Warning: SPOILERS for Cobra Kai Season 2.
Cobra Kai season 2 pushed the rivalry between Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and Daniel LaRusso’s (Ralph Macchio) dojos into all-out war, and the tragic results left huge questions for Cobra Kai season 3 to answer. Continuing the story that began in 1984’s The Karate Kid, Cobra Kai catches up with Johnny and Daniel in the present day. When Lawrence decided to resurrect the Cobra Kai dojo in order to turn his life around, LaRusso’s worst fears were realized and he opened Miyagi-Do Karate to counter Cobra Kai.
Johnny and Daniel’s lifelong animosity was ultimately passed down to their students. While Lawrence trained a new crop of kids, including his neighbor Miguel Diaz (Xolo Mariduena), who became his best student and surrogate son, LaRusso became the sensei to Johnny’s actual son, Robby Keene (Tanner Buchanan). Meanwhile, Daniel’s daughter Samantha (Mary Mouser) found her own karate rival in Tory Nichols (Peyton List), Cobra Kai’s bad girl. As more and more of West Valley High’s teenagers took sides in the dojo war, tensions finally exploded in Cobra Kai‘s season 2 finale. An all-out brawl erupted between Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai but the melee ended with a terrible catastrophe when Robby kicked Miguel off a balcony, nearly killing him and leaving Diaz hospitalized.
All throughout Cobra Kai season 2, John Kreese (Martin Kove), Johnny’s former sensei who wormed his way back into Cobra Kai, was secretly working to steal the dojo away from Lawrence. By the time Johnny discovered Kreese’s treachery, it was too late and he’d lost the dojo he built, as well as all of his students. Meanwhile, Daniel was forced to confront how his own failures would have disappointed his late sensei, Mr. Miyagi (Noriyuki “Pat” Morita). This riveting ending opens up a lot of possibilities for Cobra Kai season 3, which will also have to answer the major questions season 2 left behind.
9. Will Miguel Recover From His Injuries?
Cobra Kai season 2 heartbreakingly ended with Miguel hospitalized with critical injuries. The doctor told his mother Carmen (Vanessa Rubio) that the next 24 hours are critical – meaning Miguel could actually still die, but hopefully, he pulls through. But even if Miguel does recover, what will his future hold? His injuries appear to be to his spine. Does this mean he’ll be unable to walk? Will he ever practice karate again? Will he even want to continue with karate after what happened to him?
Compounding the tragedy that happened to Miguel is that it happened, in part, because he heeded Sensei Lawrence’s lesson to show mercy to Robby and he paid a terrible price. If Miguel awakens, what will this mean for him? Will he also turn his back on Johnny the way the other Cobra Kai students did? Will Miguel remain a good kid at heart after this? Miguel is easily the most likable of the teenagers in Cobra Kai and he was, essentially, the hero of the story. It will be fascinating to see how Miguel recovers not just physically, but mentally and emotionally – which hopefully, he will.
8. Will Ali Mills Schwarber Appear In Cobra Kai Season 3?
Ali Mills Schwarber (Elisabeth Shue) hasn’t appeared in Cobra Kai but her presence has been felt throughout the series. Johnny never got over her and Daniel also has fond memories of his girlfriend from senior year of high school. Before he died, even Tommy (Rob Garrison) confessed that he was in love with Ali in high school but Johnny “struck first” and started dating her. All of those mentions of Ali aren’t just nostalgia; Cobra Kai is clearly building to Elisabeth Shue reprising her role from The Karate Kid, but will it actually happen?
The final moments of the Cobra Kai season 2 finale planted the seed for Ali’s return: She sent Johnny a Facebook friend request, which Lawrence hasn’t seen because he hurled his Ericcson smartphone into the beach in his grief. The fact that Ali is now a pediatric surgeon in Colorado is also no coincidence; Cobra Kai’s producers ingeniously laid the groundwork for the strong chance that Ali could return and help Miguel. But will Ali Mills Schwarber (and Elisabeth Shue) really appear in Cobra Kai season 3?
7. Will Johnny Get Cobra Kai Back?
Johnny’s grief over what happened to Miguel – and how he failed his favorite student – was worsened when he found out that John Kreese literally stole the Cobra Kai dojo from him. Against his better judgment, Johnny let the original snake back in the garden he planted. While Johnny was out of town with his high school friends and attending Tommy’s funeral, Kreese took the opportunity to change the ownership of the dojo behind Lawrence’s back.
In addition, Kreese had already been poisoning the minds of the Cobra Kai students during Johnny’s absences. After Cobra Kai lost the brawl at West Valley High, Kreese channeled their disappointment into a new commitment to his original “no mercy” credo. Poor Johnny didn’t understand the depth of his mistake with Kreese until it was too late and Cobra Kai was stolen from him. Are Johnny’s days as a sensei really over? Will he try to get the dojo back, or start another competing dojo? Johnny’s future is completely up in the air and sadly, the Cobra Kai he built over the past two seasons and tried to improve no longer belongs to him.
6. Where Did Robby Go?
Robby vanished from West Valley High after he kicked Miguel off the second-floor balcony and left Diaz seriously injured. As the school’s security guards called for medical help, Keene ran off and he wasn’t heard from again. Certainly, the police, the school, and the LaRussos are looking for Robby and he has few real options to turn to for help. Robby likely fears the LaRussos are furious with him and his mother Shannon (Doira Baird) is in rehab.
It’s possible Robby could turn to Johnny but it’s also not clear where his father went after Lawrence abandoned his Cobra Kai mobile at the beach. Despite being Daniel’s student and Sam’s boyfriend, Robby is a troubled kid who most Cobra Kai fans like a lot less than they do Miguel, especially after what he did to Diaz at the end, even if he didn’t mean to. It remains to be seen what Robby’s future entails in Cobra Kai and if he will face the consequences for almost killing Miguel.
5. Is Tory Ali’s Daughter?
One of the most popular Cobra Kai fan theories posits that Tory Nichols is really the daughter of Ali Mills Schwarber. This is mainly due to the fact that she introduced herself to Miguel as “Tory… with a Y”, just like Ali told Daniel that her name is spelled “Ali… with an I” in The Karate Kid. Tory did tell Miguel that her mother was a waitress and she has a brother, but that doesn’t end the speculation. After all, it’s possible Tory could be adopted, which might help explain the chip on her shoulder.
The fact that Cobra Kai turned The Karate Kid into a generational saga where Johnny’s son and Daniel’s daughter as main characters could also mean Ali’s secret daughter has been hiding in plain sight all along. If Ali does appear in Cobra Kai season 3, then hopefully the show will also answer once and for all if Cobra Kai’s resident bad girl is actually Ali’s estranged child.
4. Will Daniel Close Miyagi-Do Karate For Good?
Poor Daniel honestly believed he was doing the right thing – and honoring Mr. Miyagi’s memory – by reopening Miyagi-Do Karate and accepting students. At first, he was doing it to counter Cobra Kai but Daniel-san decided the true value of his dojo is teaching whoever wanted to learn the “better way” of Miyagi-Do. And it turned out most of his students were dejected ex-Cobra Kai, which was a victory in itself for LaRusso.
But after the tragedy at West Valley High, Daniel is at a crossroads with Miyagi-Do. On one hand, it was because he was a good sensei that Sam, Robby, and his other students more than held their own and actually won against Cobra Kai in their epic brawl. But otherwise, it was a disaster that hospitalized both Samantha and Miguel. Daniel’s obsession with being a sensei had already created problems in his marriage and with LaRusso Luxury Motors, but at the hospital, Amanda (Courtney Henggeler) laid down the law to her husband: “No more karate”. Is this really the end of Miyagi-Do Karate?
3. Will Chozen And Kumiko Appear In Cobra Kai Season 3?
The good news for fans is that Cobra Kai season 3 is already completed and will arrive on Netflix in 2021. The brief tease of season 3 in Netflix’s Cobra Kai trailer announcement indicated that Daniel travels to Okinawa, which is where Mr. Miyagi was from. Daniel accompanied Miyagi home during the summer of 1985 in The Karate Kid Part II, where he discovered his sensei had an arch enemy of his own, Sato (Danny Kamekona), and a lost love named Yukie (Nobu McCarthy).
In Okinawa, Daniel also made a new enemy, Chozen (Yuji Okumoto), and got a new girlfriend named Kumiko (Tamlyn Tomita). Since Daniel is returning to Okinawa, does this mean Chozen and Kumiko will appear in Cobra Kai season 3? Being LA-based, Cobra Kai has leaned heavily on the first and third Karate Kid movies but fans have been clamoring to know what has happened to The Karate Kid II‘s characters. Fingers crossed that Daniel reunites with Kumiko and faces Chozen for the first time in 35 years.
2. What Secrets Did Mr. Miyagi Keep From Daniel?
The Cobra Kai season 3 tease also dropped a compelling hint that Mr. Miyagi kept secrets from Daniel, something he finds hard to believe. However, Mr. Miyagi did keep his own counsel and he didn’t tell Daniel-san everything, usually only what he needed to know at a given time. Daniel is said to travel to Okinawa to learn about the origins of Miyagi-Do karate beyond the story about Miyagi’s ancestor who spent 10 years in China and returned with the secrets of Miyagi-Do. What will Daniel learn about the martial arts he devoted his life to that Mr. Miyagi kept from him?
1. What Is The Origin Of Cobra Kai Karate?
Similarly, Johnny is also rumored to learn more about the origins of Cobra Kai in season 3. All fans know from The Karate Kid Part III is that John Kreese and multimillionaire Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) were buddies during the Vietnam War and Kreese returned to America to open the Cobra Kai dojo, which Silver bankrolled, back in the late 1970s. But where did Kreese learn his karate and what unknown truths will Johnny discover about Cobra Kai in season 3?
