Summary
“Match Point” sees tensions between Daniel and Johnny finally boil over, and Cobra Kai crosses a line.
This recap of Cobra Kai season 4, episode 5, “Match Point”, contains spoilers.
“Match Point” wastes little time in picking up right where it left off in the previous episode, with Kreese and Silver confronting Daniel and Johnny in the Miyagi-Do dojo. It’s a tense encounter, but it doesn’t escalate, though Kreese does plant the seed about Johnny playing second fiddle to his old rival, which has to sting given his current feelings about Daniel’s relationship with Miguel. It’s really the catalyst for a major rupture in their relationship, as the division between them continues to widen throughout the episode, culminating in an encounter that it’ll be difficult to come back from.
Cobra Kai season 4, episode 5 recap
But there’s also division growing between Kreese and Silver, although it’s more subtle. After the opening encounter, they return to the Cobra Kai dojo, and Silver cautions the kids against fighting, instead advising them to store all their anger and use it later. Kreese is visibly unconvinced. He sees a sneaky, manipulative undercurrent in Silver that Daniel also sees and tries to explain to Johnny. He’s convinced that Silver is still a psychopath and that his presence is a considerable threat to them, so he insists on taking over the training given that Miyagi-Do is better suited to counter him. Of course, Johnny doesn’t take this well and proposes that he and Daniel fight in a first-to-three tournament-style match to determine who takes over.
This is obviously a major dramatic moment, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the brilliant joke of Johnny slamming his cash down on the bar during his emphatic exit. It turns out to only be three dollars, and Daniel has to put his drinks on his tab.
Anyway, “Match Point” sees this development immediately spread among the students, since Johnny, drunk, went on a Twitter rant announcing the match (“Hash brown dead meat.”) Daniel wakes up with a hangover and regrets the whole thing, mistakenly believing that Johnny will want to sweep it under the rug, but nope, he’s actually having a Rocky III-style training montage complete with flashbacks to all of his negative encounters with Daniel.
Of course, Daniel is in the wrong here, and I’m glad that both Amanda and Sam tell him so — the latter, particularly, wants to learn both styles and is adamant there’s room for both, and she’s right. Miguel also cautions Johnny that he doesn’t want to stop learning Miyagi-Do. It’s the same sentiment being expressed on both sides of the fence, but both Daniel and Johnny are too stubborn to give any ground to the other. The fight will be going ahead.
Before that, though, the Cobra Kai students decide to take non-violent revenge on Miyagi-Do by ambushing Hawk at the tattoo parlor, attacking him, and forcibly shaving his head with a straight razor. Not exactly my idea of “non-violent”, but whatever. This is a pretty major turning point so it furthers the division between Daniel and Johnny more than the actual fight does. The fight is fun, by the way — it includes flashbacks to the first movie, same stances and everything, but it takes a little dramatic cop-out by building to a double-KO tie. But after Hawk reveals his new hairdo, Johnny wants revenge and Daniel doesn’t, which causes them both, as well as the Eagle Fang and Miyagi-Do students, to part ways. Sam, despite being a particularly strong advocate of Johnny’s point of view here, chooses to remain with her father. But the point is made. The alliance is over. And there are clearly going to be ramifications to the split.
You can stream Cobra Kai season 4, episode 5, “Match Point”, exclusively on Netflix.
