Cobra Kai Season 6 Part 2 Confirms The Real Villain Of The Franchise

The following post contains heavy spoilers for season 6 of “Cobra Kai.”

“Cobra Kai” has come a long way. The legacy sequel to “The Karate Kid” (one of the best family movies of all time) started out as a relatively inconspicuous show created by the duo behind the “Harold & Kumar” movies and the writer of “Hut Tub Time Machine” — one that dared to ask what would happen if the joke from “How I Met Your Mother” about Johnny Lawrence being the true protagonist of “The Karate Kid” was actually true. The fact that “Cobra Kai” premiered on the now-defunct YouTube Red streaming platform only further illustrated just how little anyone expected from the show (much less that they thought it would become as popular and long-running as it has).

The series started out rather grounded, reversing roles and plots of the original “Karate Kid” movie while introducing clever twists and a whole new generation of karate students. Once “Cobra Kai” made the jump to Netflix, however, it became something else: a live-action sports anime with soap opera-style storytelling and over the top twists, treating karate tournaments like inter-gang wars. Since the change in platforms, “Cobra Kai” has also brought back dozens of characters from the earlier “Karate Kid” movies and given them new chances to delight or torment audiences. Now, in its sixth and final season, the show is taking the small San Fernando Valley story global with the introduction of the giant Sekai Taikai world karate tournament.

Though “Cobra Kai” has a long history of great and terrifying villains (many of which have since reformed and allied themselves with the heroes), “Cobra Kai” season 6 part 2 clears any doubts of who is the one and true antagonist of the entire “Karate Kid” franchise. No, it isn’t Johnny Lawrence, and it isn’t even Cobra Kai as a concept. It is, of course, good old Terry Silver.

While the first part of “Cobra Kai” season 6 was sturdy enough, part 2 takes it to another level, with a more focused story, better character arcs, and stunning action. What makes the season so impressive, however, is how it centers on Terry Silver as the boogeyman of “Cobra Kai.” Every single bad thing that happens in “Cobra Kai” season 6, Silver is somehow involved.

But before we discover that, as the Seikai Taikai unfolds, the season slowly makes it clear that the true threat to Miyagi-Do is not Cobra Kai and Kreese; instead, it’s a new dojo known as the Iron Dragons and led by the ruthless Sensei Wolf. We learn that, after his reputation was destroyed, Silver left the U.S. and fled to Asia. There, he encountered Wolf, a disgraced sensei who’d lost ownership of his dojo. Silver then offered to help Wolf regain his dojo as long as he embarrasses both Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do in front of the world. Except, that’s not all Silver gets up to in season 6, because he also sends De Guzman, one of his pawns from “The Karate Kid Part III,” to kidnap and beat up Daniel — knowing full well he would think Kreese ordered it, leading to Daniel attacking Kreese in public and nearly getting kicked out of the tournament. He also manipulates Daniel psychologically by handing over information on Miyagi’s past, aware that it would throw him out of balance.

Silver is such a force for evil on “Cobra Kai” this season that he even inspires Johnny Lawrence to come to Kreese’s rescue in part 2’s final episode and fight Silver in the name of his former sensei (who he’s spent the past four seasons hating on).

So, what can we expect from the show’s final batch of episodes? Well, when it comes to the story and the karate, it’s unclear, but it’s unlikely that things will remain the same now that Seikai Taikai has been made a mockery and a kid was literally killed in front of a whole bunch of cameras streaming live for the world to see. But when it comes to the Cobra Kai versus Miyagi-Do storyline, it seems very possible that yet another alliance will be made. Much like the heroes in the “Fast & Furious” movies, the students of Miyagi-Do have their own family barbecues that see antagonists turning over a new leaf every season, with even Kreese now ready to begrudgingly join Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso in the fight against Silver.

We won’t know how the story ends until the third and final part of “Cobra Kai” season 6 is released in 2025. One thing is clear, however: the “Karate Kid” franchise, which has featured a multitude of antagonists and villains since 1984, has at long last found a proper Big Bad, i.e. a villain capable of uniting everyone against them.

The first two parts of “Cobra Kai” season 6 are now streaming on Netflix.