The Wild Cobra Kai Scene Ralph Macchio Fought To Include In The Final Season

"Cobra Kai" season 6 tackled many, many, many storylines. There was, of course, the big Sekai Taikai karate tournament that brought the best dojos from around the world to settle the question of who's the best around. There was also the matter of Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) coming back from the shadows for one last villainous effort. At the same time, each character dealt with their own anxieties about the future outside of karate and how much they needed the Seikai Taikai, while Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) struggled with the news that he was going to be a dad.

And in the middle of all this, there was also a mystery involving Mr. Miyagi's (Pat Morita) past that shook Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) to his core. This subplot was an unexpected and quite underwhelming focus of all three parts of season 6, with a distracted Daniel obsessed with discovering what his old mentor hid from him and whether some mistakes as a young man could radically change who Miyagi was.

This culminated in part 2 of the final season bringing Miyagi back using AI, a move that is repeated yet again in part 3 where Miyagi and Daniel have one last scene together. During a roundtable interview /Film participated in, Macchio talked about wanting to learn something new about LaRusso and asking the writers to mine something new from the character. For the final season, Macchio had a new request.

"Can we find a place where we see Daniel and Miyagi together in some way?" Macchio said. "I want that hero moment where they are side by side in some way. How do we do that without having the use of the Mr. Miyagi character? And so this is what they came up with, and it's all internal for Daniel because it's all in his mind."

The scene in question takes place in episode 13 of season 6 (or episode 3 of part 3), in which Daniel has a dream where he and Miyagi face off against ghosts dressed as skeletons, just like the Cobra Kai boys in the original "Karate Kid" movie.

"We get to see the impact of Mr. Miyagi and the focusing on the good and letting go of any of the sharp edges that might be there, and seeing the truth of the core of the human being that he was, and paying that legacy forward," Macchio explained. "It was always important to me from day one that [the Mr. Miyagi] character is woven throughout the series. I did say the words as simply as, 'I can't do this show unless that character informs the story in some way.' It wasn't an ultimatum, but it was pretty important to me at the edge before I jumped in."

/Film writer Pauli Poisuo wasn't as impressed with the scene, and specifically called out the Miyagi AI cameo as the worst moment in the entire series. It's hard to disagree. When Miyagi showed up in part 2 of season 6, it was used effectively for a short and shocking moment, a nightmare for Daniel after discovering that his old mentor and idol killed someone on the mat in a previous Sekai Taikai fight. But the second AI cameo is long and uncomfortable to watch; it's a piece of misguided fan service and a poor attempt to create hype for the showrunners' stated desire to make a spin-off centered on Mr. Miyagi. Here's hoping that never happens.