You can't use a crane kick to solve all of life's problems,
but you can come close. The ending of "Cobra Kai" season 5 proves it.
After five seasons, it seems that Cobra Kai's dojo war may finally be over.
Terry Silver monopolized karate classes in the valley just in time to get sent to prison,
and his students departed in a mass exodus after discovering that he was
both a cheater and a felon. While it's unclear exactly what will become of his many dojos,
it seems that he won't be around to continue teaching his abusive style to kids any time
soon. Additionally, Johnny and Daniel's rivalry is mostly quenched by the time Season 5 starts,
and they become true friends by the finale. So the dojo war must be over... right?
Well, that still remains to be seen. By the end of Season 5,
there are basically no kids left to carry on the tradition of evil karate.
Tory, Kenny, and Devon — the last three main characters enrolled in the dojo — all repent
for their harmful ways and make amends with the good guys by the time Episode 10 concludes.
It seems certain that Silver will serve hard time for his crimes, and while John Kreese does escape
from prison by the end of Season 5, he's in no position to start teaching again. Still, some
things remain murky. Will Kreese somehow reclaim the dojos? Will Johnny? Will new evil sensei Kim
Da-Eun take the reins? The war may be over, but there's still the aftermath to deal with.
For most of the finale, it's implied that John Kreese might be dead after a brutal
stabbing in prison. And given the widespread harm Kreese has wrought throughout his life,
an unceremonious end of that nature almost seems fitting.
"Sweep the Leg."
However, the final scene of "Season 5" shows that Kreese is still very much alive.
After besting a number of his fellow inmates in a brawl, Kreese earns their loyalty.
This allows him to stage a fake stabbing. When two of the other prisoners start arguing,
Kreese makes a show of getting in between them to stop the fight, but his only reward
is what appears to be a fatal attack. After being taken into a less secure medical area,
it's revealed that the blood on his shirt isn't blood, but red Jell-O — a callback to
earlier in the season. The only way this plan would have worked is if both arguing prisoners
were in on it from the start, which seems to be the implication. Kreese then dispatches
the surrounding guards and escapes using a keycard stolen from the prison psychologist.
With Terry Silver likely heading to jail himself,
Kreese looks primed to return as the Big Bad of the show going forward. However, he also seems
to genuinely want a shot at redemption. It remains to be seen if he'll get one.
The shadow of Pat Morita's Mr. Miyagi has always loomed large over "Cobra
Kai." His absence is particularly felt in Season
5 because of Terry Silver's expanded role as the show's ultimate villain.
Any fan of "The Karate Kid" would probably put good money on a prime Mr. Miyagi having
the edge on any of the "Cobra Kai" characters in a fair fight, but he's sadly not around to
stand up against Silver. Or is he? Over the course of Season 5, Silver defeats both Daniel
LaRusso and Chozen Toguchi in one-on-one duels. Though Chozen is still decently
inebriated when he faces Silver, and Daniel is completely ambushed. But in the season finale,
Daniel is victorious in his rematch, thanks to Chozen having softened him up beforehand.
In the end, it takes both Daniel and Chozen to take Silver down, which is kind of poetic.
As the two most direct descendants of Mr. Miyagi's karate style,
they combine to form some approximation of what the old master was capable of.
In this way, it's almost like Mr. Miyagi himself defeats Silver and Cobra Kai,
which makes it especially significant that Daniel finishes the villain off with a crane kick.
From the start, "Cobra Kai" has been a show about rivals and rivalries. Johnny re-opens
the Cobra Kai dojo because he's still not over losing to Daniel in "The Karate Kid." Daniel,
in turn, starts training new Miyagi-Do students because of the same rivalry.
As the show progresses, numerous other storylines emerge in the same vein,
from Miguel and Robby's mutual hatred to the beef between Sam and Tory.
By the end of "Cobra Kai" Season 5, pretty much all of those rivalries have melted away.
Daniel and Johnny are friends, Miguel and Robby make amends, Tory and Sam join forces,
and even the dojo war itself seems to end with the arrest of Terry Silver. Even the smaller
rivalries, like the one between Robby and Kenny Payne, are quashed by the end of the season.
With Kreese escaping from prison, there's still a potentially villainous force on the loose,
but "Cobra Kai" might be better off exploring a different kind of rivalry going forward.
The main storyline still left hanging at the end of Season 5 is the international karate tournament
known as the Sekai Taikai, to which all three main "Cobra Kai" dojos are invited. For a while, it
looked like the show's main rivalries would play out there, but now that everyone's friends again,
the tournament could be even more interesting. A friendly rivalry can be just as compelling as a
hateful one, and the characters now have a chance to learn from each other and become even stronger.
There are still some plot threads left dangling in the wind after the events of "Cobra Kai" Season 5,
but the season finale still manages to feel like a full-circle moment for the entire
"Karate Kid" saga. The only thing missing is an appearance from Hilary Swank's Julie Pierce,
star of "The Next Karate Kid." but when it comes to the original trilogy starring
Mr. Miyagi and Daniel LaRusso, "Cobra Kai" Season 5 ties up pretty much every loose end.
The events of the first film are finally and fully laid to rest with the brotherly bond established
between Daniel and Johnny. Miyagi-Do continues on to the next generation, and Cobra Kai is defeated.
"The Karate Kid Part II" also receives a second pass with Season 5's extensive arc for Chozen.
And of course, Daniel finally puts Terry Silver in his place, facing the trauma he
caused him in his youth and defeating him with Mr. Miyagi's signature move, the crane kick.
Even the earlier plotlines of "Cobra Kai" feel mostly wrapped up by the end of Season 5.
The original generation of teens — Robby, Miguel, Sam, and Tory — now have their own
acolytes in Kenny and Devon, among others. In this way, Season 5 feels like the end of a cycle,
and while there's still an international tournament to attend, the story feels
like it's properly entering a new chapter. Even Mike Barnes gets a bit of redemption.
"Daniel, If there is one guy in this world that doesn't owe me an apology, believe me, it's you."
One of the smaller storylines at the end of "Cobra Kai" Season 5
involves Chozen's secret love for Kumiko, the woman he grew up with in Okinawa.
Chozen confesses his feelings to Johnny during their booze-soaked night out in Episode 9,
and Johnny leaks the details to Daniel. After receiving encouragement from them both,
Chozen calls Kumiko and confesses some level of his feelings. But with all the
excitement that occurs directly after, this plotline is left hanging after the finale.
It would be cute to see Chozen and Kumiko get a happy ending together, especially given all they
went through in "The Karate Kid Part II." Chozen was undoubtedly a terrible person in his youth,
but that's partially due to the harmful influences he had in his life. Either way,
he's clearly repentant and makes a meaningful redemption journey in "Cobra Kai" Season 5.
After surviving an almost fatal duel with Silver, Chozen definitely deserves some time to rest,
and it seems likely that Kumiko would be interested in joining him.
Many of the other big "Cobra Kai" romance storylines come back to a
point of balance by the end of Season 5. Daniel and Amanda's marriage is stronger than ever,
Johnny makes real strides to be a better man for Carmen, Sam and Miguel get back together,
and so do Tory and Robby. After so much drama, it's nice to see everyone happy.
Terry Silver gets a big promotion from co-villain to Big Bad in "Cobra Kai" Season 5,
and he presents a very different kind of evil than that of John Kreese. Measured and calculated
in almost every area of his life, Silver is obsessed with dominance on a big-picture level.
His plans are global, fitting for a man of his considerable financial resources.
But in the Season 5 finale, we also see the manic persona Silver wears in "The Karate Kid Part III."
Thomas Ian Griffith truly stands out in Season 5, and he has a particularly great performance
in the final episode. You can see something shift behind Silver's eyes when Johnny, Chozen, and Mike
Barnes break into his house, a flicker of the rage and ego hidden beneath his veneer of civility.
At his core, Silver wants an excuse to fight. It's the reason he leaves his quiet,
rich life in "Cobra Kai" Season 4 to team up with Kreese again. All the wealth he's acquired
through nefarious means is hollow without the ability to demonstrate his actual strength,
so he challenges Chozen to a sword fight. And even after nearly losing, Silver seems okay with death.
"I was meant to die on the battlefield. Do it."
To win the fight, he uses a dirty tactic to defeat Chozen. It's this duplicity in
Silver — the claims of honor with the acts of cowardice — that ultimately leads to his downfall.
Perhaps the most shocking thing about "Cobra Kai" Season 5 is that good
truly wins. Nearly every piece of the story ends in a triumphant way.
Silver loses, his students abandon the dojo, everyone makes amends,
and nobody dies. It's almost like a fairy tale, albeit one with a lot more karate.
In the world of "Cobra Kai," though, this isn't out of place. Throughout the show,
evil has only ever won when employing dirty strategies. Sam loses "Cobra Kai" Season 4's
All-Valley Tournament because of a corrupt referee, for instance.
Silver defeats Chozen with a slice from his sword while Daniel's friend is distracted.
In this world where balance is an absolute aspirational value, the only thing holding
most characters back is their own issues. But in Season 5, those issues mostly get resolved.
Robby reconnects with his father, who gets his own life fully together in turn. Sam and Tory admit
their past mistakes and move forward, as does Chozen. And in the final moments of the season,
the Cobra Kai dojo is defeated by the revelation that Silver is actually a duplicitous snake.
Yes, the good guys win in "Cobra Kai" Season 5, but they win by redeeming the villains, not
by dominating them. Silver is the only character not offered some kind of redemption in the season,
and it's no coincidence that he's also the only one left in chains.
For all the closure provided by the end of "Cobra Kai" Season 5, there are still some things left
unresolved. The biggest hanging storyline involves the Sekai Taikai, the massive international karate
tournament that Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang will compete in. That sure sounds like the kind
of event that would be a perfect send-off for the show, but that remains to be seen.
There are still some lingering questions that could be answered in a final tournament arc.
Julie Pierce, the only major character from the "Karate Kid" movies yet to appear in the series,
could finally show up and share stories about Mr. Miyagi with Daniel.
Miguel's father could return as the backer of one of the tournament's other entrants,
given his connections to professional fighting. And, of course, Kreese could
show up to screw everyone over, or possibly to actually redeem himself once and for all.
What makes the international tournament plot so interesting is the newly mended relationships
between the main characters. It would be fun to watch Tory and Sam actually bond
over a sparring match, or see Miguel and Robby team up in some kind of two-on-two.
"Cobra Kai" Season 5 is at its best when it lets the characters really get to know each other
and push each other to change for the better. With luck, we haven't seen the last of that.