Obstaculos
We begin episode 7 of Cobra Kai Season 3 with Sam suffering from nightmares involving Tory. Racked with guilt over what happened to Miguel, she sees Tory beating her down and trying to drown her. Water, of course, is symbolic of emotion so this dream works well to visualize her inner-turmoil. In the morning, Sam heads downstairs and learns Daniel is going to open Miyagi dojo again but Sam refuses to join, deciding instead to pack up her karate belt after what happened to Demetri. Daniel takes Sam out fishing, intending to try and get some answers. There, she admits that Demetri had his arm broken and she did nothing to stop it. Daniel continues to show Sam around, eventually heading to All Valley Sports Arena where he originally beat Johnny. Only, this spot holds more significance than that for him – this is the spot Daniel shed his fear. This rousing speech seems to do the trick, as Daniel and Sam head home and begin training together. Meanwhile, Johnny continues to help Miguel and gets him back to walking ways again. Deciding against joining Cobra Kai, Johnny settles on starting a new dojo. While Johnny scouts out different areas (all of which too expensive) he eventually settles on the best, open-space area available – a public park. Miguel returns to school and notices Demetri’s broken arm. Demetri continues to be bullied by the same kids Hawk originally fought against though; now he’s no better than them. Johnny shows up at school and tries his hand at convincing Hawk to turn away from Cobra Kai. With an impassioned speech, telling them to save themselves, he offers an invitation to join him at his dojo. The first lesson begins that afternoon and tellingly Hawk and the rest of the Cobras don’t show. After settling on a new name for themselves (Eagle Fang Karate) the team prepare to train. Unfortunately Kreese shows up with the rest of the Cobra Kai goons to offer Johnny one final chance to join. He flat out refuses though, leading a disappointed Kreese to walk away, promising Johnny that he’ll regret that option.
The Episode Review
Tallying up everything that’s happened across the different narrative threads this season, there’s been 9 different storylines in Cobra Kai Season 3. I won’t go into detail about what they all are here but suffice to say, there’s an awful lot going on in this show. In fact, there’s some obvious casualties along the way, namely in the form of Robby (who’s now gone 3 episodes without being mentioned once) and Daniel with Sam who are easily the weakest characters this season. In fact, the real strength lies in these shadows of grey between Johnny’s new dojo and Kreese’s Cobra Kai. Because of the sheer number of characters occupying this drama, there’s not enough screen-time to flesh out everyone but the flashbacks have done a pretty good job with adding depth to the older characters thus far. With 3 episodes left, it remains to be seen what will happen next but this series has really been a good but not-quite-great follow-up. Hopefully the show picks up steam later on down the line as we reach the business end of this season.
