Cobra Kai Season 4 Episode 1 Recap – Let‘s Begin

[00:00:30] Terry Silver, Kreese’s friend, is wealthy. He‘s playing the piano when Kreese called. He answers the call but doesn’t say anything to Kreese. He just ends the call as soon as he hears Kreese’s voice. Meanwhile, the dojo merger isn’t what everyone expected it to be. Having two senseis is hard, but getting them to cooperate is even harder.

[00:03:00] Johnny is all about offense and aggression, while Daniel is all about defense and balance. Both senseis possess great skill and technique, but they can’t teach their students offense and defense at the same time. The first day of training is a mess. Everyone is confused how they‘re supposed to learn Karate. Johnny wants more offense, while Daniel teaches everyone to learn defense. They get nowhere on the first day, but it‘s a great start to the merger since no one started a fight.

[00:05:00] Cobra Kai isn’t doing great either. Tory is still doing her best in training, but they won’t win if the other students don’t do their best. No one wants to train anymore because half of the class quit. All that’s left are the bullies, who are too dumb to care. Robby is still there but isn’t planning on joining Cobra Kai. He‘s only staying at the dojo. Kreese is still convincing Robby to join Cobra Kai. Robby tells Kreese he doesn’t care about the tournament, but Kreese explains it’s not about the tournament; it’s about winning and reaping the benefits. Still, Robby doesn’t want to join Cobra Kai. He tells Kreese they don’t have any chance of winning since Johnny and Daniel are teaming up. Kreese says they‘re not the only ones teaming up.

[00:07:00] Kreese has something up his sleeve, but he doesn’t tell Robby about it. Meanwhile, the LaRussos got a new alarm system installed at their house. Amanda thought it would put her at ease, but the alarm is just sending her off the edge. She wants all the Cobra Kais to end up in jail, especially Tory. Daniel tells Amanda they can still go to the police, but Amanda can’t put their family and business through another nightmare. They tried to go to the police before, and it just placed a target on their backs. Amanda is skeptical Kreese will honor their agreement. Daniel isn’t worried about Kreese winning the tournament. He has high hopes that Sam will win it all, which places a lot of expectations on her shoulders. She overhears the conversation and can’t help but worry.

[00:09:00] Johnny isn’t worried either. He‘s enjoying his time with Carmen and her family. Johnny is showing off his cooking skills for Carmen, but the night turns sour as Miguel mentions Ali. He tells Carmen that Johnny and Ali went on a date and everything they did for Johnny‘s Facebook. Miguel doesn’t know Johnny and Carmen are dating. Johnny tries to tell Miguel to stop, but he continues talking about Ali. After dinner, Johnny tries to explain things to Carmen, but she just cuts him off. She tells Johnny they should just take their relationship slowly.

[00:11:30] Kreese visits Silver. He doesn’t want to talk to Kreese, but his girlfriend, Cheyenne, invites him for drinks. Silver has no choice but to entertain Kreese for the time being. Meanwhile, the two dojos train separately first. They still can’t figure out a system to merge the training process, so they must train separately. Eagle Fang takes the front half of the dojo, while Miyagi-Do takes the back half. Johnny calls out to Hawk to be the sparring dummy for the day. Hawk apologizes for everything he did while still with Cobra Kai, but Johnny isn’t going to let him off easily.

[00:14:30] Tory confronts Robby about choosing a side. Robby didn’t join the fight at Sam’s because he wasn’t planning on joining Cobra Kai. Tory tells Robby that Sam still controls him even if their relationship has ended. Robby denies Tory’s allegations, but she‘s right. Robby is still in love with Sam and can’t choose a side because of his feelings for her. Tory tells Robby to leave because Cobra Kai is an offensive dojo, and he doesn’t belong there. Meanwhile, Silver has moved on with life. He’s completely forgotten Karate, but Kreese reminds him that no one can ever escape from Karate.

[00:17:30] It‘s only day two and problems are already arising at the dojo. Johnny’s loud approach in Karate isn’t working with Daniel’s calmness. He‘s trying to meditate with his students, but none can focus from all the cussing and shouting Johnny is doing with Eagle Fang. Daniel confronts Johnny, leading to an argument. Hawk takes a break and goes for a drink, but the members of the Miyagi-Do dojo don’t want him there. Hawk tries to talk with Daniel about his place at Miyagi-Do, but Daniel slips and tells Hawk he doesn’t want him there either. Hawk leaves since he isn’t welcome at the dojo. Daniel knew he had said the wrong things to Hawk and tried to salvage the conversation, but Hawk had already left.

[00:20:00] Johnny is ready to quit on Daniel and Miyagi-Do. He tells Miguel they can’t make the merger work. Miguel tells Johnny to get inspiration from Rocky III and tells Johnny that Rocky and Apollo had to team up to beat Clubber Lang. Miguel explains that Apollo reached out to Rocky first, and that’s how they ended up working together. Johnny doesn’t want to be Apollo, but Miguel explains he must be Apollo because he‘s the strike first man. Johnny can’t give Miguel any assurance, which worries Miguel about their chances of winning the tournament.

[00:21:30] Miguel and Sam are willing to do whatever it takes to make the merger work. Miguel does his best with Johnny, but Sam has other plans. She reaches out to Robby, hoping he can help with the merger. Robby refuses to go back because he is done being used. He doesn’t want anything to do with Daniel or Johnny. Robby is also angry at Sam for choosing Miguel over him. He feels everyone who cared for him let him down. Sam does her best to convince Robby, but his final decision is to stay away from them.  Meanwhile, Kreese is doing some convincing of his own.

[00:23:00] Kreese wants Silver to join him again in Cobra Kai. Even after hearing that Daniel and Johnny teamed up to bring Cobra Kai down, Silver refuses to join. Silver tells Kreese he’s moved on from Karate. He thought he could conquer the world in the 80s, but he found himself in a hell hole after what he did with Daniel. He had to rebuild himself, and luckily, he did. He went to therapy just to move on from his previous life. Silver tells Kreese that losing him in the 80s was the best thing that ever happened to him. Silver doesn’t plan on returning, leaving Kreese without a partner in crime. Kreese respects Silver’s decision and leaves in peace.

[00:26:30] Johnny is calling Daniel when he hears a knock on his door. He opens the door and finds Daniel standing outside his apartment. Daniel went over to talk with Johnny and say sorry. He wants things to work out with the merger, but his plan doesn’t sound good with Johnny. Daniel wants Johnny to give up Eagle Fang and join Miyagi-Do. Johnny disagrees with Daniel because he doesn’t want to join Miyagi-Do. Daniel asks Johnny how they can make things work, but Johnny says they can‘t. They agree they’ll break the bad news to the students the next day.

[00:29:30] Miguel and Sam are already at the dojo the next day waiting for their senseis. They see Hawk arrive with a sledgehammer and are worried about what he‘ll do with it. Meanwhile, Cobra Kai arrives at their dojo only to see Robby waiting. Kreese isn’t there yet, so Robby volunteers to get everyone warmed up. Kyler and Tory refuse to warm up with Robby, so he challenges everyone to a fight. He tells everyone he’ll leave if anyone can land a hit on him. Kyler and the other students charge at Robby, but they are no match for his defensive stance. No one can land a hit on Robby, but Tory lands a hit after Robby lowers his guard. Robby honors his side of the deal and decides to leave.

[00:32:30] Tory stops Robby from leaving. Meanwhile, Daniel and Johnny arrive at the dojo. They talk about telling the students that the merger is off. They haven’t decided how to tell everyone when they hear someone breaking stuff out back — Hawk. He‘s using his sledgehammer to tear the fence down. Daniel tries to stop Hawk, but Demetri explains they will build an Okinawan sparring deck. They need the extra area out back to build the deck. Daniel and Johnny are surprised that both dojos are working together to build the sparring deck. Daniel and Johnny agree it isn’t time to split their dojos up yet.

[00:34:00] Robby joins Cobra Kai. He tells everyone he’ll teach them Miyagi-Do Karate to defeat them. Sam’s move to approach Robby backfires on her. It only proves Tory’s point that Sam is a spoiled brat who always gets what she wants. Robby wants to end Sam’s reign and is willing to betray her and Daniel to win the tournament. Kreese arrives to see Robby leading the dojo. Meanwhile, Silver is having second thoughts. He remembers Cobra Kais never die. He kicks one of the wine bottles in his cellar to see if he still has what it takes to do Karate.