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karatekels · 1 month ago

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~*My Cobra Kai Rant*~

I finally watched the final episodes of Cobra Kai! And I feel… a lot.

SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT DON'T @ ME

I know that Terry was going to die (and that it was going to be an explosion) before the episodes came out, as I don’t care about spoilers as long as they aren’t leaks of pictures/videos. As you know, I had a crazy busy week, so I DM’d @holydongbird / @cobra-wives Thursday morning (I knew she was planning on watching already) and just straight up asked:

“Is it worth watching the episodes now, or am I going to be disappointed and should just wait until work dies down?”

She was (understandably) devastated by the episodes, so I decided to wait while continuing to read spoilers and getting increasingly grumpy about things. (It’s fine, I love being grumpy about something that isn’t the harsh realities of the real world.)

I waited until last night (and watched the last episode this morning).

And I think it was mostly a good call to wait.

The tl;dr of this review/rant is:

I think that they did a decent job (for them) of wrapping up most of the other character’s plotlines. Obviously there were pacing issues and a lot of speedrunning getting people their happy endings, which felt cheap, and we spent too much time with meaningless characters and/or plotlines, but for these writers, I was somewhat pleasantly surprised. EXCEPT FOR JOHN AND ESPECIALLY TERRY’S ARCS AND ENDINGS. A MESS. A COLOSSAL DISAPPOINTMENT. A JOKE.

*deep breath* Okay, let’s get into it.

This is likely going to be very all over the place, but I’ll do my best.

Contrary to what my detractors (if there are any lol) may believe, I’m not mad about Terry dying. I think it could’ve been done effectively and had a payoff not only for his character but for the plot and message of the show as a whole. But GUESS WHAT? IT WASN’T!

1. The Terry illness plotline.

On the one hand, I’m always here for peak TIG being hot – how can you not be? – But let’s be practical for a second (yes, in the hyperbolic karate soap opera).

I don’t care how exceptional Terry Silver is, how much money he has, none of that: you can’t tell me that this is a dying man. If he’s as sick as we learn he is, I’m not buying his physique, his ability to help Axel train, none of it. It doesn’t make sense. And it shows that, once again, the writers don’t think about the implications of what they’re writing. Terry being sick could’ve meant something, if that’s the direction that they want to go in. But they needed to commit to that and consider how it changes everything.

Sure, illness could’ve explained Terry’s “this is all I have left” attitude in the last few episodes, but then they needed to address how that shift in attitude developed from his initial return to the franchise, since his illness has been hinted at since his appearance in Season 4, and in the intervening years (or however long the Season 4-6 timeline is; it’s a weird jumbled mess).

I don’t think it was a necessary component to the plot that we ended up getting. Terry doesn’t need to be dying to have nothing left; everything’s been taken from him regardless.

I still think his arrest at the end of Season 5 was stupid and unrealistic, but if we’re sticking with it (and we have to, if we’re staying in the canon of it all), then we don’t really need the illness plotline at all. He’s lost his money, his students, his dojo, his reputation. Daniel won’t forgive him, John certainly won’t forgive him… he’s already in that state without needing to be sick on top of it all. Putting a hat on a hat just leaves more room for viewers to go “okay, but why?”.

So, while we did get a couple glimmers of vulnerability from Terry (and, of course, some fantastic acting from TIG) because of this plotline, it was unnecessary, unsatisfying, and unrealistic.

The moral of this part of the story is: EDIT.

The writers have always said that they went into the show wanting it to be six seasons, that they had fleshed out a lot of the plot, but if that’s true then why do we get these half-baked, dead-end plots incorporated into the story for no reason? If you knew where you were going, why was this the best you could do? HOW?

I shared a screenshot of my rant on Twitter about this last week – the Big 3 write like many of my undergrad students. There are some good ideas sprinkled throughout, but the execution is messy, illogical and unsatisfying. They don’t think about the big picture and how all the cogs in the machine fit together, or how it comes off when a piece that doesn’t fit in is jammed into the mechanism anyway. It’s not just true about Terry’s character, it’s caused a bunch of other messy, unnecessary plotlines and pacing issues that have really impacted the show.

But this particular rant is about Terry, and John too I guess, so we’re moving on.

2. WHERE THE HELL WERE NICK AND BARRETT?!

One of my favourite elements of the entire show was the development of Terry and John’s history through the flashbacks with Nick and Barrett – y’know, back when the writers actually seemed to give a damn about developing our beloved villains.

I thought they did a really good job with the flashback scenes and showing the parallels or implications in the show’s present day (for the most part), and both actors did a phenomenal job. The transition from Twig to Scary Terry in Season 6 Part 1? I STILL GET CHILLS THINKING ABOUT IT.

It was a complete missed opportunity to not incorporate them more (read: at all) into the second and third parts of the final season to help fill in the gaps and give both characters a more satisfying conclusion. They could’ve had such a phenomenal final fight (yes, even if it was aboard that stupid yacht) cutting between Thomas and Martin and Nick and Barrett (kind of like how they did with John in prison in Season 5). Show the legacy of these characters and their relationship over DECADES. They are responsible for all of this, for everything in the lore of the show. There is no Daniel and Johnny without John and Terry’s Cobra Kai. Terry didn’t get the legacy that he wanted, but there is a legacy – their legacy – that we could’ve (and should’ve) gotten to witness. They are Cobra Kai, at least the way it was.

Honestly, this might be the most disappointing part of the final episodes for me.

But no, we needed to spend a ridiculous amount of time checking in on Kyler in college. FUCKING KYLER!

3. The lack of resolution/closure for our beloved Cobra Husbands.

This isn’t even about them needing to admit their love for one another (though they 100% should’ve admitted their love for one another), but about how unresolved things remained between them.

The yacht blowing up just felt like the writers realized they were incapable of writing a meaningful ending for either John or Terry and were just like “let’s get them outta here and no one will ask questions”. WELL, I HAVE QUESTIONS.

What was the goal here? For either of them?

Terry asks Dennis to go threaten Carmen and the baby? Kidnap them? Does he want his win to feel like a win or not? If it’s going to be hollow either way, then what exactly is the point of any of this? What does Terry want, really? Is he just grasping at straws? Fine, but give us a scene – even this last one – where he actually acknowledges that so that there’s some closure for him, and for us.

John heads to the yacht after his Apology Tour ™ to confront Terry, but they don’t really get to that, do they? Instead it’s just to protect Johnny from whatever Terry has planned. It’s a couple of verbal jabs just to immediately jump to a tussle. John reconciled with KDE, with Tory, with Johnny, however unrealistic that is – what’s stopping him from doing the same for Terry?

And as soon as John mentioned Johnny, that he’s not going to let Terry get away with whatever he’s got planned for him and his new family, you can see that pain on Terry’s face, and in his eyes as, once again, John is willing to forgive Johnny but not him. Never him. Why?

We needed something here to make this – a flashback with Nick/Barrett or with Thomas and Marty, something – feel earned, feel like a conclusion. But no, instead they go boom and that relationship, all that history, all those feelings and words that needed to be said… they never will be.

And then nobody even notices? REALLY?

Wolf being the only one to even question Terry’s disappearance in the finale is wild to me. Granted, I know that some of us are way more likely than others to immediately notice TIG’s presence or absence in a scene – our Spidey-sense, if you will – but come ON. The big bad with nothing left to lose is about to have his last chance, and he’s nowhere to be found?

Kreese has been an ominous presence in the show before he appeared at the end of season 1, and Terry is one of the most powerful, effective and terrifying villains I’ve seen in decades. Both have been the driving forces behind so much of the show, and for the writers to suggest, as Hayden so idiotically put it earlier today, that the main characters aren’t worried about either man’s sudden disappearance is, for lack of a better word, BANANAS.

Daniel, of all people, would have alarm bells going off in his head if Silver wasn’t around for the grand finale. Terry is always three steps ahead and unpredictable, and if you can’t even keep an eye on him…

In Summary:

I’m happy for people who enjoyed the finale, and there were moments I liked too (more than I thought I would, tbh), but I genuinely don’t understand how anyone can find this ending for the show’s villains satisfying in anyway whatsoever, regardless of whether you loved or hated them.

I think that’s what I find so disappointing about all of this – like a lot of other elements of the show, this is a case where they had sprinkled in some decent ideas that could’ve been something, but took it in such an ultimately unsatisfying direction while leaving those breadcrumbs of better ideas behind that it’s just left me and other Terry fans feeling frustrated. Two thirds of the Big 3 claim Terry is one of their favourite – if not their #1 – characters from the original trilogy, but it certainly doesn’t feel like it when his character is probably the least respected in these final episodes. I think blowing up Kreese was also stupid and cheapened his arc, but at least he HAD some development in these episodes (even if it felt rushed).

What a disappointing end to the FOUNDERS of Cobra Kai. The epitome of unsatisfying, missed opportunities, wasted potential.

I pray to all the gods I don’t believe in that we don’t get a spinoff from these hacks.

END RANT (for now, anyway).

P.S. Something More Positive:

This should be evident, but I’m going to say it anyway, but none of this is on the actors. I thought they all did a phenomenal job, especially considering what they were given. With respect to our boys in particular, I’ve always thought Thomas was an incredibly compelling actor to watch, but Martin, especially in these final episodes, really blew me away with his commitment to the role. As much as I hated the direction the writers chose to take things, I think their performances lessened the blow a bit.

At least they gave us this moment that we can take out of context in perpetuity for our own inappropriate daydreams:

GOODBYE, BABY COBRA HUSBANDS. YOU DESERVED BETTER.

(If you want my takes on anything else from the finale - or the show in general - feel free to send an ask!)

#Cobra Kai #Cobra Kai spoilers #Cobra Kai negativity #Cobra Husbands #Terry Silver #Thomas Ian Griffith #Nick Marini #John Kreese #Martin Kove #Barrett Carnahan #why can’t we have nice things

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