- "Hey, buddy. Sorry I haven't been here. Your mom hasn't wanted me around. Can't blame her. I thought I was helping you. You were learning so fast, getting so strong. But I failed you. I'm so sorry. I don't know if you can hear me, kid. But I know you got it in you to pull through. You just gotta keep fighting. Never give up. You can do this. I know you can."
- ―Johnny Lawrence to Miguel Diaz[src]
"Aftermath" is the first episode of the third season of Cobra Kai.
Summary[]
Miguel's fighting for his life, Robby's missing, and Daniel and Johnny's reputations are in tatters as the community reacts to the West Valley High School karate war between Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do.
Plot[]
Two weeks after the events of the second season finale, Miguel has a dream sequence of the next All Valley competition, in which he is fighting for his life, which then cuts to a flashback of Miguel getting kicked off the balcony. A news reporter named Maria Michaels at West Valley High School is covering the events of the "All out karate riot" which is billed as a "VIOLENT KARATE CLASH" interviewing Liz Matthews, a parent of children and Leonard Johnson, a local resident who now fear the large presence of the karate gangs in their communities, while also showing a group of students, led by Moon, holding a peaceful gathering and pleading to "just have some brunch and be friends." The report ends with the insight that later that night, the school administrators are holding a community meeting for people to express their concerns.
Meanwhile, at Frankie O's Bar and Grill, a drunken Johnny Lawrence is refusing to pay his bill as he was getting charged for light beer, which he insists he did not drink. The manager threatens to call the cops on him when Johnny notices the news. A story about runaway Robby Keene catches his attention, finding out he has been expelled from school. The story progresses to talk about Miguel Diaz, who is in a coma, but just as they are about to say the prognosis, two men change the news to baseball, where the Los Angeles Dodgers are playing at the bottom of the ninth. Johnny gets visibly upset, ordering them to change it back, to which one of the men suggests Johnny should check his phone to which Johnny replies he cannot as he has thrown it away. Johnny walks over to them, and they proceed to make fun of him, commenting at his unhygienic appearance and smell. Johnny starts getting aggressive, but the game ends and the two men walk to their car and Johnny attacks them. However, in his drunken state he is unable to fight them both and ends up losing the fight. They call the cops on him and he gets arrested.
Over at the school, the LaRusso parents are outraged that Sam has gotten a two-week suspension, ready to complain at the school administrators' meeting especially the school board. Daniel points out that at least the girl who started the fight, Tory, got expelled, to which Amanda replies that Tory should be in Shawshank. She continues to say that everyone is against them, and the dealership is a ghost town, believing that their name has become poison after their karate student (Robby) kicked the competition (Miguel) over a railing. Amanda apologizes for being aggressive, saying that she is on edge, to which Daniel then apologizes for getting them into this mess and promises to get them out.
At the meeting, parents are outraged that the fight broke out by the lack of teacher interference. Liz Matthews asked the school board the question many parents were thinking, "How do we [parents and students] know this [a school karate war] isn’t going to happen again?". Counselor Blatt responds to these fears by saying the school is starting a new initiative "Hugs not Hits" which is like DARE but works, and then Principal Lopez reiterates Counselor Blatt’s statement and the initiative’s meaning by saying there is no tolerance for karate whatsoever going forward. Daniel interrupts, saying "You don't need to turn this into some kind of karate Footloose!", believing karate is not the main issue and that when he was a student at the high school, karate saved him from being bullied. Someone in the crowd quickly says that he heard Daniel was the bully. Trying to regain control of the meeting failed even when Principal Lopez says "Parents, we are all trying to move on and handle this with the most appropriate response.". The word "appropriate" immediately prompts Amanda to say to and ask Principal Lopez and the entire school board, "I'm sorry, tell me how it's appropriate that our daughter got suspended while some dimestore Freddy Krueger nearly tore her face off?", but the crowd once again is annoyed and someone says,"Because she was tramping around with that other girl's boyfriend". Daniel insists on his daughter's innocence, to which someone else says that Daniel shouldn’t get "high and mighty", he was the one who taught the student Miyagi-Do Karate and it was his student who hurt Miguel. Amanda and Daniel both take seats as parents around them continue their outraged shouts.
As Johnny is sitting in jail, he gets recognized by the cop, who then continues to insult Robby, saying "garbage doesn't fall far from the truck". Johnny immediately gets defensive, saying Robby is nothing like him and is actually a good kid, who just made a mistake, his life shouldn't be over as a result of this. The cop retorts "Tell that to the kid he killed", to which Johnny visibly worries about, asking what he meant. The cop says he isn't a doctor, but two weeks in a coma and the coma usually wins.
Sam is getting ready to go to school, looks in the mirror where at her bandage, and experiences flashbacks to the moment Tory attacked her arm. She decides to put on a cardigan to hide the bandage. At school, all students have to go through a security check to see whether or not students are bringing weapons in. Hawk remarks to Mitch and Bert that it is their year, and attempts to hit on a trio of freshmen girls by offering them his "services" as a bodyguard. However, one of the girls quickly makes fun of him, saying "Who wets the bed and got kicked into that trophy case? Yeah, we know." She then turns to Demetri and greets him with a smile. Demetri, Chris and Nathaniel have a small showdown with Hawk, Mitch and Bert until the counselor walks past them and breaks it up. Sam is clearly distraught as she walks into school, and as she goes to walk on the stairs Miguel fell on, she has a flashback of the fall. Demetri snaps her out of it and she runs out of the school.
At the LaRusso dealership, Danny is still looking for Robby, phoning shelters and such to see if anyone has seen him. Louie tells Mr. and Mrs. LaRusso that he found something they need to see. He then tells them that as he was taking inventory, he noticed a car was missing, a 1993 Dodge Grand Caravan, which has been gone a couple of weeks. Amanda and Danny think that Robby took it, as he knew the gate codes. Amanda says they should call the cops, as all their cars have GPS trackers in them so they can track him down. Danny however wants to go look for Robby himself, saying that if the cops find him before he turns himself in things will be a lot worse for Robby. Danny instructs Louie to find the VIN number and text him the location of the GPS.
Johnny gets dropped off at the hospital by his bail bondsman, who threatens Johnny if he misses his court date. Miguel is still having the dream sequence of the fight at the next All Valley, interspersed with flashbacks of the fight, his mother and grandmother speaking to him which he can hear. Johnny tries to visit Miguel, but since he is in the ICU the nurse tells him unless he is family, a doctor or a patient he is unable to visit him.
Danny is tracking down Robby, but the GPS only leads him to the box, which Robby had taken out of the car. He calls Amanda, who asks if there was anyplace nearby that he could have gone, and Danny believes there is one.
Johnny sees a doctor's coat laying around and goes to the bathroom to try it on. However, someone comes out of their stall, already asking Johnny a medical question, but when he sees Johnny's face he remarks "You're not a doctor" and continues on his way. Johnny, knowing that he couldn't pass off as a doctor, throws the coat in the trash. He remembers that patients could go into the ICU and decides to headbutt a napkin dispenser to bloody his head. He goes to the nurse, saying he needs to see a doctor.
Daniel meanwhile arrives at Miyagi-Do Karate, where he sees a take out container from In 'N Out Burger. Thinking it is Robby, he walks through the panels to the backyard and sees Sam. He asks if she's with Robby, to which she says no and asks in return if he's heard from him. Danny says no and questions why she's not at school; Sam said she wasn't ready, with everybody staring at her. Danny and her then have a heart to heart, Sam saying that being in a fight as a girl everyone thinks you are crazy whether you win or lose, and that she's really scared for Miguel and Robby. Danny reassures her that it is not her fault, saying it was his own as if it wasn't for him and Johnny, there wouldn't have been a fight at all. Sam then says "I though we were the good guys", to which Danny reassures her that they are, since they try to be which is the most important. Danny then says that you can't run away from problems, as he can't from his, and hugs Sam.
Johnny is getting stitches, the nurse says that he needs to be kept overnight as there is blood in his urine, which he says is normal after a fight and will go away 2-3 days. He then shows them a large bruising on his back, to which both nurses with him leave, telling him to wait there. He then goes and visits Miguel. He talks to him, saying that he only wanted to help him, but he instead failed him, apologizing and saying that he needs to pull through and just has to keep fighting, not give up and reassures him that he knows Miguel is capable of winning. This speech is given while Miguel is having another dream sequence of the All Valley.
Daniel goes to Cobra Kai dojo looking for Johnny so that he can help to find Robby, but instead finds that Kreese is in the dojo. Kreese says Johnny's not there right now, but he will be back, continuing on about the fight. He says it was a shame, what happened, but he doesn't blame Robby, as "there's no such thing as a bad student". He remarks how it must hurt that the Miyagi name is being dragged through the mud, wishing he could see the look on Mr. Miyagi's face. Danny is clearly stirred by this, but decides against fighting him, he states that Miyagi beat Kreese on multiple occasions. Kreese says that he will fight him, but that Johnny and Kreese will finish it this time. Danny says that he won't do anything as long as he's around and Kreese finishes by telling Danny that he knows where Kreese can be found.
Sam is back in school, going through the security, when three girls are giggling at her. She confronts them and tells them to say something to her face.
Daniel is waiting by Johnny's complex, seeing that he has two black eyes and asking what happened to him. Johnny asks what he wants, Danny says he went to the Cobra Kai dojo and saw his old sensei there after thinking that Kreese was gone, asking what happened. Johnny says he has a headache and doesn't want to talk about it, rather wanting some sleep. Danny says he has a lead on Robby and that he's been trying to find him, to which Johnny stops and turns around. They bury the hatchet and team up to look for Robby, this happening in speech playing over visuals of Robby as a runaway and Sam getting over her fear of the stairs and a flashback of when Tory clawed her arm. Miguel seems to be in distress, his heart rate high, as he is having a dream sequence of the All Valley fight, which he wins and then wakes up. The end credits and dedication for Rob Garrison then proceed.
Transcript[]
Aftermath/Transcript
Trivia[]
The episode is dedicated to the memory of Rob Garrison, who played Tommy
- This episode is dedicated in memory of Rob Garrison, who played Tommy in The Karate Kid series and reprised his role in Season 2. Rob sadly died in the fall of 2019 during production of season 3.
- The episodes name connects to the events of what happened after the school brawl in season 2.
- In this episode, Robby (Tanner Buchanan) has no lines but made an appearance.
- During the school meeting someone shouts to Daniel "Bullshit! I heard you were the real bully", a reference to a YouTube video which deconstructs the original film to paint Daniel as the real villain who targets Johnny, steals his girlfriend and then beats him at his own sport.
- It is explained in this episode that Stingray was convicted for assaulting students during the school karate war and ordered to stay away from children, while Aisha's parents moved away and sent her to a private school after what happened.
- The phrase "tramping around" as said means to be a prostitute and try to sleep with men. The person in the crowd was basically saying that Samantha was hitting on Miguel (Tory's boyfriend), despite the fact that she was drunk and had a boyfriend when this happened when Sam and Miguel passionately kissed during the party in Pulpo but Sam never tried to or actually sleep with guys including her then-boyfriend and was suspended only from being involved in the school karate war.
- During the school board meeting, Daniel, in protest, mentions Footloose while telling the board that karate isn't a school problem and that he used it to save himself from bullying when he was younger. Footloose was a 1984 movie that was released in the same year as the original Karate Kid and was about a teenager who moves into a small town where dancing is illegal.
- A parent named Roger at the PTA meeting mispronounces Miyagi as "My-ah-gee" when it should be pronounced as "Me-Ah-Gi." This is possibly a reference to a running gag in original Karate Kid where Daniel mispronounces Mr. Miyagi's name in the same way.
- This episode marks the return of Louie LaRusso, Jr.
