Cobra Kai

Transcript – This is an auto transcript, please forgive the typos!

Listen to the Full Episode HERE

Danielle 0:00
Hi.

Jen 0:01
Hi everybody. This

Danielle 0:02
is so exciting watching Cobra Kai

Jen 0:04
Yep. We’re talking about Cobra Kai Cobra Kai,

Danielle 0:07
Cobra Kai, the other day, I was literally like, bouncing through like marching through the house and I was punching my fist and I was thinking like, Yeah, but then I thought, No, this is not my dojo. And I said, if my husband and I were each from a dojo, I would be from Miyagi dough, and he would be from Cobra Kai.

Jen 0:25
And you were like,

Don’t you want to do that? Don’t

you want to go Cobra Kai? And

I was like, No, I actually don’t want to do that. It’s funny. It gives me the heebie jeebies.

Danielle 0:34
But we’ll talk about that. So

Jen 0:36
yeah, so we’re gonna talk about what Cobra Kai is about. And I it’s funny because I what I want to say is that I didn’t want to watch Cobra Kai,

Danielle 0:45
I really had no idea what it was. And I didn’t know if it was like, real time, Ralph, macho kind of stuff, or old time like it was real old stuff. That was from all of that movie. I didn’t know. That’s the thing

Jen 1:00
is that I didn’t either. And all I knew was that it had something to do with Karate Kid. And honestly, I wasn’t that big of a karate kid. Me

Danielle 1:10
neither as a fan at

Jen 1:12
all. But I was so in love with Ralph macho Jeff so hard to believe. Oh, my gosh, I wrote him letters.

Danielle 1:18
I even when they flashed back to him as a kid, I’m like, I get so cringy to mommy.

Jen 1:26
I

know. And I was like, gosh, I can’t believe I wrote him letters and macho. If you’re listening to this, don’t take it the wrong way. But so I thought that it was gonna be like Karate Kid. I guess that’s what I thought. And I thought I’m not gonna watch it. And I watched a couple of episodes and was just like, I’m not loving it. And then you started watching it again. And I’m like, Oh, fine. I guess I got to watch it. Because you started to get enough into it that you said we should do a podcast about Cobra Kai Cobra Kai. And I was like, Okay, well, I guess I have to watch it. So the gist of Cobra Kai is actually that it focuses more on Johnny Lawrence in the beginning, Johnny Lawrence is just a total deadbeat at this point. And you do you find out more about him. And for me what it was, is it felt so sad, you know, the beginning when you’re just watching him, and it feels so sad. And then he lives in this apartment complex. That’s, you know, just run down, right. And there’s a boy named Miguel who is getting bullied,

Danielle 2:24
right? And he basically wants to just walk away from it. But he can’t help himself well, and he gets dragged in just by a set of circumstances where they affect him directly has not been impacted directly. He would have walked Yes,

Jen 2:38
he would have walked away. But instead, he kicks the ass of a bunch of teenagers, which is really hilarious, because later, just that sentence comes into play. Yeah, it was pretty. It’s pretty funny. But yeah, so he, he kicks the ass of a bunch of teenagers who are bullying Miguel. And he steps in, but because he has to not because he really cares. He’s not trying to help Miguel. It’s just by default that he helps me go.

Danielle 3:03
Yeah. And I really think like when you think about it was so nice. And it was so sweet. And while right.

Jen 3:09
So he winds up training, Miguel, because Miguel begs him to and he, he needs to be able to defend himself, and he sees what’s happening to Miguel. And then

Danielle 3:20
you also really realize like, how much of a loser that Johnny Lawrence really is. Because he doesn’t know anything about anything that has happened since essentially a rowdy kid. And yeah,

Jen 3:30
he really doesn’t. He doesn’t. He doesn’t know phones. He didn’t know the internet. He doesn’t know why fi Yeah, nothing. He doesn’t own a computer. He doesn’t own a smartphone. He’s never heard of Facebook, right? I mean, he really is living and all he does is drink beer all day and there’s no food. I drink so much beer. I couldn’t believe how much he drank. You drink so much beer. And he was skinny away.

Danielle 3:52
Right? And he was skinny like, I’m sorry, anybody you know, who is a functioning alcoholic would not have a physique like that. Right? I mean, that was a little bit you have to suspend your disbelief for that part of it.

Jen 4:03
In general, you had to suspend your disbelief for all that drinking that he did. I mean, he basically drink beer like water.

Danielle 4:08
Yes.

Jen 4:09
So the story is about him more than it is in the beginning about Daniel, who The Karate Kid is about to start, you see things through Johnny’s point of view, which is why it felt so depressing to me in the beginning, which is why I didn’t really want to watch

Danielle 4:23
Oh, really? Okay. Well, I think part of it is that Johnny is attractive enough that it kept me engaged.

Jen 4:28
That’s so funny that you say that because this is what I have to say I did not find him attractive at all till towards the end. So in the beginning, I just was like, you know, why do I want to watch this show about this sad guy, and now it’s about karate. And I don’t really care about karate, and here’s this kid who’s getting bullied and that makes me feel sad. So I don’t want to watch something about a kid who’s being bullied and it’s sad. But then I got hooked.

Danielle 4:56
Yeah, you get hooked pretty fast. And the show

Jen 4:58
Yeah, well, like fifth episode. I was Say fifth episode in, I got hooked and

Danielle 5:04
I don’t say Isha. So that’s when you find out that that’s like his cash cow. Because Aida has money. It has money. Her dad is like a famous football player. Right? And

Jen 5:15
what was happening to her? She was she was getting. What’s her name by?

Danielle 5:19
Yes by azmin Super Jasper. And then she totally, I mean,

Jen 5:24
I think they do to her though they did something very special. Yes. Remember,

Danielle 5:27
she was eating at the dance. And then they made they did all these social media memes. And then they pass them around. And I think that that was the part that drew me and that made me so sad, angry, disgusted, twisted up inside about like, if that really is truly happening, that kids are that viciously mean inside what is wrong with a child that would actually do something like that. That was the piece that made me feel so badly here. They were just trying to destroy her and like,

Jen 6:02
from the inside, ya know what I mean? Just to

Danielle 6:06
lay by nothing, and everybody was upset, and nobody would stand so

Jen 6:10
right. So that is when so when I started,

Danielle 6:14
wait, and even Sam, who is

Jen 6:17
Oh my gosh. So that is the part that was so heartbreaking. So Sam is Daniel’s daughter. And that’s another piece of it. So that was also when it started to become a little more interesting to me, was that whole story, you know, pretty early on. You learn this because Sam’s boyfriend is part of the whole crew. That was bullying.

Danielle 6:40
Miguel Miguel and

Jen 6:41
yeah, and shot right and thing. Yeah. So you see that and you just think that’s right away when you start to think wait. So Daniel is like a bad guy now?

Danielle 6:53
Yeah, immediately and you start disliking Daniel. And right away start, they did a very good job of that the writers did a great job of making Daniel out to deca and making Johnny like so. You want to

Jen 7:07
empathize with him? Exactly. You right? Exactly. He’s like the underdog. Yeah, is the underdog.

Danielle 7:13
And, and every single time he would tell the story, all of a sudden, you saw from that totally different point of view. And the movie or like, Wait a second, The Karate Kid was totally from the wrong point of view. They totally skewed it to make us think

Jen 7:26
what they did is they took Johnny Lawrence’s story. And they did. They showed us what his backstory was.

Danielle 7:32
Yeah, that was crazy to find out like he was some rich kid with a really nice stepdad. Yeah. And

Jen 7:38
it’s that whole thing. Everybody has a story. Everybody has a story. And that’s kind of the point is that now all of a sudden, we’re looking at it from his point of view. And we’re saying, wait, was Daniel a bully? Right? Was he the one who caused these problems? Was he complicit in all of these bad things? And then when the whole thing, the story now with Sam, and I mean, you start to look at it and you think, yeah, this is

Danielle 8:02
how about the fact that every single time something could have been clarified by somebody just opening their mouth? Oh,

Jen 8:08
my gosh, it was crazy. You know what I was thinking about? It’s like Three’s Company. It was right. Yeah. But it

Danielle 8:12
says how Three’s Company at least was funny. Yeah.

Jen 8:14
Well, but that’s the thing. They say that this is a comedy drama. I don’t know. Like it was there was no comments.

Danielle 8:19
There was no, it was romance drama. I mean, but it was there was nothing comedy. It was light. I would call it light. Drama, Romance.

Jen 8:29
Yeah, it was light sometimes. But a lot of times Oh, was that. I mean, it was just sometimes it was dark. And it was sad. And it made me feel bad. And I don’t like feeling bad. But I do think that the story starts being for me about Johnny and Daniel and everything that they went through and their constant misunderstandings. And you’re literally like, Oh, hey, something, right? Don’t walk away. Just say the words. But then it really becomes about Sam and Miguel. Yeah, you know, I mean, then it’s about Sam, who’s Daniel’s daughter, and Miguel who is Johnny’s student and their relationship becomes something that you become so invested in, because as Sam starts to realize that she’s a bully, right, and Miguel starts training and actually begins to start being able to fight back. So when Sam’s boyfriend lies about what they did in the movie theater, remember

Danielle 9:32
through throwing stuff? No, don’t

Jen 9:34
you remember that? He said that she did something sexy, sexy. Oh, the

other boy. Oh,

Danielle 9:42
I’m sorry. I didn’t know what boyfriend you were talking about. You work that was in the very, very beginning. Yeah, that that is the Asian kid. Yeah. Kyler Tyler Tyler. That was when Sam was still popular. Yeah.

Jen 9:53
But then he did that and she was pissed and she was not okay with that. And that’s when she realized what a bully everybody Wasn’t that’s when Miguel stood up for her, right. And that was what kind of started this except for the friends. But she still allowed those other mean girls to be mean to Asia, Asia. And I, you know, I

Danielle 10:12
think that like from my point of view, because the writers were desperately trying so hard to get Johnny’s story out. And they really wanted to show like how mean and bullying all of all of the bullying that was going on to Ayesha and all of the other things that would also create Aida to bring her to Cobra Kai, and how that would like really create that mean spirit that was so detrimental to Sam’s character from a woman’s perspective now as a mom, as a girl who went through some level of bullying, but even just that horrifying act of destroying another girl, when that girl is supposed to be is her best friend, best friend growing

Jen 10:54
up, I agree with you that the problem was with her character also was that she never really did a very good job of sticking to something. So you know, she, she was still very wishy washy about who she was going to stand behind.

Danielle 11:10
Yeah, who she was gonna she never apologized for anything. And she never did.

Jen 11:14
She apologized to IE she never really

Danielle 11:17
and not enough and, and not only that, but in many episodes, many episodes in different parts. She had lots of opportunities where she did things where she just kept her mouth shut.

Jen 11:29
So I think that at some level that there was a miss there as much as we love Cobra Kai. Now we’ve watched all the seasons, and we think it’s amazing. I do think that the development of Sam’s character was a little bit of a mess. I agree. So but still not a reason not to watch Cobra Kai. So I think that we should kind of just recap a little bit right now, so that we can kind of get into the spoilers because the spoilers are good stuff. So just go for it. Okay,

Danielle 11:56
so Cobra Kai is about Johnny Lawrence, who was the blonde guy from karate kid who lost at the very end, who you thought was the total bully, who nobody wanted to win, you wanted him to lose. But now all of a sudden you realize like, he really wasn’t the bully. He was being bullied and he had this horrible life growing up, and now you watch him and he’s a total loser, and you want something good to happen for him. And it starts to get to happen for him. And then all this bad happens for him because Ralph macchio is like this total jerk and like, but he’s got an amazing wife. She’s so nice. Yeah,

Jen 12:32
like her don’t

Danielle 12:35
know everything about

Jen 12:36
I feel like if she could just get more involved, things would have gotten better. Yeah,

Danielle 12:40
she was amazing. And, and he creates this world for kids that have been bullied because he says I was a loser once before. And in Cobra Kai saved my life, Cobra Kai made me feel like I belonged. And he wanted these kids to belong. And so he created a place for them a safe place for them, where they could feel strong. But it was messed up. Because like anybody who grew up and had a messed up childhood and didn’t get help, he didn’t get help. So he starts passing on all the bad stuff along with the good stuff. And then all these kids start getting all sorts of cuckoo, because he gives them all these terrible names.

Jen 13:19
Oh my gosh, and he calls them pussies. Yeah, every single chance.

Danielle 13:23
Oh my gosh, one of the kids he calls him he called him like,

Jen 13:26
he’s got whip.

Danielle 13:28
Yeah. And he called one of the kids was like, penis breath. One of them was like penis and I’m like, come on.

Jen 13:34
Yeah, no. Yeah, he Yeah, he was penis breath. But he he was actually like aspace aspace. He was asked me asked me

Danielle 13:43
fun. So anyway, so all these kids like, they become absolute monsters. And all I kept thinking of is this is this is actually like how Hitler’s child army was created.

Jen 13:57
Right? Well, it is because he did he represented this father figure to all of them. He represented power and he gave them power. Yeah. And and you’re not I mean, it was basically Cobra Kai. Really was not what Cobra Kai was when he was a kid Cobra Kai became the place where all what he would say all the losers and the pussies came. He didn’t want losers and policies he wanted like the heavy hardcore, like sports kids. And that was what Cobra Kai was when he was in it. But Miguel convinced him to let the losers in. I’m using air quotes for losers because they were paying customers, right? But then Daniel just tries to ruin it. Like right off the bat. When Daniel realizes that he’s recreating Cobra Kai he, his mission in life was just to enjoy it. And if he would have just had a conversation with him, right, he would have realized and not only that, like so this is not a spoiler. There. His daughter was part of the bullying and at Any point if somebody could have just said to him, Hey, Daniel, your daughter was there, because do you remember at one point later on, and this is kind of a spoiler, but there her mom finds out? Oh, and now but yeah,

Danielle 15:13
yeah, it says, tell me. Were you there when there was the car accident? Yeah. And she said that she was. But where did that go? Like that was just like,

Jen 15:21
grounded. That was one her phone got taken away.

Danielle 15:24
Oh, right. But that But Daniel

Jen 15:26
never knew. Nope. Daniel never knew. That’s true. She never told him. So that’s the. So that’s how we get into Cobra Kai.

Danielle 15:35
So is that Yeah, and I mean, I think like then there’s all that minutia of all the understory. But then I think the bigger picture of really, all of the things that I would love to say about Cobra Kai, in general is the way that Cobra Kai makes you feel is like, you want to know how these kids lives are being transformed. And, and it’s pretty powerful. How these guys who are running these dojos are really able to empower these kids, but then it’s really frightening when you watch how a little bit of power, how people can get really power hungry, and then all of a sudden, like, right, like just how little bits of bad things can go really bad. Really fast.

Jen 16:17
Okay, so

Danielle 16:20
spoilers. Okay, so here’s a spoiler, john crease comes back, he was the head of Cobra Kai. And I think some of the things that were so powerful about it, first of all, was how they brought him in. And when he stood next to Johnny Lawrence, did you notice how there was something so moving about their faces, their skin, their blue eyes, and this cinematography, and it was just the lighting, they did a great job, and I didn’t want to want to like him. And then the empathy piece you felt for him when he was in that kind of shelter environment? Right. He was kind of like in a

Jen 16:59
Yeah, when he was right around out that he was I think it was like a VA thing. Right? For

Danielle 17:06
right for Vietnam vets was that’s where he was. And then spoilers, certainly into two and a lot of season three, you learned about how he came that way. And, and it gave you a ton of empathy for Vietnam vets in general. Okay, I think that there is there are things that none of us can ever know for what those people saw.

Jen 17:31
Period. Absolutely. And went through. I think, though, that whole story with john crease, I mean, he comes in, and Johnny does not want him there. And but he’s still lets him in because he wants him to redeem himself. And I think it’s because he feels like he’s getting a chance to redeem himself. So he thinks, Okay, I’m gonna give him a chance to redeem himself. And he’s being so manipulative and you just want to yell at Johnny. No, no, don’t give him all this power. Don’t do it. You know, something bad is right away. And you know, you look at them together. And you can see that Johnny’s feeling so comfortable. He has this person with

Danielle 18:12
like his dad, it’s like wanting a dad wanting your dad. And then there’s the whole piece of Johnny’s son comes back in

Jen 18:20
oh my gosh, Robbie,

Danielle 18:22
and Robbie comes back in the picture. And he’s this total like Skid Row kid because the mom is a total raging alcoholic, and drug addict and just keeps coming rolling in the house. Oh, honey, I’ll be back. I’m going to Cabo. Yeah, I’m going here. I’m going there. He’s basically living on his own. Yeah. And he has like no food and no, you know, he’s nobody to attend their family. And then he tries to, he’s hoping to scam Daniel to get back. Right and his dad, but then it turns out that Daniel takes him in and then

Jen 18:53
right and then so Robbie becomes right. So Daniel decides, okay, but wait, I’m sorry. Yeah.

Danielle 18:57
Then Daniel, and I’m sorry, then Robbie and Sam. Start. Okay, but so back up a second. We have to start from the beginning of this little story, right? So Robbie does decide that he wants to, he wants to get Johnny back. And he realizes that Johnny and Daniel have this huge rivalry. And so the best way to do it is to get to know Daniel to like, insinuate himself and his but then he realizes that Daniel actually is a good guy. And then he doesn’t want to do that anymore. So he actually in earnest trains with Daniel right and he feels good about it. And Daniel brings them into their home and then he’s really part of the right family. And the love Russo family. And Mr. Lew Russo is like a dad to him and he really feels

Jen 19:42
I kind of wondered in general when we when I started watching Cobra Kai, like, what is the purpose of the show?

Danielle 19:50
I think there’s a couple of really important I actually, let me tell you as like a middle school teacher profession, I think there are a lot of really important message judges in this whole show, right? Okay. And I think one of them is empathy. And I think it actually and I really hope so that it shows how people turn. It creates horrifying personality, like sort of sociopathic behaviors can be created when people are treated with such incredible disrespect for years and years. Oh, like story.

Jen 20:29
Oh my gosh, that 100% and like he so he comes in first season and he’s been bullied and and Johnny is bullying him basically calls him lip and is basically you know, he’s got he has right he had surgery for cleft palate, and that he still has the scar. Everybody makes fun of him for it. And Johnny does too. And Johnny’s like, if you don’t want people to make fun of you then give them some other afraid of or something else to look at. And he comes in, you think he’s done? Yeah, he’s, he’s not coming back. And instead, he

Danielle 21:00
comes back with this mower. And then another episode later, he comes back with a giant back and an evil literally, like a dead look in his eyes. Yeah.

Jen 21:12
But the thing is, is that and when he comes back like that, and Johnny’s like, that’s what I’m talking about. Yeah. Your Hawk From now on, but no, and so then it gets completely reinforced. But you start to see more backstory from him about what his life was like before and and then you see

Danielle 21:34
when you are living with that kind of bullying for so long. And so and and they keep going back to the bullying theme. And I think that that’s one of the purposes of this show. And I wonder if that’s part of it, because remember, they even that was a whole other piece, the underlying theme behind Daniel and Johnny right was who was bullied? who bullied Who? Yeah, but I mean, obviously, in the original movie, the intended bully was,

Jen 22:04
right,

Danielle 22:05
we know exactly from somebody else’s eyes, obviously, in this scenario, right? Obviously, we know that Johnny feels like he was the one who kept getting bullied and he lost the girlfriend and he lost the championship. And he lost all of the things that meant something to him because he was in his whole life being bullied by his stepdad. Right. So yes, obviously, there’s other things, but like, that was something that was really important. The other thing that was also really important was like when you think about communication, if, like, for anybody who was ever watching every single time, there was the opportunity to open your mouth even. Even even and this is a spoiler. At the very end of the season two when there was that big nasty fight at school. Oh, my gosh, if right before the bell rang, when, when Robbie said, let’s be honest with each other from now on, right. Let me tell you, I I gave him the medal. I you know, I didn’t or he gave me the medal. I just wanted a she at that point could have said she is going to but but but

Jen 23:08
the bell rang and she walked away and said we’ll talk later,

Danielle 23:11
but she still didn’t know.

Jen 23:13
Yes. So Sam kisses, Miguel. So she gets really, really drunk at this party. And she finds out about the metal remember, right. And that’s why she that’s why she gets angry with Johnny and she kisses Miguel again, honesty.

Danielle 23:28
So there was another pieces like right how important the truth is.

Jen 23:31
Yep. And then at that point, both Miguel and Sam have other.

Danielle 23:39
Why did they break up? It was because of his Cobra Kai Oh, he became mental. And that was

Jen 23:46
one of the things that I wanted to talk about. Is that Miguel turning bad. That was for me. Yeah, it was so ugly, heartbreaking. And just Yeah, like, you know, when what happened, but that was so that’s the thing, though. That was

Danielle 24:02
that was point of no return that they needed to get that back. And I think that’s part of why they did had to do something so drastic. Well,

Jen 24:08
Miguel started getting bad because of crease because remember what happened? Yeah, there’s two things that happened. Johnny starts to realize that his way is probably not 100% the best way he sees that he is teaching these kids maybe to be too intense and that they need to probably have some mercy and that maybe the idea of no mercy isn’t such a great job. That’s partially

Danielle 24:31
why it’s so important to know Chris’s backstory because the no mercy came out of specifically his retirements and yet

Jen 24:40
not having to survive exactly, but the thing is, is that Johnny winds up having to go to a funeral while go see his friend who then dies and then they have the funeral. So he’s gone for a few days, and that’s when he’s gone right? basically takes over the job and we don’t

Danielle 24:57
even know like he makes some backdoor deal with the land.

Jen 24:59
I mean, it’s horrible. And then these kids, he turns them into Cobra Kai, and he turns them against Johnny. And you don’t really realize it’s happening at first. I mean, you do and you don’t you we know Johnny doesn’t know. Right? But it does, it starts to get really bad. And Miguel even starts to not like Johnny, right? And he has, you know, he’s angry with him, because he doesn’t think that he’s teaching them the right way. And he thinks that sensei creases, you know,

Danielle 25:32
what I found fascinating, though, all the way till the end. Until like, almost the last episode of the third season. Crease still wants Johnny to be part of whatever it is that he’s doing. Yeah.

Jen 25:48
Are you coming back? Right?

Danielle 25:49
He’s always asking if he’s gonna come back. It is like that to him. There’s no one more in the world that he wants as part of his community. Right.

Jen 25:57
But if you’re not going to be part of it, then you’re part of the them and you’re part of the enemy. Yeah, you’re the enemy and that it’s crazy.

Danielle 26:06
And I don’t understand where the police enter on all of this.

Jen 26:09
Well, so right, so there’s so much fighting. So now so at first you just have the two factions, right. So first, you just have Cobra

Danielle 26:16
Kai and then Miyagi, you have Miyagi dough.

Jen 26:18
And Miyagi dough. It’s so peaceful and loving, and it’s all about defense. And you know, you never strike first. And Robbie is there and Sam is there and Sam and Robbie wind up dating, which I’m sorry, if Daniel would have actually known that they were dating when they were living under the same roof,

Danielle 26:42
he would have thrown him in that. That was so 90210 it was all like Dylan and Brenda. It was a when Gosh, Dylan McKay like he, his dad was being sued, or whatever the government was after him for all of that fraud and losing all his money. He couldn’t afford to live in the fancy hotel at the Beverly Hills, whatever, from Beverly Hills. I but I’m telling you, it does make sense. And that’s what you’ve got to remember is this is the 80s and the 90s. And the people that are watching this also the adults that are watching this, are the people that were the kids of the 90s. Yeah,

Jen 27:16
absolutely. The thing is, though, almost all of them were watching for Johnny and for Daniel and there, then they get transformed into really rooting for these kids. Because we’re all adults now. Right? So rooting for kids is something we do too. Right. Right. But I think that Yeah, we we then look at that, though, and we think okay, we’re parents and if that was young under Oh, heck, no.

Danielle 27:39
Yeah, out the door.

Jen 27:40
Right. I want to talk about Johnny and Daniel’s relationship. I

Danielle 27:43
was very unhappy with the way that like, they would get really almost back. Yeah. And then it would be like one of them would have a misunderstanding, right. And then it was the stupidest thing. It was like to idiot guys.

Jen 27:56
Yeah. I mean, they would get together and you would think this is going to work out now. Okay, so they’re both like, what’s funny is or not funny. Whenever they get into a disagreement, they fight. Yeah, they do karate. Yeah, you know. So it’s crazy, because they start to beat each other up. And you’re like, seriously? You’re not teaching anymore wants to watch that. Do people want to watch that? Well, that’s the thing. There was a part I actually started to fast forward through one of their fights. Yeah. Because I liked to see the story a lot. And I want to know, where did you think their relationship would go? What did you think was I

Danielle 28:35
know how to be friends? I really wanted them to be friends. And I thought that I don’t know. I mean, I realized that like, when crease really got involved, I just felt like every opportunity that he had, he could have said, I kicked him out. He’s not part of it. He’s screwing up. He’s telling the kids this thing. He you know, like, but is like, this was the thing that really upset me about Johnny is like, he was stupid. He was

Jen 29:04
stupid. They, but that was on purpose. His lecture was stupid. It was he was so he didn’t understand social interaction. Almost you just

Danielle 29:15
put it but I don’t. But I also like didn’t it was just there was too many pieces of it. That just didn’t make sense. But that’s

Jen 29:22
part of why it’s a comedy. Like I keep it I don’t get what

Danielle 29:25
makes that funny. No, but

Jen 29:27
I think that’s because this is for it was made for guys. I still feel like no matter what, you know what? Kim sat down and watched it with me for like 15 minutes and was laughing. Really? He was laughing? What

Danielle 29:39
was he laughing about? I don’t know. It

Jen 29:40
was like the fighting stuff. I think it’s because it’s like, it is like if you’re watching a kung

Danielle 29:45
fu movie. Yeah. Oh, like my bra. Yeah,

Jen 29:49
no matter. It’s not Kung Fu. I know. But

Danielle 29:52
you know. I mean, look, I think I get it. I think for us, part of what we kept pulling for was all of the romance that was built into it. Oh, Right. I mean, there’s so much romance and that’s probably like the piece that keeps the girls involved. You know, they brought in the mom and they brought in, you know, all this other stuff. Did you even ever think Johnny and Carmen like, okay,

Jen 30:11
I wanted, Johnny. Johnny Johnny. Yeah, so like, but yeah, but it seemed like he would not like she was such a communist Miguel’s mom. And he, she seemed so good that I thought there’s no way she would ever be interested in

Danielle 30:32
early stage. Yeah. So since he’s such a loser,

Jen 30:35
he’s a loser. She he’s often the she feels like he’s the reason sometimes why the bad things are happening.

Danielle 30:42
And let’s not forget if they’ve all been living in this apartment complex. Well, before this whole show starts that we know of. She has also witnessed him constantly coming in and out being a drunkard.

Jen 30:54
Yeah. So working all the time. I can’t even how would you possibly miss all that he was still drinking all the time. When they met. He doesn’t have when she came over. He doesn’t have anything to give her to drink, but juice that he’s not sure is still good. And she made a face here. She made her face and drink it anyway. But I really, you know, it was so that little moment, though, when he you think he has decided he likes her? And then he sees her with that guy, that jerk of a boyfriend. And then he says he’s gonna How do people meet people? And I go, what’s that app puts like a Tinder app on his phone. And then he starts dating people toys conversations he’s

Danielle 31:35
having with them. Oh, my gosh, that was so

Jen 31:37
hilarious.

Danielle 31:38
And that was that was the comedy.

Jen 31:40
Yeah. Because they’re our age. And so a lot of these women had kids or wasn’t so

Danielle 31:47
funny. She’s like, She’s like, easily Can I like his? And he’s like, yeah, you know, like throwing them down and kick it up and putting an elbow in. Yeah. And the woman was like,

Jen 32:01
yep. And then, but then he sees the dude who Carmen’s dating.

Danielle 32:06
Yeah. And he says bad stuff about her. Yeah. And then, and then he goes, and he beats him up in the alley, and then you are like rooting for him again.

Jen 32:14
Yes, you are. It’s like, that’s the thing is he’s the hero. Johnny’s character is so the hero of this and you really do and like you said, early on where you thought, like you said, He’s attractive enough. And I was like, I was not I did not think he was attractive at all in the beginning, because all I saw was this like, sad, depressed, angry, stupid, doesn’t know how to get his life together drunk guy who really like isn’t even doing anything for the right reason. Because in the beginning, he wasn’t doing anything for the right reason. Yeah, he wasn’t he was doing it all for the wrong reason. And so you survived that. Yeah. And I just thought there’s nothing attractive about that. And it wasn’t until he started doing things that started to redeem himself. And he started to really show that he cared about Miguel and some, there was some very moving scenes, like when he tells Miguel he will always be there.

Danielle 33:04
But then spoiler, when, right when Miguel is walking the first day back at school, and he’s trying to call Johnny and Johnny’s in the car, Robbie and Rob in the end, he does no phone and he sends them to voicemail. Yeah, that was that was totally fine.

Jen 33:21
And then but then when Miguel’s in the hospital, and he’s just he’s crying like that’s the other thing that he really shows emotion he shows a very vulnerable side. Yeah, I would say in like Season Two and season three. Absolutely. Definitely. That’s when you start to really or at least for me, when I started to connect with him, I would say all of season one I could have taken a leap I could have just been like I’m watching it anymore. And it wasn’t until season two that I really became one and I you know,

Danielle 33:51
I have to say like between the end of season two and the middle of season three I could have walked away and then it was the tail tail end of season three that grabbed me back because all of that fighting so then let’s jump ahead here’s some spoiler. So this girl Tori pops in. Oh my gosh, and Rory became the love interest for me gal. Actor Bearcat Cobra Kai so she comes in she’s the new recruit in Cobra Kai. She I don’t know where she comes from. But she’s like, wrong side of the tracks girl. And it was really interesting was that my daughter who was 12 was like, Isn’t she so pretty? And I was like, What? No, she is scary and really not right. She

Jen 34:37
was like all the scary girls that we knew in high school.

knew from the moment they

Danielle 34:43
have that crazy in their face You don’t even like that is the kind of person that you don’t even become friends with. Because whatever happens, they could misconstrue anything or think anything wrong. And that’s the end for Who knows what.

Jen 35:01
Yeah. Well and it’s like even from the beginning, remember, she becomes friends with Aida. Yeah. And I Isha and Sam are not talking and

Danielle 35:09
then Oh, that makes salmon. Well, remember those Sam accused her

Jen 35:13
stealing her wallet, right? I know. But it’s still but but because she stole a bottle of vodka. The first thing she does when they go to that beach club is steal a bottle of vodka, right? So her and I are there hanging out and I just want someone to come along and be her friend because she doesn’t want to go somewhere where all the bullies are by herself. Right. And Tory’s like, yeah, sure, I’ll totally go. And then the first thing she does is go steal a bottle of vodka. And Sam sees that and so when Sam’s mom’s wallet is missing, but we all knew that was a bad thing. I mean, you’re in I’m they’re like, going No, don’t Sam, please do not accuse her.

Danielle 35:48
But and you’re in the back of your mind where you’re like, Oh my gosh, did she do it? Right. Do it. Did she do it? I mean, they did a good job of leading us there and making us think it is a possibility. It really is. Tori was like a do or die. SHAN she they did a beautiful job casting her. I have to say, I mean, that she just was psychopath psycho. Yeah, there was just black dead in her eyes.

Jen 36:18
But you know, what’s crazy is that I saw an interview with her in real life. She’s pretty, she’s funny. She’s sweet and nice.

Danielle 36:27
She must love playing that character, then

Jen 36:29
tell me something. What surprised you the most?

Danielle 36:33
What surprised me the most was how much I really liked watching the crease backstory. I felt like it was really important to have empathy for john crease because I hated him. And that was something that I needed. Because otherwise there was pure hate for crease. And, and I don’t I still don’t appreciate approve any of that of all of the whole mentality of the true Cobra Kai. But it was a real point. To say like, Okay, he’s sick, he’s mental. He needs real help. He should not be running a dojo. And now we really know why. Not just because, hey, this guy’s a Vietnam vet. And he’s messed up or, hey, this guy had a rough life and blah, blah, blah. But like, we have a real backstory, we actually witnessed the exact piece of his life the you know, whatever. It was the two week window that created john crease to be

Jen 37:33
this. And you know what’s funny about that? Because this shows you how shallow I am. Two things are going to be shallow, shallow one is that I fast forwarded through that part, because you see what it was to me. No, I do I know what it was because first of all, I was watching and I heard the part where the his, his commander or whatever he whatever he was, he was his commander told him that his fiance girlfriend died. So I saw that Yeah, I saw them start to fight. I fast forwarded through it. I saw the fight through fast forward and

Danielle 38:11
they saw this pit of rats and like the snake but the other piece was how he kept saying that it was his commanding officer said it was his fault because

Jen 38:20
right because he refused to kill the guy

Danielle 38:23
because that would get out to detonate ready to detonate the bomb. Right? He didn’t, right? And then they all were captured and everybody was gonna die anyway, and everybody was gonna die anyway. Right. And so then they were and then they were all forced to fight to the death over a pit of snakes. Right. Okay, so yes, no, I

Jen 38:39
hear you. And I understand. And I’m just saying that while I do agree, I hated john crease so much that I didn’t care because I that part of the story to me was so disturbing. I didn’t want it to exist. Yeah. So I mean, that’s, you know what I mean? So I needed to be there. It’s definitely part of the story. It’s my whole point in Cobra Kai did love Cobra Kai. Yes. Was I so? Just I needed to watch it. I can’t you know, I was what I watched it constantly until it was over. I dinged it, but I still hated crease and did so

Danielle 39:14
I was so disturbed by Tori, because she was so obsessed. And what I had said Tori is such a scary character. She really She’s so good. So the fact that all of them did that and the fact that they didn’t call the police

Jen 39:31
Well, that’s the thing like there were so many opportunities for someone to call up and down and then drop the phone. Yeah, seriously so many opportunities that and I was like, how was this gonna end? How is it gonna end and I mean, that was some amazing redemption though, right? I mean, they were gonna break Dimitris arm again.

Danielle 39:51
Yeah, and then finally

Jen 39:52
off. Oh, I think I got the chills.

Danielle 39:56
I was just I was so happy though. Because I was

Jen 39:59
huge. Yeah, it was it was terrible seeing him be so bad and have so much anger in him when these were his best friends, his very, very best friends in the whole world. And so yeah, that was amazing redemption to me. But I want to tell you the part that shocked me the most. This is number two shallow. Won’t number one shallow was the john Cruz Thing number two shallow is that for me, it was just Sam being so good at karate. Oh, you know, like, I, he she’s the son or the She’s the daughter of Daniel. But you know, she doesn’t do karate that kind of talk about it. He’s like, Don’t you want to do it with me again, like we did when you were little. So they talked about like when he was

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