It’s been quite a while since the LAST ONE of these, hasn’t it? But Cobra Kai has finally come to an end, so I figured it’s as good a time as any to do a second article covering the latter half of the show! We’ll be following the same format I used last time, discussing my thoughts on each season, alongside a summary of the plot, notes on my favorite character of the season, each season’s most hype moment, two pics, and a memorable quote!
Ready? Then bow, and let’s get into things!
Season Four – The Valley’s Turning Point
Season Summary: The previous season ended with Johnny and Daniel teaming up to train their students to defeat Kreese’s Cobra Kai at the upcoming All-Valley Tournament, with the losers set to close their dojo for good. So, much of this season is spent training the combined group of students, with Johnny and Daniel having a difficult time reconciling their disparate teaching methods. Eventually, things boil to a head, and Johnny cuts off into forming his own new dojo, Eagle Fang.
Meanwhile, Tory and Sam’s vengeful rivalry hits an unexpected shift as Tory finds herself struggling to balance school, work, and karate, and she turns to Amanda LaRusso for help. This puts her on a path towards redemption, especially as her partnership with Robby flourishes. Miguel, meanwhile, finds his relationship with Johnny stagnating, and Sam’s frustrated emotions get the better of her. And to top it all off, Kreese drags his old war-buddy Terry Silver into things, dramatically changing the Valley forever.
Mini-Review: It should be noted up-front that I’m biased towards liking this season simply because this is the season where Peyton List’s Tory Nichols became elevated from a supporting character to a main role. The journey she goes on in this season (and the following two seasons) is nothing short of phenomenal. But even aside from her, this season does some fantastic work with a lot of the characters and plot threads, while also introducing some all new twists to the formula. This is the first season that truly benefitted from the big-boy Netflix bucks, and you can really feel the production value increase.
I don’t love every single thing about this season. The Kenny/Anthony stuff drags for a bit, for sure. But that’s small potatoes compared to how brilliant Terry Silver is as a character, all the awesome character work for Tory (and Sam), and the fantastic two-part finale at the All-Valley Tournament. Those tournament fights are some of the best choreography work in the entire series. Also, the scene where Silver betrays Kreese? Chef’s kiss!
The season that marked Cobra Kai‘s evolution as a show into something even more. 9/10
Most Hype Moment: Sudden Death Overtime. Cobra Kai had had plenty of great fights before this climactic showdown, but it had never had anything this good before. I will always love and cherish the school fight, but in terms of pure one-v-one choreography, nothing matches this showdown. Eli and Robby’s championship bout is one for the history books, managing to be so nail-bitingly intense that I actually had to catch my breath by the time it was over! Fantastic music too!
Favorite Character: Amanda. It’s not difficult to like Amanda as a character, but this season makes it even easier to love her character. I love the development of her relationship with Tory through this season, from their petty clashes in the first few episodes, to Amanda actually trying to reach out later on, to her genuinely rooting for Tory to grow and change her life for the better. And the scene where Amanda reveals an incident from her past to Daniel, one she feels helps her connect with Tory? Superb acting.
“But if I could just win this one time…then I could hold that trophy and know that I’m the best at something.”
Tory Nichols
Season Five – The Chessmaster’s Scheme
Season Summary: In the wake of Tory’s ‘victory‘ in the All-Valley Tournament, Cobra Kai has become an immensely popular dojo, nearly taking over the entire valley. Johnny has hung up the karate towel and is looking for new jobs, Kreese is in jail thanks to Silver’s betrayal, and Daniel (even though he brought in some help in the form of enemy-turned-friend Chozen) is struggling to keep Cobra Kai at bay. Sam realizes she’s not sure what she wants out of life, Tory’s life continues to fray at the seams due to the colossal secret she’s keeping, and the arrival of Sensei Kim only makes everything worse.
A positive upswing begins to come into effect once Miguel and Robby finally patch-up their long-standing rivalry, and in turn they get Johnny onboard with the fight to stop Cobra Kai once and for all. But then comes the stunning announcement of the Sekai Takai, the greatest under-18 karate tournament in the world. Suddenly, everyone is in a rush to receive acceptance into the Sekai Takai…but not before Sam and Tory make amends in dramatic fashion, Johnny fights off a horde of what are effectively evil sensei ninjas, and Daniel has a climactic clash with Silver.
Mini-Review: This season is a bit of a weird one to review, because I realized recently that I have a tendency to subconsciously block out parts of this season whenever I look back on it. And, to be completely candid, I’m referring to the two-episode Mexico arc that kicks off the start of the season. While it’s not miserably awful or anything, I find it pretty tedious and exhausting (not to mention containing what may be the two worst fights in the entire series). The emotional reconciliation with Miguel at the end is nice…but was it worth taking up two whole episodes?
There’s also some other melodrama that is hit or miss, like Silver manipulating Daniel into embarrassing Amanda at a party. But then there’s Miguel and Robby’s really cool ‘come-to-understand-each-other‘ fight, the tear-jerking scene where everyone gathers around to rally a crestfallen Daniel, Tory’s fantastic scene of vulnerability with Sam, and the thrilling finale. So there’s much more good in this season than bad…there’s just also enough bad that I had to mention it.
Maybe a touch soap-opera-y, but still exceptionally entertaining and fun. 8.5/10
Most Hype Moment: Daniel Ascends to Miyagi-hood. It was clearly his arc from the moment he first showed up in this show’s first season, but Daniel finally manages to truly ascend to Miyagi-hood at the very end of this season. After getting brutalized by Terry in a mid-season clash, Daniel steps up to this final showdown with impeccable poise, calmness, and balance. Turning Silver’s own words against him, Daniel masterfully humiliates the supervillain, sealing the deal with the crane kick (which, by the way, Cobra Kai had the restraint to not use at all with Daniel, saving it for this very moment).
Favorite Character: Silver. While his entire presence shifts the show from grounded-in-reality to definitely-kinda-silly, it’s undeniable how much enjoyability Terry Silver brings to Cobra Kai. An incredible performance and fantastic dialogue writing turn what should be cheesy into something you can’t help but eagerly enjoy. It’s very difficult to not have a big stupid grin on your face any scene that Silver is in. Also, my golly can this man still fight! His kicks are something to behold for a man his age! And then, even underneath the bluster, there’s a hint of genuine character too, so he’s not just fully mustache-twirling evil!
“Life isn’t a fairy tale. It’s a competitive sport! Right and wrong, there’s no such thing. There are only winners and losers.”
Terry Silver
Season Six – The World Champions
Season Summary: The Sekai Takai is approaching, as is the end of senior year of high school for our core cast of karate kids. So not only do they have to train for the impending world tournament, but they also have to figure out what colleges/jobs they’re going to pursue once graduation rolls around. It isn’t long before tensions start flaring, and things aren’t going perfectly between Daniel and Johnny either…especially after Daniel uncovers a literal box of secrets Miyagi had hidden under the floorboards in his house.
It doesn’t get much better at the Sekai Takai, not with Tory having left behind her friends in the wake of her mother’s passing to join up with Cobra Kai. Sprinkle in a new dojo, The Iron Dragons, and their tough-as-nails fighters, and the Sekai Takai quickly spirals into insanity…and then even more insanity once a massive brawl breaks out, with fatal consequences! Finally, it all comes to a head back at the Valley, as our characters’ long journeys reach their end.
Mini-Review: It’s so rare for a multi-season show to have a fantastic finale that when it does happen it’s easy to get sucked into the hype and maybe over-praise it a bit. Because I won’t pretend this season doesn’t have a few small bumps in the road. Dimitri and Hawk spend a little too long bickering about MIT, Johnny is a touch too boneheaded in the first act of the season, there’s a little bit too much melodrama in Barcelona for my liking, and I wish the finale did a bit more with Sensei Kim (not that I hate the character moments she does get).
But, I mean…come on. Everything else is so enjoyably fantastic that I can’t really do much else other than praise this final season! It’s thrilling, it’s funny, it’s tear-jerking, it’s emotionally cathartic…it’s everything. This season, more than any other, proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Cobra Kai reigns supreme as my pick for the single-most enjoyable show of all time to just watch. Not the most perfectly written, not the most hysterical, not the most dramatic…but a perfect fusion of everything that makes television shows so amazing.
A stunning, stellar ending that elevates yet again and does basically everything right. 10/10
Most Hype Moment: The Tooth Fairy. I can’t stress enough the rollercoaster that Tory is, both in-the-show and in-real-life. I liked her ever since she walked onto the screen, but most other Cobra Kai fans were indifferent to her in Season Two, and hated her after Season Three. So witnessing the slow-but-steady upward trend of positivity her character has experienced both in the show and IRL beginning with Season Four and capping off in the finale? It’s nothing short of exemplary, and witnessing her final triumphant match against Zara makes me cry every time I see it.
Favorite Character: Tory. Listen, okay? Do you have any idea how much restraint it took to not pick Tory for each season? I already couldn’t help but include a picture of her for each season! She’s my favorite character in the entire show bar none. Even with that said, though, I really do think there’s a legitimate argument for her being on of Season Six’s premiere standouts. Peyton List’s acting during her breakdown after her mother’s death is stunningly fantastic, and the arc her character goes on for the entire rest of the show is fantastic. And then her smile, when she finally wins it all? I can’t really put the sense of catharsis into words!
“Haven’t you heard? Cobra Kai…never dies.”
Daniel LaRusso
And that’s it! Cobra Kai has completed its run. The show with a premise so baffling it never could have worked has capped off its journey with six seasons of insanely incredible entertainment that proved every single nay-sayer wrong. It’s maybe the most enjoyably bingeable show of all time, and if you’ve never seen it before you absolutely must give it a try sometime! I promise you won’t regret it!
But hey, that’s just my opinion!
The Contrarian Corner 