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Cobra Kai season 5 revolves around the battle against big bad Terry Silver, who, after the season 4 finale, has taken over the titular dojo and is expanding all across the valley. The finale wraps things up with a truly epic bang, but with so much going on, it's easy to get muddled on some of the finer details of what exactly goes down in the season 5 ending.
We've broken down all the twists and turns of the finale right here, so you can get up to speed with every punch, kick, and shocking moment. Of course, we're going to be delving into major spoilers, so turn back now if you haven't reached the Cobra Kai season 5 ending! With all that said, fasten your black belts and get reading for everything you need to know about that knockout finale.
Cobra Kai season 5 ending explained
The finale begins with John Kreese (Martin Kove) imprisoned – he's spent the entire season behind bars. But, disaster strikes when he's attacked by some other inmates. He hits the floor, bleeding from his stomach and looking particularly ashen. Could the fearsome sensei really be dead? We'll see…
Elsewhere, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka), and Chozen Toguchi (Yuji Okumoto) find out who's essentially kidnapped them in that fancy limo. It's none other than Mike Barnes (Sean Kanan), Karate's Bad Boy! Mike is after revenge after Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) had his furniture store burned down earlier in the season as retaliation for Mike helping Daniel. After a brief scuffle, Mike is convinced that his real enemy is Silver, and he, Johnny, and Chozen head off to bring the fight directly to their great nemesis.
Daniel isn't convinced, which leaves him stranded on the street until Stingray (Paul Walter Hauser) appears, with Carmen (Vanessa Rubio) and Amanda (Courtney Henggeler) in the car with him. Their kids are in trouble and need help at the Cobra Kai dojo ASAP – the youngsters are out to take down Cobra Kai once and for all. With Tory Nichols' (Peyton List) help, they aim to get into the dojo and find the security footage of Silver attacking Stingray, exposing the sensei for what he really is.
Things get violent very quickly over at Silver's place, as you'd expect. Silver's henchmen take on Johnny, while Chozen and Silver go head to head… with weapons. Mike gets KO'd pretty much straight away, but we won't be too hard on him, since he is out of practice.
Johnny is severely beaten, and things look very bad for him until the picture of Carmen's ultrasound, showing his unborn child, falls before him. He gets a fresh surge of energy and fights back against the senseis, but it's still not enough… until Mike arrives and saves the day. Go Mike!
But Silver comes out on top of his showdown with Chozen, who is left badly injured in Silver's pool with a massive sword wound across his back. The villain then heads to the dojo, which, you'll remember, is where Daniel is going, too.
Over at the dojo, the kids discover that the footage has gone. All seems lost, until Tory volunteers another video they can use instead. The Cobra Kai kids are onto the Miyagi-Dos and Eagle Fangs, though. They show up and try to fight their way up to the office, where Samantha LaRusso (Mary Mouser), Miguel Diaz (Xolo Maridueña), Hawk (Jacob Bertrand), Demetri (Gianni DeCenzo), Robby Keene (Tanner Buchanan), and Tory are searching for the footage. How did the Cobra Kais find out? Well, Mitch (Aedin Mincks) betrayed his friends.
All out battle breaks out in the Cobra Kai dojo. The Miyagi-Dos and Eagle Fangs use their egg technique that Chozen taught them earlier in the season, protecting Anthony LaRusso (Griffin Santopietro) in the middle as he tries to upload the video. He manages to get it working and sends it to the Cobra Kai TV screens: everyone watches as Silver is exposed for rigging the All Valley. The clip Tory chose is a conversation between her and Silver that confirms the sensei cheated by bribing the referee. The Cobra Kai kids turn on Silver.
He refuses to go down without a fight, though, and at Amanda's urging, Daniel steps onto the mat to face him. Daniel uses the very techniques that Silver taught him to take down the villain, which is intercut with flashbacks to The Karate Kid 3 of Silver teaching him the moves. The strategy works – though Silver is down but not out. To win the fight, Daniel uses a very familiar move: that iconic crane kick, for the very first time in the series. That's enough to finish the battle and beat Silver, hopefully for good this time.
With Silver defeated and the cheating exposed, Cobra Kai seems finished. The police arrive, as does Johnny, Mike, and… Chozen! He survived his awful wound, but he does need medical attention, so he's ushered into an ambulance. Mike shows up no worse for wear and with a priceless painting stolen from Silver's place that he intends to sell to try and recover from losing his entire livelihood. Silver is arrested and taken away. Miguel and Sam rekindle their relationship, as do Robby and Tory. Aww.
But what about Kreese? Well, as it turns out, Kreese faked his death, again. The bloodstains are actually jello, and he stole his doctor's pass to escape from prison. That means Kreese is once again loose, though how that turns out is a question for season 6 (should one happen).
What is Tory's video?
The plan to expose Terry Silver as the real culprit behind Stingray's brutal assault falls apart when the footage turns out to be missing. That leaves the kids stuck without a plan, until Tory volunteers a new clip. The footage she selects is none other than her conversation with Silver about the rigged All Valley. In it, Silver admits to bribing the referee and handing Tory the win. That finishes his credibility in the eyes of his students and ends his influence over the valley once and (we hope) for all.
What happens to Terry Silver?
Silver escapes his house largely unscathed after Johnny, Mike, and Chozen attack him there, but meets his downfall at the Cobra Kai dojo. After Tory finds the video that proves Silver rigged the All Valley last season, the sensei is exposed as a cheat, and his students turn against him. He's not finished yet, though, and ends up in a fight with Daniel. The OG Karate Kid follows Silver's teachings from the third movie to beat him, and the cherry polishing it all off is the crane kick, that famous move that beat Johnny Lawrence way back in the first film.
Silver ends up in handcuffs, and since Stingray also finally admits the truth about the attack, Silver is looking at a lengthy jail sentence. It would seem the villain is defeated for good, then.
Is John Kreese dead?
John Kreese lives. Yep, the sensei faked his death for the third time. It's a little different in the finale, though, because we actually get to see him set his plan in motion. It looks like Kreese gets stabbed multiple times, then bleeds out. But the blood is actually red jello, paying off that feud Kreese had with the prisoner over the desert, and Kreese steals his doctor's security card to walk right out of jail. Where he goes next is anyone's guess… but we're guessing he'll be up to no good, and it'll likely have something to do with that world tournament.
Who is Mike Barnes and what happens to him?
Sean Kanan's Mike Barnes returns from The Karate Kid 3. In that film, he was a straight up villain dubbed Karate's Bad Boy. He was enlisted by Silver to beat Daniel in the All Valley tournament, but in a particularly nasty way: the plan was for Mike to win a point against Daniel, then do something to get the point taken away as penalty, and on and on until the sudden death round. Then, the plan was to finish the match in one strike and take home the trophy for Cobra Kai. Daniel wasn't doing so well against Mike, but some Mr. Miyagi wisdom got him back on his feet, and he scored the winning point in the sudden death round.
In Cobra Kai season 5, though, Mike is no longer a bad guy. He owns a furniture store and reveals he was banned from karate after the All Valley. When Daniel goes to his shop, assuming Mike is working with Silver once more, Mike surprises him by being a nice guy, and he actually offers up some information that helps. It backfires, though, and Mike's store ends up burned down by Terry.
In the end, Mike reappears intent on revenge against Daniel, though he soon realizes his real enemy is Silver. With Johnny and Chozen, he goes straight to Silver's house, and is promptly knocked unconscious. Luckily, though, he wakes up in time to save Johnny from a near-fatal beatdown. After the brawl at the Cobra Kai dojo, Mike shows up with a priceless painting stolen from Silver's place that he intends to sell – that should go some way to helping him recover from the loss of his business.
Does Chozen survive the sword fight?
When Silver leaves Chozen unconscious in his pool, you'd be forgiven for worrying Chozen has been killed. He did get a nasty slash from a sword, after all. But the end of the episode reveals that Chozen survived the skirmish, just with a wound that needs medical attention, so he's off in an ambulance the last time we see him. Whether Chozen will return for a potential Cobra Kai season 6 remains to be seen.
What happens to the Cobra Kai, Miyagi-Do, and Eagle Fang kids?
After Silver's cheating is exposed, none of the Cobra Kai kids stand with him. Tory and Robby end up reconciling after admitting to owing each other apologies, but Kenny Payne (Dallas Dupree Young) doesn't want to talk to Robby just yet. As for the Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang kids, Sam and Miguel get back together, and even confess their love for each other. Everyone makes it out of the dojo fight unscathed, too.
What is the world tournament and when will it happen?
A lot is made of Terry Silver's ultimate evil plan to win the world's top karate tournament, officially titled the Sekai Taikai, which would make his way of karate the world's way of fighting – and in a flashback, Silver talks about using his fortune to make the tournament "the Super Bowl" of karate. Obviously, Daniel and Johnny don't want Silver to win such a huge competition, so they enter their combined Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang dojo into consideration. Both Cobra Kai and Daniel and Johnny's dojo qualify for the tournament.
But, we don't actually see the Sekai Taikai in this season, which means it'll likely pop up again in a potential season 6. While Silver is down and out, Kreese is on the loose, so there's every chance Cobra Kai will be able to compete in the tournament. Whether Kreese will have any students on his side is another question entirely, though. Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang also have to compete under just one name, but Daniel and Johnny don't come to a decision on what that will be – so we'll just have to speculate what they might name their dojo. Daniel did call them Miyagi-Fang in the season 4 finale, so that's a contender.
Who is sensei Kim Da-Eun and what happens to her?
Sensei Kim Da-Eun joins Terry Silver in his villainous quest around halfway through season 5. As it turns out, both were trained by Master Kim Sun-Yung, who originated the Way of the Fist, AKA Cobra Kai's fighting style. In fact, in a flashback to Silver and Kreese's time training with the man, a young Kim Da-Eun watches them train from a hiding place behind some pots. It's not entirely clear what happens to her at the end of the season, as she's last seen watching Silver and Daniel's dramatic showdown. Whether she teams up with Kreese in a potential season 6 to win the Sekai Taikai karate world tournament remains to be seen, but it seems the likeliest bet for this particular character.
Will there be a Cobra Kai season 6?
So far, nothing has been announced by Netflix. Some of the series' largest plot threads were neatly wrapped up in the Cobra Kai season 5 finale, too, so the future of the show is up in the air. But, there is still that tournament and Kreese's escape to deal with, so there's more story left to tell. Until an official announcement, though, we'll just have to wait and see.
If you're all caught up on Cobra Kai, fill out your watchlist with our guide to the best Netflix shows streaming now.
