Cobra Kai season 6 part 3, the final episodes of the hit Netflix original series, hit Netflix on Thursday, Feb. 13. Almost seven years after the series premiered on YouTube Red (remember that?), Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and his redemption story have come to an end. And, what an ending it was.
I've been covering Netflix for more than a decade, and I'm having a hard time remembering a Netflix show that came to a more satisfying conclusion than Cobra Kai. Sweet Tooth, which was a much smaller show, had a great ending in 2024, but that's the only Netflix show that I can remember with an ending this good.
We don't see shows like this often, so I want to take a second to appreciate this story. Almost every storyline and loose end was tied up in the the Cobra Kai finale, "Ex-Degenerate." Some of those ends are tied up a little bit tighter than others, too. Without going into too many spoilers, the villains get their just desserts. The good guys win again, and everyone who lives lives happily ever after.
Some people might find the ending a little too full circle. The series finale is full of easter eggs and callbacks to The Karate Kid and other storylines and seasons. It would take a long time to hash them all out. When this show started, Cobra Kai creators Hayden Schlossberg, Josh Heald, and Jon Hurwitz committed to telling this story, honoring the source material, and bringing justice and change to one of the best characters from The Karate Kid franchise. I loved that the final five episodes of season 6, for the most part, were dedicated to righting the wrongs that happened to Johnny as well as the wrongs he committed. A show like Cobra Kai continues to hit fans right in the feels in a way that most shows don't. The scenes with Johnny and Kresse (Martin Kove), Johnny and Robby (Tanner Buchanan), Johnny and Daniel (Ralph Macchio), and Johnny and Carmen (Vanessa Rubio). It's been a long time coming, but our guy finally grew up and grew beyond the past that was holding him back.
You can say the same thing about so many other characters, like Miguel (Xolo Maridueña), Sam (Mary Mouser), Tory (Peyton List), Demetri (Gianni DeCenzo), and Hawk (Jacob Bertrand).
There's no doubt in my mind that Cobra Kai season 6 part 3 stuck the landing for this series. That's what almost all showrunners and creators talk about when it comes to ending TV shows. It's all about sticking that landing and giving the characters the ending they deserve (or don't deserve!). Life isn't perfect, and neither are TV shows. Cobra Kai knows what it is, though, and that made all the difference in figuring out how to wrap up these stories in a way that felt natural.
Cobra Kai is going to leave an incredible legacy behind. It proved, once and for all, that spinoffs, when done correctly with a fresh perspective, can absolutely work as well as the original shows and movies. I'm not saying that Cobra Kai is as important or impactful as The Karate Kid movies, but it did what it set out to do and more. This show united millions of fans across generations, and it's probably going to continue doing so.
There's no way, in my opinion, that this is the end of the stories of Johnny, Daniel, Miguel, Robby, Sam, and Tory. We're going to see Netflix make spinoffs about these characters in the near future. Seeing a show like XO, Kitty, which was a spinoff on Netflix's To All The Boys I've Loved Before movies, become so successful and get renewed for season 3, there's just no way Netflix is going to let these stories die.
And, Coba Kai never dies, right? I heard that somewhere.
Watch all six seasons of Cobra Kai on Netflix right now! We'll share more updates about the future of Cobra Kai and these characters on Netflix in the future.