Cobra Kai season 3 ending raises 4 key questions for season 4

Netflix has given the green light for a fourth season Cobra Kai In October, fans who swept the stages of Season 3, which premiered over New Years weekend, did so knowing there was more story to come. But with so many cameos and callbacks already made, and a finale more nuanced than an outright cliffhanger, what exactly does it leave for Season 4?

[Ed. note: Spoilers for the entirety of Cobra Kai season 3 follow.]

Cobra Kai Episode 10 ends with Johnny’s exile dojo training alongside Daniel’s charges at Miyagi-do HQ. Kreese, meanwhile, has full control of Cobra Kai, with Tory as second in command, and Johnny’s kid, Robby, joining the team out of spite. Daniel, finally, kicked Kreese’s ass in the Cobra Kai dojo, but could not get him kicked out of said premises. Kreese also called in reinforcement, the friend of the army and the wealthy benefactor Terry Silver, whose character dates back to the least known. The Karate Kid Part III from 1989.

Now we’ll discuss what remains to be resolved for Cobra Kai Season 4, and what else it might offer, following the first three seasons formula of Adult Problems, Teenage Storylines, callbacks to the original movies and good old school fights.

Image: Overbrook Entertainment / Netflix

New (Old) Villain: Terry Silver

In the Kreese Bananas origin story from Season 3, Silver is revealed to have been part of Kreese’s special forces unit, captured by the North Vietnamese after a botched sabotage operation. The NVA forces its prisoners of war to fight, in pairs, to the death over a literal snake pit. Kreese steps in for Silver when his name is called, saving Silver’s life. Then Kreese kills their commander, even when a surprise airstrike frees the camp mid-fight. This puts Silver in Wookiee’s lifetime debt to Kreese, and so we see Kreese dialing Silver to honor that in Season 3.

Silver actually has 30 years of history in the Karate Kid universe. In 1989 The Karate Kid Part 3, he hatched an elaborate, time-consuming plan to rig the All-Valley Final and discredit Daniel and Mr. Miyagi in the process. Obviously, it didn’t work out, but Silver apparently still has money and a grudge. Observant fans who saw the 1989 film likely recognized his name when the Season 1 tournament board asked Johnny about his relationship with Terry Silver. And when Daniel, at the end of Season 3, mentions that he was also once Cobra Kai, he is referring to the events of The Karate Kid Part 3 and how Silver attracted him to this dojo.

Silver has only been an off-screen presence so far, but if he returns in Season 4, there’s a good chance original actor Thomas Ian Griffith will return, although he hasn’t had no TV or movie role since 2006. But he’s still an IRL black belt tae kwon do.

Less certain is if Silver’s protégé Mike Barnes returns. Don’t rule out anything, and getting actor Sean Kanan sure won’t be as hard as getting Elisabeth Shue home for Season 3, but there’s no real need to give Johnny and Daniel another antagonist from their age.

Connections and breaks

Photo: Netflix

Looks like Miguel (Xolo Maridueña) and Samantha (Mary Mouser) are back to get gooey eyes, leaving their rivals, Tory (Peyton List) and Robby (Tanner Buchanan), to find some sort of traumatized love on the rebound. The two duos also have the third game in a best-of-three series to come.

Miguel punched an injured Robby in the Season 1 tournament finale, and Robby crippled Miguel at the end of Season 2. Tory scored Sam, both physically and emotionally, in the high school scrum, and Sam beat her with a stick during the invasion of Kai’s home. from the Season 3 finale.

The question here: who wins the championship fight at the All-Valley? The tournament has female and male divisions (we saw Aisha Robinson fight for Cobra Kai in Season 1). We don’t know if they do mixed competition, however. So the two rival groups will likely go the distance, as it provides the kind of complete defeat that would force the losing dojo out of town by sunset.

Elsewhere, Yasmine (Annalisa Cochrane) has recovered from her wedgie forehead at the season 1 canyon party (she was away for the entire season 2) and is now the reluctant, but incredibly supportive girlfriend of Demetri (Gianni Decenzo ). Yas is buddy with Moon (Hannah Kepple), and with Hawk (Jacob Bertrand) defecting Miyagi-do, it probably puts those two back together. (Moon, the hippie kid, didn’t care about Hawk’s increasingly brutal antics with Cobra Kai.)

Kyler (Joe Seo), who was Sam’s original boyfriend (and Miguel’s original hangman) also returned for Season 3 and was recruited to Cobra Kai by Kreese. He and Lieutenants Miyagi-do Demetri and Hawk will likely represent most of the fights heading into the tournament, although Miguel wiped the dining room floor with him in Season 1, and these two could set them back. that one.

New dojo, new name?

Photo: Curtis Bonds Baker / Netflix

Johnny (William Zabka) and Daniel (Ralph Macchio) have finally reunited, united in their desire to rid the galaxy of Kreese (Martin Kove). Don’t expect the honeymoon to last long. There’s too much material to work with, who will lead their new unified karate team, what style fighters are going or should follow (Miyagi-do vs. Way of the Fist), and even what the club name should be.

Johnny coined “Eagle Fang” for his karate lessons in the park, a name that purposefully sounds like a Dökken tribute band. Miyagi-do, however, might be a bit too hippy-dippy for Johnny’s kick-ass aesthetic. Season 4 should give Daniel and Johnny this and many other differences to put aside. But the show’s writers seem to understand the appeal of fans when they legitimately team up, take care of each other, and throw themselves in. They don’t need another impromptu double date with their S / O, however. After three (in each of the first three seasons), this device has been used enough.

And Robby?

Image: Netflix

Say this for Robby Keene: he’s earned his heel. Keene has been used and abused by just about everyone who crosses his path, and he’s had enough. In Season 3, he spends time at Juvie Hall for the fight that crippled Miguel – and he was put there when former mentor Daniel brought him out in the open and had him arrested. Robby has also been pissed off at his father, Johnny, for three years, and for very good reason. Johnny has put more effort into his relationships with Miguel, Carmen, Daniel, and anyone other than Robby Keene than he has with his own son.

This makes it really hard to right off her differences with a heart to heart (or a good kick) with the adults in her life. But if Netflix is ​​unsure of a season 5 for Cobra Kai, writers may not have much time or space to sort things out. Rather, Robby could turn a lot darker and be a dismal Karate Anakin – corrupt, brutal, dangerous and the enemy without a doubt, but not without some sympathy. Tory, as a love interest, also humanized a lot in Season 3. She is seen to work two jobs (after being kicked out of school) to care for her ailing mother and younger brother. She is mean and bitter because there is no adult in her life to support her either.

When will Cobra Kai season 4 launch?

Cobra Kai Seasons 1 and 2 premiered in Spring 2018 and 2019, and Season 3 just released on Netflix on January 1. Netflix ordered a fourth season in October. We’ll likely see Season 4 in late fall at the earliest, and a year from now, if the pandemic doesn’t further delay production.