Cobra Kai 1×08: “Molting” Review

Johnny takes Cobra Kai to the junkyard to train. He uses a dog whistle to attract dogs to the area, and makes his students try to outrun them.

Sam scrolls through pictures on her phone of herself and Miguel, smiling. The doorbell rings, and it’s her grandmother — Daniel’s mother. Daniel tells his mom all about Johnny entering Cobra Kai into the All Valley Championship. She agrees that they should not be allowed to enter. Sam is surprised by this reaction, worried that her family wouldn’t approve of her dating Miguel. She tries to say that the kids in Cobra Kai can’t all be bad, but he dad makes her promise to stay away from them. Louie is extra annoyed by Johnny entering the tournament after Daniel had his car fixed for free. He thinks they should get the car back.

Miguel is at Cobra Kai, training without the other students. Johnny says Miguel is their best chance of winning the tournament, so he wants to focus on him. When he has a free moment, Miguel checks his phone and laughs at a silly picture that Sam posted. He shows Johnny the picture of his girlfriend, and Johnny snatches the phone out of his hand, recognizing Sam LaRusso.

Johnny takes Miguel outside and tells him about when he met Ali. He says his friend was throwing milk duds at this group of cute girls in the movie theater. They eventually got very fed up, and Ali stood up and yelled at them. He says he hit on her a few times until she gave in. They dated for two years and were in love. They got into a fight before his senior year of high school, and that’s when Daniel moved to town. He tells the story of his rival with Daniel from The Karate Kid, complete with clips from the movie. It’s so interesting to hear the story for Johnny’s point of view. In the movie, Daniel is this underdog that you’re rooting for, but in this scene, you see him as the antagonist. He says that his story is that you need to watch out for the LaRussos.

Amanda gets a call that some guys showed up to LaRusso Auto with motorcycles asking for Louie. Louie tells them that he had made a deal with these guys to start selling motorcycles. They’ll start with four and go from there. Daniel and Amanda are angry about Louie making this deal when it isn’t his company. Daniel’s mom, Lucille, says that Louie just made a mistake, but Amanda, fed up with her comments, tells Lucille to stay out of it. Amanda says that Louie only works for them because Lucille made them hire him. “You always take care of family,” Lucille says. The meal turns to chaos as everyone starts fighting with one another.

Miguel’s mom invites Johnny to stay for dinner after he takes Miguel home after practice. Miguel’s phone rings and his mom lets him leave the dinner table briefly to answer Sam’s FaceTime call. He tells her that he has to practice all day Sunday for the tournament. Sam thinks that sounds excessive and suggests that he switch dojos. Miguel is confused and says he could never do that to Sensei Lawrence. Daniel walks out, asking Sam to come out and play peacekeeper with her mom and grandma. He asks who she’s talking to, and she says “No one. Just my lab partner,” which Miguel overhears.

Back at the dinner table, Miguel’s mom tells Johnny that she moved to America in an attempt to get far away from Miguel’s father, who turned out to be a bad man. Johnny says that he’s sorry to hear that, but she says that she moved on a long time ago. “You can’t let the mistakes of the past determine your future.” Johnny goes home and looks around. With her words in his head, Johnny cleans up his house. He even opts for orange juice over beer.

Robby skateboards to Daniel’s house and sees Sam lying out in the sun. She makes conversation with him, and it’s clear that he’s instantly smitten. Daniel offers to let Sam also come train with them, but she is uninterested and has plans with her mom and grandma.

Once they’re in the woods, Johnny asks Robby what he hears. Robby hears nothing, and that’s the point. He tells Robby about the importance of balance. Not just in his body, but in his life. Robby considers coming clean about his original intentions to work for LaRusso just to hurt his dad, but he backs out, not wanting to lose what he has going with Daniel. Daniel has him practice kicks on a tree until he can do them all without falling.

At the movies, Miguel tells Aisha about how Sam’s dad is going to hate him because he hates Cobra Kai and Miguel is Cobra Kai. Hawk suggests that Miguel go over to her house and introduce himself. He throws popcorn at a cute girl until he misses and hits a man in front of her.

Johnny goes to Sid’s house to return his money. Sid jokes about how he should just keep the money on the table until next week, when Johnny will need it again. Johnny retorts that he never needed Sid’s money, but money was all Sid could give him.

Once back at chez LaRusso, Johnny invites Robby to stay for dinner. Bad timing, buddy. Miguel shows up, ready to introduce himself to the LaRussos. He hears laughter from the yard and walks over to see everyone, including Robby, eating dinner together. Miguel, hurt, leaves.

Johnny writes a letter to his son. His heartfelt apology is interrupted by Louie and his biker friends smashing his car with a baseball bat. One of the guys starts pouring gasoline on the car. Johnny walks out, enraged. Louie says that this is a message from Daniel LaRusso, and Johnny starts beating them up. A biker throws his lighter to the car, lighting it on fire. Johnny grabs Louie and asks where Daniel lives. Louie tells him, scared, and Johnny takes off on the bike’s motorcycle.