This post contains spoilers for the final season of “Cobra Kai.”
“The Karate Kid” is a 1980s classic, one of the best family movies of all time, and one of the best sports movies ever. It takes what made “Rocky” great and translates it to a family-friendly coming-of-age sports drama with great character work and thrilling karate fights, wrapped up in a fantastic musical score.
What makes this a special franchise is the focus on teachers and the influence they have over their students. Daniel LaRusso wins due to the teachings of Mr. Miyagi, while Johnny Lawrence could have easily been like Daniel had it not been for his own teacher, a phenomenal villain and one of the best characters in the entire “Karate Kid” franchise — John Kreese.
Kreese, founder of the Cobra Kai dojo and the guy who orders his students to sweep the leg, is as menacing as he is fun to watch, and played impeccably by Martin Kove. Kreese only gets better in “Cobra Kai,” one of the best legacy sequels out there. The show is not just a great reboot of “The Karate Kid,” with a new generation of kids entering the karate world, nor just a great pseudo-remake of the original movie, mirroring and remixing its events and tropes. It’s also a fantastic continuation to the original trilogy, deepening the characters and revealing surprising backstories while continuing their stories 40 years after their events.
In the show’s final episodes, we see the struggle between Miyagi-Do karate and the Iron Dragons. While the fight may be against Terry Silver, the absolute standout is neither Daniel, nor Johnny, or even Silver, but rather John Kreese, the best part of the season.
John Kreese finally repents in the final season of Cobra Kai
From the moment we catch up with Kreese in the first of the final five episodes of “Cobra Kai,” he’s a changed man. Say what you will about Kreese’s cruelty, his misogyny, and the way he pushes kids to do illegal moves, but he deeply cares about his students. Losing Kwon in the final episode of season 6 part 2 really messed Kreese up. When push came to shove, Kreese decided he did not want to put the kids in any more danger, and he pulled Cobra Kai from the Sekai Taikai.
The first episode in this batch has a rare moment of sheer vulnerability and raw emotion from Martin Kove, as Kreese realizes he made a lot of mistakes with Kwon — the same mistakes he made with Johnny Lawrence. This is an old man desperately clinging to his past glory, trying to make the world accommodate his ego, and finally realizing it’s time to step aside. He even recognizes that devoting his life to the concept of “no mercy” consumed him and led him astray. This is what makes “Cobra Kai” special: That it takes an often comically over-the-top ’80s franchise and gives its characters the chance to reflect, realize that life is not like “Rocky IV,” and grow from their mistakes.
Again, it’s not like Kreese was always a violent sociopath. He did help Johnny when he was a kid, and he helped Tory a lot when she was struggling at home, giving her direction and discipline — support she needed during a tough time. Episode 3 of the new batch of episodes (episode 13 of the overall season) is a phenomenal display of acting by Ralph Macchio, William Zabka, and Martin Kove, with each of their characters going through an emotional breakthrough. First, Kove’s Kreese visits Tory, who he at times treated like a daughter, and tells her that he only signed off on the tournament so she could fight. Then, Kreese and Zabka’s Johnny have a talk 40 years in the making. Kreese apologizes to Johnny for ruining Cobra Kai, and for not recognizing that the dojo needed to be different. But most importantly, he apologizes for his biggest failure: Mocking Johnny after his loss in the 1984 All Valley finals, and trying to choke him in the parking lot.
Kreese’s last act is vying for redemption
Watching Zabka’s Johnny break down and tell Kreese how much it devastated him to have the one person he trusted in the world fail him is already emotionally devastating. And yet, it’s seeing Kreese — the cigar-chomping, collar-grabbing tough guy — also break down and start crying as he hugs Johnny while calling him son that makes this storyline possibly the best one in the entire series.
But Kreese’s path to redemption doesn’t end there. His final act as the representative of Cobra Kai is to sign up Miguel Diaz as the dojo’s male captain for the final — Miguel, who first brought glory to the dojo in the show’s first season — while making Johnny the dojo’s once and future sensei. After stealing the dojo from his surrogate son, Kreese gives it back when it matters most.
And if that wasn’t enough, Kreese returns the favor for Johnny saving his life from Silver by blowing himself and Silver up in his yacht. I’ve written about how this show is essentially a live-action anime before, but this is one of the most ridiculously cool moments in “Cobra Kai.” Kreese sneaks up to Silver’s yacht, beats him up, then when things start looking bad, he blows the whole boat up, with both senseis on it. It’s a violent, fiery end for the two “Karate Kid” villains, but that’s the only way Kreese would have wanted to go out — and he just might have saved his own legacy in the process.
