To tell you the truth, I never really love the Kreese-heavy episodes. We’ve seen quite a bit of this guy’s backstory play out over flashbacks, going back to the dour third season. It’s just not that compelling, even if it will always amuse me that we’re seeing Barrett Carnahan playing a version of Kreese from four years before Martin Kove’s depiction in the original Karate Kid. But there are more than enough characters to spotlight in the present day.
We know that Kreese and Terry Silver trained together with Kim Sun-Yung in South Korea, and the opening flashback of “The Prize” shows that they played a role in the beginning of his granddaughter Kim Da-Eun’s education. Like George Bluth, Master Kim loves to teach elaborate lessons to test his prospective students’ readiness, which comes into play in the present day. That’s right: The legendary Kim Sun-Yung, mentioned by Silver in one line of dialogue way back in The Karate Kid Part III, is still alive, now played by Dexter’s C. S. Lee (lately of For All Mankind). And I haven’t seen his birth certificate, but he may very well be the world’s oldest man.
That’s still not quite as unbelievable as Kreese just coming and going as he pleases without a passport, bopping between continents looking for other teachers who like hurting kids. At Kim Da-Eun’s dojang, he shows up with the proposal we all knew he would: They can team up and win the Sekai Taikai using the spot she earned with Cobra Kai, spreading her grandfather’s karate to the world (like Daniel using the tournament to spread Mr. Miyagi’s karate). But Master Kim himself is alive and disappointed in his granddaughter’s failure to close the deal, thanks to Silver. He’ll only sanction this new team-up if Kreese proves he’s focused on more than just the prize.
The test? He has to retrieve an ancient eunjangdo knife that Master Kim lost long ago as a boy fighting off Japanese invaders under colonial rule. (He killed a dozen.) When Kreese goes for the knife, he gets a big bite on the hand from the snake defending it, triggering a whole series of hallucinations. We’ve seen a lot of this material before already, including during his counselor sessions last season, which also included hallucinations. But the Johnny we see this time isn’t de-aged, thankfully. He taunts Kreese with his hatred, and Kreese actually expresses hurt, allowing him to move on and recognize Johnny once again as his true weakness. He even breaks this Johnny’s neck.
The vision quest is a bit of an unnecessary detour, but when he finally claims the knife by hunting and killing the snake first, Kreese learns the basic lesson Master Kim intended. It’s not “keep your eye on the prize.” It’s “eliminate whatever stands between you and the prize.” Now he understands, and he has Master Kim’s blessing.
Back in the Valley, everyone else is having a pretty normal day, dealing with much more relatable human problems. A burst sewage pipe at the Diazes’ house leads everyone to start thinking harder about money, especially because Miguel is hoping to attend Stanford. After he overhears his mom chatting anxiously with Johnny about affording tuition, though, he takes it upon himself to check out some potential safety schools at the college fair.
Demetri and Eli tag along when Miguel tours College of the Valley, a small local party school that Demetri describes thus: “If the University of Phoenix wasn’t online, it’d be this.” That doesn’t give the sidekicks much to do, but when the trio runs into Kyler and Brucks, they become obsessed with figuring out how the hell Brucks got into MIT. The letters do not, of course, end up referring to their dream school. He’s actually enrolled at “Midwest Industrial Training.”
Kyler ends up being Miguel’s most important foil in this story. He’s always been a huge bully, but beefs never last that long in Cobra Kai, especially for immature kids who often manage to outgrow their insecure tendencies. Kyler was fighting for Cobra Kai in the last finale, but now he’s pledging Theta Omega and has no idea the stereotypical frat brothers are planning to ditch him after squeezing as much labor out of him as they can. That makes him a somewhat sympathetic character, and it’s fun to see him get back at the bros who treated him as a “human vacuum.” Miguel, Eli, Demetri, and Brucks jump into the fight immediately, all of them absolutely whooping ass, and before long, there are more passed-out frat boys than, well, a normal frat party.
Another fraternity quickly offers Kyler a place, and he helps Miguel realize that he should go after his dreams instead of immediately settling for something that falls short. Johnny, meanwhile, is learning the opposite lesson: Sometimes, you need to be realistic, buckle down, and work. If he’s going to provide for a rapidly growing family, he’ll need a job.
Before we get there, though, Johnny goes on a trip to look at some new houses for the Lawrence-Diaz family to rent — accompanied by Chozen, armed with all the real-estate expertise that watching Selling Sunset could offer. Immediately, an agent named Baz gets on their nerves, mostly because he rejects Johnny after he makes himself sound like the most unstable tenant ever. But what’s important is that Johnny never strikes the guy, which counts as a legitimate accomplishment for someone like Johnny. (He knows it, too, bragging to Daniel when he visits him at work.) He’s really working on embracing Miyagi-Do as a way of life with Chozen’s help.
An old classmate named Little Stevie has a couple of houses for rent, a promising prospect for Johnny. But he does need to work, since it doesn’t pay to teach karate at Miyagi-Do. Boom, no problem — he’ll just do what Daniel does and sell cars. Daniel is skeptical, but Johnny quickly proves he’s got at least some innate talent, and he’s offered his first nine-to-five job. I never thought I’d see the day.
None of this stuff is riveting, exactly, especially with so much time turned over to Kreese. But we’re still in the early goings, setting up both the personal stakes and the larger structure of this extended final season. If that means an occasional detour into lightweight sitcom antics, I can deal with it. At least there’s a new immortal sensei villain to keep us company.
Mr. Miyagi’s Little Trees
• “Your incompetence is why I must stay alive” goes hard.
• Johnny doesn’t have the highest standards for what makes a great home: “Shit, this place is perfect. It’s got stairs and everything.”
• It’s also very funny to see Chozen successfully talk up Johnny and vaguely boost his credentials — he’s a “partner in an emerging Valley business” — only for Johnny to completely squander it by demonstrating exactly how little money he has in the bank.
• Little Stevie idolized Johnny after watching him fight in the 1983 All Valley. Figures that he didn’t catch ’84.
• Kyler: “You think West Valley High would let me back in?” Miguel: “Why … would you …?” Love Xolo Maridueña’s befuddled delivery here.
• “What do you think is in the briefcase? My money’s on a bologna sandwich and a pile of junk mail” is the first great Amanda LaRusso line of the season.
• Johnny, selling a car: “Congratulations. You’re gonna look so hot in this.”
