Recap and Review of Cobra Kai Season 4 on Netflix

At the end of season three of Cobra Kai, things were getting very intense among the dojo leaders and the kids. Tory and company invaded the LaRusso’s house, where we saw Hawk have a change of heart and Miguel have the strength to fight back in the way he always intended to. Hawk wasn’t the only one who had a change of heart during the season three. At the end of the season three, we see Robby seemingly join Kreese and Cobra Kai. The final image of season three is Daniel and Johnny coming together along with their respective students to join forces against Kreese and Cobra Kai. Kreese also puts a phone call into an old friend for some help, which leaves us with where we are now. Here is the journey that took place in season four of Cobra Kai.

Episode 1: Let’s Begin
As we journey through, the phone call Kreese made was to Terry Silver as expected. However, Silver hung up the phone and didn’t say a word. This led to Kreese visiting Silver at his mansion now going by Terrance and surround by intellects. Silver admits to his bad behavior and has some remorse about what he did to LaRusso. Kreese reminds Silver that karate is in his blood, and it never fully dies just like Cobra Kai. Meanwhile, Daniel and Johnny are trying to teach their respective dojos together and it’s not going well. The teachers have different philosophies, and the students are still divided. Hawk is trying to right his wrongs, and Mary tries to make peace with Robby, which leads Robby to realize that Cobra Kai is where he belongs. Jonny and Daniel have a conversation about ending their partnership, but before they can tell the students, they come together and work on a project that was inspired by Hawk.

Episode 2: First Learn Stand
This was interesting episode as we are introduced to a new character Kenny. His dad is in the military and his mom works all the time. He is picked on and bullied, much like Daniel was when he moved the valley. One of the bullies is Anthony LaRusso, who seems to be under a lot of peer pressure from his friends. We finally learn that Kenny’s brother is Shawn Payne, who was the kid that fought with Robby in juvenile. We also saw Amanda have a confrontation with Tory and learn about her, which makes start seeing that there is more to a person then what you see or believe. Finally, we get to see Daniel and Johnny teach others respective ways of karate and the music and sayings of the first Karate Kid came back to life.

Episode 3: Then Learn Fly
Remember the flashbacks to Kreese in season three? Well, there is more, but this time it focuses on the depth of he and Terry Silver’s friendship after the war. We begin to learn a lot more about Terry and his history. Terry shows up to confront Kreese at Cobra Kai and they have intense conversation about finishing what they started, which makes Terry contemplate things even more when he’s back at home. Meanwhile, Daniel is teaching the Eagle Fang students and Johnny is teaching the Miyagi-Do students. It seems Eagle Fang is more open to Daniel’s teachings, while Samantha challenged everything Johnny was doing until she saw his point of view. We really saw the lifestyle differences between Miguel’s family and Sam’s family, which created some tension. Daniel is growing quite fond of Miguel, and you could tell it is starting to get to Johnny. The one surprising thing on this episode is still seeing Robby have a soft side when it comes to Kenny. He begins to help Kenny, which leads Kenny to join Cobra Kai.

Episode 4: Bicephaly
Miguel and Daniel continue to hit off, which is clearly bothering Johnny in more ways than one. Miguel is taking the Miyagi-Do lessons to heart as he avoids a major fight with the Cobra Kai. There is still a lot of tension between Daniel and Johnny, but before they can hash it out, Terry Silver shows up at Miyagi-Do after rejoining Cobra Kai. Robby’s character continued to be very intriguing. He still has a lot of anger towards his dad but continues to be super nice to Kenny. Robby is not the only trying to be nice. Amanda continues to try and help Tory, but she keeps rejecting the help due to her hatred of Samantha. It’s been very interesting to see how some of the characters develop and interact up to this point.

Episode 5: Matchpoint
This was one of the best episodes in the entire series because of all the issues. Kreese is still stuck in the past, but Silver reminds him it’s his past that got him in trouble to begin with. They both have conflicting ideas of how Cobra Kai should be taught. Meanwhile, Johnny and Daniel continue to have issues with who should lead and what style is the correct one. This leads to them a tournament style fight at Miyagi-Do where all the students are watching. Even after the fight they still can’t agree which frustrates both Miguel and Sam. The one character who continues to evolve and develop is Hawk. During this episode, he was absolutely humiliated so I kept asking myself at the end of the episode, how does he respond to this? The episode ended with Eagle Fang leaving Miyagi-Do making me wonder if things could be salvaged.

Episode 6: Kicks Get Chicks
The All Valley was very old school in its ways when Karate Kid came out. No one had thought about skills competition or even the thought of females competing. That all changed when the board of directors made some serious changes, which forced every dojo to have a male competitor, female competitor, and skills competitors. Johnny struggled to find a female for Eagle Fang, while Cobra Kai was getting a lot of new recruits. Demitiri and Eli (Hawk) bonded over what made them become friends to begin with and after struggling with his identity, he seemed to join Miyagi-Do. Tory finally asked for Amanda’s help, which set Sam off to the point of going to see an old friend. Sam seems to be more defiant than ever before, but only because she feels shes old enough to make her own decisions. It had seemed that all the dojos were getting all the pieces together in time for the tournament.

Episode 7: Minefields
One of the constant stories of this season was Anthony LaRusso and his friends bullying Kenny Payne. Anthony also lied Daniel about the situation when Daniel was trying to get him to learn Miyagi-Do. Daniel then learns that Anthony is doing the bullying. Johnny and Carmen finally told Miguel that they were dating and that created a lot of tension with three of them until Johnny explained how he grew up and why he failed Robby as a father. The one thing I have enjoyed about this series is learning the backstories of Johnny, Kreese, Silver, and even some of the newer characters like Amanda and Tory. Daniel seems to be struggling with both kids as Anthony gets suspended and Samantha trains with Johnny and Miguel.

Episode 8: Party Time
The Junior Prom has arrived, and emotions are running high. Miguel and Sam are together, but they are surprised by the arrival of Robby and Tory together. There are still a lot of unresolved feelings between Sam and Robby, but also with Miguel and Tory. All this is going with the return of Stingray and his attempt to rejoin Cobra Kai. Stingray is rejected both by Kreese and Silver, but Silver assaults him at the dojo. Stingray isn’t the only person Silver fights in this episode. Johnny fights with Silver after puts in money into Robby and his mother. There was a moment in this fight where Kreese looked like he had a change of heart about how he was treat Johnny. Maybe that’s the weakness Silver referred to in an earlier episode. The most heart wrenching scene in this series is in this episode where Johnny who had been drinking talks about wanting to be a father and Miguel thinks he’s talking about him. Unfortunately, that’s not how the conversation went, and Miguel bad night got worse with a lot of hurt emotions.

Episode 9: The Fall
The entire episode revolved around the beginning of the All-Valley Karate Tournament. Both Eagle Fang and Miyagi-Do had their struggles in the tournament because Cobra Kai knew their gameplan. However, the tournament isn’t the only struggles they were having. Daniel and Johnny were still butting heads, Miguel and Sam weren’t speaking to each other, and Eli finally found himself again. There will two pivotal fights that took place to lead up to the finale. Robby Keene and Kenny Payne had to face each other, which led to Robby having hesitation at first. Kreese then drilled into his head the same way he did Johnny. Robby ended up winning the fight and started to show more anger and aggression. Eli and Miguel were forced to fight, and it was a spirited competition until Miguel reinjured his back with him laying on the mat to end this episode. I really wondered how the tournament would continue and how to end the season

Episode 10: The Rise
Fortunately, Miguel’s injury is minor, but he made the difficult decision not to compete. Once he made the decision, he took off and decided to search for his father. The finals of the tournament were Eli versus Robby and Sam versus Tory. Eli ended up winning the boys tournament and Tory ended up win the girls. Both Tory and Robby had a change of heart. Tory realized that there are good people in the world who just want to help, and Robby made amends with Johnny. As for Terry Silver, he showed that he could be as manipulative as ever with having Kreese arrested for a crime he did not commit and bribing an official that ultimately allowed Cobra Kai to win the tournament. Daniel is filled with disappointment and despair because he tried to do the right thing in so many ways but feels like he failed Miyagi. As he sits at Miyagi’s grave, he asks for help in taking Cobra Kai down. That’s when he’s greeted by an old rival turn friend. The last thing you see is the two of them bowing in respect to Miyagi.

I have to say that season four had a lot of twists, turns, and surprises. It also left the story wide open for season five, which we know has already been filmed and in post-production. One of the things I love about Cobra Kai is that they continue to honor the original Karate Kid movies and other 80’s nostalgia with the music, some of the old sayings, and bringing back characters who significance in the movies.  The Cobra Kai series reminds me a lot of the Harry Potter movies. They started out friendly, but as it went on, they got a lot more serious. That’s how Cobra Kai is going. Season 1 started off with a lot of comedy, but as season has happened, things get a lot more serious with the fighting, the relationships and nasty some people in the world can be. Season four showed the reality there is still a lot of corruption and bullying in the world, but it also that there can be reconciliation and good people in the world. Season four had an excellent balance of what the world really does look like.