‘Cobra Kai’ Is The Ultimate Johnny Lawrence Redemption Story ‘Karate Kid’ Fans Never Knew They Always Needed
*** Cobra Kai finale spoilers ahead ***
The Karate Kid’s Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) is the quintessential ’80s villain. You didn’t attend high school with thee Johnny Lawrence, but everyone knows a Johnny Lawrence. Die Hard’s Hans Gruber is unlikely to crash your company holiday party and Jason Voorhees isn’t a threat unless you’re having premarital sex near Camp Crystal Lake (or possibly Manhattan… and maybe outer space?), but the specter of a dirt bike-driving badass in a cool red leather jacket karate-kicking you into the sand is a relatable adolescent nightmare.
From 1984 to 2018, the character of Johnny Lawrence was pop culture shorthand for a bully who finally got his comeuppance. And then along came Cobra Kai.
The final five episodes of Netflix’s popular Karate Kid spinoff series premiered Thursday, February 13 on the streamer. After six seasons and countless extravagant karate brawls, everyone receives their requisite happily ever afters — well, almost everyone; two characters end up fighting to the death on an exploding yacht — but Cobra Kai’s ultimate champion, both literally and figuratively, is Johnny Lawrence.
The final showdown in 1984’s The Karate Kid memorably concludes with Lawrence getting crane-kicked into second place at the All-Valley Under-18 karate tournament by Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio). Cobra Kai, which debuted in 2018 on YouTube Red before moving to Netflix in 2020, picks up 34 years after that fateful kick to the face. The pilot episode finds Johnny at his nadir — single, broke, unemployed, estranged from his teenage son, a veritable Norman Rockwell painting spray painted with a “kick me” sign — as he once again crosses paths with Daniel LaRusso, who’s parlayed his All-Valley championships into a successful car dealership.
Through 65 episodes, Lawrence and LaRusso Tom and Jerry their way through various fights and reluctant team-ups before ultimately joining forces as they enter their youth dojo into a prestigious global karate tournament called the Sekai Taikai. In the series finale, a tournament tie forces Lawrence back on the mat to compete in a winner-take-all bout against renowned martial arts wrecking ball Sensei Wolf (Lewis Tan) in the same building where he memorably lost to LaRusso in 1984.
In a feel-good, franchise-altering moment, Lawrence, with new sensei Daniel LaRusso by his side adorned in a black Cobra Kai gi, exercises his past demons by defeating Wolf and winning the global karate championship for Cobra Kai. It’s an unlikely redemption story 40+ years in the making.
“From the very beginning, we saw Johnny’s arc going from the guy who wants a second chance at that fight he lost to getting that second chance at the end,” Cobra Kai co-creator Josh Heald told Decider. “But it’s his emotional journey along the way that makes that win fulfilling.”
Lawrence’s emotional journey was a bumpy expedition. The character always strived to be a better person. The Karate Kid begins with Johnny refusing a beer and referring to himself as an “ex-degenerate” — the pilot of Cobra Kai is titled “Ace Degenerate,” while the series finale is aptly called “Ex-Degenerate” — and ends with Lawrence graciously accepting his loss (“You’re all right, LaRusso”).
Some people arrive in this world on third base; Johnny Lawrence was born in the dugout.
“[Johnny] didn’t have a father in his life,” Cobra Kai co-creator Hayden Schlossberg explained. “He had a stepfather who regarded him as a nuisance, and he had a sensei [John Kreese, masterfully played by Martin Kove] who abandoned him in his moment of crisis.”
Through six seasons of Cobra Kai, Johnny reconnects with his son Robby (Tanner Buchanan), becomes a father figure to star Cobra Kai pupil Miguel (Xolo Maridueña), falls in love with (and marries) Miguel’s mom Carmen (Vanessa Rubio), welcomes a baby daughter into the world, and finally puts his toxic rivalry with Daniel LaRusso to rest.
“I know it’s a silly karate soap opera in a lot of ways, but at the end of the day, the show is a metaphor for society as a whole,” Cobra Kai co-creator Jon Hurwitz said. “[Daniel and Johnny] are two people who hated each other because of the opposite beliefs they had. Over the course of our series, they learn to walk in each other’s shoes, get to know one another, get to know what’s in each other’s hearts, and actually learn about each other’s philosophies. And in the end, they realize there’s good and bad within both styles of karate.”
Without Cobra Kai, Johnny Lawrence would’ve remained a pop culture punching bag, a footnote in Daniel LaRusso’s history. But the one-two punch of Heald, Hurwitz, and Schlossberg’s obvious affection for The Karate Kid franchise and Zabka’s nuanced, achingly human portrayal of the now ex-degenerate illustrates that humans are more than their worst moments, a luxury movie characters are rarely afforded.
Many shows come and go with little fanfare, but Cobra Kai will be remembered for achieving the near-impossible feat of retroactively enhancing its source material and gifting Karate Kid fans with the Johnny Lawrence redemption story they never knew they always needed.
The final five episodes of Cobra Kai are now streaming on Netflix.
