Netflix’s Original Series Cobra Kai episode 8 “Taikai” kicks off with Thomas Griffith’s Terry Silver welcoming members of the world tournament that he wants cobra kai to enter. Unfortunately, for him William Zabka’s Johnny Lawrence and Ralph Macchio’s Daniel LaRusso also show up to enter their dojo into the world tournament as well. As they describe their dojo the viewer can see the amount of pride, they have for it by the look on their faces. This is due to the way they talk about how they combined their fighting styles into a different form of fighting for their students. Also, the combination can be seen as a beautiful creation born from a friendship made by two former enemies.
Further into the episode, during the time the students from cobra kai, Miyagi-do, and Eagle Fang prepare for the mini tournament to qualify for the world tournament Peyton List’s Tory Nichols has a moment with Oona O’Brien’s Devon Lee. As they train, they talk about how the tournament could lead to opportunities such as college. The viewer can see by the look of Tory’s face she never thought about college. This can be seen as a sad aspect to her character since throughout the series the viewer sees Tory struggle with money problems. This makes Tory a more grounded character besides being angry almost all the time because she feels alone with no one to help her. For the longest time she had to take care of her sick mother by herself which is why she feels angry that at her age she has to deal with money issues. This establishes a connection with her character and the viewer as the viewer can relate to having those types of problems. Making the episode a more grounded one then the rest of the season.
Towards the end of the episode, the viewer sees Jacob Bertrand’s Eli Moskowitz and Dallas Young’s Kenny fight against each other. Unfortunately, Eli loses due to Kenny using a dirty move taught to him by Silver. Obviously, the move would have disqualified him if not for the fact that Silver paid off the referee in cobra kai’s favor. In his mind, he figures it always best to have an insurance policy no matter what. Having cobra kai in the tournament means more to him than winning honestly. In fact, he believes that winning fairly is for losers who do not know the meaning of power and money. That is why he takes advantage of all of his resources to make sure he gets what he wants in the end. It can even be argued that it is all about the power when it comes to cobra kai for Silver. This is due to him having money from He probably doesn’t even care about cobra kai at all instead he just wants the power that comes with it. That is why he got rid of Martin Kove’s John Kresse as head sensei that way he could have all the power for himself.
Rating 8.5/10