S04.E07: Minefields

[paulvdb]

Premiere date: December 31, 2021

[Neiman]

I can't believe Miguel helped with some of those recruiting efforts, but look forward to seeing how the new recruit pans out. 

The more I see of Sam LaRusso, the more she comes across as a spoiled brat. I realize she has reasons not to like Tori, but she goes out of her way to cause trouble.  

[Morrigan2575]

1 hour ago, Neiman said:

more I see of Sam LaRusso, the more she comes across as a spoiled brat. I realize she has reasons not to like Tori, but she goes out of her way to cause trouble.  

Sam and Anthony, both are pretty spoiled.

Love the new Eagle Fang recruit, she was having way too much fun kicking boys in the balls 😂

This season has been on fire! Really enjoying. They've certainly set Kreese up as the ultimate villain. Silver seems like a decent guy, which is crazy Karate Kid 3.

 

[bettername2come]

Glad Anthony didn't just immediately fall in line and do the work. I have assumed that one major difference in him and Sam is that he wouldn't remember Mr. Miyagi. I do like that we got confirmation that they'd at least met and that Mr. Miyagi had those same grandfatherly feelings towards him. I'm glad Amanda and Daniel know Anthony's been a bully. 

Lia reminds me of a young Demi Lovato.  Kenny in the library was like a horror movie villain. 

I expect a full line of Cobra Kai athleisure based on this season. 

[Cthulhudrew]

Watching in progress (post liable to be edited):

Terry Silver: "Even Sensei Kreese has a weakness."

John Kreese (thinking): Really...

Johnny: "Your mom and I wanted to take you somewhere nice to tell you we're doin' it; like Marie Callendar's or Red Lobster. Maybe even an Olive Garden."

Me: Growing up in the Midwest, I used to think Red Lobster was like the A-list of restaurants. Not sure I'd feel the same here in Cali though?

Eagle Fang New Girl: "Cynthia Rothrock is a badass!"

Johnny: "Damn right she is! Brownnosers get extra points!"

Johnny: "No blow is too low for Cobra Kai. We have to be ready for them!"

Me: I grew up in the 80s, when we thought it was okay to go for the nut kick to take down our enemies before we learned the science that it could be bad long-term. I am not a fan.

Kenny: "Robbie doesn't have a weakness!"

Terry: "His weakness is your well-being. Use it."

Kenny drops Robbie.

Me: Still can't hate on Terry. His methods are a bit more aggressive than I'd like (and I still think Daniel has his head up has ass too much, even though I generally agree with his more pacificist approach) but I can't disagree with his overall sense of student-first teaching vs. Kreese's "win at all costs" teaching. On the other hand:

Kreese: Can't I get any good help around here? Gonna have to do something about Terry now. Maybe get him hooked on dope again?

Daniel: "I was hoping to protect you from this bully, Anthony..." sigh

Anthony: "It's just that...."

Daniel: "What?"

Anthony: "Nothing, dad." I'm the bully.

Daniel: "Come on, son, you can tell me anything."

Me. Tell him, you sonuvabitch. You're the f'ing bully. He'll be an asshole until next episode, but he'll forgive you.

Anthony: "Nah. I'll take care of it."

Kreese: "Don't try and tell these kids I have a weakness, because I know where the bodies are buried and I'll get you back on the dope or something worse, Terry"

Terry: "Mmmmkay.,..."

Mother f'er. I love this show, and how they can massage the nuances of interpersonal relationships in ways that the original movies weren't able to showcase. I think this incarnation of Terry Silver is pretty decent, at the admittant exception of the one-sided villainy of Kreese (although they sort of edge toward a humanization of him once in a while). But I hate that they are basically going to villainize Silver again because they need to keep a BWAHAHAHAHAAAIMEVILLLL character(s) in the show for drama's sake.

(But I'm so glad they dropped the Stingray character)

Edited January 1, 2022 by Cthulhudrew

[DoctorAtomic]

Again, have to hand it to Robby - "I got kicked out of school and ended in juvie like your brother". Very calm about it, but clearly serious about trying to make a point. 

On 12/31/2021 at 2:38 PM, Morrigan2575 said:

Sam and Anthony, both are pretty spoiled.

They laid that out from the start. It's coming home to roost this season. It's fair development at this point for me. 

I did like Johnny's retort about the pronouns though. 

On 12/31/2021 at 5:34 PM, bettername2come said:

Glad Anthony didn't just immediately fall in line and do the work. I have assumed that one major difference in him and Sam is that he wouldn't remember Mr. Miyagi.

I thought that was fair scene. He feels left out. I thought it was a decent effort to 'want to start over', but he blew up fast. 

On 12/31/2021 at 5:34 PM, bettername2come said:

I'm glad Amanda and Daniel know Anthony's been a bully.

It didn't look like they were going to make excuses for him either. 

[Morrigan2575]

8 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

They laid that out from the start. It's coming home to roost this season. It's fair development at this point for me. 

Absolutely. There might also have been some favoritism from Daniel with Sam vs Anthony. I always felt in S1 that Daniel was more about Sam because they bonded over Karate when she was a kid. He didn't have that with Anthony and, seemed unwilling to bond with Anthony over something Anthony liked/was good at.

[Conotocarious]

I love love love that Daniel’s kids aren’t perfect. I love how this show shows the different layers and tries to present all sides. It really is better than the movies in that respect. 

[Kate47]

Shout out to the guy doing side hustles to pay for his cat's hernia surgery!

Also shout out to the new Eagle Fang girl, I love her already.

Also x3: I love that nothing in cobra Kai at this point is face value. Kreese and Silver are ostensibly training these kids, but they're also spreading lines of manipulation and probing at cracks for weakness at both sensei and student. It really says a lot that they can pit Robby and Kenny against each other and I can immediately see the strings being pulled.

Edited January 3, 2022 by Kate47
Moar thoughts

[Kel Varnsen]

Kenny kicking the bullies asses (and getting away with it) was really well done. 

Also if Silver and Kreese's little bet went double or nothing, why did Kreese only bring one six-pack?

[Chicago Redshirt]

16 hours ago, Kel Varnsen said:

Also if Silver and Kreese's little bet went double or nothing, why did Kreese only bring one six-pack?

Kreese should have brought no six-packs, because he was up. If he won, he should have gotten two sixers, and Silver winning meant that instead of owing any beer, they would be back to nothing and no one owes anything to anyone. 

So maybe Kreese is really bad at math or we'll read it in as "triple or one" or we'll just chalk it up to Kreese needing to make the point he does after providing the beers.

[Raja]

On 1/1/2022 at 2:17 AM, Cthulhudrew said:

Take you somewhere nice to tell you we're doin' it; like Marie Callendar's or Red Lobster. Maybe even an Olive Garden."

Me: Growing up in the Midwest, I used to think Red Lobster was like the A-list of restaurants. Not sure I'd feel the same here in Cali though?

EKenny: "Robbie doesn't have a weakness!"

Terry: "His weakness is your well-being. Use it."

Kenny drops Robbie.

Me: Still can't hate on Terry. His methods are a bit more aggressive than I'd like (and I still think Daniel has his head up has ass too much, even though I generally agree with his more pacificist approach) but I can't disagree with his overall sense of student-first teaching vs. Kreese's "win at all costs" teaching. On the other hand:

 

I think it is more a social class thing then California. So we get to look down our noses at those who go to the corporate mid priced restaurants instead of the independents who hope a reality show will come and build them a new kitchen..

On 12/31/2021 at 4:34 PM, bettername2come said:

 

  Kenny in the library was like a horror movie villain. 

I expect a full line of Cobra Kai athleisure based on this season. 

I was thinking John Wick. He ruthlessly and efficiently took down the henchmen who had been egging Anthony one. But I thinbk he was about to spend time with Anthony. His story arc seems to be a reprise of Hawk's.

I guess Silver has been spreading his silver back into Cobra Kai

[Whimsy]

On 1/1/2022 at 5:17 AM, Cthulhudrew said:

 

Me: Growing up in the Midwest, I used to think Red Lobster was like the A-list of restaurants. Not sure I'd feel the same here in Cali though?

I also grew up int the Midwest (MN) and thought Red Lobster was SO a fancy. We also didn’t have much money growing up  My husband thought it was hilarious, since he’s from New England and knew how to eat a whole lobster, not just the butterflied tail. I’ve been in NE for almost 30 years now and yeah, Red Lobster is terrible. 

[CrazyDog]

Loved the Cynthia Rothrock shoutout.

Devin is cool. She earned some respect from Johnny right off the bat. And she, uh, has her kicking game down.

OMG, Mitch hitting the wall of shelves, yow. Typical Johnny training injury, lol.

Ugh, Anthony. It just seems kind of late in the series to be adding him in. He doesn't seem to have a lot of depth, though at least he explained how he can't really relate to the Miyagi memories, and has felt kind of left out. But glad he was outed as the bully to Kenny.

I'd love to know how much training time passes in these episodes. Anthony would spend days waxing on and off, while Kenny is already winning fights and taking on his bullies.

That was a nice scene with Miguel and Johnny.

Kreese is supposed to be this frightening presence, but he is a little overshadowed by Silver, at least until Kreese took him down a notch at the end.

Edited January 10, 2022 by CrazyDog

[tennisgurl]

I am really glad they brought the story with Anthony back after a few episodes on the backburner, and that they confirmed what I have suspected, that he doesn't have many memories of Mr. Miyagi and that made him feel left out. That probably also led to him not being very interested in karate, so while Daniel could bond with Sam over karate and their close relationship with Mr. Miyagi, he ended up favoring Sam over Anthony and now Anthony has become a bully to get validation from his friends and Sam has become rather spoiled. 

Glad that Daniel and Amanda know the truth about Anthony, that look Daniel gave Anthony at the end was brutal, its going to be awful for him to realize his own kid became like the guys who made his life so miserable. Anthony is still really young though, and this show has shown that it is possible for people to change for the better, even if its a long hard journey. 

[millennium]

So what will Anthony do with Chekov's ancient Okinawan scroll and the secrets it contains?

I like how the show is demonstrating that delusions of power and moral superiority can turn anyone into a bully, even the saintly LaRussos.    Very timely theme.

Edited January 13, 2022 by millennium

[millennium]

Is it just me or does young Kreese look like Johnny Bananas?

[Virtual]

At this point, I don’t care so much about Sam’s story. No troubles, little adversity and wealth have made her unlikeable. I liked her in Season 1, but her actions in late Season 2 and onwards I haven’t liked.

Kenny outsmarted Anthony by making sure the principal saw the TikTok locker video before anyone had a chance to delete it. It’s like Silver has been teaching in Cobra Kai: don’t just fight with no mercy, be smart about it. I still fear that Kenny will become an aggressive kid and will come off as a bully. He doesn’t have Johnny to pull him back like Miguel and Hawk did, and Kreese and Silver will encourage it.

Looks like Kreese is starting to fear he’s losing control of the class, and thought that Silver should also be in his control rather than an equal. He wouldn’t have brought up Vietnam and Silver’s triggers otherwise. Better be careful. We saw what Terry is capable of in KK3 when he feels pushed.

Edited January 25, 2022 by Virtual

[Danny Franks]

2 hours ago, Virtual said:

At this point, I don’t care so much about Sam’s story. No troubles, little adversity and wealth have made her unlikeable. I liked her in Season 1, but her actions in late Season 2 and onwards I haven’t liked.

The thing I like about Sam's storyline is that you can see her getting more and more frustrated and disappointed at each possible fight being averted.

She seems to have real anger inside her, over a number of things - Tory and everything along with it, Robby no longer being her friend/object of desire, Cobra Kai seemingly having the upper hand wherever they go. A couple of examples are the way she looks so peeved that Miguel gets them out of fighting after the drive-in confrontation and her openly disagreeing with her dad when he says they shouldn't strike back over Hawk's haircut.

She's certainly not particularly sympathetic but the character arc is really interesting. I want to see how far she might go, how aggressive she might get in her fight against Cobra Kai. It's certainly better than her being the damsel in distress, caught between two cute boys, and the more they minimise her very dry romance with Miguel, the better.

[CountryGirl]

That scene with Johnny and Miguel was the best of the series. For a moment, we saw a glimpse of the teenage boy Johnny used to be and darn if the tears in both of their eyes didn't trigger some in mine.

 

[Lakebum]

On 1/1/2022 at 4:17 AM, Cthulhudrew said:

Johnny: "Your mom and I wanted to take you somewhere nice to tell you we're doin' it; like Marie Callendar's or Red Lobster. Maybe even an Olive Garden."

Me: Growing up in the Midwest, I used to think Red Lobster was like the A-list of restaurants. Not sure I'd feel the same here in Cali though?

 

I spent some time in a small town (that thought it was a big town) and will never forget a story in the local newspaper. It was a "man on the street" interview, and the topic was "What does A*** City need more than anything?" Five of the six people said "A really nice restaurant." Four of the five specified "...like a Red Lobster."

EDIT: Come to think of it, they actually specified "...like a Captain D's!"

Edited February 28, 2022 by Lakebum

[CeeBeeGee]

On 1/2/2022 at 8:16 PM, Kate47 said:

Also shout out to the new Eagle Fang girl, I love her already.

She's great!

 

On 1/9/2022 at 9:02 PM, Whimsy said:

I also grew up int the Midwest (MN) and thought Red Lobster was SO a fancy. We also didn’t have much money growing up  My husband thought it was hilarious, since he’s from New England and knew how to eat a whole lobster, not just the butterflied tail. I’ve been in NE for almost 30 years now and yeah, Red Lobster is terrible. 

I happen to love Red Lobster (those Cheddar Bay biscuits!) but it's not at all what I would call a really good restaurant. You'd think Johnny, who used to belong to a country club and has presumably dined at very good restaurants, would know the difference.

I never saw KK3 so I can't appreciate how Terry's character has changed but I do like his tempered, more nuanced approach to karate in contrast to Kreese the Psycho.

[magicdog]

On 4/2/2022 at 1:44 PM, CeeBeeGee said:

I happen to love Red Lobster (those Cheddar Bay biscuits!) but it's not at all what I would call a really good restaurant. You'd think Johnny, who used to belong to a country club and has presumably dined at very good restaurants, would know the difference.

I agree but it could be a case of some just liking what he likes.  He only seemed to spend time in those places because his mom and stepdad were members and taking him there, but actually preferred to be where his friends were.

 

On 4/2/2022 at 1:44 PM, CeeBeeGee said:

I never saw KK3 so I can't appreciate how Terry's character has changed but I do like his tempered, more nuanced approach to karate in contrast to Kreese the Psycho.

ITA.  KK3 is a bald rewrite of the first film and Silver's character is the main villain and mastermind in it.  For better perspective, see it and it will give you an idea of what was referenced in the CK series.  It could lead to who may show up next season.