Summary
Cobra Kai still manages to find moments of earnest emotion even amongst some of the spiciest teen drama we’ve seen yet, as Miyagi-do continue to struggle in the Sekai Taikai.
Things are not going well for Miyagi-do in Season 6 of Cobra Kai. The much-talked-about Sekai Taikai kicked off in the Part 2 premiere and it was, to put things mildly, absolutely disastrous. The discord within the dojo has led to consistently poor performances on the mats, Daniel and Johnny are still at each other’s throats disagreeing about approach, and both Cobra Kai and the Iron Dragons are proving themselves incredibly serious threats.
Robby is a big point of contention among the boys, for instance, since he’s way off his game worrying about Tory, and it’s costing everyone. Johnny thinks now’s the time to go all-out, be aggressive, and win some points, while Daniel, predictably, wants balance. But Daniel’s not exactly balanced himself. After receiving an invitation to meet with the mysterious Master Serrano, who might be able to shed a little more light on what happened to Mr. Miyagi when he competed in the Sekai Taikai, he decides to go investigating right before the next round.
Naturally, this backfires.
Master Serrano
It becomes obvious to the audience way before it becomes obvious to Daniel that the whole Master Serrano thing is a setup. A taxi takes him out to a weird building in the middle of nowhere and, alarmingly, the driver speeds off despite Daniel asking him to wait. Not a good sign. When he goes roaming, he’s approached by a little girl who sells him a Jesus locket, and then he’s promptly knocked out from behind.
When Daniel wakes up he’s in a dog cage surrounded by several other cages, most of them containing very angry dogs. He’s a hostage of a couple of thuggish-looking Spaniards who don’t seem particularly moved by his pleas to see Serrano.
The big question here is who set Daniel up, and “Dog in the Fight” works so hard to implicate Cobra Kai that it makes me suspicious. Eventually, Daniel is able to pick the cage’s lock using the locket he bought and beat up his captors, one of whom has long hair and a Cobra Kai tattoo. You’d think that seals it — Kreese was at the mixer where Daniel was talking about this, after all — but I’m not so sure.
Daniel Is Late
Either way, Daniel doesn’t make it back in time for the final points event of the Sekai Taikai, leaving Johnny in charge. True to form, he promotes unbridled aggression, but the round is set on elevated platforms and is all about balance, so this isn’t the right approach. Ironically, Daniel would have done better to listen to Johnny’s calls for aggression in the first round, and Daniel would have been ideally suited to this one. Fate is not on Miyagi-do’s side.
Ralph Macchio as Daniel LaRusso in Cobra Kai. Cr. Curtis Bonds Baker/Netflix © 2024
After another shambolic performance, Johnny tries to motivate the team with a speech that ends up sounding a little accusatory (not to mention the fact he’s clearly projecting his own regrets on the kids.) Sam lashes out at Johnny, Devon leaps to Johnny’s defense, and before long the entire team is at each other’s throats. Again.
But part of the reason Cobra Kai is so good is that it can lace these moments of catty teen-drama nonsense with real, earnest emotion, which we see when Devon snatches a moment with Johnny and confesses to being the one who drugged Kenny to secure her spot in the tournament. Johnny’s speech is so sincere and reassuring that it had me believing in myself. And it even leaves Johnny feeling reflective enough to leave Daniel a voicemail telling him he needs him.
A New Development
It’s up and down for Miguel in Cobra Kai Season 6, Episode 7. He and Robby are having a leadership dispute and it’s clear that mutiny is on Miguel’s mind. In the next tournament game, another platform-based round that is now 2v2 with constantly rotating teammates, he sets out to prove that he’s more suited to the role than Robby by almost singlehandedly defeating Dublin Thunder, the stereotypically Irish dojo that stands between Miyagi-do and qualification to the next round.
I’m not a huge fan of the entire Miyagi-do dojo fighting like morons to facilitate Miguel’s moment here, but I did enjoy Miguel’s moment in and of itself. However, he doesn’t have much time to celebrate. When Daniel returns — after confronting Kreese for setting him up — he walks into the hotel room only to be told by Johnny that Rosa called. Carmen has been rushed to hospital; there’s something wrong with the pregnancy. He and Miguel are leaving to be with her, leaving Miyagi-do a sensei and a fighter short in a tournament they’re already getting outmatched in.
Whatever next?
RELATED:
