When it first launched as a YouTube series back in 2018, Cobra Kai seemed like a fun throwback, or perhaps just a joke from How I Met Your Mother that had gotten out of hand. It successfully channeled the corny, feel-good vibes of The Karate Kid while reflecting on the notion of nostalgia as the original karate kids Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) wrestled with their past.
It turned out to be a winning formula, eventually turning Cobra Kai into a major Netflix hit, and one that’s led to its final season, which spans five more episodes than the previous seasons, being split into three parts. And while the season feels needlessly prolonged, Cobra Kai’s home stretch ultimately makes for a well-earned and well-executed victory lap.
The final season has primarily revolved around the Sekai Taikai, a prestigious martial arts tournament that attracts fighters from around the world, including Johnny and Daniel’s star pupils Miguel (Xolo Maridueña), Robby (Tanner Buchanan), Sam (Mary Mouser), and Tory (Peyton List). The second part of the season finished with the tournament descending into an all-out brawl that resulted in the tragic death of Brandon H. Lee’s Kwon. Naturally, the tournament is called off and our young heroes are left to rue what could have been, just like Johnny all those years ago after Daniel knocked his block off.
Except that mid-season cliffhanger turns out to be little more than a delay tactic. Within two episodes of the last stretch of the final season, the characters have agreed that the violent, globally televised death of a teenager is no reason to cancel a karate contest. Thus, the Sekai Taikai is reinstated and the story proceeds exactly as it would have anyway.
The final bouts of the tournament offer cathartic conclusions for the likes of Miguel and Tory as they throw down with this season’s antagonists: an iron giant named Axel (Patrick Luwis) and social media-savvy femme fatale Zara (Rayna Vallandingham), both of whom belong to the brutal Iron Dragon dojo. These straightforward, one-on-duels can’t compare with some of the more elaborate set pieces that Cobra Kai has mounted in the past, but they’re crisply shot and manage to conjure that same electricity from the big finale showdowns of Rocky and the like.
The conclusion of the series also makes sure to give each of its OG cast members a chance to kick some ass. Expectedly, they can’t match the physicality or dynamism of their younger peers: Daniel was never much of a fighter to begin with, while a bout involving the septuagenarian John Kreese (Martin Kove) features some Texas Switching so obvious that it’s genuinely endearing. And when the classic rock starts to blare and the fighters strike their poses, there’s an unabashed, ’80s-style exuberance to the proceedings that’s hard to beat.
The way that Cobra Kai melds high school melodrama with martial arts-centered plotlines and life-and-death stakes involving evil billionaires and murderous sifus is often ridiculous, but what its storytelling lacks in sophistication it makes up for with sincerity. Like the series itself, Zabka and his character treat this as their last rodeo—one final chance to prove their mettle.
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