Netflix’s Original Series Cobra Kai season five ends with episode ten kicking off with Martin Kove’s John Kreese breaking down in tears in front of his therapist at the thought of losing William Zabka’s Johnny Lawrence whom he sees as his son. In his mind, he has lost everything that he cares about when he was overseas fighting in the Vietnam war that is why cobra kai means so much to him as a result of him being the founder of cobra kai. Also, Johnny was his first student when he started teaching that is why both him and cobra kai mean everything to him. Now that he lost cobra kai to Thomas Griffith’s Terry Silver and Johnny hates him due to all of the abuse and backstabbing, he did to him, he feels as if he has nothing left to fight for. However, the viewer can see that he is a man who likes to manipulate others to get what he wants in the end. Which is why it can be hard for the viewer to take him seriously when he apparently has a tearful breakdown as well as seemingly get stabbed to death in jail.
A couple of minutes into the episode, and the viewer sees Sean Kanan’s Mike Barnes, go after Ralph Macchio’s Daniel LaRusso as a result of him blaming him for his furniture store being burned down. In his mind, his life was going great with his furniture store making a great profit for him and his wife. Now seeing Daniel again has his store burned down leading to him being broke and his wife presumably leaving him. The saddest part is the store meant a lot to his him as the store was his father-in-law’s that bore a strong significance for his wife’s family. It was a sacred place that was given to him to protect as a show of trust in the family he joined. Now it is all gone leaving him with nothing but shame and sadness. Luckily, Daniel makes him see reason with Silver being the true enemy that ruined everything for everyone. This leads to Mike, Johnny and Yuji Okumoto’s Chozen Toguchi going after Silver directly at his house.
Meanwhile, Johnny and Daniel’s students decide to break into the main cobra kai compound to find a way to expose silver to everyone. This is due to them finding out about the cameras that recorded the incident that got Kreese sent to jail showing what really happened. Ultimately, they find the evidence they need leading to an all fight with the students of cobra kai the same time that Johnny, Mike and Chozen fight Silver and his henchmen. Unfortunately, Chozen gets hurt and Mike gets knocked out leaving Johnny to fight alone as a result. The viewer sees him put up a good fight until he gets beaten profusely to the ground while he tries his best to get back up only to get knocked down again. The interesting thing is as he is about to accept his fate, he sees a picture of the sonogram of his baby and gets a boost of strength due to his need to see his new family. This demonstrates how he now has found his inner strength to fight for those he cares about and not give up.
At the end of the episode, the viewer sees Johnny and Daniel’s students win against Cobra Kai and Silver by exposing the lies that Silver made about him paying off the tournament referee so they would win. This results in Daniel having to step in to finish off Silver once and for all due to him still refusing to give up even after his students leave him after being exposed. The fascinating thing is that Daniel takes down Silver using the technique that Silver taught him years ago. In his mind, Daniel is seeing Silver as a rabid dog that needs to be put down to save everyone. He has seen what Silver has done to the students of cobra kai that he has turned them into thugs who bully whomever they choose. And now it’s up to him to stop cobra kai like he did when he was younger as demonstrated by the use of the kick, he used in the tournament years ago. Ultimately, the viewer sees Kreese escape out of jail as a result of him faking his death and bent on taking back cobra kai as the series heads into season six.
Rating 8.5/10