It's the beginning of the end, Cobra Kai fans: the sixth and final season of the martial-arts dramedy officially kicks off. It seems that, after all the animosity last season between Daniel (Ralph Macchio), Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and the Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang crews, things are finally calm in the Valley. Well, for now, anyway.
War is over — or is it?
Fittingly entitled "Peacetime in the Valley," the season 6 premiere begins with a catch-up of all our familiar karate players. Johnny and Carmen (Vanessa Rubio) are awaiting the arrival of their baby. Daniel and Amanda (Courtney Henggeler) are still playing host to Chozen Toguchi (Yuji Okumoto), who wears too-short silk robes at the breakfast table. It's another year of school for the Mountain Lions, with Miguel Diaz (Xolo Maridueña), Robby Keene (Tanner Buchanan), Sam LaRusso (Mary Mouser) and Tory Nichols (Peyton List) all thinking about their college futures.
Last season's big bads like Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) and John Kreese (Martin Kove) are in the slammer — or so everyone thinks.
Though Daniel happily declares there are "no more karate wars," Amanda is worried someone like Kreese will emerge from the shadows and complicate the current state of peace among the dojos. There's even more pressure with the Sekai Taikai, the international karate competition looming over everyone. ("If the All Valley is March Madness, this is the Olympics, plus the gladiator games and the Kumite from Bloodsport all rolled into one," Hawk declares.) But Daniel promises the tournament will be his "karate swan song." "What better way to go out than by sharing Mr. Miyagi's wisdom with the world?" he tells Amanda.
Clash of the titans
But just because, on paper, Johnny and Daniel have joined forces and combined their respective dojos ahead of the Sekai Taikai doesn't mean there's still not a healthy amount of competition between the two sensei. Johnny still considers Daniel a "car salesman" and not "an actual sensei" and his methods greatly differ from the Miyagi-inspired teachings Daniel has been imparting on his students. Before they go "singing kumbaya" in Mr. Miyagi's backyard with the rest of the fighters, Johnny takes his old Eagle Fang pupils to the warehouse to break bricks.
But when he shows up at the dojo asking for lighter fluid and a frying pan for his latest lesson plan (we don't even want to know), he is told that they're running Chozen's lesson instead; they can do Johnny's tomorrow, after he runs it by Daniel. Johnny is not happy with that plan: "Since when do I run s**t by you?"
Things get even more cantankerous between the sensei team when the realize they need to decide on a new name and logo for their combined dojo. (They're not loving Hawk and Demitri's "Miyagi-Fang" suggestion.) That argument devolves into Johnny and Chozen bickering about the whole Silver situation. "Fight is exactly how we solve this," Chozen tells him. "You, me, on the mat. Winner will name dojo." The kids won't know about it, Johnny asserts to a worried Daniel, but Monday at dawn on the sparring deck, it's on.
Ready, player one?
It's not just the sensei who are experiencing some stumbles on their journey to dojo integration. Things between Tory and Sam are still chilly, though Robby and Miguel are doing their best to warm up relations between their respective girlfriends with a group date at the arcade. "It's a double date with my ex and yours, who's also kind of my nemesis," Sam jokes to Miguel. "How'd you think it was gonna go?" However, the guys individually assure both girls that things will be different from now on, so they should put their long-standing hostility behind them.
Speaking of hostility, Robby spots Kenny Payne (Dallas Dupree Young) at the arcade and follows him to make amends. There's still time to join the new dojo and learn from the right mentors, Robby tells him, but they're interrupted by Kenny's older bro Shawn (Okea Eme-Akwari), fresh out of juvi and not super appreciative of Robby butting into his brother's life.
Things get heated between the young men until a physical fight breaks out at the batting cages, requiring some assistance from Miguel, Sam and Tory. Surprisingly, it seems that's exactly what was needed to ease the tension between Tory and Sam.
Cobra Kai never dies
Daniel catches up with Johnny at a pawn shop (he's buying the students small axes, which, again, we don't want to know) and asks him to call off his fight with Chozen, saying he doesn't want to "jeopardize the balance" of the newfound dojo. But Johnny argues things aren't balanced as is, with both Daniel and Chozen opposing his ideas. To him, Eagle Fang isn't just a name — it represents the blood, sweat and tears he put into making the dojo a real thing, into bringing it to All Valley and getting a spot at Sekai Taikai. He's not giving up without a fight, he declares.
As he leaves, he gets a text from an unknown number: "Meet me at Coyote Creek." Is it Kreese? No, it's Stingray (Paul Walter Hauser), who is training some karate students in the woods and heard Johnny and co. were having a hard time choosing a dojo name. "The solution is you taking back Cobra Kai," he tells him. Stingray wants to build the next generation of Cobra Kai students for Sekai Taikai and he wants Johnny beside him. "You're Johnny Lawrence! To win this thing, it's going to take a badass dojo and a badass sensei."
Fight for your right
It's the big fight day between Johnny and Chozen, but when the former shows up to the dojo, he surprises Daniel by conceding.
"The end of the day, Eagle Fang is just another version of Cobra Kai. That's John Kreese's legacy. I don't want anything to do with that a**hole ever again," he explains. "Plus working with you guys has made me a better sensei." He wants to do whatever it takes to bring Miyagi-Do to victory, to let Mr. Miyagi's legacy live on, he tells them. However, after he and Chozen bow to each other in respect, they inform Daniel they're still going to fight, purely for the fun of it. "Why?!" "Why not!"
Those resolvable good vibes permeate the dojo, as Kenny shows up to Mr. Miyagi's backyard and makes peace with Robby. The sensei team also reveals to the rest of the students that, while the dojo will still be called Miyagi-Do, the logo has updated with an eagle to represent Eagle Fang. "Now we are Miyagi-Do, but a new Miyagi-Do, the strongest we've ever been," Daniel says in voiceover.
Guess who's back?
It looks like Amanda LaRusso was right to be concerned: in the final moments of the episode, we see John Kreese training a group of karate students in the woods at night. Taking a dramatic puff of his cigar, he declares: "Tell Kim Da-Eun that Cobra Kai is back." Consider that peacetime in the Valley over!
All five episodes of Cobra Kai season 6 part 1 are now available to stream on Netflix.
