Every Time Miguel From Cobra Kai Should've Been Arrested
On Netflix's "Karate Kid" spinoff "Cobra Kai," Sensei Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) often plays things fast and loose. As a result, he's been arrested an untold number of times, including beating up Kyler (Joe Seo) and his bros — albeit in self defense — outside the mini mart in the pilot episode. We're pretty sure Johnny's been banned from at least one Applebee's in the San Fernando Valley area. This penchant for playing by his own rules has even manifested in some rather dangerous training methods, like loading his students into the back of a cement truck or encouraging them to leap from the top of one building to another, with just a few scattered mattresses on the ground, which he expects will safely break their fall if they don't make the jump.
Miguel Diaz (Xolo Mariduena), Johnny's first student in the newly relaunched Cobra Kai dojo and the "dork" whom he was inadvertently defending when pounding Kyler and his cronies, certainly seems to have picked up his sensei's penchants for arrogance and recklessness. Early-on, Miguel was a dyed-in-the-wool Cobra Kai just like his instructor was as a teenager, all attitude and badass bravado, though he soon learns the error of his ways when he sees how he's acting. In fact, by the end of "Cobra Kai" Season 4, Miguel is drawn to Miyagi-Do and its tenets of balance, flow, and defense-first karate.
Along that journey, however, Miguel got up to no good on a regular basis, even stepping outside the law on multiple occasions. Here's every time Miguel should've been arrested on "Cobra Kai."
The cafeteria fight in Season 1
Miguel Diaz first seeks out training from Johnny Lawrence after the latter took care of Kyler and his idiot friends. While Johnny simply wanted them to stay away from his car and feebly suggested they "just leave the dork alone," Miguel was a secondary beneficiary of the whoopin' his neighbor doled out. With the continuous bullying to which he's been subject, including having the pink bismuth he'd picked up for his grandmother dumped on his head, it's no surprise Miguel would want some payback against his tormentors. As luck would have it, Episode 5 of Season 1 presents the perfect opportunity. When equal-opportunity jerk Kyler is harassing Samantha LaRusso (Mary Mouser) in the school cafeteria after she confronts him over rumors he'd spread, Miguel has the opportunity to impress the girl he likes and get some much-needed revenge on his bully. With a flurry of kicks, he shows off what Johnny's taught him so far and Kyler and his friends get what they deserve.
Even though Kyler was the aggressor and shoved Miguel first, he was still a willing combatant in a fight on school grounds. Most schools have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to fighting and participants are often subject to expulsion or arrest. Obviously, neither of those took place in the hallowed halls of the fictional West Valley High School, but that's simply a matter of the fact that it's a television program. Think of it as high school plot armor; since the story necessitates these characters remaining high school students, actions that should get them expelled or arrested can't lead to that actually happening unless it serves the story — read: Robby Keene (Tanner Buchanan).
Drinking at the lake party
After sticking up for her in the cafeteria brawl, Miguel and Sam become even closer and eventually start dating. Things are looking up until Sam gets grounded by her mother, Amanda LaRusso (Courtney Henggeler), for the hit-and-run accident from Episode 1, when Yasmine (Annalisa Cochrane), ran into Johnny's car. Miguel, being an insecure teenage boy who's unable to get a hold of his girlfriend, naturally begins to have issues. So when the Cobra Kai kids decide to crash Yasmine's lake party and turn it into an absolute rager, Miguel gets blitzed in his despair. Thanks to a convenient excuse from Robby, who's training under Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), Amanda asks Sam to give him a ride home, earning her a temporary bit of freedom, and the two head to the party instead. Miguel, upset from her lack of communication and already in the bag, berates Sam and tries to provoke a fight from Robby, though he ends up accidentally hitting Sam in the process.
That's assault and battery, with a healthy dose of public intoxication thrown in the mix for good measure. While Miguel's feelings are understandably hurt over the miscommunication and-or lack thereof, you can't put your hands on someone like that in the real world and expect zero consequences. This scene would have easily landed Miguel in jail with some charges that aren't easy to skate on; we're not sure any judge would accept "She didn't call me back" as a proper legal defense or justification for his actions.
Drinking underage at Moon's house party
Toward the end of "Cobra Kai" Season 2, Sam and Robby are now an item and Miguel has moved on and gotten involved with Tory Nichols (Peyton List), Cobra Kai's newest badass female student. Owing to a country club confrontation, Sam and Tori have become mortal enemies, a situation that isn't exactly made easier when she gets with Miguel. While Johnny and Daniel are playing nice after they're seated next to each other at the same restaurant — Daniel and Amanda are given the table next to Johnny and Miguel's mother Carmen (Vanessa Rubio) — their students are all at a house party hosted by Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz's (Jacob Bertrand) ex-girlfriend Moon (Hannah Kepple). What do you get when you combine fierce adolescent rivals with an ample amount of alcohol readily available? Drunk teenagers!
While the biggest showdown comes in the form of Sam and Tory facing off in a drinking competition that involves chugging beer and doing shots while standing on one leg, there are plenty of other events going on. Hawk tries to make Moon jealous by flirting with a girl named Piper (Selah Austria), ony to find out she's Moon's new girlfriend, then takes his frustration out on former friend Demetri (Gianni DeCenzo). Sam may defeat Tory in their drinking challenge but when she drunkenly makes a move on Miguel later on, it's pretty clear that's going to cause more problems. According to the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, it's a crime for a minor to be in possession of alcohol, meaning everyone at the party, including Miguel, would be in trouble with the law. The cops eventually do show up and, in typical fictional high school party fashion, everybody runs.
His participation in the big school fight, coma notwithstanding
Things come to a head between multiple parties in the "Cobra Kai" Season 2 finale, an episode appropriately titled "No Mercy." After fleeing Moon's party, Robby takes Sam to sleep it off at Johnny's place, since she's terrified of what her parents would do if they saw her in such a drunken state. Johnny is less than thrilled to have his rival's intoxicated daughter over for a slumber party but he understands and tries to be a chill parent. When Daniel and Amanda realize his daughter isn't home, he tracks her phone to Johnny's apartment, eventually taking her to school — but not before a violent confrontation with Johnny. While his old enemy was trying to calm Daniel down, he wasn't about to take parenting advice from the father of the kid whom he took in off the street.
Sam doesn't just have to worry about her parents' wrath this morning; at school, Tory calls her out over the intercom system and they start fighting in the halls, sparking a Cobra Kai vs. Miyagi-Do brawl for it all. While Robby is trying to separate Sam and Tory, Miguel tackles him and they come to blows. Once again, we've got another school fight, with all parties likely subject to arrest and expulsion, though Miguel ends up in the hospital after Robby kicks him off a second-floor landing. Ironically, this is the one time in which someone does face legal trouble in the situation, though it's Robby who has to go on the run after his actions during the fight. Had he not ended up in the hospital, it's possible Miguel would have joined him in juvie, given that Robby's part in the fracas began as de-escalation and Miguel tackling him is what caused him to resort to violence.
Drinking at the Dee Snider concert
After the fight at school, Robby is on the run and Miguel was in a coma, with Sam scarred from her fight with Tory, and Tory is expelled and put on probation for instigating the fight. Johnny is distraught, having lost his dojo to John Kreese (Martin Kove) in Season 2 of "Cobra Kai," and deals with his sorrows the way he always does — getting drunk and starting fights. When he's done feeling sorry for himself, he makes his way to the hospital to see Miguel, though Carmen asks him to leave. Eventually, Johnny makes it his mission to help Miguel walk again and, given his lack of experience as a physical therapist, he comes up with an assortment of hare-brained ideas to try to get Miguel on his feet, including but not limited to lighting the boy's shoes on fire and tempting him with adult magazines. When Carmen tells Johnny her son is depressed, he decides to cheer him up with a good ol' fashioned '80s rock concert, featuring Dee Snider. Miguel miraculously starts tapping his foot in time with the music, which is the very first step in him regaining his ability to walk.
Now, it's one thing that they suckered the security guard manning the club's door into thinking Miguel was terminally ill and letting him in out of pity. It's something else entirely when Johnny straight up buys him a beer and the two start crushing brews together. Miguel would once again get popped for possession of alcohol by a minor and Johnny would take another trip to county for contributing to the delinquency of a minor.