Cobra Kai season 6 epsiode 3, entitled "Sleeper," kicks off on an explosive start — literally. We open at the baby shower for Johnny (William Zabka) and Carmen Diaz (Vanessa Rubio). Things are going well — well, except for Chozen (Yuji Okumoto) eating all of the party's cannoli as a midnight snack — until a knock on the door interrupts the celebration. It's a mysterious box that, concerningly, is ticking.
Johnny thinks it's a warning from Kreese but, happily and hilariously, it's actually just the gender reveal that arrived a bit early and exploded pink ink all over Johnny and even more so Daniel (Ralph Macchio). It's a girl! But that's far from the only hijinks that the Miyagi-Do crew gets up to this episode.
Kreese tames Kwon
Over in South Korea, Kim Da-eun (Alicia Hannah-Kim) is giving John Kreese (Martin Kove) an overview of her training methods — more intense, more precise and more demanding, she assures — and her students. Standouts from the group including obedient Yoon Do-Jin (Daniel Kim), whose family has been training with Cobra Kai for generations, and rebellious Kwon Jae-Sung (Brandon H. Lee), who "can high-kick like a Rockette" but never follows the lessons.
Kreese offers to handle Kwon, telling him if he wants to prove he's better than the rest of the students, he'll have to beat the best, i.e. Yoon Do-Jin. He shares how, back at the 1984 All Valley, Johnny lost to "an insignificant, scrawny little runt" (a.k.a. Daniel) because his opponent had more heart. The only way to fight someone with heart is to be heartless.
Kwon Jae-Sung brutally fights Yoon Do-Jin, ripping the "top student" badge straight off his gi. The next lesson, he is at the front of the class and leading students through those viper attacks. "With Kwon in line, no dojo stands against us," Kim Da-eun declares appreciatively, but Kreese ominously replies that "there's still one more piece of the puzzle left."
Johnny hosts a sleepover
Now that Sam (Mary Mouser) and Tory (Peyton List) are no longer at each other's throats, their fighting skills have seemingly lost a bit of their spark. Johnny is worried about how they'll do in the Sekai Taikai tournament, so he decides to host a girls' night sleepover at Devon's house to drum up a little tension between the girls: "Put a bunch of high-school girls in a basement, mix in a little gossip and pretty soon you got something that makes Scarface look like Bambi," he argues.
He breaks out the Ouiji board, turns up the Cyndi Lauper and tries to get Tory and Sam mad at each other. ("Does Tory want Sam to fall down a flight of stairs and break every little bone in her body?" he not-so-subtly asks the Ouiji board.) He even goes so far as stealing the cell phones of Robby (Tanner Buchanan) and Miguel (Xolo Maridueña) to text their respective exes.
But the girls are smart and know what Johnny is doing and are mad he's not following Miyagi-Do. ("I am Miyagi-Do! We have pillows and chocolate and air conditioning!") However, as they wait outside together for their Ubers, Tory snarks about Sam stealing her boyfriend in the past, which does finally prompt an argument between the girls. They end up apologizing to each other, but the next day at Miyagi-Do their fighting skills are back. Was Johnny actually onto something?
Daniel discovers Miyagi's secrets
Because Chozen is now a more permanent fixture at Miyagi-Do ("Guy flies in for the weekend to kill Terry Silver, stays for another three months," jokes Amanda), he'll need a more official sleeping arrangement, so Daniel boxes up Mr. Miyagi's old stuff to move Chozen into the dojo. While moving the bed, they discover a secret door hidden under a rug, and a box of Miyagi-san's belongings beneath the cobwebs.
Inside, they find some boxing gloves, Chinese currency, newspaper clippings about a robbery, and a passport that has Miyagi's first name listed as Keisuki, not Nariyoshi, and his age at six years older than Daniel thought. Amanda (Courtney Henggeler) suggests they visit the address in the passport to find out info.
When they do, they discover it's a boxing ring with some not-so-friendly patrons. Daniel shows Miyagi's passport around and one of the guys goes running — he initially thinks they're cops but once they catch up to him, he reveals that Mr. Miyagi was a silent partner in the boxing gym. Miyagi-san had fled America because he beat someone up over a pricey necklace way back when, Daniel learns. "I never knew this side of him," Daniel grieves.
Daniel is struggling to rectify the memory of Mr. Miyagi with this new information, but Amanda reminds him that Miyagi-san probably kept things from Daniel out of protection. Inspired by Amanda's speech about making the most time with the people they love most, Chozen looks up flights to Okinawa, presumably to go see Kumiko.
Miyagi-Do chooses its team captains
Not only do the dojos finally learn which city will play host for Sekai Taikai (Barcelona, Spain!) but also the rules of registration. The organizers want quality, not quantity, so each dojo will have to select six fighters to compete in team events, with one boy and one girl serving as captains who will enter into individual competitions that will be televised around the world.
What does that mean for Miyagi-Do? It means they won't all get to go to Sekai Taikai, they mortifyingly realize. And the real competition will be against their teammates.
All five episodes of Cobra Kai season 6 part 1 are now available to stream on Netflix.
