December can’t come quick enough for a lot of us since this is when Cobra Kai season 4 will be premiering, and the future of the valley in terms of karate will be decided. Or that’s the story at least. I really didn’t want to say this, but leave it to Daniel’s wife to downplay the whole idea of nemeses and the importance of the tournament, especially when she’s the outsider that was brought in for this particular show. It’s true that she has a bit of point since Johnny and Daniel should have, as grown men, been able to work out their differences in a much more peaceful manner. But seeing as how they didn’t and the ensuing back and forth battle between Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai has come to a head, it’s nice to see that they’re both on the same side. Of course, they still have to work together to get rid of Kreese, and it doesn’t feel entirely likely that such an endeavor will be easy if Terry Silver is joining the party. After all, this is a man that really knows how to deliver a low blow.
It’s not just the tournament and the physicality that Silver brings, it’s his connections and his ability to manipulate people that will no doubt be on display. The fact that we haven’t seen much of him in the trailers at this point doesn’t mean much since he was the guy financing Kreese’s school in the first movie and there was no plan to reveal him at all until the third movie. At this point, one has to wonder if Johnny knows anything about Terry, or if the relationship between Kreese and Silver was never discussed among the students. That’s a little hard to believe if Silver took such pride in the man he’d do anything for, but it’s definitely possible.
But the sins of the teachers have erupted in the past seasons and it’s been apparent that whatever still lay between Daniel and Johnny has almost been put to rest, but the cancer that is Kreese is still alive and kicking since the hardcore ideas that he’s putting into the minds of his students is turning them into psychopaths that have little to no regard for anyone. The upside is that Eli finally came around to realize that Kreese didn’t value him as much as he thought if he wasn’t willing to be ruthless at every moment, while Tory has embraced Kreese’s ideals, as has Robbie since both of them have plenty to be angry about in their lives. There’s still a big hope that we’ll see something that will balance out the emergence of Terry Silver, perhaps Julie Pierce, or maybe someone else. Elisabeth Shue has already done her part by returning as Allie, to help balance Johnny’s mindset out and finally bury the hatchet between Johnny and Daniel by telling her side of the story. If nothing else, she built a bridge between the two men that they would have to cross eventually. Perhaps that and their utter disdain for Kreese and everything he stands for will be enough to carry them through this coming season, but given that there appears to be a plan for more seasons to come, it might be that we’re looking at a tragedy in the making, though one can hope that this isn’t the case.
What is very apparent is that there are a few names on the cast list that are kind of interesting, one of them being Sean Kanan, aka Mike Barnes. Seeing Barnes come back would be great since while he wasn’t the most memorable villain, he was Silver’s attempt to dethrone Daniel as the champion and give Cobra Kai another shot in the arm that it needed to make a return. The show has already hit a couple of very important milestones that have only made it that much better, but at least one or two more would bring us nearly to the end of the line for the original trilogy if one is thinking about tying up loose ends. Anything after that would be a brand-new story that would be interesting to see since it would still be taking off of the original movies, but it would be delving into uncharted territory in terms of the overall tale of Johnny Lawrence and possibly even Daniel LaRusso.
As I said, December can’t come soon enough for some of us, but it will likely be worth the wait since every season so far has been worth it. The buildup to this moment has been nothing short of great since we’ve learned more about the key characters that have been contributing heavily to the story, and if anyone’s asking what about Daniel LaRusso then keep in mind that this was his story to begin with, while Cobra Kai is Johnny’s and Kreese’s.
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