Another New Year has come and gone, which means another season of Cobra Kai to bring good tidings to us all. The Karate Kid spin-off has energized fans of the original film series and brought in new fans with its fantastic storytelling and ability to keep you hitting “next episode” for 6 hours straight. The story keeps growing, the fights escalating, and the stakes are getting higher as desperation to take down the Cobra Kai dojo is getting to an all-time high. Were Daniel and Johnny successful with their combined forces of Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang? Buyer beware. The remainder of this article contains major spoilers for the series’ fourth season.
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When John Krease was last seen, he was literally phoning an old friend millionaire style. Rumors quickly circulated as to the identity of this mysterious person, and the internet did its internetting. Fans quickly determined the person to be Terry Silver. The season opener wasted little time confirming these suspicions, and the character was indeed shown to be Thomas Ian Griffith’s, Terry Silver. Terry is shown to be successful and stylish with some boujee friends, including a lady companion who annoyingly has an affinity for calling him Terrence. In addition to wealth and friends, Terry also seems to have the guilt of what he did to Daniel LaRusso weighing on him, even poking fun of the original writing decision to have him be such a monster to the younger Daniel in the third film installment. This side of Terry doesn’t last long, though, as he initially denies Kreese’s offer to return, only to waste little time becoming that same monster again, claiming Kreese had awoken this inside of him.
With the combined might of Kreese, Silver, and Silver’s wealth, the duo grew their forces all the while Daniel and Johnny tried to work together several times, mostly failing, and this is one of two major areas where the season shines. The sensei of Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang dojos respectively fail until late in the season to walk a mile in each other’s shoes. The age-old story of not being able to teach old dogs new tricks is one of the season’s focal points as each believes their way of teaching to be better. With the stakes from the previous season leading into this being so high (the loser of the All-Valley Karate Tournament has to stop teaching) one would expect much more cooperation, but instead, the duo does their constant bickering. All the while at Cobra Kai, Robbie has the dojo learning Miyagi-Do karate so that they have the ’enemy’ playbook. This action single-handedly makes fighters such as Hawk and Miguel and Samantha from Miyagi-Do and Eagle fang the better-suited fighters for the tournament due to their interest in learning the offensive style of Cobra Kai/Eagle Fang and the defensive style of Miyagi-Do.
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The other area where the series shines is keeping the spotlight on the growing hatred and rivalry of Samantha and Tory. Despite other writings, this rivalry has been ’the show’ since the amazing school fight sequence from the second season. Cobra Kai keeps the light here, letting the actresses take the reigns until the final episode of the season when Tory experiences regret on the accidental black eye she gives Sam in the tournament. Amanda and Tory have a dramatic arc that edges from hostility to finding a unique understanding of each other, with Amanda calling in a favor to Tory before the fight to not to hurt her daughter, a request Tory does try to put into force, only to have a stray elbow go awry. This is where things get more interesting in the season.
Kreese and Silver had been coexisting, but some chinks in the armor were starting to show, this thanks to differences in philosophies of teaching as well as differences in life lessons. Silver, in a drunken rage, had beaten Stingray to a pulp when he had requested to rejoin the dojo, and it was revealed Silver would let Stingray back into Cobra Kai if he betrayed Kreese and named him as his attacker instead of Silver. This isn’t resolved until after the tournament, but Tory is told by Kreese to fight ‘how she wants’ instead of the dirty tactics that Silver encourages her to employ. Tory choosing to honor her deal with Amanda and to take Kreese’s words to heart still wins, but with more integrity than she perhaps would have prior.
So, where does the season end up? Miguel quits the tournament off of an injury timeout to find his father. This was a role he had placed Johnny in, but Johnny called Miguel, Robbie, broke his heart in a drunken stupor. Kreese shows some growth before being arrested at the end of the season. Yes, he is still a ‘bad guy,’ but season five may place him in an anti-hero role to get his revenge on Silver. Kreese continues to surprise though showing mercy a couple of times during the season, most notably in the ambush on Johnny that Terry creates as a present for him and encouraging Tory to fight as she wanted to fight instead of playing dirty the tactic Silver was championing. Daniel decides not to shut the doors of Miyagi-Do, though and in a touching graveside speech at the grave of Mr. Miyagi, he pleads out loud that since his oppressors have no honor, and that he will respond in kind and brings Chozen into the fray to help him bury Cobra Kai once and for all. With the revolving arcs from Robbie taking a young man under his wing and perhaps Daniel finally getting through to Robbie, Tory’s potential change in demeanor, Miguel’s search for his father, and Johnny promising his mother he would bring him back, next year can’t get here soon enough to bring us some Season 5 season’s beatings.
