The significance, and to some extent, the necessity of fighting, has been a recurrent question when it comes to The Karate Kid franchise. With a multitude of fan favorite brawlers in the series having their own personal motivations and ambitions driving them, it all boils down to a single question: is resolving the matter physically worth it in the end? The question remains crucial in the final lap of Cobra Kai, as the sixth season adopts an unexpectedly grim tone, which in turn contributed to a much-needed intensity to the narrative treatment and a due introspection for our beloved sensei trio and their students. Part one of the final season ended with both Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai going to Barcelona to participate in the prestigious Sekai Taikai tournament, and following the death of her mother, a grieving Tory decided to join Kreese’s side by taking part as Cobra Kai captain, much to the shock and dismay of her friends from her former dojo, Miyagi-Do. Daniel’s personal quest to uncover the unknown past of Mr. Miyagi made for an interesting subplot, which gains momentum in the second part as well.
Miyagi-Do More Divided Than Ever
Representing Miyagi-Do on the international stage for the first time, one would have expected the sensei trio and students to get down to business from the get-go, but initially they get off to a rocky start due to a myriad of personal issues. The students are obviously hurt by Tory’s decision to change teams at the last hour, but Robby appears to be more affected than others as he wonders why his girlfriend couldn’t trust him and instead sought counsel from Kreese instead. Robby is so invested in this that he forgets his role as a captain of the Miyagi-Do team, and his performance affects the team big time. Devon is on a guilt trip as her actions denied Kenny his rightful place in the team, and she ends up being a weak point for the team during the initial team competitions of Sekai Taikai. Tory is conflicted about facing her friends as her opponents, and Da-Eun, co-sensei of Cobra Kai, is always there to remind her about her priorities during the matchups. Demetri and Hawk are engaged in a cold war of their own, and except for Sam and Miguel, none of the Miyagi-Do fighters seem to have their heads in the game.
Miguel is especially irritated after Robby’s consecutive shambolic performances, as he feels he could have done a much better job as captain—something which he conveys to Robby as well. However, the sensei trio turn out to be acting even more immature than their students: Daniel is distracted with Mr. Miyagi’s secret, Johnny is getting increasingly frustrated with Daniel and the students and lashing out at everyone, and Chozen gets drunk and makes quite a scene at the Sekai Taikai venue after his short trip to Japan results in heartbreak, as he learns his beloved Kumiko has found someone else in her life. Thanks to the no-elimination rule during the first half of Sekai Taikai, Miyagi-Do manages to survive. Miguel gets a chance to shine during a team participation round by eliminating two opponents.
Miyagi Mystery and Silver’s Return
Following the Sekai Taikai trail from Mr. Miyagi’s past, Daniel learns that Serrano, a former champion of the tournament, might have known his mentor personally. In his desperation, Daniel decides to chase an unverified lead about Serrano’s location and gets himself abducted by a couple of goons, but eventually manages to break free and learns of Cobra Kai’s involvement in this as well. However, Daniel is mistaken on this occasion, as Kreese had nothing to do with this planned abduction and assault, and it is revealed that the dastardly Terry Silver was behind all this, as he is revealed to have evaded custody using his influence.
Big Fish in the Ring
Kreese and Cobra Kai turn out to be less worrisome for Miyagi-Do as Silver appears to have bought the best team of the tournament, the Iron Dragons, the former champions of the Sekai Takai tournament, a Hong Kong-based dojo led by a disgraceful Sensei Wolf, who beats his best student, Alex, to ensure command through fear. The Iron Dragons indeed prove to be the best team in the tournament as they manage to dominate both Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do up to elimination rounds. Zara Malik, a showboating yet skilled fighter of Iron Dragons, gets into a weird feud with Tory over their connection with Robby, which seems kind of random and uninteresting. On the other hand, Kwon, the cocky, arrogant captain of Cobra Kai, tries his best to get under Robby’s skin by pretending to have a relationship with Tory. Sam learns about Wolf’s heinous teaching methods and sympathizes with Alex, who seems to be lacking social cues as he mistakes Sam’s kindness for romantic interest, and gets oddly jealous of Miguel after learning that he is Sam’s boyfriend. Not sure who pitched the idea of Sekai Taikai as a teenage love drama soap arena, but whatever works, I guess. Even Chozen of all people starts a brief romance with Kim Da-Eun, which actually seems odd and cute at the same time.
Terry enjoys toying with Daniel, and knowing that he has been obsessed with Mr. Miyagi’s past, he uses his connections to pull the fighting records of the year when Miyagi participated in Sekai Taikai. Silver shares the record with Daniel, which proves to be legit and proves to be a huge blow for Daniel’s spirit as he learns Mr. Miyagi had ended up killing his opponent in his final match of the tournament. Daniel had an idea about his mentor being in rough shape at that period of time due to losing his family in a car accident, but he could have never imagined that Mr. Miyagi’s past was so troubling. Tormented by such a life-altering revelation, Daniel sees a nightmare vision of facing a young Mr. Miyagi in battle and getting pummeled by his merciless strikes.
Kenny’s Return and Eventual Reconciliation
Johnny and Miguel find their world crashing down around their ears when, like a bolt out of the blue, it is revealed that Miguel’s mother, Carmen, who was heavily pregnant with Johnny’s child, is having severe complications. Johnny and Miguel return home, and Kenny is called to fill a spot in the team. However, Kenny considers his long-time rival, Anthony, responsible for the prank that resulted in him losing the spot in the team in the first place, and he is unwilling to return to Miyagi-Do as a reason. Amanda manages to bring the kids together after initial hiccups, and Anthony shows his goodwill by apologizing for starting their feud in the first place. Devon, who was having a tough time in the ring, previously had a chat with Johnny, who was able to comfort her by reassuring Devon about his faith in her. Now, after learning that Kenny is being called back into the team, she calls Kenny to confess about her past actions and apologizes to him. Meanwhile, Carmen is revealed to be out of danger, much to Johnny and Miguel’s relief, and the duo return to Barcelona with Kenny.
Demetri and Hawk share their initial suspicion about Kenny’s allegiance, as he was with Silver for the longest time. However, during a crucial team elimination matchup, Kenny proves his mettle by securing vital points and finds acceptance among the rest of the team. Having to face Cobra Kai in the elimination match, Miyagi-Do fighters manage to band together when they most need to and eliminate Cobra Kai from the semi-finals as Robby gets motivated by Miguel, who shows trust in his leadership, and beats Kwon fair and square to help Miyagi-Do ascend to the final four. However, Cobra Kai gets a wildcard entry after Russian dojo, Udar Tigra, gets disqualified, as the contenders are revealed to have taken steroids, and following point calculation, Cobra Kai gets their spot in the top four.
What Will Happen To Miyagi-Do?
Along with Johnny and Chozen, Daniel had concocted a plan of pitting Kreese and Terry against each other, as these duos had quite a history already, in order to ensure neither of these scoundrels got a chance to mess with Miyagi-Do anyway. Chozen had stolen Kreese’s eunjangdo, which had an emotional value for the veteran sensei as it was gifted to him by his mentor Master Kim. Kreese had mistakenly speculated Silver to have stolen the weapon, as he used to be a student of Master Kim as well. Later on, Chozen had returned the eunjangdo in secrecy, and in order to take revenge, Kreese had planned to use it on Silver.
From the semi-final round, only captains of qualified teams are allowed to compete, and Kwon wins the first semis by practically destroying his opponent. During the second semi-final, the battle between Robby and Axel grows intense, and all of a sudden, a scuffle ensues between Robby and the Cobra Kai contenders standing at the sidelines. The flame suddenly billows out to a wildfire when Sensei Ivanov of Udar Tigra ends up assaulting Gunther, the host of the Sekai Taikai tournament, and the fighters lose their collective minds. An all-out brawl, similar to the high school brawl in the second season, begins, and soon even the unwilling ones find themselves getting dragged in. Competitors start picking fights with anyone they hold a grudge against, and the security of an international event turns into a lousy joke. Kreese considers the chaotic situation to be his chance to teach Silver a lesson, and after approaching him, Kreese realizes that his eunjangdo has been left at the arena. Silver beats Kreese up until Johnny intervenes and protects his former mentor. Despite Johnny’s continual efforts to get out of Kreese’s shadow, he is doomed to trace his way back to him.
Things take a deadly turn after Kwon gets brutally beaten by Axel and finds the eunjangdo lying around in the arena. In the heat of the moment, Kwon decides to use it against Axel. Daniel had spotted Kwon in action, and he tries his best to reach him before the teenager ends up doing something he will regret forever. However, Kwon trips, falls, and gets himself impaled to death by the eunjangdo. The brawl abruptly stops, and as the tragic moment is captured on live television, the world watches in shock and horror. The second part of the final season ends on a horrid note, which raises questions regarding the safety and relevancy of combat sports on a competitive level. Both Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai should be held accountable for a mishap of this magnitude, and from the crestfallen look on Daniel’s face, it becomes pretty apparent that he, along with the rest of his students, have been scarred by this for the rest of their lives. Sekai Taikai is most probably getting banned, and the future of the rivalling dojos remains uncertain at present. It will be really interesting to see how makers wrap this up in the final part, and I have a gut feeling that tells me Daniel will have to turn to Mr. Miyagi’s guidance to find balance once again to help his dojo recover from this and find greater significance in fighting.
