Cobra Kai Season 1 Episode 5 Recap – Counterbalance

[00:00:30] Miguel continues his training under Johnny. Slowly but surely, he’s learning. Miguel couldn’t do a single push-up before, but now he‘s jogging and sparring with Johnny. One won’t think that Miguel has asthma with how he moves. Johnny won’t go easy on Miguel even if he’s the only student of Cobra Kai. Johnny uses a baseball machine to train Miguel‘s reflexes. Miguel couldn’t block a single ball when he started, but he got used to the machine after a while. Eventually, Miguel wins his sparring match against Johnny, but it‘s never a fair match.

[00:02:00] Johnny suddenly activates the baseball machine, sending a ball flying toward Miguel’s ear. His back is against the machine, so he doesn’t have time to react. Miguel winces in pain as the ball hits him. He tells Johnny it wasn’t a fair move, but Johnny reminds him that his enemies won’t always play by the rules. Johnny reminds Miguel: life isn’t fair, so he must always be alert. A group of women enters the dojo while Miguel gets up from the floor. Johnny explains he needed to rent the dojo to other people so they could pay the bills. Johnny doesn’t like seeing women using his dojo for their yoga class, but he doesn’t have a choice.

[00:03:00] While Johnny struggles to make ends meet, Daniel works to get some business done. He’s having dinner with Armand at the Country Club. Armand’s membership was revoked because of an incident. Daniel sides with Armand and invites him to dinner because he needs something from him. The whole family went with Daniel for dinner. They thought Sam wouldn’t come with them, but it seems her friendship with Yasmine and Moon has fallen apart. They no longer returned her messages and went to the concert without her. Amanda approves that Sam is no longer going out with Yasmine and Moon because they are bad influences on her.

[00:04:00] Armand is a wealthy businessman who made a name for himself through real estate. Daniel wants first dibs on the property in Reseda. Armand says he owns only one strip mall in Reseda, but Daniel already knows about it. Daniel wants Armand to sell the strip mall to him so he can shut down Cobra Kai. In exchange for the favor, Daniel will get Armand’s membership reinstated at the club. Meanwhile, Robby is trying to get some mother and son moment, but Shannon is going out for dinner with some random dude again. She tells Robby that Johnny has gone to see her and wants him to move in with him. Shannon says it‘s just some scam, but Robby gets curious about why Johnny wants him to move in with him.

[00:07:00] Miguel and Johnny are sparring when Aisha walks into the dojo the next day. Johnny thinks she‘s there to attend yoga class, so he tells her that yoga doesn’t start until 5 p.m. Aisha says she‘s there for Karate, but Johnny tells her that women are not allowed at Cobra Kai. Miguel pulls Johnny to his office to talk. He reveals that Aisha’s father is wealthy and the dojo needs the money. Johnny accepts Aisha as his second student. Aisha wants to learn Karate because of her bullies. She wants to learn how to fight back. Johnny assures Aisha that by the time he’s done with her, she’ll respond to her bullies using her fists.

[00:10:00] Yasmine and Moon smoke weed in a parking lot when a homeless woman walks by. Moon makes eye contact with the homeless person, so she approaches the driver‘s seat window. She panics, so Yasmine tells her to lock the car doors. Moon slowly reaches for the lock when the passenger doors open, and Sam hops in the back seat. Sam asks Yasmine and Moon why they’ve been avoiding her. The two reveal that Kyler told them what happened at the movie theater. Sam is surprised that Kyler lied to them about what happened. She tells Yasmine and Moon that Kyler is lying, but they believed him more than her. Sam realizes that Yasmine and Moon aren’t her friends and leaves.

[00:13:00] Johnny starts Aisha and pairs her up with Miguel on her first day. Miguel doesn’t want to fight Aisha, and Aisha wants them to go easy on her because it‘s her first day. Johnny reminds Miguel that he’s the one who thinks men and women should be equal. He tells Aisha that her enemies don’t care what day it is, so she shouldn’t care if it’s her first day in the dojo. Miguel hesitates at first, but he kicks Aisha right in her abdomen. Aisha falls, so Miguel apologizes immediately. Aisha gets back up and slams Miguel to the floor like a kid. She uses her weight to drive her knee into his abdomen, ending the sparring match. Johnny stops the sparring match because of an argument outside.

[00:14:30] Johnny goes over to the convenience store next door. He sees the owner of the store arguing with Armand. Armand went over to announce that he’s doubling every tenant‘s rent at the strip mall. Johnny confronts Armand because they can’t pay double the rent. Armand doesn’t care about the tenants. He tells them they can leave so he can find new tenants who can pay. It seems Johnny is running out of luck already. He manages to get a second student into the dojo, but the rent also doubles.

[00:15:30] That night, Robby is researching Cobra Kai when Shannon walks in with another man. She pulls the man into her room; they don’t even notice Robby sitting in the living room. Robby puts on his headphones so he won’t hear what his mother is up to. Meanwhile, Johnny tries to pawn some of his stuff to make some rent money. Johnny doesn’t own anything valuable; even the gold coins he thought were real were just gold-plated. Johnny just returns to the dojo to have a few beers. He reaches into his fridge, but he‘s out of beers. Johnny walks to the convenience store to grab some and bumps into Daniel.

[00:18:30] Johnny asks Daniel what he‘s doing at the mall. Daniel creates an alibi and says he‘s just checking on Johnny and even offers to pay for his beers. Daniel returns home and opens a bottle of wine to celebrate. Amanda finds Daniel in the kitchen opening the wine, so she knows he‘s in a good mood. Daniel explains that his plan to double the rent prices at the strip mall worked. He set up dinner with Armand to make him think the strip mall is undervalued, so Armand raised the rent to raise its value which should force Johnny to close the dojo. Daniel thought Amanda would be happy, but she wasn’t.

[00:20:30] Amanda tells Daniel she wants her old husband back. She points out that Daniel didn’t even consider the other stores affected by the rent increase. Amanda agrees that Johnny is an asshole, but no one deserves to lose their livelihood over some rivalry that ended 30 years ago. Daniel realizes that Amanda is right, so he loses the appetite to celebrate. The next day, Sam ends up being bullied at school because Kyler told a lie about her. Kyler told everyone that Sam had gone down on him at the movie theater. Sam won’t let Kyler get away with what he did, but Miguel stands up for her instead.

[00:22:00] He confronts Kyler and his friends to impress Sam and help her out. Once again, it‘s four against one; this time, Miguel is ready. Kyler continues to ridicule Miguel for his lame Karate lessons. Miguel brings the pain as he takes on Kyler and his friends. They didn’t stand a chance against him. Miguel shames all four of his enemies as the whole school watches. Some students even record the action on camera. Everyone cheers as Miguel stand over his enemies. Sam smiles at him like he‘s her knight in shining armor.

[00:23:30] The principal drags Miguel to her office, but he doesn’t care. Everyone now knew his name, and no one would ever mess with him again. After school, Miguel goes straight to Johnny to tell him the good news. Johnny is proud of Miguel’s achievements and finally gives him his gi. Miguel can’t believe it, but Johnny assures him he earned it. While the two are hugging it out in the parking lot, Robby arrives just in time. He wants to talk to Johnny but decides to leave. He didn’t bother to ask Johnny who Miguel was. He just thought Johnny had already found another son to replace him.

[00:25:00] That afternoon, Daniel goes to a cemetery to visit an old friend — Mr. Miyagi. Daniel longs for Mr. Miyagi’s guidance because he hasn’t been himself ever since Cobra Kai showed up again. Before Daniel leaves the cemetery, he remembers Mr. Miyagi’s lesson about balance. Mr. Miyagi reminds him that balance isn’t only for Karate; it’s also for real life. Daniel gets a moment of clarity and realizes he must regain his balance.

[00:28:00] Johnny arrives at the dojo to find many kids outside. They all went over to sign up for Karate lessons. Everyone saw Miguel’s video, so they all want to learn Karate. Meanwhile, Daniel goes home to restore the balance in his life. He’s returning to Karate, so he removes all the junk inside their pool house. Amanda walks into the pool house and finds Daniel reopening his small dojo. She‘s happy that Daniel is working on getting back his old self.

[00:29:30] Robby goes to Daniel’s auto shop to apply for a job. Amanda accepts his application even if he shows a fake transcript. Meanwhile, Daniel starts training again to get his balance back.