Ralph Macchio loves that Daniel LaRusso enjoys a moment of reflection in the form of a flashback to The Karate Kid (1984) during the controversial final scene of Cobra Kai Season 6 Part 3. While Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) exits to “drain the main vein” in the restroom, Daniel recalls the time he was able to catch a fly with chopsticks and Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) could not.
“Beginners luck,” Miyagi scoffed in the flashback to the classic movie. However, back in the present day, Daniel isn’t able to replicate the feat he pulled off as a teenager because Johnny returns and smashes the insect before it can be secured by the chopsticks. Macchio said in an interview with Tudum about the final scene’s callback to the 1984 film:
“I love the way they wrap that up. It’s so reminiscent of a famous scene from the original Karate Kid film. I really love that editorial choice. You’re watching [a flashback from] the Karate Kid movie for more than just a couple [of] seconds… and when you come out of it, it lands in a way that’s so classic Cobra Kai.”
The controversy swirling about the final scene (for some fans) undoubtedly revolves around the fact that valuable screen time is wasted on two of Cobra Kai’s showrunners, Josh Heald and Jon Hurwitz, who make cameos in the restaurant. Rather than featuring a surprise appearance by a beloved Karate Kid character, who didn’t show up in Season 6 Part 3, à la Kumiko (Tamlyn Tomita), Julie Pierce (Hilary Swank), or Mike Barnes (Sean Kanan), viewers must endure Heald and Hurwitz droning on about drivel totally unrelated to Cobra Kai: a possible Back to the Future project.
‘Cobra Kai’ Showrunners Dish About Show’s Controversial Final Scene
It’s bad enough that fans didn’t get to see any fan-favorite Karate Kid characters show up during the final scene of Cobra Kai Season 6 Part 3 to have lunch with Daniel (Macchio) and Johnny (Zabka). However, as it turns out, that unnecessary Back to the Future conversation between showrunners Josh Heald and Jon Hurwitz was an even bigger waste of time, since nothing will ever likely come of it. Hurwitz revealed that they were just “having fun” rather than adding any more nostalgia to what could have been an even better sendoff for the Netflix series. Hurwitz said in an interview with People:
“That’s just us having fun. We know that the Back to the Future franchise is something that’s very closely guarded — and for good reason. If they ever decided they wanted to have a sequel series, then we’d be all-in.”
Okay, even if Tamlyn Tomita, Hilary Swank, and Sean Kanan couldn’t or wouldn’t show up for the Season 6 Part 3 finale, why waste viewers’ time with a Back to the Future Easter Egg? Why not reveal something more about that teased Cobra Kai spinoff featuring Hawk (Jacob Bertrand) and Demetri (Gianni DeCenzo)? Even better, since the deaths of Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) and John Kreese (Martin Kove) weren’t addressed, or confirmed, in Season 6, Episode No. 15, why not leave Daniel out of the restaurant scene and give fans one more chance to visit with Johnny and his mentor after Kreese was redeemed? Hindsight is 20/20, but the real reason for the final conversation was revealed by co-showrunner Josh Heald, who said in the same interview with Tudum:
“We wanted to just drop into [Johnny and Daniel’s] lives on any given day just one more time to … let everybody know that it’s going to be okay. These guys are going to be friends. Yeah, they’re going to have weird and fun moments [if] Johnny doesn’t know how to pay his tax bill and Daniel’s frustrated with him because he’s still hitting soft things with a hammer.
That’s just who they are. They’re going to get on each other’s nerves but also love each other for it. We wanted to have a sweet moment that was disconnected from anything except these two guys [and apparently an egregious cameo by the showrunners], who had such distaste for one another for so long, now just enjoying a meal together.”
Fans can stream and/or binge-watch the must-see Cobra Kai Season 6 Part 3 exclusively on Netflix right now. The popular series may have sailed off into the sunset, but the crane-kicking adventures continue for actor Ralph Macchio this summer. Daniel LaRusso will team up with Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) to train a new student, Li (Ben Wang), in the highly anticipated film Karate Kid: Legends, which opens in theaters on May 30.
