Cobra Kai Season 6 Eps 11-15 review

 

The long tale of warring dojos and high kicks comes to an end with this final salvo of five episodes concluding the elongated season six whose initial episodes dropped last summer. It’s been a mixed bag this last season with the early episodes proving that all potential combinations of characters falling out / making up had been done. It all felt a bit forced. The middle set was a lot better culminating in an unexcepted dust up to rival that in the second season’s iconic school fight. Despite the far-fetched manner by which we got there it was definitely a highlight of the entire show’s run.  Its a crowded affair though, just look at how many people are on the publicity poster!

Spoilers on the mat beyond this point...

This quintet of episodes each sets their own mood starting with the mysticism of episode eleven which sees a different Kreese, the writers finally acknowledging that despite his Machiavellian plans over the years he’s ended up with nothing. This more reflective -though not necessarily softer- Kreese suits Martin Kove who has too often been given both actions and dialogue that don’t suit his age. Its episode twelve though which delivers something wholly unexcepted as various characters start to come together when the Sekai Taikai is re-started - the scene where this is decided by the karate big wigs is rather funny. At the same time Carmen’s s baby is due but Johnny wants to propose before its born. It’s a lovely episode composed really well; William Zabka directs with flair and a tender sense of what works for characters he knows well.

So it is that the championship resumes and after the usual twists (our hero is winning, then they’re not, then an inspirational chat from someone else lifts them to victory)  we end up with Tory and Miguel as individual winners yet fighting for Cobra Kai rather than Miyagi do. Its one of those left turns the series does well and brings it back to what after all is the name of the show. The writers have always shared the triumphs amongst the characters yet these wins are particularly deserved as these two characters have been through the most to get where they are. Peyton List has been a consistently strong performer despite Tory often being seen as a loose cannon. Miguel is the most identifiable hero of the piece, a trait that Xolo Marinduena wears well. The final twist after all this twirling, chopping and sweeping is that both teams are tied meaning that – yes- there is a rule for that. Their Sensei’s have to duke it out in a best of three final finales, it really is the last bout, honestly.

If we’re thinking this will pit Johnny against Silver, the latter is off the table courtesy of an interlude in which he is confronted on his luxury yacht (yes, overnight he decides to go sailing) by Kreese (yes, he somehow manages to get on board) for a final confrontation between the two. Both seemingly perish when the boat explodes in a fireball to conclude a sequence that somehow seems like it’s from another series altogether. Mind you Cobra Kai is no stranger to melodrama and here is a moment where Kreese's oft seen cigar plays a key role. 

Thus, Johnny has to fight Wolf, whose growling presence has been a highlight this season, Lewis Tan being possessed of a menacing presence like a prowling panther. It seems like an uneven fight but- hey- this is Cobra Kai -and despite all the talk of how winning is not everything, we just know he will, he must win.  He has to because Johnny is the central character of this show. If Kreese spends a few episodes seeking some redemption, Johnny has been on that trail since season one, episode one. Giving him the same kind of euphoric victory denied him decades ago is a good way to wrap up the tale. Its quite a feat for both the writers and especially Wiliam Zabka to have us not only liking but rooting for this character whose unpleasant bullying is still remembered forty years on. The kids and the action may get a lot of the attention but Johnny is a character for the ages. 

I was thinking too that Ralph Macchio has been generous in often being a supporting actor in the show despite the significance of Daniel’s role. Johnny’s changing fortunes drive this story yet without Daniel it would be a lot less interesting. The scenes they have shared together, whether in agreement or more often not, have been some of the best in the run. It’s odd to see Daniel in the black Cobra Kai gear near the end but the mat side advice he offers incorporates elements of Miyagi do so he’s compromised but not sold out his principles. It’s a great way to draw a line under a show that has been packed with shifting loyalties and disciplines.

The final episode is television dopamine with so many happy endings and dreams fulfilled it feels like gorging on chocolate and cake for fifty minutes. It’s allowed though because Cobra Kai has earned it and in these closing episodes wraps up loose threads and delivers callbacks both to previous seasons and to the films that are the signature of a show that knows just how far to take things. There’s even a Rocky homage plus a surprise glimpse of someone we imaged we would not see is perfectly deployed for just long enough to underline a plot point.

Cobra Kai’s parade of inspirational homilies can seem predictable yet if you look at these messages they are not about an idealistic world where everyone is nice to each other and things are great. They are messages about hard work, about coming back from disappointment, about doing your best whatever happens. This does seem a realistic message to be sending out. As Johnny lectures new recruits in the last scenes his message may be tempered from the extreme one that Kreese or Silver delivered yet it still rings true, it makes sense. Through these final episodes too there is a sense that not only are the kids better at karate but they are also much more rounded and better at life which is probably the longer lasting achievement for characters that were initially going nowhere.

If Johnny’s story is of a perennial loser who finds new opportunities later in life, the series’ success is in taking an unlikely concept and supercharging it into a heroic epic every bit as gripping as any classic. There’s a Meta moment in the final episode when the camera passes a group of tv producers (actually the real producers of the show) sat at a table discussing an idea for a series about the remarkable story of Cobra Kai. I reckon they should definitely make it!