Cobra Kai – Season 5 Episode 9 “Survivors” Recap & Review

Survivors

Episode 9 of Cobra Kai Season 5 starts back at the post-tournament party. Sam and Tory end up fighting outside, with Sam angry that she’s been played. Tory tries to explain herself but it’s no good, the damage has been done.

In their absence, Carmen and Miguel go for their first baby scan. Unfortunately, Silver ends up getting in the same elevator. He tells Johnny to savour every moment they have together, but it’s clearly a way of psyching them out.

Daniel believes they should just have the night off and chill, going into this with a level-head. So naturally, they all prepare to hit the club.

Whilst there, there’s a lovely moment between Chozen and Johnny who connect over past regrets – and their future. It turns out Chozen has feelings for Kumiko that go way back, all the way to when they were kids, and since then he’s always had a soft spot for her.

Meanwhile, the wildcard in all this happens to be Stingray as he’s the only one they could sway and get to open up about Kreese’s deception.

Speaking of which, Robby shows up at Cobra Kai and makes an impassioned plea to try and convince the kids to leave the dojo. It doesn’t work, naturally, while Silver makes an example of Robby, pointing out that if he or any of his friends appear inside the dojo, then Cobra Kai will be showing no mercy.

Bert shows up with Sam and the others to try and convince Stingray to reveal who attacked him. Although he doesn’t directly tell them, he used D&D analogies to start explaining what happened. Unfortunately, Stingray can’t bring himself to finish the story so everything is left in limbo.

Kim forces Tory to smash a stone makeshift statue at Cobra Kai. It actually works, and she smashes it…but also leaves her hand a bloody, broken mess.

While Tory is confused over where her future lies, Sam too is conflicted over the rigged tournament and her feelings toward Miguel. He tries to see where she stands on all this and encourages her to make a stand and choose her own destiny going forward.

That night, Sam shows up at Tory’s house, where she notices the girl’s shattered hand. Sam decides to try and patch things up, but inside she sees the struggles her rival is actually going through. The place is a mess, there’s take-out food everywhere and her mum is bed-ridden.

Tory admits what happened last season crushed her and she’s been teaming up with Kreese to try and get back at Silver, which obviously hasn’t worked.

As for Silver, he’s determined to make sure they win no matter what. While he strategizes with Kim, Chozen, Johnny and Daniel all head out together, drunk and signing Eye of the Tiger in a limo.

Unfortunately, the vehicle has been sabotaged, and it’s actually being driven by Silver’s men. Not only that, but they’re locked inside. Is there any escape? Where are they being taken to? We’ll have to wait for the finale to find out!

The Episode Review

The ending to this episode sets everything up nicely for the finale, which should be quite the tasty treat. The show has done a decent job building up for this final tournament but at the same time, it’s unclear exactly how the show is going to wrap everything up. I think at this point, we’re probably going to get a cliffhanger ending!

Overall, this season has been a bit of a turbulent ride. It’s been quite hit or miss at times and some of that comes from the bloated ensemble that this show is now handling. As a result, there are a good number of characters that just don’t have all that much to do.

Cobra Kai is obviously very popular though and with season 6 already filmed, it’s clear that this is all gearing up for a much larger story to follow. Roll on the final episode!