All things considered, if there’s one thing the show never lacked—it’s heart.
This review contains spoilers of the Cobra Kai series and The Karate Kid franchise.
The strongest visual of Cobra Kai’s final episode starts with Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) standing in the same spot where he last fought his biggest rival, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), at the All Valley Karate Tournament. Instead of the limping, battered LaRusso delivering a perfectly placed crane kick, Johnny now faces his biggest obstacle yet, the path to redemption.
At the start of the finale, we are treated to a flashback of Johnny visiting his mother’s grave, clearly still carrying the impacts of his loss to Daniel in their 1984 match 30 plus years after (In the show’s timeline circa 2019-2020). It depicts the events before he encountered Miguel (Xolo Maridueña) being bullied, which kicked off his desire to revive the Cobra Kai dojo. The shift in tone is a fitting return to form for Cobra Kai Season 6, which puts Johnny back in the driver’s seat.
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It’s not a bad thing to go off on a detour from time to time. After all, the spotlight in the past few seasons centered on the new generation of “Karate Kids,” Daniel, and welcomed character developments from previous antagonists such as John Kreese, played brilliantly by Martin Kove, and Barrett Carnahan’s capable portrayal of a brazen, young Kreese, during his service in the Vietnam War. These story arcs added a surprising layer of depth that enabled Cobra Kai to retroactively breathe new life into a 40-year-old franchise.
In true 1980s action-flick fashion, former rivals Johnny, the sensei of the Cobra Kai dojo, and Daniel who has taken up the mantle to become the sensei of Miyagi-Do, the defense first Okinawan style of karate taught by the famous Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita)—team up to defeat the baddies of Iron Dragons, led by the still-evil Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) from The Karate Kid III (1989), his evil ponytail, yacht, and henchmen intact.
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Completing the hero’s journey
In The Karate Kid (1984), Daniel is the bullied outsider until Mr. Miyagi finds him and sets him on a better path, teaching him karate not just as a skill, but as a way of life (Wax on, wax off). Cobra Kai flips that perspective. Johnny Lawrence was the so-called bully in Daniel’s story, but from his point of view, Daniel was the hot-headed new kid who cost him his shot with Ali (Elisabeth Shue). By reviving Cobra Kai, Johnny, at least at first, unconsciously began his hero’s journey in reverse.
Daniel somehow indirectly bullies Johnny at the start of the show, hell-bent on burying the legacy of the Cobra Kai dojo without fully knowing Johnny’s motivations for helping his student Miguel overcome his bullies. Soon, this unearths several unresolved episodes in his life, prompting him to go out on another adventure, opening Miyagi-Do in hopes of finding balance himself.
After a fitting 80’s-style training montage set to Joe Esposito’s song You’re the Best, made famous by the original The Karate Kid (1984), we go back to the culminating scene of the series, where the main characters of Johnny and Daniel found themselves at the crossroads of their version of the hero’s journey.
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The quick flashbacks as Wolf scores some easy points while throwing in some cheap shots wears Johnny down. Saved only by timeouts from his now co-sensei Daniel, who sports the Cobra Kai gi in support, inspires Johnny with the ideologies of his once rival dojo.
Daniel sends Johnny back to the mat with the words: Fear and pain are not a part of this dojo. More scenes from the past urge Johnny to realize he isn’t just facing his past; he is reliving it, confronting childhood bullies of his own—from his stepfather to Daniel, to finally Kreese and now Wolf. But this time, with Daniel as his co-sensei and friend, Johnny has finally found the balance he spent his whole life searching for.
With one more cutaway of the crane kick that took him out, Daniel’s advice during the timeout explained how he banked on the aggression of Cobra Kai’s ideology. Hadn’t Johnny struck first in 1984, Daniel wouldn’t have landed the amazing counter kick.
Lawrence shifted his weight, changed his stance and found balance. He waited. The rushing Sensei Wolf got his leg swept by the former two-time All-Valley Champion and delivered a devastating spinning backfist to clinch the final point and become the new tournament champion.
Ultimately, Johnny and Daniel found balance within the interconnection and interdisciplinary approach of Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do, forming the most formidable one-two punch of a strike first aggression of the former, paired with the patience and defensive philosophy of the latter. Together, it symbolizes the characters’ personal growth despite starting on opposite paths. Their hero’s journey is the mastery of balance and inner peace coming in full circle.
You’re alright, Lawrence.
The blueprint for honoring legacy sequels
The show never got to a point of pure nostalgia as hilariously pointed out by South Park’s (1997) “member berries,” where successive scenes badger you with repeated pop culture references appealing to fan service.
Alongside Top Gun: Maverick (2022), Cobra Kai has laid the blueprint for how legacy sequels should be treated. Fans do not appreciate killing off their heroes just to subvert expectations. A character’s shift in resolve should feel natural, well-earned and never forced out of previously established character traits. Series creators Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg respected the source material. And the result is a rewarding experience with a ton of possibilities of expanding the franchise’s mythos.
The upcoming movie The Karate Kid: Legends could attest to this as it brings back Ralph Macchio’s Daniel-san together with Jackie Chan’s Mr. Han (The Karate Kid, 2010) reprising their roles, in what could possibly kick off the Miyagi-verse cinematic franchise.
Six years of Cobra Kai presented a new Karate Kid universe to the next generation. It may be paced like a daytime soap, at times, full of teenage angst, but the self-awareness in the writing knows not to take itself too seriously. Some characters even poke fun at the realism when the story tries to resolve problems with more karate, instead of actual police intervention.
All things considered, if there’s one thing the show never lacked—it’s heart. Oh, and haven’t you heard, Cobra Kai never dies.
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