Mitch

"Come on. I said I'm sorry a billion times. I swear, no more heel turns."

―Mitch apologizing to his friends for betraying them to Cobra Kai^[src]

Mitch is a major recurring character in the Netflix series Cobra Kai. He is portrayed by Aedin Mincks. He joins the Cobra Kai Dojo and quickly adopts it's philosophy, becoming a bully in the process, ultimately resulting in his friendship with Chris coming to an end and turning into a rivalry.

He is much stronger than the regular fighter but can easily be beaten by people who are more skilled, such as Tory and Chris. Unfortunately, after being kicked out of the dojo for losing to a newly recruited Kyler Park, he becomes rejected by his former friends. He joins Eagle Fang Karate and later attends the first meeting of the combined Eagle Fang and Miyagi-Do Karate dojos.

However, he grows tired of being made fun of, and this, combined with not wanting to leave Cobra Kai in the first place, leads to him becoming a spy for his former foe Kyler and Cobra Kai. He eventually reveals his betrayal, which leads to his friendship with Chris to end once again. After learning the truth of Cobra Kai, Mitch quits the dojo. He then rejoins Miyagi-Do and restores his friendship Chris again.

Biography

Cobra Kai

Season 2

He along with his friend Chris and several other teenagers join Cobra Kai, apparently after Cobra Kai's success at the All Valley Karate tournament, where both Hawk & Miguel excelled.

He trains under Sensei Johnny Lawrence and the latter's Sensei John Kreese. He gets exposed to Kreese's ruthless teachings. While Miyagi-Do Karate student Demetri is at the comic book store, Mitch along with other Cobra Kai students which includes Chris and Hawk surround him. Demetri tries to run away but Mitch along with the others surround him. However, Miyagi-Do students Robby Keene and Samantha LaRusso beat all of them up. Mitch later becomes one of the Cobra Kai students that get involved in vandalizing and destroying Daniel LaRusso's dojo.

After Chris quits Cobra Kai along with some other students, Mitch becomes upset with Chris's decision to quit and ends their friendship.

Mitch fights Chris during the school brawl. He is eventually is able to kick Chris to the ground, but Chris wins the fight by clubbing him on the head with a school book.

When Johnny goes back to Cobra Kai and sees Kreese teaching a handful of his students, Mitch is one of the students present, indicating that Mitch has turned against Johnny.

Season 3

Mitch remains in Cobra Kai under Kreese's control. He even has a haircut this season. He remains a close friend to Hawk throughout the first half of the season. After Hawk finds out about Miyagi-Do hosting a car-wash to raise money for supporting Miguel's surgery, Mitch helps Hawk to confront Nathaniel. Mitch comments that the money will be donated in the name of Cobra Kai. The duo then proceed to beat him up and take the money with them.

Later on, Mitch can be seen with Hawk, Mikey and Doug, causing havoc in the local arcades. The group ends up breaking into a nearby laser tag arena to drink beer, where they are attacked by Miyagi-do students. Mitch ends up fighting Chris and initially finds himself on the losing end. However, as Tory arrives with Big Red and Edwin to help, Mitch manages to get help from Doug. The two eventually defeat Chris together.

When Kreese brings new recruits to Cobra Kai, Mitch attempts to mess with newcomer Kyler, by insulting him, but quickly gets scared and backs away when Kyler snaps at him. When class starts, Kreese orders Mitch and Kyler to spar. At first, Mitch lands a kick on Kyler just for fun, most likely in an attempt to scare him and gets a point. Kyler then warns Mitch that he will beat him. Mitch, on the other hand still underestimates Kyler. He starts to throw basic strikes and kicks (he kicks after throwing a few strikes) at Kyler, but Kyler keeps dodging them. Kyler then uses Mitch's second kick to get the upper hand, grabbing on to his leg while Mitch's kick was in the air, and then throwing Mitch down to the ground. Kyler then locks Mitch with a choke. Mitch taps out and Kyler lands a final punch to him, losing in the process. Kreese responds to the loss by kicking Mitch out of Cobra Kai. Mitch looks at Kyler and Brucks in shock and Brucks mocks him by going on a fake fighting stance. He then looks at Hawk with desperation, implying that he wants Hawk to defend him. Hawk then protests Kreese's decision, stating that Mitch has been loyal to the dojo, but Kreese states that Mitch is not Cobra Kai material.

After being kicked out of Cobra Kai, Mitch finds himself rejected and mocked by Hawk and his former classmates, but shortly afterward, he joins Johnny's newly-founded Eagle Fang Karate along with Miguel, Bert, and a few others. Mitch is present when Kreese and the rest of Cobra Kai confront Johnny during their training, offering Johnny a last chance to re-join the dojo.

Mitch gets invited to the LaRusso house along with the rest of Eagle Fang to discuss working together with Miyagi-do against Cobra Kai. Mitch protests the offer at first, but Demetri manages to convince him that it would be for the greater good. The meeting is attacked by the Cobra Kai students, and Mitch helps defend the house during the ensuing brawl. He spends most of the time fighting Mikey, and overall has the upper hand. However, he is later seen being beat up by Paul, and then fighting Doug. In the end, Mitch and his side prevail, due to Hawk defecting and joining his side, as well as Miguel beating Kyler, who was the only other minor threat, with Hawk and Tory being the only major threats during the fight. He is last seen fighting with Doug.

Following the house fight Mitch is present as Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang join forces. Mitch and Chris can be seen shaking hands and putting an end to their rivalry, as Mitch takes his place in formation to start training under Daniel's and Johnny's guidance.

Season 4

Mitch is also training for the All-Valley tournament. He is then ordered to spar with Bert, but is distracted, allowing Bert to kick him twice. While sparring against Hawk, he does appear to be losing, but managed to land a hit on Hawk before their match is halted with no winner.

He also watches Daniel and Johnny's rematch, but leaves with Johnny after realizing that the merge didn't work.

While waiting for their female recruit Piper, Mitch corrects Johnny about how long they've been waiting, but when Johnny turns around, he stops talking. However, they learn that Piper joined Cobra Kai, which upsets them. Fortunately, they get a girl named Devon to join. During one of their training sessions, Mitch is sparring with another student, but when he gets sand thrown in his eyes, he ends up hitting his head on a shelf. On one occasion, he is kicked in the groin by Devon. After the session, he is upset with Miguel for being a co-sensei.

On the day of the All-Valley, Mitch is participating in the skills competition. He demonstrates his skills with a bo staff, but ends up throwing it to the judges. It is unknown if he participates in the individual one on one matchups, but if he did, then he would have been eliminated at some point before the quarter-finals, which is revealed in a Season 4 deleted scene where he gets eliminated by an All Star Karate student. Despite Eagle Fang being eliminated from the tournament, he still watches the matches, and joins Miyagi-Do after Daniel and Johnny reconcile and team up for Sam and Tory's match.

Season 5

Mitch is at a water park alongside Eagle Fang students, Devon and Bert. After a heated exchange between Eagle Fang, Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do, all the students are kicked out.

When Cobra Kai opened a new location at a mall, Mitch was seen at the area and ate a free brownie and got a free snack only for him to get caught by Chris, Bert, and Nathaniel, causing him to put down the free snack he grabbed and leave the area with the three.

Later, the Eagle Fang students and Miyagi-Do students are training with Chozen. He gives them eggs and have to hide them but are picked off by Chozen. The lesson ends when the students gather their eggs and protect it as a whole.

Later, Mitch along with Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang goes to the Cobra Kai dojo to fight against them in order to qualify for the Sekai Taikai tournament. While arriving, he notices that the flagship dojo has smoothies and many girls on their team, only for Bert to turn him away. During the girls match, Sam wins her match and because the organizers are impressed with the dojo, Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang qualifies. He later attends the afterparty at Miguel's apartment where he meets 3 girls and believes that they were invited because their dojo got into to the Sekai Taikai which the 3 don't know what it is and only wanted a drink. When he tries to explain what it is, Hawk tells him to get a cup for the girls causing to him to get irritated (because he was annoyed that he dismissed him while flirting with the girls) while doing so.

Now ready to finish Cobra Kai, Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang arrive at the Cobra Kai dojo to find evidence on Terry Silver. While Cobra Kai confronts them, it's later revealed by Kenny and Kyler that Mitch has been undercover for his former dojo. Mitch reveals his betrayal by siding with Cobra Kai. When a shocked Bert asks Mitch why he is doing this, Mitch explains that he has felt disrespected by his 'allies', as they always address his by the name 'Penis Breath' which is most commonly used by Johnny and his best friend Chris. He then states he never wanted to leave Cobra Kai in the first place, and that Cobra Kai's lavish way of training is what suits him.

A fight later breaks out, Mitch can be seen with a fellow Cobra taking on Chris, who is able to easily get rid of the latter's ally. The two can later be seen fighting with Chris coming out on top for a third time by knocking him to the ground. Once Silver's cheating ways are exposed and he is defeated by Daniel, the former is abandoned when Kenny, Mitch, Kyler and the other Cobras leave Cobra Kai for good, with Mitch's stance being unknown.

Season 6

Mitch shows up to training and says he’s apologized for betraying them a billion times in the Season 5 finale, and promises there will be no more heel turns from him. He then proves his point when he unzips his coat and shows he’s wearing a shirt with a logo of half Eagle Fang and half Miyagi-Do. Seeing the shirt, Chris realizes Mitch is being honest, and makes amends with Chris, Bert, Devon and Nate.

Later, Mitch embraces his new nickname of "Muscles" bestowed upon him by Mike Barnes during training, and advances with the final 12 of Miyagi-Do students competing for a slot in the Sekai Taikai.

Personality

Shortly after joining Cobra Kai, Mitch is corrupted by Kreese's teachings, which makes him vicious, aggressive and a bully. When his friend Chris quits Cobra Kai, their friendship ends. During the school karate war, Mitch has no problem attacking Chris but ends up losing to the latter.

By the end of the season, Mitch, along with several other students, have turned against Johnny and become Kreese's students. He causes trouble alongside his friends, such as taking the money for Miguel's surgery from Nathaniel and beating him up. However, after being kicked out by Kreese for losing to an untrained Kyler, leading him to be shunned and mocked by his former classmates, Mitch joins Johnny's Eagle Fang karate dojo. After Eagle Fang and Miyagi-Do team up, Mitch and Chris reconcile. Mitch appears to be friendly but also cocky and greedy.

Eventually he grows tired of the nickname "Penis Breath". The name, combined with him not wanting to leave Cobra Kai in the first place, leads to him becoming a spy for Cobra Kai. When questioned by Bert on why he betrayed them and rejoined his original dojo, Mitch insists he was always labelled by his nickname rather than his actual name and enjoys Cobra Kai's new gear, products, and especially the “chicks”.

However, Mitch only showed how foolish he really was; he truly thought that among Cobra Kai (whose members are known bullies or people encouraged to become so), he would have received the respect he lacked elsewhere. He also made a fool of himself by calling the girls “chicks”, which didn’t impress anyone; when Mitch revealed his betrayal and began defending his reasons, the first thing Kyler did was to shush him and call him “Penis Breath”, shocking Mitch as if this was a totally unexpected outcome.

At the end, however, Mitch demonstrates he has standards when he ditches his Cobra Kai shirt and tosses it to a barely conscious and beaten Silver, showing he wasn’t willing to belong in a dojo that would make him a false champion through cheating instead of a true champion through fighting fairly.

Fighting Style

Mitch's skills are rather limited. After joining Cobra Kai, he gains some decent striking ability and has enough power to knock down the larger Chris. Despite being an aggressive fighter, his offense is reckless and easy to exploit, while his defense is weak and easy to exploit. He has no ground game at all, tapping out immediately when Kyler locks him in a choke hold, and being taken out fairly easily by Chris during the arcade showdown. Although his defense isn't the best, his kicking skills are fairly impressive, as seen during the school fight and training with Miguel and Johnny after joining Eagle Fang Karate.

During his fight with Chris in the school fight, the latter's superior defense and solid offense gives him the upper hand, until Mitch eventually kicks him to the ground, though he would the lose when Chris smacks him with a book, which could indicate that Mitch's reaction time is slow. In the arcade fight, Chris's superior defense allows him to take Mitch down easily, before Mitch receives help from Doug and Mikey, which leads to Mitch winning the fight. After gaining experience in Johnny's new teaching at Eagle Fang, Mitch was easily able to take out Mikey with good defense and offense.

When sparing Bert in season 4, he briefly loses focus when telling Daniel how the best defense is more offense, which leads to him being defeated by Bert. Shortly after, he spars Hawk and while Hawk appears to have the upper hand, Mitch lands a hit on him and the fight appears to end in a draw.

Mitch seems to also lose concentration and underestimate his opponents, which also adds up to one of his biggest weaknesses. During his match with Kyler, it was obvious that Mitch could have beaten him if he did not provoke Kyler for fun and then underestimate him (which is proven when compared to how he managed to skillfully almost beat Chris in the school brawl).

During the showdown at Silver's dojo, Mitch is defeated once again by his best friend and now enemy once again, Chris.

Relationships

Chris

Chris is Mitch's best friend and former rival. The two friends first aimed to join Cobra Kai, but things didn't end up going to plan. Mitch approved of Cobra Kai's ruthless teachings whilst Chris was easily exposed by them. Chris is first student to ditch Cobra Kai and join Miyagi-Do, Chris' decision to switch sides end's his friendship with Mitch. The two have several showdowns with one another before their rivalry gets out of hand and the two end up participating in the school brawl between each of thier dojos. Chris easily dominates their first fight, defending and striking the latter well. He is knocked down but quickly gets up to defeat Mitch.

The two dojos soon come face to face again, this time and Chris' place of work. Chris and Mitch fight it out for a second time, with Chris coming out on top and easily defeating Mitch with his improved fighting skills, not too long after the fight turns nasty for Miyagi-Do and each fighter is picked off one by one, including Chris who is beaten up by Mitch and Doug. In the near future Mitch and Chris meet again at Samantha's house. The two bicker alongside their co-students but soon put their differences behind them and call a truce. Not long after they put their friendship back in place and train under Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso.

However, in Season 5, their friendship has come to an end again as Mitch secretly re-joined Cobra Kai while training undercover at Eagle Fang & Miyagi-Do. Mitch would fight his old friend and lose for a third time.

Mitch then rejoins Miyagi-Do and says he's apologized to Chris and their friends a billion times. He promises that he won't betray them again and proves his point by showing his shirt with a logo of half Eagle Fang and half Miyagi-Do and reveals that he has a bunch of them. Chris sees that he's being honest and asks for one, to which Mitch immediately gives a shirt to him. The two embrace a hug and restores their friendship once and for all.

Appearances

Season 2

• "Mercy Part II"
• "Back in Black"
• "Fire and Ice"
• "All In"
• "Take a Right"
• "Lull"
• "Glory of Love"
• "Pulpo"
• "No Mercy"

Season 3

• "Aftermath"
• "Now You're Gonna Pay"
• "Miyagi-Do"
• "King Cobra"
• "Obstáculos"
• "The Good, the Bad, and the Badass"
• "Feel The Night"
• "December 19"

Season 4

• "Let's Begin"
• "Then Learn Fly"
• "Bicephaly"
• "Match Point"
• "Kicks Get Chicks"
• "Minefields"
• "The Fall"
• "The Rise"

Season 5

• "Downward Spiral"
• "Bad Eggs"
• "Taikai"
• "Head of the Snake"

Season 6

• "Peacetime in the Valley"
• "The Prize"
• "Underdogs"
• "Best of the Best"

Gallery

Mitch betraying Johnny

Joins Eagle Fang with Johnny Lawrence after being kicked out of Cobra Kai

Mitch and Chris at Miyagi-Do

Mitch, Bert, and Devon at the water park

Mitch with Eagle Fang and Miyagi-Do at the water park

Mitch encountering 3 girls at the afterparty at Miguel's apartment

Rejoins Cobra Kai and betrays Miyagi-Fang after he felt disrespected by them

Trivia

• Mitch was one of the Cobra Kai students that trashed the Miyagi-Do dojo.
• Mitch appears to be a professional wrestling fan, as seen in his debut, in which he wears a WrestleMania shirt.
• Mitch prefers the nickname “Ass Face” over “Penis Breath,” prompting Chris to ask him why he would put up with insulting nicknames at all. He fully embraced the "Muscles" nickname bestowed up him by Mike Barnes.
  • The former is also the second character from a franchise to be given the name "Penis Breath". This first occurred in E.T. The Extra Terrestrial when Michael called Elliot that exact name.
• Mitch alongside Hawk reunites with Johnny after Season 3.
  • However, he turns against Johnny, Hawk, and the rest of his Eagle Fang and Miyagi-Do allies near the end of Season 5 when the latter ditched the merged dojos and switched back to Cobra Kai as their mole.
  • However, the betrayal would be cut short after Mitch learns the dark truth about Terry Silver.
• When Eagle Fang kept failing at their attempts to recruit a female to compete for them in the upcoming All Valley Karate Tournament, Johnny believed their best chance in the girls division was to have an Eagle Fang member dress up in a wig and girls attire and try to pass the fighter off as a girl. Johnny was inclined to nominate Mitch for that 'honor'.
• So far, Mitch and Stingray are the only 2 Cobra Kai students that were kicked out by Kreese and given another chance by Terry Silver to rejoin the dojo while Kreese is in jail.
  • Furthermore, Stingray defects the dojo to team up with Miyagi-Fang, and Mitch quits after finding out that Silver cheated at the All Valley.
• He has appeared the most in season 2, his debut season, almost appearing in all ten episodes, but only being absent in one.
  • He tied appearing in eight episodes for seasons 3 and 4, and has made the least appearances in season 5.
• Bert calls him "Benedict Penis Breath", which is a reference to Benedict Arnold.
  • Mitch is also still called "Penis Breath", despite returning to Miyagi Do.
• He takes laxatives in order to relieve his stress on poop.
  • Devon uses this observation to secretly rig Kenny's water in order to win one of the last two spots for the Saikai Taikai while also unintentionally causing Kenny to blame Anthony.