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The trailer for Cobra Kai Season 5 showed one of the season’s funniest moments. Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) gets a job driving for Uber. If you made it to episode 4 in your binge, you’ve seen how well that goes for Johnny. You might not have recognized one of his passengers though. 

[Warning: This article contains spoilers for Cobra Kai Season 5, Episode 4 “Downward Spiral.”]

'Cobra Kai' Season 5: Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and Robby (Tanner Buchanan) raise their arms in victory
L-R: William Zabka and Tanner Buchanan | Netflix

Showbiz Cheat Sheet attended roundtable interviews with the cast of Cobra Kai and got to hear Zabka talk about the Uber episode. He revealed the secret cameo in the backseat and more. Cobra Kai Season 5 is now on Netflix. 

The writer of the ‘Cobra Kai’ Season 5 episode rides in Johnny’s Uber

Ashley Darnall wrote the episode “Downward Spiral.” Darnall also got to play one of the passengers. She’s the last one, who complains his car smells like beer. 

“Actually, the writer of that episode gets out of the Uber at the very end when I say, ‘One star because there’s beer in the car? It’s because there is beer, *sshole,’” Zabka said. “She was the writer of that episode, Ashley. She’s like, ‘I want to be in the car. I want Johnny Lawrence to call me an *sshole.’ I’m like, ‘Are you sure?’ She’s like, ‘Yeah.’ It was fun.”

William Zabka had another connection behind the scenes 

Steve Pink directed the Cobra Kai episode “Downward Spiral.” Pink also directed Zabka in the movie Hot Tub Time Machine.

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“Steve Pink directed that episode and I love working with him,” Zabka said. “So we just had a great time with that. I could do that all day. I love those moments. Those are fun. It’s completely disconnected from the karate world. It’s just Johnny in his rawness with nobody watching. That’s who he is in a way. It’s a lot of fun.”

What Uber means in the bigger picture of ‘Cobra Kai’ Season 5

The Uber scenes were funny but they were also important. Johnny tried that job so he could show Carmen (Vanessa Rubio) he could be responsible when their baby comes. Uber might not be Johnny’s career, but it showed that he’s trying. That’s already progress for Johnny.

It was one of my favorite things I’ve done on the show altogether. I love the Johnny without karate, the Johnny trying to figure out life and make ends meet. It’s back to kind of season 1 when he’s being a handyman and cleaning out gutters and hanging TVs. Now he’s just doing Uber. He’s doing it because nobody’s going to take him seriously for a button up job. Nobody’s going to hire him for suit and tie so he’s reluctantly having to do this and doesn’t really understand it and he’s still in his own world. He doesn’t know who Billie Eilish is so he plays Billy Idol and he takes his time to joyride around town for himself. He has no worries about who he’s driving around so it was super fun. It was very fun to play and I love,

William Zabka, Cobra Kai Season 5 roundtable, 8/26/22
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