WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Cobra Kai Season 4, streaming now on Netflix.
In a way, Cobra Kai has always been a series about maligned characters seeking redemption, even if they aren't necessarily looking for it. The series began with The Karate Kid's original antagonist Johnny Lawrence vowing to take control back of his life by restarting the Cobra Kai dojo and training a new generation of martial artists while reigniting his old feud with high school rival Daniel LaRusso. The two men eventually mended fences only for their students to develop grudges and rivalries of their own while more twisted figures in the form of John Kreese and Terry Silver resurfaced to plunge the San Fernando Valley into karate-tinged violence. And as Silver reasserts control over Cobra Kai and its students in Season 4, three unexpected characters find themselves poised to seek redemption in direct response.
For both Johnny and Daniel, the deepest wound that Kreese inflicted on both men was by taking Johnny's son Robby Keane under his wing as his latest protege. Robby had trained under and worked for Daniel, even going as far as to date Daniel's teenage daughter Sam, while growing resentful over Johnny being more of a father figure to his own protege Miguel Diaz than him. After a falling out with Daniel, Robby decided to become Kreese's latest student, blending Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do's karate styles. However, as Kreese welcomes Silver back into the fold to assist him in teaching Cobra Kai's students, Robby begins to notice how violent and underhanded the dojo's ways are, realizing that the young, impressionable Kenny Payne -- whom Robby recruited personally -- has become a hardened, antagonistic figure.
Robby's realization of the dark consequences of Cobra Kai's training and philosophies mirror that of his girlfriend Tory Nichols, who similarly begins to question her own path. Having to fend for herself because of absentee parents, Tory has been fighting her entire life and saw her rival Sam LaRusso as something of a girl who has never known true struggle as she grew up in an affluent household. After menacing Sam and busting up the LaRusso's home in Cobra Kai's Season 3 finale, Sam's mother Amanda began harassing Tory at work before discovering the extent of Tory's unhappy home life. While Sam and Tory don't appear to be on the road to reconciliation any time soon, Amanda has since quietly reached out to Tory to help her, potentially bringing Tory out of Cobra Kai's corrosive influence.
And then there's the matter of Kreese himself. While Cobra Kai Season 2 revealed that John Kreese was something of a sad case, lying about major elements of his military history and living in a homeless shelter before being taken in under Johnny, Kreese showed his true colors by seizing control of the Cobra Kai from Johnny by the end of Season 2. Kreese would fall victim to a similar betrayal by his old friend and Cobra Kai co-founder Terry Silver, who arranged for Kreese to be arrested for assault and attempted murder while taking control of the dojo himself. Should Kreese find a way to be released from custody, his own redemption could come in the form of retribution against Silver, Cobra Kai's true antagonist.
From Johnny Lawrence and Chozen, plenty of fan-favorite bad guys from the original Karate Kid trilogy have revealed surprising layers of sympathy and atonement over the course of Cobra Kai. Robby and Tory always possessed a bit more depth and nuance rather than being clear-cut antagonists, making their heel turns all the more heartbreaking though Season 4 provides a potential means for them to repent from their violent ways. And while John Kreese may have appeared to be a figure beyond redemption, a common enemy in Terry Silver may make the hardened antagonist do the unthinkable and work with Johnny and Daniel against this mutual threat.
To see several franchise villains get their shot at redemptions, Cobra Kai is streaming on Netflix.