Peacetime in the Valley

Season 6, Episode 1

Air date

July 18, 2024

Written by

Bob Dearden

Directed by

Joel Novoa

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Peacetime in the Valley is the first episode of the sixth season of Cobra Kai.

Synopsis[]

The Miyagi-Do students struggle to put aside past rivalries while training for the Sekai Taikai. Johnny and Chozen clash over rebranding the dojo.

Plot[]

Johnny Lawrence, Daniel LaRusso, and their respective families are shown to be living idyllic lives after Terry Silver was arrested and Cobra Kai was dismantled. Daniel tells Amanda that he still wants to have his Miyagi-Do students compete in the Sekai Taikai, the international karate tournament.

Daniel plans to use the competition as a way to spread Mr. Miyagi’s legacy across the globe. Although she’s concerned if it’s the right decision for him, Daniel reassures her that he’ll retire immediately afterward and settle down.

Meanwhile, Johnny plans to train Miyagi-Do’s strongest fighters, Robby Keene and Miguel Diaz at his Eagle Fang dojo, but it has been demolished. They move their training back to the Miyagi-Do dojo where former Cobra Kai members and Miyagi-Do students are getting along with one another — except for Sam LaRusso and Tory Nichols, who are training by themselves on opposite ends of the dojo. With Robby and Miguel able to work out their differences from previous seasons, they make it their goal to have Tory and Sam do the same.

Before they begin their official training for the day, Hawk and Demetri reveal that the students decided their combined dojo should be called Miyagi Fang Karate, featuring a logo of Mr. Miyagi with fangs.

The senseis deliberate on the new dojo name their students chose, with Daniel completely against the idea as it ruins Mr. Miyagi’s legacy. Chozen agrees they should just stick with Miyagi-Do, but Johnny suggests they go with “Eagle-Do Fang.” Chozen and Johnny argue over the name to the point that Chozen suggests they fight to settle it.

Meanwhile, Miguel, Sam, Robby, and Tory are on an awkward double date at an arcade as Sam and Tory refuse to engage with one another despite the guys’ efforts. While Sam and Tory have separate discussions with Miguel and Robby respectively to keep the peace, they see Kenny Payne playing games by himself. After Robby abandoned him at Cobra Kai under Terry Silver’s leadership, Kenny still refuses to talk to him.

The episode cuts back to Johnny buying supplies at a pawn shop to train for his fight with Chozen. Daniel follows him there to try to talk him out of the fight, but Johnny argues that since John Kreese kicked him out of Cobra Kai, Eagle Fang Karate is the only thing he feels ownership over. After walking away, Johnny receives a text from an unknown number telling him to meet at Coyote Creek, where he used to train his Cobra Kai students.

Back at the arcade, Robby apologizes to Kenny and tries to convince him to join Miyagi-Do. Kenny’s older brother Shawn Payne steps in, recently released from juvenile detention, and warns Robby to stay away from Kenny.

After failing to reason with Johnny, Daniel attempts to talk Chozen out of fighting since no matter who wins, one will hold resentment toward the other. Chozen shares that the night he lost to Terry Silver in Cobra Kai Season 5, he drunkenly called Kumiko, pouring his heart out to her, but she has yet to call back. Chozen wants to hold on to Miyagi-Do’s legacy since he feels like it’s the only thing he has left.

Johnny ends up going to Coyote Creek to meet the mysterious person who texted him and overhears Kreese. It turns out to be Stingray playing a recording of Kreese’s teachings to a very young group of students. Stingray tells Johnny that he heard about the Miyagi-Do naming debate, and encourages him to reclaim Cobra Kai as his own since it’s his legacy.

The episode switches back to Robby attempting to talk to Kenny again, but Shawn shoves him, leading to a fight as Miguel, Sam, and Tory join in. Shawn eventually stops the fight as he hears security coming, worrying about what might happen to him and Kenny. Tory and Sam compliment one another as they are able to work together in the fight.

Back at home, Shawn warns Kenny that if he continues down this vengeful path, it’ll land him in juvie. He tells Kenny that Miyagi-Do might be good for him to avoid following in his footsteps. When Sam returns home to tell her parents that she and Tory have settled their differences, it inspires Daniel with the situation between Johnny and Chozen.

On the day of the fight, Daniel tells Chozen that they should go with Johnny’s choice for the dojo name because Mr. Miyagi never cared about tournaments and titles; he only wanted karate to be taught the honorable way. As Chozen agrees, Johnny arrives to say that he concedes because Eagle Fang was born out of his resentment towards Kreese, and he doesn’t want the work he does to be attached to Kreese. Johnny admits that Daniel and Chozen have made him a better sensei, and he will do what he can to carry on Mr. Miyagi’s legacy.

As Kenny shows up at Miyagi-Do looking to join the group, he is welcomed by everyone there. Before the senseis begin lessons for the day, the camera lingers over the new Miyagi-Do logo on their karate gis, showing an eagle flying over the bonsai tree to indicate the partnership between Johnny, Daniel, and Chozen. In the episode’s final moments, Kreese walks towards a group of students training in a forest and tells them to let Kim Da-Eun know that Cobra Kai is back.

Cast[]

Starring[]

Guest Starring[]

Griffin Santopietro as Anthony LaRusso
Oona O'Brien as Devon Lee
Aedin Mincks as Mitch
Khalil Everage as Chris
Owen Morgan as Bert
Nathaniel Oh as Nathaniel
Rose Bianco as Rosa Diaz
Okea Eme-Akwari as Shawn Payne
Matt Borlenghi as Lyle
Paul Walter Hauser as Stingray
Yuji Okumoto as Chozen Toguchi
Nichole Brown as Aisha Robinson (flashback only)

Trivia[]

During the opening montage, Daniel drives to the left of the screen, and smiles when he sees two construction workers throwing the Cobra Kai logo into a dumpster (where the phrases of Cobra Kai’s motto also are). This is a callback to Season 1’s Strike First, in which Daniel drives to the left of the screen and sees the newly opened Cobra Kai in utter shock and disbelief.
After Tory steps on the bat Kenny was about to pick up, Kenny looks up at her, gets to his feet and says, “Out of my way, Nichols. I don’t wanna hit a girl”. This is a callback to the scene at the West Valley Mall from season 2’s All In, where Hawk tells Sam, “I don’t want to have to hit a girl”.
When Shawn is talking to Kenny, he says Kenny’s becoming a man now, and it’s time for him to decide the kind of man he wants to be, the kind of man he would want their father to come home to after his military tour, Kenny admits he doesn’t know who he wants to be, and doesn’t even know who he is anymore. This is a callback to the scene at the 2019 All-Valley Tournament from Season 4’s The Fall, where Moon tells Eli, “Ignore him. He’s always been a bully, but that’s not who you are” in reference to Kyler, and Eli then admits, “I don’t know who I am these days”.
Mitch returning to Miyagi-Do with T-shirts featuring a logo of half Miyagi-Do and half Eagle Fang for everyone is a callback to how Hawk showed he’d learned from Johnny and Daniel that actions are just as important as apologies in Season 4 by building an Okinawan sparring deck (with help from the Miyagi-Dos and the Eagle Fangs).
Aisha Robinson appears in this episode via a flashback.
Bert calling Mitch "Benedict Penis Breath" is a reference to Benedict Arnold.