WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Season 2 of Cobra Kai.
Cobra Kai's first season saw Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) finally get one over his lifelong rival, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), by having Johnny's student Miguel (Xolo Maridueña) win the All Valley Karate Championship tournament The Karate Kid franchise is famous for.
This season sees Daniel rebound by reforming Miyagi-Do in honor of his late sensei. Of course, he's butting heads with Johnny's squad once more, especially as Cobra Kai is now being co-mentored by franchise villain John Kreese (Martin Kove). The feud comes to a head in the season finale, which sees a massive brawl break out at school between the warring dojos, with enormous consequences for the adults and teens alike.
THE PRICE TO PAY
Throughout the season, the dojos constantly antagonize each other, although Johnny actually makes an attempt at finding a middle ground so Cobra Kai, while remaining "badass," still has honor. However, everything comes undone when Daniel's daughter, Sam (Mary Mouser) gets into a fight with Tory (Peyton List), who's now dating her ex, Miguel.
Robbie (Tanner Buchanan) -- Johnny's son, Daniel's prized student and Sam's new love interest -- gets involved as well, which causes Miguel to leap into action. As the love rectangle erupts, the dojos turn their high school hallways into a warzone. In the melee, just when Miguel overpowers Robbie, he realizes he needs to show the mercy Sensei Johnny has been teaching him. Robbie has no such qualms, and uses the moment of vulnerability to kick his foe over the bannister and onto a staircase, 20 feet below.
It's a shockingly violent moment, one that happens due to Robbie's pent-up anger over how his estranged dad took Miguel under his wing. Miguel ends up in surgery, with the possibility of being paralyzed. In the wake of this, and amid threats of explusion, Sam no longer wants to be with Robbie. Johnny also has a major price to pay, as Miguel's mom, Carmen (whom he started a relationship with), breaks up with him, blaming his karate for pushing the Valley kids into a life of hate and violence. To top it off, Daniel's wife warns her husband, Miyagi-Do must come to an end. She, too, blames him for his part in the rivalry, and the downward spiral of the students.
NEVER TRUST A SNAKE...
Distraught over what transpired, and how Miguel and Robbie ended up in such a precarious position, Johnny goes on a drinking binge before realizing he has to admonish his students for turning Cobra Kai into a symbol of rage. However, when Johnny returns to the Cobra Kai dojo, he finds Kreese mentoring the remaining students from the brawl.
Earlier on in the season, he kicked Kreese to the curb, so this is a genuinelyy shocking development. It turns out that when Johnny left him temporarily in charge before their fall out, Kreese had struck a deal with the landlord and infected the students' minds, planting the seeds for them to turn on Johnny just as he took over the dojo's space. Kreese was simply waiting for the right opportunity to strike, and after the fracas, he sent out a rallying call. The students are now ready to embrace the old Cobra Kai's methods, so they could punish Miyagi-Do for Robbie's actions.
Johnny's astonished to see Kreese sink to these depths, but it's clear he's lost the faith of all his students. Johnny walks away, claiming he doesn't care, but he knows deep down Kreese views these kids as nothing more than soldiers, and he'll have to find some way to save them from following his destructive path under Kreese. For the entire season, Johnny seemed receptive to Miyagi-Do's methods, and with Daniel set to retire, he may still have a shot at redemption by possibly taking over Daniel's dojo in order to save the Valley kids from Kreese.
Starring William Zabka, Ralph Macchio, Courtney Henggeler, Xolo Maridueña, Mary Mouser, Tanner Buchanan and Martin Kove, Cobra Kai is currently available on YouTube Premium (previously YouTube Red).