The final five episodes of Cobra Kai are now on Netflix, ending an almost seven-year journey deep into the world of The Karate Kid. It’s a show we’ve held near and dear to our hearts since the beginning (read our love letter to it here) and these episodes are the cherry on top. The black belt around the waist before your final match. Are they perfect? Almost! We definitely have a few nitpicks but, more than not, watching the story of Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do end was an incredibly rewarding, entertaining experience that hit all the right punches. And kicks.
Below you can read about what we loved, and didn’t love, in part three of season six of Cobra Kai, its final episodes. But beware. It’s full of major, major spoilers.
We loved: Johnny Lawrence
By the end of Cobra Kai, one thing is more than certain—this show was about Johnny Lawrence. It certainly began that way back at the start, but as the story went on, Johnny and Daniel kind of ended up sharing the spotlight. Here though, in the final episodes, Johnny came back to the forefront, and it was glorious.
We see him grow up as he becomes a father again and asks Carmen to marry him (the montage of him bettering himself is perfect). He gets to unload his trauma from Sensai Kreese (with probably Zabka’s best acting across the entire series), and, of course, he wins the Sekai Taiki by beating the unbeatable Sensei Wolf. Plus, he does that by going against his Crane Kick instincts—a perfect piece of character-building slash nostalgic payoff. We all think he’s going to crane kick. Of course, he should crane kick. But his not doing it, and learning from that moment, is everything for both Johnny and Cobra Kai as a whole.
Also, did you notice the final episode is called “Ex-Degenerate” which mirrors the show’s first episode called “Ace Degenerate?” Those are both from Johnny’s first lines of dialogue in the very first movie, a full-circle moment of the bad guy finally becoming the good one he long wanted to be.
We loved: “You’re the Best”
We’d been waiting years for it. An occasion big enough, a moment grand enough, for Cobra Kai to bring back Karate Kid‘s most famous song. And boy did the show find it in the finale, as we watch Daniel LaRusso train Johnny Lawerence for the biggest match of his life. It’s one of those moments you have to pinch yourself as you watch because you can’t believe it’s happening.
We didn’t love: The yacht
And by “The Yacht” we mean, the deaths of John Kreese and Terry Silver. Cobra Kai has always been pretty cheesy—it shares that in common with the original films—but killing the two baddest guys on the show, in one singular, bombastic, soap opera moment was just kind of laughable. And it may have been okay had it been acknowledged in any way in the final episode, but it’s not. Just a throwaway line about Silver’s location. It’s a funny, ballsy choice, but we wanted something better for such a massive moment.
We loved: Kreese’s redemption
As the seasons wore on, you got a sense John Kreese had to eventually atone for everything he’d done. And he’d done a lot, going all the way back to the movies where he regularly ruined the lives of literal children. So, it was beyond satisfying that in these final episodes, we saw him take responsibility for his action and apologize to Johnny for severely screwing up his life. He also pays him back by letting Johnny return to Cobra Kai, and then sacrifices himself so that Johnny can finally be the champion he was born to be. Martin Kove also did some of his finest work in these episodes, bringing a fitting end (minus the explosion) to one of the most notorious bad guys in cinema history.
We loved: The final fights
Tori knocking out Zara’s teeth. The show flashing back to moments of Miguel’s past as he uses everything he’s learned to beat Axel. The final fights of the Sekai Taiki truly earned their place as the ultimate fights in a show about fighting. We got to see Tori and Miguel, the two most accomplished warriors—and probably most complex characters—achieve heights they never thought possible in scenes filled with emotion and excitement. Oh, and Robbie’s fight with Axel earlier on was pretty fun and intense too. There was just fantastic, character-driven action in these episodes, some of the best in the series.
We didn’t love: Sekai Taikai logistics
When the Sekai Taikai was in Barcelona, it felt epic. But in the Valley, as much as it made sense as a full circle moment, it did not feel that way. If the tournament is as big and important as the show implies, is it really appropriate that it be held in an old gym with like 200 people there? Sure, the show tries to bolster it with the TV coverage featuring Kevin Burkhardt (who literally announced the Super Bowl last week) and Ryan Clark, but that never matched what was actually on screen. It felt way too short and small for what it’s supposed to be.
The timing of it all was also confusing. When are these matches taking place? How much time passes between them? When it gets to the sudden death final, Silver says to Johnny the fight is tomorrow, but then at least one whole day of training passes in between. It’s all handled in a sloppy manner unbefitting of Cobra Kai.
And don’t even get us started on by far the worst part of these episodes: the fan-made signs in the crowd. Oh my god, they are terrible. I almost made them their own category but, alas, I like the show too much to be that mean. But they’re bad. “Wax on!” “Do a flip!” Yeah, sure.
We loved: The rebirth of Cobra Kai
Back to the good stuff! At the end of the day, the show is called Cobra Kai, not The Karate Kid. So it was pretty magical how all the pieces are moved into place at the end for Miguel to join Tori back on Cobra Kai, for Johnny to once again become their sensei, and for Daniel to put on the black and yellow one more time. All of which then leads to a Cobra Kai victory, launching it into a new stratosphere, along with its partnership with Miyagi-Do. The very final moment during the credits, in which Daniel and Johnny continue to talk about their students, is such a beautiful note to end on. The legacy left by these two will go on forever.
We loved: Smart, more subtle nostalgia
Cobra Kai has always been filled with lots of big, obvious winks back to the original series and these episodes are no exception. From “You’re the Best” song to bringing back Darryl Vidal as the ref and the chopsticks, there are plenty of big callbacks to go around. But these final episodes went really hard on the smaller stuff too. Throw away lines like “You did well out there young man,” or the mailman wanting to bring his wife to Miyagi’s backyard, are subtle but obvious to superfans. Miguel racing to catch Sam on her way to Okinawa is another. There are probably more we’ll catch watching again. But it was just a perfect balance of nostalgia. (Oh, and anyone complaining that Hilary Swank’s Julie Pierce didn’t show up, rewatch that movie. It’s so bad that I’m very glad she didn’t come back and remind us of it.)
We didn’t love: Episode 11
The final four episodes of Cobra Kai are basically perfect. Each one is better than the last. But that first episode back, episode 11, called “Into the Fire,” really drags by comparison. Daniel is all mad at the dealership. Kim kills her grandfather. Johnny and Silver show up to Daniel’s house (okay, that part was kind of cool). All of this is crucial to set up the final four episodes but, in comparison, is sorely lacking. Thankfully, each of the next four more than makes up for the one subpar installment.
We loved: Returning to the Valley
While bringing the Sekai Taikai to the Valley wasn’t all that great, the Cobra Kai team shoot scenes in the Valley were. The montage of Johnny and Daniel driving around in Daniel’s yellow Mr. Miyagi car past all these Valley landmarks, seeing Daniel’s old apartment, and the two of them running down Ventura Boulevard like something out of Rocky, really helped tie the story back to the original movies and elevate the drama.
We loved: Where things left off
In the end, each of our characters ended up where they needed to be. Robbie and Tori end up together pursuing a lucrative career in karate. The Binary Bros., Hawk and Dimitri, go to college together. Sam and Miguel get the education of their dreams, and a trip in between to figure out the future, while Johnny and Daniel continue to teach new students. The show then graduates some of the great secondary characters like Kenny, Devon, and Anthony, to leadership status. While we’d love to see what’s next, because of how everyone ends up, we know they’ll all be all right.
We didn’t love: Miyagi’s resolution
The previous 10 episodes of season six seeded some tantalizing mysteries about Mr. Miyagi, mainly that he fled America after beating the crap out of a guy and that he killed another in the Sekai Taikai. Well, the answer to the former gets shoved in the final episode (he was getting his wife’s stolen pearls back) and we never learn any more about Miyagi at the tournament. It’s a small thing, of course, the show was never about him, but we would’ve liked a more satisfying closure. Maybe in a prequel…
In conclusion…
Sure, the signs at the tournament were kind of lame. And yes, maybe Kreese and Silver died a bit over-dramatically. Nevertheless, these final episodes of Cobra Kai were absolutely wonderful. They worked incredibly hard to pay off things fans of the original Karate Kid wanted, while also giving every single character a meaningful place to grow. And, in the end, the show lived up to its original idea—what if the bad guy from The Karate Kid wasn’t that bad of a guy? Johnny Lawrence isn’t a bad guy. He’s a great guy. And, now he’s the owner of the world’s most famous dojo: Cobra Kai. The way it probably always should have been. Even Mr. Miyagi would give that a very enthusiastic smile and nod.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.