While fans patiently await word on when “Cobra Kai” Season 6 will premiere, some are speculating over the fate of the series’ villain-turned-antihero, John Kreese (Martin Kove). Framed by his former Cobra Kai dojo partner Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) for a crime he didn’t commit at the end of Season 4 , Kreese spent the duration of the series’ fifth season behind bars. Thanks to an elaborate set-up in Season 5’s final episode involving jelly, a fake stabbing death, and a lab coat for a disguise, Kreese has escaped from custody with no indication of where he is heading next.
In a “Cobra Kai” rumors thread on Reddit, u/ar1sm has shared some intriguing thoughts on what will become of Kreese. The Redditor seems to think it will somehow involve Kim Da-Eun (Alicia Hannah-Kim), whom Silver hired to be Cobra Kai’s sensei in Season 5 after Kreese went to prison for the brutal beating of his karate student Stingray (Paul Walter Hauser). In the post, u/ar1sm explains how Kim Da-Eun’s longtime affinity for Kreese — she met him and Silver as a child when they were training under her grandfather, Kim-Sung Yung (Don Lee) — is a perfect set-up for Kreese’s next big move.
“When Kim came off that plane she seemed disappointed that Kreese wasn’t there,” u/ar1sm wrote, referring to the introduction to the adult version of the character in Season 5, Episode 6. “There was also that wink young-Kreese gave to child-Kim in the flashback [scene], which makes me think they have a good relationship as adults.”
The Reddit theory finds Kreese fleeing the US to join Kim Da-eun
In the Reddit post, u/ar1sm speculates that in “Cobra Kai” Season 6, John Kreese will flee the U.S. following his prison break, and Kim Da-Eun will welcome Kreese to her home in South Korea to provide safe harbor for the fugitive. Noting that Cobra Kai’s dojo is effectively out of business after Silver’s arrest, u/ar1sm added, “I think Kim will take Kreese back to her country to help train her students. The good guys will show up in the [International] Tournament and be very surprised to see Kreese there, or maybe they’ll find out beforehand for extra training motivation.”
Considering what Martin Kove said while discussing the evolving story of Kreese in an exclusive interview with Looper for “Cobra Kai” Season 5, u/ar1sm’s theory about teaming with Kim seems to have some merit. In the interview, Kove addressed whether Kreese — who finally was forced to confront his failings by being jailed without any hope for the future — was actually capable of being humbled. Considering his entire adult life has been driven by the mantra of “no mercy,” Kove discussed the type of person who could turn his life around by humbling him.
“Humility, I believe, is what [‘Cobra Kai’s writers] will write for me in the future — because I’d like for a future episode to have a woman who humbles John Kreese. It would have to be very slight; it would have to be very subtle, but a character like [Kreese] who has come up the hard way and has a huge moral fiber … Humility is something that would be great to play.”
Kove would like to see a character ‘turnaround’ for Kim Da-Eun
Further exploring the idea of John Kreese being humbled, Martin Kove got more specific and pointed to Kim Da-Eun as the character who could do it. “A woman could teach him humility, someone he doesn’t ever think would come into his life — the type of woman that somehow rings a few bells,” Kove told Looper in the interview. “Maybe it could be this sensei [Kim] who he knew from before who’s now running Terry Silver’s operation, if she did a turnaround. She likes John Kreese, [and] they knew each other when he was very young, based on that scene where her father was teaching him in Korea.”
The “turnaround” Kove is hoping for marks the big difference between where the actor wants to see Kreese go and what u/ar1sm was theorizing on Reddit. While the Redditor thinks Kreese will join Kim in South Korea and she’ll maintain her villainous ways, Kove would like to see a big character reversal for her. “It could be very interesting,” Kove pondered during his interview. “I’m hoping she’ll do a reversal as a heavy. She’s now the heavy, but I hope she will do a reversal for the sake of Cobra Kai.”
No matter what happens, “Cobra Kai” will come to the conclusion of its wildly successful run on Netflix with the upcoming season. And while it’s quite likely that fans will want more, star Ralph Macchio feels like it’s right to end the story with Season 6.
