S05.E01: Long, Long Way From Home

[paulvdb]

Quote

Daniel’s new ally-turned-housemate tests Amanda’s patience. Miguel searches for his father in Mexico. Terry starts to transform Cobra Kai.

[cambridgeguy]

Miguel - There are more important things that karate.

While Amanda would agree, apparently someone hasn't been paying attention for the past few seasons.  It's all about the karate! 

I still think we missed out on hearing the conversation between Daniel and Amanda when he told her about Chozen.   That would have been hilarious.

Edited September 9, 2022 by cambridgeguy

[bettername2come]

I am not ruling out the possibility that that is the wrong Hector.

I liked that Australian robber had some scruples. He really did give Miguel correct directions, though we'll have to see if he did the same for Johnny, and I was as surprised as Miguel when he gave him his ones back. He also looks like a young Robin Williams, which might make me give him more leeway than I would otherwise. That being said, I'm still glad Johnny and Robby kicked his ass. 

[Raja]

The UN of surfer thuggery did seem real secure that they wouldn't be locked up in a Mexican prison.  I think it was probably done to balance out Miguel's confrontation with the local crime boss. 

Potential daddy number two came off as too good to be true and we would be left wondering what Carmen saw that we haven't seen, yet.

[bettername2come]

3 hours ago, Raja said:

The UN of surfer thuggery 

This is a beautiful phrase. 

[Lugal]

6 hours ago, bettername2come said:

I am not ruling out the possibility that that is the wrong Hector.

That's kinda what I'm thinking.  There's got to be a lot of Hector Salazar's in Mexico.

8 hours ago, cambridgeguy said:

I still think we missed out on hearing the conversation between Daniel and Amanda when he told her about Chozen.   That would have been hilarious.

Or at least the conversation between Daniel and Chozen about wearing swimsuits in the pool.

[tennisgurl]

I love how many people are always down to throw down in the karate kid universe, no matter where you go there is always some pack of assholes who are begging to get their asses kicked. 

Miguel's possible dad seems too good to be true. Either he's the wrong Hector or he has a darker side that we cant see, I cant imagine Carmen wouldn't have had a good reason to hide who Robbie's dad was. Also, Miguel clearly has no idea what show he's in, everything is about karate. 

Chozen is here and is going undercover with Cobra Kai! At least this means Amanda can have her poolside drinks in peace more often. 

[marinw]

16 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

Chozen is here and is going undercover with Cobra Kai!

I keep waiting for him to betray Danny or become a double agent.

[readster]

Having Chozen reveal the origins of the Cobra Kai type of fighting was really amazing. We got the hints and stories about it in season 4, but boy they really had a great way of explaining why it was so contraversal and why Miyagi didn't know about. Chozen saying "holy shit" was beautiful. 

[millennium]

Pretty lackluster first episode.   I already can't wait until this sidetrip to Mexico is over.   I'm not one to try to guess what will happen next, but even I could see Johnny clashing with the surfer gang five minutes before it happened.  And Miguel getting his foot in the door with Hector by doing a good deed while not revealing his true identity or motives is a very old and tired dramatic trope.   I think the best thing about this episode was Amanda's robe.

[Constant Viewer]

Enjoyed the song from Desperado playing in this episode.

[Dobian]

I'm generally not a fan of seasons where a show splits the action between two or more places (unless the whole show is designed that way like Game of Thrones).  It can lead to the plots becoming disjointed and tedious as you wait and hope for everything to merge back together.  But we'll see how this goes.

I get the feeling that Hector is related to the cartel in Ozark.  Run Miguel!

[Virtual]

Apparently Miyagi-Do picked up traits of Cobra Kai as a result of fighting them for so long, and Chozen is betraying Daniel to work for Silver! 😩 Kidding, of course... clearly Chozen is there undercover so Daniel can find out how next to approach them.

Couldn’t help but laugh at the stuff Johnny picked up in Mexico. “This will be equal to 300 American minutes” 😆

[Sir RaiderDuck OMS]

The brief Cobra Kai dojo montages once again highlight a major problem with the Terry Silver character: Martin Kove still looks legitimately badass all these years later. Thomas Ian Griffith (who is one year younger than Ralph Macchio but playing a character decades older) doesn't. This was always going to be a problem bringing back the original cast (i.e. they're all either senior citizens or approaching that age -- William Zabka is the youngest at 56), but it really shows when trying to sell us on Terry Silver being this awesome fighter when we can plainly see he isn't, no matter how much muscle padding they put in his karategi.

[Mr. R0b0t]

I thought hiring the Mexican Bill Hader to play Hector was inspired casting.