Review written by Christian Garcia
The Miyagi-Verse retrospective concludes with the most recent season of Cobra Kai!
Season four is what got me into the series. I actually first watched Cobra Kai while my roommate was watching the fourth season and I got hooked on it instantly. After finishing the fourth season, I went back and started the show from the beginning and have loved it ever since. I have binged the show several times since then, especially season four!
How good is the most recent season? Let's take a closer look!
Plot Summary
Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso team up and combine their dojos in an effort to defeat John Kreese's Cobra Kai in the All-Valley Tournament and rid the Valley of Cobra Kai once and for all. Kreese recruits a friend from him and Daniel's past to ensure his victory in the form of Terry Silver.
Story Arcs
The Return of Terry Silver
The biggest arc of this season is the return of Karate Kid III’s main antagonist, Terry Silver. Silver was the only good thing in the third Karate Kid film being memorable for how cunning and psychotic he was. When Cobra Kai took off and started bringing back characters from the past films, many fans were wondering if /when Terry Silver would return. At the end of the last season, we see flashback from Vietnam showing Terry Silver pledging his loyalty to John Kreese and afterwards we see Kreese pick up the phone and call an old pal.
Silver’s story throughout this season is one of deconstruction and then reconstruction and adding dimensions to a character that was originally one dimensional. Since the events of Karate Kid III, Silver has transformed into a subdued and calmer person and lives a quiet and rich lifestyle that is soon interrupted by the return of John Kreese. Kreese tries to convince Silver that his life is a lie and tries manipulates him into returning to Cobra Kai. Despite rejecting his offers, Kreese finds his way into Silver’s head and slowly brings out the old Terry Silver. Silver reaches his breaking point after feeling joy and rush from practicing martial arts for the first time in years. He confronts Kreese and finally accepts his offer to rejoin Cobra Kai.
After rejoining Cobra Kai, Silver at first maintains his calm personality. He and Kreese come to odds over their strategy towards the All-Valley Tournament. Silver wants to learn from the mistakes of the past and not repeat them. As the season progresses, Kreese continues to mentally abuse Silver into submission, but in doing so, he slowly brings out the more psychotic Silver. At first you feel bad for Silver as you can see that he is trying to help the students and instill his wisdom and is constantly being put in his place by Kreese who is threatened by his influence. Kreese is a master manipulator and knows the right buttons to push on his enemies to take them down. However, by breaking down Silver’s calm demeanor, he is creating a monster that will be his undoing.
A crucial moment is when Silver gives the Cobra Kai’s a lesson in weakness. He makes a comment that everyone has a weakness, which Kreese does not appreciate hearing. The lesson shows that Silver’s influence in the dojo is growing, and Kreese tries to put him back in line behind him by reminding him of how weak Silver was in Vietnam and how Kreese was always his strength. This sends Silver spiraling and he tries to get back into Kreese’s good graces by going after his former student, Johnny Lawrence. This moment is crucial in Kreese and Silver’s power struggle because it is here that Silver learns Kreese’s true weakness: Johnny Lawrence. Silver offers to beat Johnny into a pulp for Kreese but Kreese steps in and tells him to stop. Silver learns that Johnny is Silver’s weakness and seeing that Kreese has a weakness, he begins plotting to take him down. After the incident with Johnny, a drunk Silver brutally beats up Stingray and sets his plan into motion to take over Cobra Kai.
After the incident with Johnny, Kreese realizes he made a mistake in reawakening the monster in Terry and tries to head his warning of preventing history from repeating itself. In the tournament final, when Silver tries to encourage Tory to fight dirty to win, Kreese tells Tory to fight honorably, and it pays off as Tory wins the championship. However, it is later revealed that Silver bribed the referee to ensure Cobra Kai’s victory. Later that evening when he and Kreese celebrate their victory, Silver betrays Kreese and reveals that he had him framed for the beating of Stingray and has Kreese arrested. Silver tells Kreese that Kreese was always his weakness and that he is now ridding himself of him. With Kreese in jail, Silver now seizes full control of Cobra Kai and can finally enact his plan to open Cobra Kai dojos across the Valley.
Terry Silver mentioned in the first episode that after the events of Karate Kid III, he hit rock bottom and slowly climbed his way back up and became a more balanced and calm man getting away from his psychotic side. He goes through the same type of transformation throughout the course of this season but has now reverted to his sick and psychotic side. His time back in Cobra Kai has undone all the work the control the monster within him and has now created an even worse monster. Silver was always the only bright spot of the third film and even then, he was pretty one dimensional as the crazy over-the-top revenge obsessed villain. This time around we see how he has beaten into submission and brought to a dark place to bring back out that dark side. It’s a great of depicting how mental abuse can break someone down to a point that their personality changes and can change of the worse. After seeing him being broken down and back to the old psychotic Silver we all knew and loved, it’s going to be even more interesting to see what Silver will do next season.
The Kenny Payne-Anthony LaRusso Feud
Kenny Payne is one of my favorite newcomers from season four and a big reason for that is the way that they introduced him and developed him through the course of the season.
Fun fact about me is that I am a big pro wrestling fan and the reason I bring that up is because one of my all-time favorite rivalries is the one between Stone Cold Steve Austin and Bret “The Hitman” Hart. That rivalry began with Austin as the villain and Hart as the hero but as time progressed the two ended up switching roles with Austin becoming the hero and Hart becoming the villain. One of my favorite aspects of storytelling is when you can successfully have a protagonist and antagonist switch roles. It’s not easy to do and when done correctly, it has great results. The storyline with Kenny and Anthony is just like that rivalry.
Kenny is introduced as a new kid in school who’s into nerdy stuff and is a good kid. He begins getting picked on by Anthony LaRusso and his group of friends. I have barely mentioned Anthony in my other reviews, mainly because he has not been an important character until this season. But to be frank, I hate Anthony LaRusso. He is easily my least favorite character on this show, and I find him to be so easy to dislike. Which makes his role here as the bully easy as now I have more reason to hate him. The show does a great job of depicting online bullying and the cruel and disgusting lengths that bullies can go to humiliate their victims. The way Anthony bullies Kenny is cruel and makes me sympathize with Kenny.
Tired of being picked on, Kenny confides in his brother Shawn, who bullied and then befriended Robby Keene in juvie, tells him where to go. This brings Kenny to Robby Keene and Cobra Kai. At first, Kenny is afraid and runs away too easily but is then encouraged by Robby to use his speed to attack his opponent instead of running away. He adopts this strategy and soon earns a spot in Cobra Kai and slowly begins transitioning into a heel. Anthony realizes that his bullying of Kenny has gone too far and tries to mend fences with him, showing his transition towards good. However, Kenny rejects his offer of peace and calls him LaPusso. Anthony and his friends chase after him, but he takes out his friends one by one before getting Anthony all to himself. However, they are caught by a teacher. Anthony gets suspended and Kenny is off the hook having been the victim of his bullying. Kenny tells Anthony he got him and gives him a smug look.
The influence of Terry Silver continues to corrupt Kenny and his transformation completes at the All-Valley tournament. After his loss to Robby, Anthony approaches Kenny in the locker room and apologizes for the bullying and tries to put it behind them. However, Kenny has let his anger consume and he beat up Anthony and threatens him that next year he will make his life a living hell the same as he did to him. This is the moment where the two trade positions with Kenny now becoming the bully and Anthony becoming the victim. Robby tries to pull Kenny off him and tell him that’s not how he trained him; however, Kenny has become a full-fledged Cobra Kai and declares “no mercy” before leaving.
Personally, I cheered when Kenny beat up Anthony as I felt he had it coming after all the torment that he put him through. I am interested to see what they will do to make me feel sympathy for Anthony as I still hate him and am Team Kenny in this rivalry. I am sure they will find a way to show Kenny taking things too far but until then I am Team Kenny and can’t wait to see more of him in the next season!
Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang Alliance
The last season ended with Daniel and Johnny joining forces to combat Cobra Kai. The alliance between Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang was a major highlight of the season as it gave the students and the audience a chance to see the strengths of both forms of karate. Johnny and Daniel’s rivalry has stemmed from many reasons, but one big reason is their differing philosophy on karate. They are both set in their ways which leads to tension at the start. However, the writers made two choices that I enjoyed very much.
The first choice was that for an entire episode we watched as Daniel taught Johnny Miyagi-Do style karate and then Johnny taught Daniel the Eagle Fang style (with hints of Cobra Kai in there). Watching Johnny Lawrence paint a fence and take part the training that Daniel did in the first Karate Kid film was funny to watch. Then seeing Daniel endure the tough, strike first training of Eagle Fang was a great contrast to the peaceful and defensive strategy that he is accustomed to. What also makes this choice a great one is seeing how both Daniel and Johnny apply what they have learned later in the season. It shows that both styles of karate have their strengths and just because they learned different ways, does not mean that there isn’t a way to use both. Johnny applies a lot of Miyagi-Do style when he fights Terry Silver and uses the Miyagi-Do style to block him at times. Daniel uses the Eagle Fang style not just for karate but in life when he disciplines his son and channels his inner Johnny Lawrence when he yells “quiet” at Anthony. It showed that you can teach an old dog new tricks and it helped Daniel and Johnny evolve their style of karate by incorporating new techniques from what they originally saw as “the wrong way”.
Another smart choice that they made was that they had Johnny and Daniel switch classes for a period. This was a good strategy in bringing their students together and evolving how their students learned. Johnny teaching the Miyagi-Do students his more unorthodox style and strike first mentality did influence them, especially Sam. Sam liked learning both styles and when she faced off against Tory in the finals, she applied both to put up a good fight against her rival. Miguel and the Eagle Fang students learning the Miyagi-Do way of karate was also a good move and influenced them, especially Hawk. After defecting over from Cobra Kai, Hawk was still lost as he had bad blood on both sides and was searching for a place to belong. After having his signature mohawk cut by Cobra Kai, he quits karate for a brief time but then ultimately returns as Eli to Miyagi-Do. Eli uses what he learned and defeats Robby Keene to become the All-Valley Boy’s Champion.
At its strongest, the Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang alliance was working however, personal issues amongst the group lead to its downfall. Despite getting along at first, Daniel and Johnny’s rivalry crept its way back into the fold but this time it was caused by the influence each of them were having on their top students. Johnny was thrown off balance seeing Daniel and Miguel bond and his fear of losing that connection caused tension that eventually drove them apart. On the other side, Daniel was also growing worried about the influence Johnny was having on Sam. Another event that slowly tore the alliance apart was the confrontation with Cobra Kai at the drive-in. Miguel tricked the Cobra Kai’s into meeting them at a baseball field and then caused them to get doused by the sprinkler system. Johnny hated the fact that they picked a fight and then didn’t show up. Daniel praises Miguel for it and the tension continues to brew, and it was not until Daniel learned that Terry Silver was back in the picture that things began to fall apart.
After seeing Silver again, Daniel suggested the students needed to focus solely on learning Miyagi-Do karate which caused problems with Johnny. This leads to a fight between the two of them that ends in a draw. After the fight, Hawk shows up with his signature mohawk cut after an attack from Cobra Kai which causes Johnny and Daniel to argue again. They realize that the merger has failed, and Johnny takes his Eagle Fang students and leaves.
The failed merger results in both dojos not keeping consistent focus, while Cobra Kai maintained focus throughout the season after practicing restraint at the suggestion of Terry Silver. This led to Cobra Kai sweeping both dojos in the events portion of the tournament and to Cobra Kai’s ultimate victory in the All-Valley tournament. While the alliance had great potential, the egos of the two rivals ultimately proved to be their undoing. However, while the alliance may have failed in the goal of taking down Cobra Kai, it did have a positive influence on everyone involved. It helped Daniel and Johnny both gain a better understanding of each other and their philosophies of karate and it helped their students figure out their own way of karate by getting a taste of both styles. Mr. Miyagi told Daniel in Karate Kid III that one day he will do his own way and now that time has come and it has also come for his students. Each student is only better now for having learned a new form of karate to add to their repertoire and with better focus and discipline, they will only get better.
Cobra Kai's restraint
After being the bullies all last season, Cobra Kai practices more restraint this season. The additions of Robby Keene and Terry Silver play a role in that outcome. However, Silver and Robby’s reasons for restraint are very different. Robby’s comes from his training at Miyagi-Do and he brings with him the idea of only fighting to defend others. Terry Silver’s practice of restraint encourages his students to take the anger and humiliation they feel and store it to use against their opponents in the tournament.
The confrontation between Miyagi-Do/Eagle Fang and Cobra Kai at the drive-in shows an interesting shift in strategy. The confrontation begins after Robby witnesses Eagle Fang students Hawk, Bert, and Nathaniel bullying Kenny Payne. Robby gets out of the car and goes to defend Kenny and the rest of Cobra Kai joins him. In this case, Cobra Kai were not the aggressors which is an interesting change-up from previous seasons.
Another instant of restraint was the rivalry between Tory and Sam. The confrontations between them this season were started with Sam being the instigator like when Sam harasses Tory at work and even the fight between them at Stingray’s party which started when Sam struck first against Tory. Sam’s bout of overcoming her fear in the last season as well as the influence of Johnny Lawrence have inspired her to go more on the offensive. Tory is more on the defensive due to Terry Silver’s mandate of no fighting before the tournament and because of Tory’s relationship with Sam’s mother, Amanda.
The practice of restraint by Cobra Kai allowed them to stay focused on their training which brought them to victory in the All-Valley Tournament. Their focus led to them sweeping through the events portion of the tournament and then Tory’s restraint and refusal to fight dirty led to her victory in the tournament final which secured the victory for Cobra Kai overall. After being bullies and aggressors for the last two seasons, Cobra Kai’s practice of restraint led them to victory when they needed it most as they were able to maintain their focus and discipline, proving their place as the top dojo in the Valley. However, they also maintain their antagonist status thanks to Terry Silver’s bribing of the referee and use of under handed tactics to get ahead.
Season Highlights
Terry's Takeover of Cobra Kai
The reveal of Terry’s plan in the finale brought a great shakeup to the show and set up an interesting fifth season. After witnessing Terry back down to Kreese all season, it felt like the old crazy Terry Silver was finally back when he revealed his devious plan to take sole control of Cobra Kai. Kreese has been the master manipulator and to see him be outdone and create an even bigger monster than him was an interesting twist that has me excited for the next season. Watching Kreese be taken away by cops while Terry feigns concern, with the classic orchestral theme playing in the background to close out the scene was a great way to top off the season and shows that a new and scarier threat has arrived.
Johnny vs. Daniel
After teasing it for four seasons, we finally got the much-anticipated rematch between Johnny and Daniel, and it did not disappoint. Watching the two square off again was great to see and with them having more experience and learning new techniques along the way, it made for a much more interesting fight. A highlight was seeing Johnny get a point on Daniel even after Daniel used the pressure point technique on him. The ending of a draw was a great way to end it and set up for a rematch later down the line. Who knows when and how these two will face off again but the fact that we finally got to see the rematch is a reason this season is so good.
Eli's Victory
Eli’s arch throughout this season is one of redemption. After leaving Cobra Kai at the end of season three, Eli was off to a rough start as there was still resentment towards him from the Miyagi-Do students. After an ambush by Cobra Kai results in his mohawk being cut by Robby Keene, Eli decides to quit karate all together. However, his best friend and binary brother Demetri encourages him to come back and join Miyagi-Do. At the All-Valley, Eli is forced to fight his former bully, Kyler. Kyler mocks him but then after some encouragement and a kiss from Moon, Eli defeats Kyler and makes it to the finals. In the boy’s tournament final, Eli and Robby Keene fight to sudden death. After Robby loses focus, Eli beats Robby to win the tournament. His victory in the final topped off the ultimate comeback and redemption story.
Robby and Tory's Dance
After both suffering heartbreak and betrayal in the last season, it was nice to see both Robby and Tory find happiness in each other. Their shared history of rough family life and always fighting in life made their relationship believable and enjoyable to watch. The highlight of their romance came at the prom where they both got a measurable moment of revenge against their exes Sam and Miguel by upstaging them with their dancing. But what really made it a tender moment was afterwards, when Robby and Tory talked about not caring if Miguel and Sam were even looking and just enjoying the moment. It was a nice romantic moment for the two of them and really shows how they found comfort in each other.
The Return of Chozen
After witnessing Terry Silver take full control of Cobra Kai and introducing a new threat to the show, the final scene of the season gave a glimmer of hope for the next season with the reveal of a new alliance between Daniel and former rival, Chozen. After seeing Chozen in season three, I was hoping to see more of him in the future and it appears that will be happening next season. It’ll be interesting to see Chozen interacting with the likes of Johnny Lawrence and Terry Silver and is a welcome shakeup for the next season!
Robby and Johnny's hug
Another glimmer of hope came with this touching moment between Johnny and Robby. After being at odds for four seasons, father and son finally came together in a tender moment. After seeing that his mentorship to Kenny Payne led him down the wrong path, Robby is wracked with guilt and goes to his father Johnny for comfort. After admitting to his father that he is tired of blaming him for everything, Johnny and Robby hug. This is a major milestone for both characters as they have wanted to mend their relationship, and this was a big first step in doing so. Seeing them come together was a beautiful moment and sets up some interesting scenarios for the next season now that father and son have come together.
Final Thoughts
Cobra Kai’s fourth season continues the show’s success of creating interesting storylines and great character development. Terry Silver’s return, deconstruction and reconstruction highlights the show’s great writing and focus on characters.
It is the best season of the show as it has a simple outer goal of the All-Valley Tournament with added stakes from the wager made amongst the three sensei’s and has the most interesting and fun character dynamics. The feud between Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai has evolved far beyond the rivalry of Johnny and Daniel as the new generation of karate kids have grown into well developed characters that stand out on their own. Cobra Kai continues it’s job of passing the torch from the old generation to the new by making the new generation just as interesting, and even at times, more interesting. Miguel, Sam, and Robby fully developed characters that I have grown to love and appreciate and newcomers like Kenny make me optimistic for more characters to come out the woodwork and keep the saga going.
Cobra Kai is a prime example of how to bring back a beloved franchise and evolve it rather than being a retread. All four seasons are A+ and worth your time to watch. It is one of the easiest shows to binge and it will have you coming back to watch it over and over. My girlfriend and I have already watched through the show many times and will likely watch it again!
It has been a fun journey looking back on the Karate Kid franchise and seeing how far it has come since the original films. The future of the franchise is looking bright after four successful seasons, and I am excited to see what they come up with next! I can’t wait for season five and to revisit the Miyagi-Verse when it arrives!
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