Best Of The Best – Episode 5 opens with Tory Nichols (Peyton List) and Dr. Judith (Deja Dee) discussing Grace Nichols’s (Bethany DeZelle) miraculous turnaround. Grace is apparently doing so well that Judith is cutting back her medications.

Her good mood immediately changes when she’s surprised by John Kreese (Martin Kove) in the parking garage. It immediately becomes clear that he wants her to join his team for the tournament but she isn’t over his abandoning her. His attempts to justify his actions only make matters worse and she practically tells him to go screw himself.

Although training is well underway and as intense as ever at Miyagi-Do, Samantha LaRusso (Mary Mouser) can’t resist the urge to discuss college. Despite Demetri Alexopoulos (Gianni DeCenzo) being accepted into MIT, Miguel Diaz (Xolo Mariduena) has yet to hear anything from Stanford. All attention is soon drawn to Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and Daniel LaRuso (Ralph Macchio), who lay out their standards for choosing the captains. As it turns out, these captains won’t just represent Miyagi-Do but they’ll get to fight on live TV in the finals if the team makes it that far.

Since Miguel will be fighting Robby Keene (Tanner Buchanan) and Samantha will face off against Tory, Johnny takes the entire day to focus on their training. Although it was supposed to be Daniel’s day he puts up little resistance but watches with a close eye. This apparently irritated him much more than he lets on at the moment because he later vents about it to Amanda LaRusso (Courtney Henggeler). Amanda only views this as a positive since Daniel is supposed to be taking a step back after the tournament.

While excitedly sharing the student’s progress with Carmen Diaz (Vanessa Rubio), Miguel interrupts with the news of being deferred from Stanford. Tory doesn’t receive much better news when she arrives how to find her mother passed out on the floor.

In the following days, Samantha has little success improving Miguel’s depressed mood about her deferment. The fact that he has to defeat Robby, once again, to become captain doesn’t help matters. At the same time, Johnny becomes agitated when he learns that Daniel has put him on the test drive schedule at work. When he accuses Daniel of doing this so that he can play favorites with Samantha, Daniel brings up Johnny’s special training lesson from the other day. Despite Daniel’s relaxed attitude and promise to run routine drills at the dojo, Johnny doesn’t take this very well. Tory is having an equally hard time dealing with Grace’s relapse and the subsequent news of her death does not help matters at all.

On a test drive with a client, Johnny discovers Daniel training Samantha and Miguel in the woods. This not only leads to a huge argument in the woods but also causes Johnny to rebel at work after Daniel refers to him as unprofessional. With Daniel still in the woods with the students, Amanda is left to deal with the fallout at LaRusso Motors. Along with the reveal of Mr. Miyagi’s hidden box, it doesn’t take her long to get Johnny to see that he’s acting irrationally.

Elsewhere, Robby becomes insulted when Miguel tells him that he really needs the tournament win to make his college resume look good. Robby assumes because he isn’t going to college that Miguel thinks the win isn’t important to him. Things are about to reach their tipping point when Carmen interrupts with the news of hamburgers for dinner. After excusing himself, Robby fails to reach Tory again.

As Tory continues to struggle with the death of her mother, Daniel continues to struggle with Mr. Miyagi’s box. Despite this, Amanda helps him realize that while he might be Johnny’s boss at the dealership, they are on equal playing fields at the dojo. This realization later leads to Daniel apologizing and agreeing to officiate the fight between Miguel and Robby if Johnny officiates Tory and Samantha’s fight.

Tory is still yet to make an appearance by the time Robby and Miguel face off. Miguel takes an early and impressive 2-to-nothing lead, but Tory’s sudden arrival changes everything. Robby comes back and ends up winning, 3 to 2. Tory and Samantha’s fight is much more even from the beginning but when after scoring her first point to even the match, Tory takes a cheap shot at Samantha. Johnny issues a warning and threatens to take a point but it’s not long after Samantha goes up another point that learns of Grace’s death and stops the fight.

Both Johnny and Tory want the fight to continue, but Daniel and Amanda are opposed and although this decision wins in the end, it leaves an indelible mark on the entire time. Tory not only walks off but Johnny and Daniel get into an argument that ends with Daniel striking Johnny after he insults Mr. Miyagi. Much to Daniel’s surprise, Johnny doesn’t physically respond but tells Daniel their partnership is done as soon as the tournament wraps. It is later decided that Eli ‘Hawk’ Moskowitz (Jacob Bertrand) will take Tory’s place.

Later that night, Daniel returns to Miyagi’s hidden box of treasures to discover that he fought in the Sekai Taikai. The episode ends with the various dojos gathering for the tournament. Cobra Kai might be the final team to make their entrance but with Tory on their roster, they shake Miyagi-Do to the core. Johnny can only lower his head in grief.

 

Cobra Kia Review

The series couldn’t have ended with a more annoying cliffhanger. Personally, I do not want to wait to find out what happens. That said, I’m sure the conclusion will be fairly predictable. I’m surprised but not disappointed that there wasn’t more focus on fairly choosing Tory’s replacement. Kenny or even Anthony for that matter could have been justifiable choices.

Miyagi’s box of torture is also getting more and more intriguing by the episode. I’m not sure why his fighting in the tournament would have been such a huge deal. I know that most true practitioners only believe in using the art of combat in defense. Anyhow, this was a good episode and I’d have to give it a 5.6 out of 10.

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