‘Cobra Kai’ Episode 5 Recap: Perfectly Balanced, As All Things Should Be

“Counterbalance” is the first episode of this show that proved Cobra Kai could have been titled Karate Kid: The Next Generation, in an alternate universe where that isn’t a stupid awful title.

Until now we’ve been working on stirring up the hate-stew that is the decades-old rivalry between Danny LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence, with the younger characters acting primarily as foils and subplots (or, in the case of Danny’s son, popping up to be the most obnoxious butter-eating child on the planet.) But “Counterbalance” looks to the future, and we get a real sense of a new breed of karate kids who don’t see things as (literally) black and white as Cobra Kai vs. LaRusso, the ultimate karate battle between good and evil. In 2018, it’s less “sweep the leg” and more “block the egg.”

This is best demonstrated in this episode’s showcase scene, an impressive bit of high school cafeteria karate from stunt coordinator Hiro Koda (Big Little Lies, True Blood) that director Josh Heald makes damn sure you know includes the sweeping of at least one leg.

You see, Miguel completed a full montage, so he is good at karate now. These are the ancient laws, I’m not here to argue them. What’s interesting is the way Cobra Kai is playing with whether or not the changes in Miguel thanks to Johnny’s tutelage. Without a doubt, Miguel has gained a fist-full of self-confidence. Xolo Maridueña carries the character upright now, his voice less shaky. Miguel absorbing the best parts of Cobra Kai’s lessons and using them to beat the absolute shit out of bullies is, objectively, a good thing. But the voice of Pat Morita as Miyagi echoes in your head with every landed elbow. You don’t train to fight, you train so you don’t have to fight.

The script—from Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg—tempers this a bit by making Kyler and his crew the most deserving people alive of getting smacked in the fucking face with a cafeteria tray. After Sam LaRusso martial arts’d her way out of their last date, Kyler spread the false rumor she went down on him in a movie theater. “You know that billboard with a big-ass dick on it?” he announces to the school. “I guess Sam takes after her dad.”

So yes, for now Miguel delivering sweet cafeteria justice will be classified: [✓]Good []Bad. I would say Sam’s reaction—the type of reaction that suggests a Cobra Kai uniform is in her future—is likely to drive her father insane if Danny LaRusso had not already quite clearly lost his mind already.

Danny spends the majority of this episode getting revenge for the billboard-dick in the skeeziest, most needlessly convoluted way possible. He subtly suggests he’s interested in buying the Cobra Kai mini-mall’s property—he’s not, but Danny LaRusso is playing the long con here—which encourages the landlord to hike up the rent to meet the market value. Danny then drives all the way the hell across town to gloat over his victory, which means either A) Danny got incredibly lucky Johnny just happened to be in that convenience store, or B) Danny had been driving across town for an entire day until he finally got to passive-aggressively buy Johnny a six-pack.

Luckily, Danny is married to Amanda LaRusso (Courtney Henggeler), a woman who has not been driven mad by a high school beef. “All I know is that my husband is acting like a mental patient,” she says, accurately. “I want the Danny LaRusso that I married to come back.”

This, combined with an emotional trip to Miyagi’s grave, finally waxes the nonsense off of Danny’s mind. He digs his gi out of the closet—a great parallel to Johnny, who decided to find himself again by un-burying his trophies—and finds his center again, finally balancing right at the moment he was about to fall to the wrong side for good.

The best aspect of “Counterbalance” is when the self-reflection of Danny’s story and the younger generation’s revolution collide on an incredibly flabbergasted Johnny, who is straight offended that bullying these days isn’t what it used to be. Johnny’s character arc—ostensibly the main story of Cobra Kai—is a gradual one. I love that he is not immediately a better man. He’s an asshole-ish man discovering morals in his asshole-ish way. He’s still awful to Aisha when she comes looking for lessons—”women aren’t meant to fight, they have tiny hollow bones”—but changes his tune when he discovers she gets picked on over the internet.

“Back in my day, if you wanted to tease someone you did it to their face,” he says. “There was honor. Respect.”

That is…somehow so close to being an actual breakthrough and yet simultaneously miles away. But Johnny will need to catch up to the kids quick. Miguel’s fighting skills went viral as most spontaneous bouts of karate do these days, and the line to get into Cobra Kai is suddenly wrapped around the block. The future, for now, has chosen the black headband.

Except, of course, for Johnny’s actual son. Robby catches a glimpse of Johnny bequeathing his beloved Cobra Kai training ensemble to Miguel—and just acting like a father, overall—and heads straight to LaRusso Auto Group for a job. “Welcome to the LaRusso family,” Amanda tells him. In a town that is already being divided by billboard dicks and the opening of a mini-mall karate studio, this will certainly end well for everyone involved.  

Vinnie Mancuso writes about TV for a living, somehow, for Decider, The A.V. Club, Collider, and the Observer. You can also find his pop culture opinions on Twitter (@VinnieMancuso1) or being shouted out a Jersey City window between 4 and 6 a.m.

Watch Cobra Kai Episode 5 ("Counterbalance") on YouTube Red