—the sound of police cars arriving to Silver’s residence to arrest Kreese. Back during the episode where Silver beat up Stingray, a deal was struck: Stingray could return to Cobra Kai if he were willing to frame Kreese for assault. Before being carted off in cuffs, Kreese promises that Silver will regret this choice. 

After reconciling with Robby, Johnny returns to the apartment complex to find a distraught Carmen and Rosa. Rather than being safely at home, Miguel has left his family a note that he has gone to Mexico City to find his father. Johnny promises that Miguel will be fine, but Carmen drops one last bit of knowledge: Miguel’s father was not made aware of his existence. 

Daniel goes to visit Mr. Miyagi’s grave, talking about how Cobra Kai has won but the fight is not over. Ready to go on offense and take down Cobra Kai once and for all, Daniel turns and asks for help in his request. The person he is talking to is none other than Chozen (Yuji Okumoto) from The Karate Kid: Part II. Chozen agrees to help Daniel prepare for the battle ahead, both paying respects to Mr. Miyagi’s grave.