Everything About Cobra Kai Season 6, Part 1 That Makes No Sense

Contains spoilers for "Cobra Kai" Season 6, Part 1

"Cobra Kai" roundhouse kicks its endgame into motion by leaving the Valley behind ... but not before having some characteristically punchy adventures on its home soil. Part 1 of the Netflix martial arts comedy-drama's final season shows the Miyagi-Do dojo preparing for the grand Sekai Taikai tournament. Unbeknownst to them, however, John Kreese (Martin Kove) is making some preparations of his own, and Cobra Kai might not be quite as vanquished as the protagonists think. 

"Cobra Kai" Season 6, Part 1 sets the stage for an epic final showdown that checks all the boxes for the fans. The show remains the kind of reliable nostalgia factory where the characters don't particularly concern themselves with things like realism or, in the case of Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka), even what decade it is. Friendships form and fracture, people get repeatedly kicked in vulnerable parts of their bodies without grievous consequences, and people of all ages keep settling even the most trivial matters with their fists. Still, even in this context, Season 6, Part 1 has plenty of things that simply don't make very much sense. 

Viewers have known that Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and Johnny Lawrence must combine their forces for the Sekai Taikai since the ending of "Cobra Kai" Season 5, and Season 6 premiere "Peacetime in the Valley" shows them struggling with this task. However, Cobra Kai has also qualified for the Sekai Taikai and is currently ripe for the taking. 

Since Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) is out of the picture and John Kreese is a fugitive, Johnny is the last remaining person on U.S. soil with a legitimate claim for the Cobra Kai dojo. It's understandable that he doesn't want to touch the thoroughly tarnished dojo name itself, but even that wouldn't be a problem. After all, the Sekai Taikai committee has already stated that dojos can change their names just fine, and it actually requires Daniel and Johnny to do so for their joint effort. Because of this, there should be no reason why Johnny can't take over Cobra Kai and rename it Eagle Fang, thus giving both senseis a Sekai Taikai team of their own.

Yes, there could be plenty of legalese standing between Johnny and the post-Silver Cobra Kai. Then again, Stingray (Paul Walter Hauser) partially resurrects Cobra Kai and offers it to Johnny, so clearly the show doesn't care about such trivialities. As such, it's strange that Johnny and Daniel don't explore this option, especially because they know that Kreese is still out there. Not only is leaving Cobra Kai unclaimed a dumb move that limits the number of students Johnny and Daniel can take to Sekai Taikai, but it also allows Kreese and Kim Da-Eun (Alicia Hannah-Kim) to use Cobra Kai's team invitation to the tournament.

The biggest character arc on "Cobra Kai" is Johnny Lawrence's redemption from the bottom of the barrel to an upstanding sensei and citizen. However, Season 6, Episode 2, "The Prize," casts Johnny's apparent three-decade obscurity before the series in a new and suspicious light.

Johnny has to deal with some unfortunate non-karate business when he has to go house hunting with Chozen Toguchi (Yuji Okumoto). This goes roughly as well as expected, as Johnny manages to royally annoy the real estate agent who controls all affordable rental houses in the area. However, the owner of one house, Stevie (Adam Herschmann), happens to recognize Johnny and comes over. As it happens, Stevie still idolizes Johnny for his early-1980s karate heroics and is fully willing to help him rent one of his houses the second Johnny get his finances in passable order. 

This is either a huge stroke of luck or, more likely, a not-so-subtle implication that many people in the Valley still remember Johnny's glory days and admire him. This brings us to the question, if he still has the kind of popularity power in the area that people are practically throwing houses at him, how on Earth did Johnny manage to live in abject bologna-frying poverty and near-complete anonymity for 30-odd years before "Cobra Kai" Season 1? You'd think he'd had at least one chance encounter with someone like Stevie during those decades — and since Stevie can't possibly be the only person in the Valley who thinks of Johnny fondly, there's every chance he might have stumbled into a benefactor or two who could have helped him toward a better life. 

Near the end of Episode 3, "Sleeper," members of the Miyagi-Do dojo find out that the year's Sekai Taikai takes place in Barcelona, Spain. This is welcome news. However, the group is less thrilled to find out that instead of getting to send the whole dojo to the tournament, the Sekai Taikai allows only six participants from each dojo. This is treated as a major revelation that everyone is completely shocked about ... but why? 

At this point of the story, every single trainer and student of the dojo has either competed in several local tournaments or at least observed them. None of these tournaments have allowed the entire dojo to fight, instead choosing individuals and teams to represent them. Why would the Sekai Taikai be any different? Did the characters really think that every single dojo with an invitation can just fly in 20 to 30 students to try their luck in the most elite martial arts tournament in the world? 

"Cobra Kai" Season 5 changed everything we knew about Mike Barnes (Sean Kanan), who became a perfectly affable furniture dealer in his adult years. However, past bad habits resurface in Season 6, Episode 4, when Daniel recruits him for a weekend mission to select the six Miyagi-Do representatives for the Sekai Taikai. Mike soon becomes a haughty and unforgiving taskmaster who flaunts his past champion status and doesn't care about the welfare of his students. Johnny ends up settling the situation the Johnny way — by confronting Mike and kicking him around until he comes to his senses. However, Daniel seems perfectly content to let Mike stay in charge of the group well after he's realized that the guy is reverting back to his "Karate Kid Part III"-era villain persona. For a guy who's so careful about the welfare of his students, that's some Terry Silver-level child endangerment.

From the episode's narrative standpoint, it's also worth noting that having Demetri (Gianni DeCenzo) drop Hawk (Jacob Bertrand) from the team is a ridiculous call. Hawk is one of the flashiest and most prominent fighters in the entire series, to the point that Daniel actually calls out the absurdity of cutting him from the team. As such, there's no way he won't end up fighting in the Sekai Taikai. Since Hawk's arc is in a situation where he's incredibly unlikely to join a villainous team anymore, him failing to make the team creates zero tension, and the whole thing comes off as a cheap and heavily telegraphed chapter in the ever-evolving friendship drama between him and Demitri. Shockingly enough, Hawk does make it onto the team in Episode 5 when Tory (Peyton List) drops out.

John Kreese ends "Cobra Kai" Season 5 as a wanted man and spends much of Season 6, Part 1 traveling the world to acquire a new Cobra Kai team. In Episode 5, "Best of the Best," he finally reveals some of the Cobra Kai Sekai Taikai participants — Tory Nichols, Kwon (Brandon H. Lee), and a supporting pair of Master Kim Sun-Yung's (C.S. Lee) students. There's just one small problem: He's openly standing beside his students and Kim Da-Eun (Alicia Hannah-Kim) at the Sekai Taikai introduction ceremony. 

The fact that Kreese is physically present at the tournament means that his name must be in the papers. Though he might be using a false name and this iteration of Cobra Kai is flying under South Korea's flag, there's no way people wouldn't associate the dojo's name with the known fugitive before long. Even if we generously assume that no one else manages to connect the dots, he casually reveals his presence to Johnny, Daniel, and their team, all of whom know about his status as an escaped convict. As such, the guy would be arrested within minutes of stepping in line with his students ... and, as it happens, Spain absolutely does have an extradition treaty with the U.S.