Peacetime In The Valley – The season 6 premiere begins with a few brief scenes revealing what most of the main characters have been up to while ‘Roll with the Changes’ blares in the background. Chozen Toguchi (Yuji Okumoto) is still a houseguest of the LaRussos and headlines of the paper suggest that John Kreese (Martin Kove) is still in hiding. Eli ‘Hawk’ Moskowitz (Jacob Bertrand) and Demitri Alexopoulos (Gianni DeCenzo) meet with several friends at school while Robby Keene (Tanner Buchanan) and Tory Nichols (Peyton List) celebrate his enrollment. Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) sees the Cobra Kai Dojo being disassembled on his way home to meet with Amanda LaRusso (Courtney Henggeler).
While enjoying the respite from the past karate wars, Daniel discusses his future plans to enroll his students in a global tournament known as the Sekai Taikai to future spread Miyagi-Do worldwide. Despite the epic ambition, he assures her that the tournament is his sort of Swan Song. Elsewhere, Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) is just as pumped about the tournament and only sees winning it as a way to spread his acclaim. His intentions to begin training are abruptly sidelined when he arrives to discover his dojo reduced to nothing more than a pile of rubble.
Things only get worse for Johnny when he shows up at Miyagi-Do to learn that Chozen has decided to take over his lesson for the day. Before this can become an argument, Hawk and Demitri interrupt to unveil the dojo’s new name and logo, Miyagi-Fang Karate. Once alone, it becomes clear that neither Daniel nor Chozen approves of the name or logo. Johnny, on the other hand, approves and this only adds fuel to the fire that he and Chozen were about to start earlier. Despite Daniel’s protest, they arrange to fight for the right to name the dojo.
Miguel Diaz (Xolo Mariduena) and Robby plan a double date at the arcade to get Samantha LaRusso (Mary Mouser) and Tory on speaking terms. This not only goes horribly awry but it leads to Robby realizing that he has his own unresolved issues with Kenny Payne (Dallas Dupree Young). Daniel doesn’t have much better luck when encourages Johnny to back out of the fight with Chozen. After briefly hearing Daniel’s pleas Johnny receives an ominous text that sends him to Coyote Creek.
After continued failures to unite Samantha and Tory, Miguel changes his tactics to a discussion about their final year of high school and the future. Unfortunately, this only makes them realize even more how different they are. At the same time, Robby doesn’t have any better luck with Kenny. Things begin to look really bleak when Kenny’s older brother, Shawn Payne (Okea Eme-Akwari), shows up and threatens Robby to leave Kenny alone. Much to everyone’s surprise, it is both Samantha and Tory’s agreeing to support Robby’s decision in pursuing Kenny that appears to bond them.
Having failed with Johnny, Daniel shifts his focus to Chozen. This yields even worse results when Daniel stirs up old feelings inside Chozen by mentioning his previous drinking suggesting a brief respite in Okinawa. The mention of Okinawa ultimately leads to Chozen telling him about the night he called Kumiko (TamlynTomita) drunk and poured his heart out to her. She apparently never even called him back.
Johnny is stirred with old memories of Kreese as he makes his way through the woods where he eventually discovers Raymond ‘Stingray’ Porter (Paul Walter Hauser) training several much younger students.
Despite Robby’s continued claims that he doesn’t want to fight, his final attempt to mend fences with Kenny turns into a 2-on-1 fight. This is until Miguel comes to his aid. Samantha and Tory both eventually jump in as well when Kenny attempts to attack Miguel from behind with a bat. They also maintain the claim that they don’t want to fight and even offer Kenny a spot at Miyagi-Do but he doesn’t appear at all interested.
In the woods, Johnny learns that it was Bert (Owen Morgan) who contacted Stingray out of concern. Johnny appears even less interested in accepting his help than Kenny is in forgiving Robby. It takes a bit of insulting and a brief back and forth but Stingray eventually tells Johnny what he needs to hear. At the same time, after seeing Kenny’s anger at the arcade, Shawn encourages him to give Robby a second chance.
Much later that evening Daniel grovels about his failure with Amanda. He even debates backing out of the tournament altogether until Samantha returns home with the news of her and Tory’s breakthrough. Although they aren’t best buddies, she claims they are on the right path.
Just as Daniel convinces Chozen to let Johnny name the dojo, Johnny shows up to announce that he’s conceding. He even goes as far as admitting that working with them has not only made him better but made his students better. Despite coming to an agreement, Chozen and Johnny proceed with their fight and even drag Daniel into it later. Kenny is also briefly shown joining Miyagi-Do.
The episode ends in the woods in the middle of the night, where Kreese approaches several students shadow sparring. When they turn their attention to him, he tells them to tell Kim Da-Eun (Alicia Hannah-Kim) that Cobra Kai is back.
Cobra Kai Review
Not a horrible way to begin the sixth season. I won’t say that I didn’t enjoy the episode because that would be a lie, but this probably has a lot to do with the fact that I’ve kind of gotten attached to it after five previous seasons. The shorter run time helps, but I do hope this is the final season because it is merely a repeat of everything we’ve already seen. There are probably some new things they could do with the series to maybe squeeze out another season or two.
As far as season premieres go, I guess it would be hard to expect much more. A conflict was established, the pros and antagonists were clearly identified, and the main characters not only have outer but inner hurdles to contend with. I’d give the episode a 5.5 out of 10.
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