Warning: This review contains spoilers. Proceed with caution and reconsider reading if you haven’t watched the show.
On July 18, 2024, the series finale many have been waiting for made its way into the void we call Netflix. Part one of “Cobra Kai” Season 6 is the most anticipated season of the TV series, and gave audiences a taste as to what the grand finale of the show will look like.
Cobra Kai is the sequel to “The Karate Kid” movie franchise, which began with the original movie “The Karate Kid”, released in 1984. This iconic movie follows the story of young high schooler Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), who moved into the South Seas Apartments in Reseda, Calif., from his home in Newark, N.J.. At the beginning of the movie, Daniel gets involved with a female love interest he meets at a beach party, Alli Mills (Elisabeth Shue). As a consequence, Daniel is frequently bullied by rich and popular karate student, Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka), Mills’ ex-boyfriend — who happens to belong to a dojo called Cobra Kai.
After having been beat up multiple times throughout the movie, Daniel manages to run into an old man from Okinawa, Japan, who lives near him and his mother. Nariyoshi Miyagi (Pat Morita) happens to be an expert in Karate and ends up becoming Daniel’s new mentor. At the very end of the movie, Daniel fights in the All-Valley Karate Tournament, a Karate competition for students under 18. At this tournament, Daniel beats Johnny after enduring several injuries, and the movie ends.
Fast forward three sequel movies later, Cobra Kai starts 33 years after the events of “The Karate Kid”, taking place in 2017. This continuing TV series went on for five seasons, the sixth having just been released. This season follows the story of Miyagi-Do Karate’s endless feud with Cobra Kai, and is supposed to be the finale of the show. Daniel and Johnny, once enemies, are teaming up together as the two senseis of Miyagi-Do Karate in order to destroy Cobra Kai, led by sensei Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith), a villain from the third Karate Kid movie.
For those who have watched the show, here is my take on each of the five episodes released so far:
Peacetime in the Valley
This was such a great first episode of the season, and left me wanting more. The lasting tension between Samantha LaRusso (Mary Mouser) and Tory Nichols (Peyton List) leads Robby Keene (Tanner Buchanan) and Miguel Diaz (Xolo Maridueña) to try and heal things. The awkwardness the attempt at Golf N’ Stuff brought was hilarious, as it rehashed many of the ridiculous things that furthered the characters’ rivalry. Meanwhile, Robby runs into Kenny Payne (Dallas Dupree Young) and tries to recruit him into Miyagi-Do, apologizing for abandoning him to the maliciousness of Cobra Kai. Even after facing the threats of Shawn Payne (Okea Eme-Akwari), Kenny’s older brother, Robby refuses to back down. This causes a fight between the brothers and the two couples, which is halted by the approach of the security guards.
After a heartfelt conversation between the brothers towards the end of the episode, Kenny learns to let go of his anger unleashed by Cobra Kai and, at the very end, joins Miyagi-Do with the others. The assembly of all the characters got me extremely excited for the rest of the season.
The Prize
The looming Sekai Taikai causes conflict with the Miyagi-Do students, on top of the pressure of college applications. Additionally, a new dojo begins to form in South Korea, as John Kreese (Martin Kove) is reunited with his old sensei and his granddaughter.
The scene at the frat party in the middle of the episode was glorious. I absolutely loved the music and overall aesthetic, especially when the fight took place between the home owners and the Miyagi-Do’s. Kyler Park (Joe Seo) and Miguel’s connection after they prevailed was very uplifting, as it was nice to see the two characters with a rough history come together and heal their relationship.
The harrowing rise of Kreese and his new attempt at re-forming Cobra Kai for the Sekai Taikai wasn’t exactly shocking, though it was certainly interesting. The festering evil is sure to come back and haunt the rest of the season.
Sleeper
The highlight of this episode was Kwon Jay Sung’s (Brandon H. Lee) character arc. The scene where he beats the other Cobra Kai students to the ground is not only hardcore, but the specific song (“The Rise of Kwon” by Leo Birenberg & Zach Robinson) that was constructed for the scene absolutely made it.
Furthermore, the scene at Devon Lee’s (Oona O’Brien) house where Tory and Sam bring their issues back up and apologize for their wrongdoings was touching, and was quite the sight to behold when the two rival characters finally embraced each other, marking the end of their bad relationship.
Underdogs
I found this one to be the funniest of them all. With the Sekai Taikai lingering in the not-so-distant future, Miyagi-Do is working hard to eliminate everyone but the top six students, who will make it to compete in the tournament in Barcelona, Spain. With the help of Mike Barnes (Sean Kanan), they narrow it down to the bottom four competitors to determine who gets to go. This epic “capture-the-flag” type scene in the woods is both suspenseful and humorous. Watching four of my favorite characters compete was stressful, and when Kenny failed to make it to the bathroom it was devastating. The conflict between Demetri Alexopolous (Gianni Decenzo) and Eli “Hawk” Moskowitz (Jacob Bertrand) shocked me, and added to the overall restlessness this episode made me feel about the rest of the season.
Best of the Best
What is perhaps the greatest twist of the season shocked audiences: the death of Grace Nichols (Bethany DeZelle), Tory’s mother. Sick throughout Tory’s entire appearance on the show, she meets her final devastating end — an unexpected pulmonary embolism. This sets us up for the conflict, which greatly affects the dojo’s decision of who will be team captain. After the death of her mother, Tory disappears entirely from her friends, leaving them wondering what happened to her and why she was ignoring their texts and calls. Later on, Tory and Sam are about to fight for the position of female team captain, when everything goes sideways as Amanda LaRusso (Courtney Henggeler) receives a call from the hospital, informing her of Grace’s death. This unfortunate event leads to Tory being pulled out of the fight by Daniel, causing conflict between him and Johnny, who believes Tory should have been allowed to continue. The conflict tears the two senseis apart once again, and Johnny swears that after the tournament, their partnership will be finished.
The final episode of part one ends with Tory showing up at the Sekai Taikai with Kreese and Cobra Kai, intending to fight her friends.
Overall, the new season got a lot of mixed reviews, but I think it was more entertaining and amusing than anything. The mixed conflict is sure to further escalate — if that’s even possible — in the upcoming part two.
