Recap of ‘Cobra Kai’ Season 6 Episode 8: Snakes on a Plane

Cobra Kai

Snakes on a plane

Season 6

Section 8

Editor’s assessment

4 stars

****

Photo: COURTESY OF NETFLIX

Something held me back from really loving the first two episodes of this group of five; Barcelona should be a fun change of scenery, and it is, but there’s been something a little artisanal about these opening events in Sekai Taikai and about these throwbacks to old character patterns. The show has felt a bit less joyous than it does at its best.

That changed for me with “Snakes on a Plane,” the exact midpoint of this 15-episode sixth season. It’s kind of a surprise for the least Barcelona-centric episode of the bunch, and for one that has a prominent Anthony LaRusso subplot. But I felt a lot of genuine joy watching this one – both the big bombshell performance at the end and the things that lead up to it.

It’s an impressive feat considering a relative lack of karate and the brief dismal turnaround with Carmen’s health. When Johnny calls Amanda from the plane, she tells her that Carmen is still unconscious and that they are monitoring her bleeding. Otherwise, we don’t know what’s going on and if she’ll be okay. Now, I figured she’d make it out of this one, just because killing off Carmen so deep into the show would really throw a pall over the remaining episodes. But the story works because while we know she must be okay, and we knowing that it is safe to enjoy the flight for all comedic possibilities, Johnny and Miguel have no such assurances.

Pretty much every time Miguel feels hurt or neglected by Johnny, the two get back together, that’s guaranteed to work on me. They are the core of the series, original sensei-student relationships, the new Mr. Miyagi and Daniel, and in some ways they are an even more important couple than Johnny and Daniel. Often the distance between them builds just because they’re each busy with their own things – as Johnny explains to Miguel later in the episode, Robby needs more support than him right now, and he feels directionless without any particular college prospects. As he touchingly tells Miguel, “You are my son too.” He admits that he’s worried about losing Carmen, that he knows it’s false comfort to pretend he knows everything will be okay.

The first class rich asshole is a pretty cartoonish villain for the episode, but it’s fun to see Miguel be the one to knock him out instead of Johnny. And it’s the first of several W’s for these two, the biggest being the news that Carmen and the baby are doing just fine! (The bloody bedspread was kind of horrifying for a moment, but I figured it was a mistake.) She needed an emergency cerclage, but now she’s back in bed for a few weeks, so there’s nothing else to do . She even encourages them to fly back to Spain and win the Sekai Taikai.

I think I would believe I could win a world karate tournament if Carmen told me I could, but her encouragement could interfere with the wishes of the new fighter drafted to compete for Miyagi-Do: Kenny. Johnny asked Amanda to get Kenny on a plane to Spain to replace Miguel, not knowing they would be returning the same day. It’s pretty smart to fold Kenny back at this point, and I’m relieved it doesn’t mean Miguel will actually be absent. There’s an interesting possibility for conflict in the next few episodes: With a limited number of slots, who will compete?

Getting Kenny to agree is no easy task. He’s still convinced Anthony was the one who drugged him with laxatives, leading to the memeification of “Shit Butt,” a nickname that really doesn’t roll off the tongue very well. (Then again, Kenny famously called Anthony “LaPusso.”) Amanda makes Anthony apologize to Kenny for the bullying, but he’s far too defensive about the cathartic claims, and the two inevitably get into a fight. (Amanda: “Fucking karate.”) Amanda, ever the peacekeeper, shuts them up by sharing the news about Carmen, a powerful reminder that their problems are small potatoes. It is their duty to get past this so that Kenny can feel safe at Miyagi-Do and come through to his friends in Barcelona.

It will not stop the war immediately. But Anthony’s more serious apology does, along with his over-the-top gesture of voluntarily leveling the score when it comes to pants-shit. Devon’s guilty plea, admitting it all, seals the deal. Kenny and Anthony may not be besties right away, but there is no more bad blood.

But as a feud ends, teenage drama in Barcelona reaches a fever pitch. At Chozen’s encouragement (and against Daniels), the kids “hit the town hard” to decompress tonight, including a tapas bar where Robby, Tory, Kwon and Zara get locked in a four-way mind game. Robby doesn’t normally drink, but the breakup and his recent karate feats have left him in a dark place, ordering double rum-and-cokes while jealously watching Kwon’s awkward flirting and thinking about how little the breakup has affected Tory—either personally or in karate, which tends to have a direct correlation.

Robby ends up spending the night with Zara, who seems intent on personally screwing Tory, either out of a Kreese-esque attempt to get under her enemy’s skin or a pathological need to be the prettiest and most popular girl in the room. The next morning, Tory happens to see the two briefly kiss outside Zara’s door, which should further up the stakes in the next event.

Everyone gets cozy with people they shouldn’t be that night, including Demetri, who agrees to a dance with a girl who is not his girlfriend Yasmine. Eli’s FaceTime with his own girlfriend Moon seems intent on outing Demetri, even though he didn’t know Yasmine was in the room with her at the time, but it puts the two friends on even worse ground than before.

And Sam spends some time with Axel and mentions that she saw Sensei Wolf hurt him. He is firmly focused on fighting and seems timid about everything else, although he does try to kiss her after an interrupted fight with Kwon and some of his usual companions. I can’t quite tell where this story is going; Is Sam starting to realize that she might want something other than the life she dreamed of for herself and Miguel?

All of this is solid, making for some exciting wrinkles for the rest of the season. But I have to say my absolute favorite part of the episode is Chozen and Kim Da-Eun’s subplot where they keep running into each other while looking for their students. At the beach district, they run into each other again and eventually track the kids to the tapas bar where they were last seen. Both expected to find the kids fighting and leaving behind a destroyed bar in their wake – there is, after all, historical precedent. But it turns out they worried about nothing, as far as they know.

Kim Da-Eun has always been a solid secondary antagonist, but I also never thought of her as complex in the same way as Kreese or Silver. But it’s refreshing to start seeing her separate herself from Kreese and disapprove of his off-the-battlefield tactics. The episode sets us up to believe that Kreese kidnapped Daniel without her knowledge, but following Dennis to a hotel leads to the “fuck yeah”-worthy revelation: Terry Silver was behind the kidnapping all along, presumably in collaboration with Sensei Wolf for to take out Miyagi-Do and raise the Iron Dragons to victory.

It’s a great moment, especially because it comes early enough that it’s actually surprising (as opposed to an episode ten cliffhanger that I expected). And yet, Chozen and Kim Da-Eun’s make-out session (and subsequent off-screen sex on the beach) has to be my favorite moment. There’s a real energy to their sparring throughout the episode; in a show like this, you’d expect at least a few fight-turns-into-make-out moments, but I think this has to be the first actual instance, maybe because male characters rarely fight female characters (and there are no queer characters next to it).

Outside of the satisfaction of seeing Chozen get his groove back after Towel Man destroyed his mojo, I love seeing Kim Da-Eun in this new state. Alicia Hannah-Kim never got the chance to do comedy on this show, so it’s a treat to see her flex those muscles here. (The moment she shakes sand out of her sleeves and hair the next morning is a highlight.) It will be difficult for the character to redeem herself at this point, given the ways she has hurt her students, but her growing divide with other baddies are another variable to keep an eye on. I didn’t expect enemies-to-lovers to enter Cobra Kaibut if that’s where this season goes, I’m here for it.

• “Why is the plane doing this bent thing?” “You mean following the curvature of the earth?”

• “Had to go inside. Looking for teenagers.” “I’ve heard it before.”