The Ending Of Cobra Kai Explained

Contains spoilers for "Cobra Kai" Season 6, Part 3

Nobody could have predicted just how big a hit "Cobra Kai" would become when it debuted on YouTube Red back in 2018. Season 2 dropped on the rebranded YouTube Premium the following year, and then "Cobra Kai" moved to Netflix, where it became one of the streaming giant's flagship shows. On February 13, 2025, the final part of "Cobra Kai" Season 6 dropped on Netflix, bringing the saga of Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) to an end.

It's been a long journey for Johnny. The show begins with him being an utter loser, still reeling from his defeat at the hands (and feet) of Daniel in 1984's "The Karate Kid." Over the course of the series, he and Daniel still butt heads, but they ultimately come together to lead a new crop of students against the villainous ways of John Kreese (Martin Kove) and Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith), who have resurrected Cobra Kai into something far more nefarious than what viewers saw in the original films. 

"Cobra Kai" Season 6 sees Miyagi-Do entering the Sekai Taikai, a tournament of the best young karate fighters from around the globe. It doesn't take long for an all-out brawl to break out, causing the event to descend into chaos. Cobra Kai member Kwon (Brandon H. Lee) almost attacks Axel (Patrick Luwis) with a knife but winds up impaling himself, dying as a result. It's a tragic moment that sets up an emotional final set of episodes. But what goes down at the end of "Cobra Kai," and what does it all mean?

"Cobra Kai" Season 6, Part 3 only has five episodes to wrap up the myriad plot threads, so it doesn't waste any time getting down to brass tacks. It should go without saying that due to Kwon's death, the Sekai Taikai has been suspended and can only resume if all the sensei agree. Terry Silver does some smooth talking to Daniel LaRusso, who realizes that the kids deserve one last shot at glory. The competition resumes in the San Fernando Valley, so no more trips to Barcelona for the finale. 

Things quickly get dicey, with Robby Keene (Tanner Buchanan) suffering a broken bone during his fight with Axel, taking him out of the competition. Samantha LaRusso (Mary Mouser) decides to call it quits before her big match. It looks like the Iron Dragons will walk away with victory, but Kreese makes things right with Johnny: In one final redemptive move, Kreese hands over Cobra Kai to Johnny, allowing him to become its sensei and submit Tory Nichols (Peyton List) and Miguel Diaz (Xolo Maridueña) as the dojo's champions to face off against Zara (Rayna Vallandingham) and Axel, respectively.

It seems somewhat illogical that this would be allowed, but it's just one of the many things across "Cobra Kai" Season 6 that make no sense. However, it does make sense that Miyagi-Do would fade from the forefront for the final episodes — the show's called "Cobra Kai," after all. Both Tory and Miguel emerge victorious in their matches, and it all leads to a fight that serves as the grand thesis statement for "Cobra Kai."

Cobra Kai and the Iron Dragons end up tied for total points at the end of the matches. According to Sekai Taikai rules, their respective sensei must now fight to determine which dojo becomes the ultimate winner, meaning Johnny goes up against Wolf (Lewis Tan). He's a formidable opponent, as he's much younger and more ruthless than Johnny, who gets Daniel to serve as his sensei leading up to the match. It's a full circle moment, as Daniel — who previously loathed Cobra Kai — technically becomes a Cobra Kai sensei, complete with a black gi.

Things don't look good for Johnny at the start of the match, which will go until one of them gets three hits. Wolf lands a lot of early blows, although only two of those count, as the others were illegal hits. It's clear that Wolf is just messing with Johnny, whom he intimidated earlier. After all, this match takes place in the same arena as his fight with Daniel in the original "Karate Kid," in which he suffered a humiliating defeat. After some wise counsel from Daniel and Chozen (Yuji Okumoto), Johnny gets his head in the game and makes an epic comeback, defeating Wolf in a similar fashion to how Daniel beat him all those years ago. He allows Wolf to come to him before landing the final blow, incorporating a lesson he learned from Miyagi-Do — that winning isn't always about offense.

With this Johnny's redemption arc is complete. What's more, he marries Carmen (Vanessa Rubio) right before she gives birth, and the two wind up buying a house together. He's come a long way from the start of "Cobra Kai," and, in more ways than one, Johnny's now a winner.

"Cobra Kai" is ultimately a show about second chances. It's for this reason the finale opens with a flashback of Johnny before the events of "Cobra Kai" visiting his mother's grave while drunk, bemoaning his lot in life and how he peaked in high school. He also references how he almost drowned an Applebee's manager with the police getting involved. The "Applebee's incident" is something that's been teased about Johnny throughout the series even though we don't get all the details, but it's clear that this is his lowest point, believing he's nothing but a loser. 

Of course, things turn around at the start of "Cobra Kai," with Johnny going through a lot. First, he's just a guy running a defunct dojo, but he eventually leads Miguel to winning the All-Valley Karate Tournament, eventually working with Daniel and Chozen to take Miyagi-Do to the Sekai Taikai, even defeating Sensei Wolf on a global platform. It goes to show how it's never too late to get a second chance at life and to undo past mistakes. 

"Cobra Kai" has featured plenty of cameos and references from "The Karate Kid" and its sequels, even making Miyagi-Do the primary dojo for a while. However, this has always been Johnny's journey. Not only has he achieved redemption, but Cobra Kai no longer has to be synonymous with villainy thanks to him. He turned his own life and the lives of his pupils around, making the show as a whole an incredibly inspirational story. 

The series ends with Johnny overseeing Cobra Kai, which is more popular than ever. It's overflowing with students, showing us all that Johnny's success doesn't just end with the Sekai Taikai. However, he's not going to repeat Kreese's mistakes. While he tells his new students that they'll naturally learn strong attacks and how not to get bullied, it's clear he won't be as aggressive as the dojo's previous sensei. Meanwhile, Daniel will continue Mr. Miyagi's mission by leading the Miyagi-Do dojo. What's interesting is that students will be required to learn at both dojos, becoming proficient with both offense and defense.

This can be read as a nod to the Chinese philosophy concerning yin and yang — two opposing forces that complement one another. Throughout "Cobra Kai," Johnny and Daniel have butted heads over whose karate beliefs are better. By the end of "Cobra Kai" Season 6, Part 3, it's clear they both need to exist in harmony, and it's just nice to see Johnny and Daniel bury the hatchet for good. They've gone from sworn enemies to begrudgingly respecting one another to genuine friends helping each other's businesses with so many referrals.

"Cobra Kai" is primarily about Johnny, but, over the course of six seasons, a new generation of karate fighters is introduced. So what happens to all of them?

Samantha gets accepted into a program to travel to Okinawa because she wants to see more of the culture that influenced her father. Miguel's going to Stanford, but he gets with Samantha on her plane to spend some time in Japan with her. Tory and Robby were never really aiming for higher education, but after Tory becomes the female Sekai Taikai champion, she gets a lucrative deal with Icon Branding to become an athlete ambassador, with Robby getting the same deal. The signature nerds on the show — Hawk (Jacob Bertrand) and Demetri (Gianni DeCenzo) — wind up going to Cal Tech together, remaining the best of friends. 

Then there's the younger set of karate students. Kenny Payne (Dallas Dupree Young), Devon Lee (Oona O'Brien), and Anthony LaRusso (Griffin Santopietro) are seen in both the Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do dojos. Basically, everyone got exactly what they needed. Despite ample relationship drama, Sam and Miguel wind up together, as do Robby and Tory. This definitely isn't the type of show to end on something bittersweet, despite the allusions to the ending of "Rocky" where he loses the match but wins over people's hearts. It's nothing but good vibes with "Cobra Kai."

In 2022, Looper interviewed Martin Kove about why he decided to return as John Kreese in "Cobra Kai," and his answer has even more resonance now. He said: "I wasn't interested in playing him like John Kreese in 'Karate Kid,' and every season, they're giving me more and more of this emotional texture." Kreese's emotional arc comes to a close in Season 6 when Johnny confronts him about how he abandoned him after he lost the All-Valley to Daniel in the '80s. Kreese, looking to make amends, assigns Johnny as the new Cobra Kai sensei, allowing the dojo to continue competing. 

But that's not Kreese's only gift. While Kreese changes tremendously throughout "Cobra Kai," Terry Silver is still a cold-hearted jerk and even has plans to threaten Johnny's family to get him to throw his match against Wolf. Kreese confronts Silver on his boat in the middle of the ocean, with a fight between them ensuing. Some gasoline spills out, and Kreese tosses one of his signature cigars toward the puddle, resulting in a massive explosion that they couldn't have possibly survived. 

All in all, it's probably for the best that these two characters are gone for good. Kreese gets a true hero's ending while Silver is taken out of the picture in spectacular fashion, meaning fans can rest easy knowing that he's not plotting more revenge against Johnny and Daniel somewhere in the shadows.

The reason why "Cobra Kai" is ending after six seasons is due to the creators wanting to ensure they conclude it on their terms. Too many series get canceled prematurely, leaving the characters' fates hanging in the air. "Cobra Kai" may still be popular, but six seasons is arguably the perfect length for a legacy sequel series, giving viewers enough time to really get to know the characters without going on for so long that things get stale.

According to co-creator Jon Hurwitz, the ending that we got to see was more or less what was envisioned at the start, but they had to make some adjustments as more characters came into the mix. "We planned this ending, but we couldn't have planned how many instruments we're playing in the symphony of the ending," Hurwitz told Screen Rant. "We had our heads with Johnny and Daniel, and a little bit of Miguel and a little bit of Robby and Sam at the very beginning [of the] series. Now, there's 40 characters we're in love with that we want to give the right ending to."

Johnny achieving some semblance of redemption was always in the cards; it was merely a matter of how it should occur. Giving the show six seasons to play out finally made Johnny a more well-rounded character. The most notable late arrival was Tory, who didn't come into the show until Season 2. She quickly became one of the most pivotal characters, going back and forth between fighting for Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai while getting a satisfying ending that sees her attain some stability in life. The creators achieved their original goal while still doing justice to the newcomers.

After the end title card in the "Cobra Kai" finale, we get a scene with a couple different things going on inside a sushi restaurant. First, we see two Hollywood bigwigs talking about some kind of project. Those two men are actually Jon Hurwitz and Josh Heald, co-creators of "Cobra Kai." And given how Hurwitz mentions a new show taking place in Hill Valley in an alternate 1985, it's a safe bet they're discussing some kind of "Back to the Future" reboot that would involve bringing back "Wilson, Thompson, and Zane," which is referring to Thomas F. Wilson (Biff), Lea Thompson (Lorraine), and Billy Zane (Match).

Given that Wilson's brought up first, and he played the bully in the films, it seems they're poking fun at the central conceit of "Cobra Kai" by giving the bad guy from the first film a redemption arc. Of course, there's been a lot of talk over the years about how a "Back to the Future" reboot will never happen, so it seems this is just the creators having a bit of meta fun.

Next, we go over to Daniel and Johnny having a meal together while discussing their respective dojos. The two are finally friends, and Johnny excuses himself to use the restroom. While Daniel's alone, he sees a fly and picks up a pair of chopsticks to try to catch it. This is a reference to the first "Karate Kid" movie where Daniel succeeds in catching a fly. However, before he can do it here, Johnny returns and simply smacks the fly, because that's just the kind of guy he is.

"Cobra Kai" may have ended, but the "Karate Kid" franchise is still going strong. "Karate Kid: Legends" is slated to come out on May 30, 2025, which will see Ralph Macchio return as Daniel LaRusso. He'll team up with Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) from the 2010 "Karate Kid" reboot film as the two help a new student, Li Fong (Ben Wang), master martial arts. Other than the fact that "Cobra Kai" ends with Daniel still overseeing Miyagi-Do, there's not really any references to the upcoming movie. 

While fans would have no doubt loved to have seen an appearance from Chan at the end of "Cobra Kai," it's been revealed that "Karate Kid: Legends" will take place three years after the events of series, so it wouldn't really have made narrative sense to bring Mr. Han in here. No other "Cobra Kai" cast members have been confirmed for the film, either, but there could always be a surprise cameo or two. "Karate Kid: Legends" will take place in New York City as opposed to California, which could further explain why no one else is in it (as far as we know). 

Going off the synopsis, it also sounds like Li will have to learn to merge both Daniel and Mr. Han's respective fighting styles in a karate tournament. Merging styles is literally the endgame of "Cobra Kai," with Daniel and Johnny sharing students so that they can learn from both of them. "Karate Kid: Legends" is shaping up to be a thematic continuation of "Cobra Kai," so hopefully the series gets acknowledged somehow. One thing we know for sure is that "Karate Kid: Legends" will expand upon Daniel's journey, and that makes it one of the movies we don't want to miss in 2025.