What a relief it is to be back! Last season’s finale of Cobra Kai teased us with a tantalizing premise for this season: Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence, enemies in karate since 1984, teaming up to take down John Kreese, their common enemy. “Let’s begin!†Johnny commanded their newly merged class. Cut to black.
Setting aside the cold open, “Let’s Begin†picks up where the titular line left off. And in true Cobra Kai fashion, the show immediately subverts this classic cliffhanger: “Begin what exactly?†Demetri asks. (It’s like Luke Skywalker tossing the lightsaber at the beginning of The Last Jedi.) But it’s a fair question: What does a joint LaRusso-Lawrence dojo entail? The premiere quickly makes it clear that nobody knows. Daniel and Johnny have such distinct and different teaching styles. Even if they can set aside their personality differences, how could they possibly run a dojo together?
Many of the funniest, most energetic moments of the premiere play with that tension. Cobra Kai has always come alive whenever Johnny and Daniel are onscreen together, and this story is the perfect time to capitalize on that. While Daniel is all about mercy, balance, and patience, Johnny prefers to focus his lessons on kicking ass, kicking ass, and kicking ass. The divide in their approaches starts at philosophy: Daniel carries on Mr. Miyagi’s belief that karate should only be used for self-defense whereas “strike first†is one of Johnny’s central mantras.
Maybe a deeper, more nuanced understanding of karate is attainable if they can synthesize those ideas. They’ll undoubtedly have to think outside the box if they want to win the All Valley Karate Tournament, which is a few months away. It’ll be the first one since the first-season finale three and a half years ago (for us). That gives season four some clear, defined stakes — along with the return of an old villain and the elevation of Robby to Cobra Kai’s star pupil.
Robby has never been one of my favorite characters, and I hope it’s not all angst for him this season. What does interest me about Kreese swaying him to Cobra Kai’s side is how it connects to Johnny, who got the same trickle of validation from Kreese as a teenager. Robby is clearly susceptible to those same appeals, and that means he could be headed down the same dangerous road as Johnny. Kreese positions Johnny’s downfall as a result of his loss to Daniel in the All Valley so many years ago; what Robby doesn’t understand is the real root was the abuse from his sensei. Robby is better without Kreese — pretty much everyone is — but he doesn’t know that yet.
Good ol’ Terry Silver does, though. The Terry (sorry, Terrance) we see playing piano in the cold open is far from the manic cartoon psychopath of The Karate Kid Part III — he’s been to therapy and mellowed out considerably to the point that he acts like an actual human being instead of an ’80s action villain. When Kreese visits Silver at his beachside home, he’s disgusted by the man’s softness; in fact, when he first spots him, he’s helping out a server, something the Terrance we know would never do. He’s even hosting the launch of his girlfriend’s new mindfulness app.
Some Karate Kid fans might long for the over-the-top hamminess of Thomas Ian Griffith’s 1989 performance; after all, a handful of nuanced moments aside, Martin Kove’s Kreese is about the same as his 1984 character. But it fits with Cobra Kai’s M.O. that this Terrance is a much more down-to-earth, complicated guy. “Back in the ’80s, I thought I could conquer the world, and I came pretty damn close,†he says, explaining why he won’t partner up with Kreese even for revenge against the kid who humiliated him. “I was so hopped up on cocaine and revenge; I spent months terrorizing a teenager over a high-school karate tournament. It sounds insane just talking about it.â€
It’s that signature Cobra Kai self-awareness we love, acknowledging just how strange and ridiculous this franchise can be. And Silver seems clear-headed about what Kreese is capable of. But it’s only a matter of time before Terrance reverts to Terry and returns to Cobra Kai. Maybe he’ll provide a healthy counterbalance to Kreese, or maybe he’ll relapse and turn back into the freak we know. But he’s already twitching to do karate again, as seen when he spontaneously kicks a bottle off a shelf in his pristine wine cellar.
A Kreese-Silver alliance could be a formidable threat especially with Robby teaching the students their enemies’ tricks from his time at Miyagi-Do. And that threat even extends to home lives: Amanda and Sam are still haunted by the destruction of their house last finale even with a new security system installed to prevent a repeat. The show gives another classic acknowledgment of how serious this feud has gotten: Amanda says, “If you would’ve told me a year ago that our family’s safety depended on winning a karate tournament, I would have thought you were joking.â€
Johnny and Daniel slap a Band-Aid on their differences: They’ll just practice at opposite ends of the dojo. But that obviously won’t work for long; while Daniel is in the middle of leading his Miyagi-Do students in a guided meditation session, Johnny’s loud voice filters in, barking orders like “Stop whinin’ like a little bitch†and “Don’t be a pussy. Punch him in the face.†So Miguel and Samantha play peacemaker again, separately giving pep talks to their mentors. (Miguel smartly cites Rocky and Apollo’s unlikely partnership in Rocky III.)
It works — to a point. Both Johnny and Daniel can suck up their pride and patch things up “for the sake of the kids,†an obvious but funny (and sweet?) marriage metaphor. That doesn’t mean it’ll actually work, of course, and the reconciliation falls apart by the end of the scene. It’s not until they arrive back at the Miyagi dojo that they change their minds once more, seeing both classes work together to build an Okinawan sparring deck. They finally commit to really doing this, and it’s adorable.
The deck project is spearheaded by Hawk, of all people. Hawk is a natural focus in a series about redemption: He started this series as a quiet kid bullied for his cleft lip scar then perpetuated that cycle of violence once he had the skills and power to inflict it himself. (He’s like Ted Lasso’s Nate in that way.) It’s a relief to see him making an effort to change now.
Cobra Kai has overdosed on melodrama at times during the past two seasons, occasionally straying from what makes it so fun. If this premiere is any indication, though, season four could give fans what they want in all the best ways.
Mr. Miyagi’s Little Trees
• I’m Ben, your new recapper! I may not match the snarky wit of your previous recapper, Brian Moylan, but I’m a big fan of this series, and I’m excited to unpack it with all of you.
• On pause for now: Johnny’s fledgling relationship with Carmen, who finds out from Miguel that he went on a date with his high-school girlfriend, Ali. It’s a shame because Johnny really is trying — a fajita recipe from the Chili’s website and store-bought mango salsa is a huge leap forward for him, honestly.
• Cobra Kai continues to use veganism to signify softness and pretension from the point of view of men like Johnny and Kreese, the latter of whom is put off by the tofu skewers at Silver’s party.
• It’s so special that the Terry Silver of The Karate Kid Part III was officially, canonically on coke.