With Cobra Kai set to return to screens for season 4, it’s important to remember how season 3 set up some major changes in the Karate Kid spin-off’s universe. The long-running sequel to the original Karate Kid films enters into its fourth season on December 31, 2021, and by this point, the show has set up a wide variety of plotlines and character arcs that require the viewer to watch every episode to keep track of them. With any luck, this recap should serve as a useful guide for the most important plot points.
Cobra Kai picks up the story of The Karate Kid thirty-four years later where Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso, for a variety of reasons, have revived both their old dojos of Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do and their old high school rivalry from the original film. The show reanalyzes the original movies in a way that both deconstructs and reconstructs their stories and ideas, in addition to being rather tongue and cheek about how silly a lot of the show is. After getting picked up by Netflix following being dropped by YouTube, the show became a massive hit and has even been renewed for a fifth season.
Season 4 comes out on December 31, 2021, and with three seasons of plot to remember over that time, a refresher of how Season 3’s biggest story changes set up the future is particularly useful. After all, Season 3 of Cobra Kai left off with major changes to the status quo, in addition to setting up multiple plot points for the show’s fourth season and the most recent of those plot changes seem the most likely to shape the events of Cobra Kai season 4.
Johnny Has Started The Eagle Fang Karate Dojo
At the end of season 2, Kreese stole Cobra Kai from Johnny which, coupled with Robby putting Miguel in a coma, put Johnny at his absolute lowest point. Season 3 saw him gradually picking himself back up, and as he did, he decided to take down Kreese once and for all by starting a brand new dojo: Eagle Fang Karate. Eagle Fang Karate was also founded as a means of letting Johnny teach people karate without the same toxic ideas about strength and winning that had corrupted Cobra Kai, and to go along with that, most of its students at the end of season 3 are former Cobra Kai students who either grew tired of Cobra Kai’s toxicity or were thrown out for not being able to keep to Kreese’s standards.
Johnny And Daniel Are Finally Working Together
After three seasons of constantly going back and forth between being bitter rivals and being on the cusp of genuine friendship, Johnny and Daniel have finally managed to put their differences aside and come together as a team. While they’re not exactly friends, both of them see the danger that Kreese’s Cobra Kai poses to the Valley, so they’ve now joined Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang Karate together in a united front against them. Season 3 also saw Johnny and Daniel learn the value of their rival’s ideologies with Johnny adapting some of Daniel’s defensiveness and Daniel Johnny’s aggressiveness, so the merging of their schools is bound to lead to them and their students fully adopting a style that perfectly fuses Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do into one.
Miguel And Sam Are Back Together
Season 3 of Cobra Kai also saw Miguel and Sam get back together. Sam broke up with Miguel at the end of season 1 because of how violent and aggressive Cobra Kai’s teachings were making him, but the two still had feelings for each other than eventually led to a drunken kiss near the end of season 2. That kiss, in turn, sparked the school-wide karate battle that ended with Miguel in a coma, and after Miguel recovered and fully went back to his peaceful ways, Miguel Diaz and Sam LaRusso reconciled and rekindled their relationship.
Hawk Has Had A Change Of Heart And Left Cobra Kai
As of the end of season 3, Eli Moskowitz, better known as “Hawk”, is officially done with Cobra Kai. Hawk joined Cobra Kai early into its revival as a means of transforming himself from a nerdy loser into a badass martial artist, but Hawk, like other members of Cobra Kai, took things too far and became a monster obsessed with strength and winning. Season 3 saw him slowly learn the error of his ways and understand how far Cobra Kai had fallen when Demetri’s arm was broken in a fight and Kreese let the people who used to bully him into the Cobra Kai dojo, and as Demetri was on the verge of having his arm broken a second time, Hawk realized that he wanted to be with his friends again and turned his back on Cobra Kai to use karate as a force for good and joined Eagle Fang Karate.
Robby Has Abandonded Miyagi-Do For Cobra Kai
In a surprisingly tragic turn of events, season 3 saw Robby leaving Miyagi-Do and joining up with Cobra Kai. Season 3, from Robby’s perspective, was nothing but a series of betrayals; Daniel called the cops on him and had him sent to juvy, Johnny still prioritized Miguel over him, and Sam left him and started dating Miguel again. From Robby’s perspective, Kreese was the only person to care about his wellbeing in season 3, and because of that, Robby decided to abandon his old ways and join up with Kreese’s Cobra Kai.
Terry Silver Is Coming Back To Cobra Kai
One of the last scenes of season 3 showed Kreese calling none other than Terry Silver, the financial backer of the original Cobra Kai dojo and the main antagonist of The Karate Kid Part III, to help him defeat Johnny and Daniel. Silver sought to avenge Cobra Kai’s loss in the All-Valley Karate Tournament by corrupting and breaking down Daniel to set him up for a loss that he could use to spread Cobra Kai all across the Valley. Silver’s plan failed when Daniel defeated Mike Barnes and he disappeared, but with Cobra Kai’s future in the Valley at stake, Kreese has called his old friend back into action to lend him a hand. Silver was one of the deadliest and most manipulative foes Daniel and Mr. Miyagi dealt with in the original films, so Silver returning to Cobra Kai is bound to bring a great deal of drama to the show’s fourth season.
