TW: This post discusses suicidal ideation of a fictional character
I’ve been rewatching Cobra Kai with my mom and I have so many thoughts about this interaction that I wanted to share because it’s this tiny moment I never thought about before but I feel like it has so many implications for Robby’s whole character arc.
So one thing that stood out to me specifically other than how much all the adults let all the kids in this show down was something Shannon said to Daniel while Robby was eating right before they called the police.
She says “he’s not right Daniel, he keeps talking like he’s gonna leave town or something” which struck me as odd for a few reasons which are all very speculative but whatever I’m sharing them anyways.
So first things first Shannon has been completely clueless and apathetic toward Robby throughout the entire show from blowing him off and leaving him home alone to completely abandoning him for weeks on end without power and getting mad at him for defending himself from one of her partners so it can’t exactly be said that she notices when things are bad with him.
Now it could be argued that going through rehab changed that behavior but she still chooses not to go after her sixteen year old son who is a homeless fugitive because her life coach said she shouldn’t look for him, if she’d wanted to actually do something for him that was her chance so she clearly hasn’t changed that much.
So it was weird to me that she suddenly seemed so much more worried after talking to him even though she had more information about where he was, think how wrong something had to be for her to notice and be that worked up about it. She literally begs Daniel to help Robby.
Then there’s the fact that she says “he’s not right” which is quite intense and comes across very dark in my mind like she’s not just saying he’s upset she’s saying there’s something seriously wrong and again she’s proven herself to be incredibly clueless so coming from her this statement is even more concerning.
Then she says “he keeps talking like he’s gonna leave town or something.” So the fact that she says like makes it feel like Robby didn’t just flat out say he was going to leave town he said something that made Shannon feel like he was talking about leaving town. This point is further highlighted by her saying “or something” at the end.
Between both of these uncertain statements it becomes clear that he didn’t say he was leaving town but said something about leaving and the rest of the conclusion Shannon drew herself. Technically he could’ve been just talking about leaving town but given the fact that it’s been weeks and he had a car previously it seemed like if that was his plan he’d have done it already.
So what we really have is a sixteen year old who was abused and neglected his whole life, who had been told every horrible thing you could be told by the people he trusted the most, has terribly low self esteem, has been abandoned by the only mentor he thought he had twice despite that person knowing he would be homeless, had been cheated on by his girlfriend and only friend, nearly killed someone, and has been living on the streets for weeks saying something along the lines of “I need to get out of here” and “I can’t do this anymore.”
Something that could be interpreted as wanting to leave town or wanting to leave something but he never specified what and his mom who is clueless about him in general is freaking out saying that he isn’t right. On top of this he has no one on his side in the world and has been through unbearable trauma.
You see after this how quickly he gives up fighting the cops is so out of character for him and thinking that he’s in this place of being so ready to just end everything makes so much sense for why he was willing to go with Kreese and join Cobra Kai. He’d already given up and the thought that he was in such a horrible place helps explain so many of his actions in seasons three and four.
So yeah that’s my thoughts on this, I’m super curious about whether this makes anyone else rethink this scene or the rest of Robby’s arc.
