Ok so Cobra Kai Season 4 is filled with a tonne of easter eggs, hidden details and references to the Karate Kid Movies. Much like season 3, the show is packed with callbacks.
Chozen
Now the series culminates with Daniel and Chozen making an alliance at Mr. Miyagi’s grave.
Chozen was the villain in Karate Kid 2 and you might remember that Daniel ended up running into him during the mid point of Season 3. He gave him a secret scroll from Mr. Miyagi’s collection and Anthony could actually be seen looking over this in Episode 7. It detailed a special pressure point punch technique that Daniel somewhat used against Johnny to paralyse his arm much in the same way he was.
He used it to Honk on Daniels nose which was actually a callback to Karate Kid 2 when Daniel did the same thing after beating him.
Mr. Miyagi’s gravestone has popped up throughout the seasons and much like we already saw it details how he was a war hero that received the medal of honor.
Throughout the season Daniel very much adopted a defence only mentality which somewhat led to him and Johnny parting ways. However this likely shows that he’s now fully gonna embrace all that to make a more balanced combat style. Chozen actually beat Daniel in Season 3 and therefore he’s probably the best person that he could’ve teamed up with.
Johnny and Daniel
Interestingly the season ends with Silver announcing that he’s opening several Cobra Kai’s throughout the valley and this was actually his original plan in Karate Kid 3 but he was stopped by Daniel.
Now we start off the season immediately after the events of Season 3 with the new dojo being formed. In the background we can also catch Mr. Miyagi’s car which was something that was a big part of the original movies. It also showed up at the beginning of Season 3 which is where we met a young John Kreese. In Season 3 there was a bully that was played by Martin Kove’s son Jesse but the big twist came where we saw that young John was actually a victim.
This car appears throughout the season and in real life the studio actually gave it to Ralph Macchio once filming had wrapped. Cars have become not only a fascination for the actor but also the character who is of course a car Salesman.
They of course do wax on wax off and we can also catch oars which are a reference to the balancing boat that has too showed up throughout several of the films and seasons. Johnny and Cobra Kai very much end up doing the jobs that he did in Season 1 such as waxing and sanding but this time it’s for training whereas that was to make ends meet. This could somewhat explain why he finds it demeaning and decides to go off and start his own Dojo.
Johnny ends up sweeping Hawks leg at one point which is of course a signature move by Cobra Kai who often do this kind of thing as it’s an easy move to trick someone up with.
Clearly the two sides just don’t get along and later on in the episode Miguel goes to Johnny and talks about Rocky 3 which is when Rocky and Creed teamed up. This is of course paying lip service to how Johnny and Daniel were enemies at one point but have now joined together.
At one point in Episode 5, Johnny also trains to the song burning heart by Survivor which comes from the Rocky 4 sound track. During this he runs on the beach which is likely a nod to when Apollo and Rocky also did it in the third movie.
This scene also contains a deleted scene from the original movie in which Daniel embarrasses Johnny and I’m actually surprised they brought it out. With it being deleted I’m kind of wondering if it was almost a repressed memory coming up and it kinda helps to push Daniel and Johnny further apart.
Music & Movies of Cobra Kai Season 4
There’s also several references to Bloodsport laced throughout the series and the kids later end up watching this at the drive in. This actually has a scene in it in which a sensei catches a fish with his barehand which is something that the students later attempt to do in episode 3.
Devon Lee ends up bringing up the film when she joins Eagle Fang and I like that they kept bringing up this film throughout the season as it’s a classic.
She also mentions Cynthia Rothrock an 80’s American movie star that was in a lot of martial arts films. She also mentions best of the best and that’s not a men in black reference, it’s a callback to a taekwondo film from the decade.
Now we also get mention of Top Gun in Episode 4 when Johnny is in bed with Carmen. Johnny sees Val Kilmer’s Iceman as the hero of that and this of course very much reflects how he was the villain of the Karate Kid but he sees himself as a good guy.
In episode 8 after he’s beaten up he actually sings a song from the Top Gun soundtrack called Playing With The Boys by Kenny Loggins.
In episode 4, Daniel also brings up the band Chicago who’s singer Peter Cetera sang the song Glory Of Love for the Karate Kid 2 Soundtrack. Miguel later brings this song up in the same episode and yeah it’s a banger. I love my 80s smush rock.
Weirdly Johnny says Peter Cetera isn’t a badass so yeah I hope the guy wasn’t watching this.
Cobra Kai Season 4 Easter Eggs & Kenny
Now when we cut to Cobra Kai we can see a cardboard cutout of Kreese. This is a reference to the first film in which he also had one in the dojo.
After getting ghosted by Silver he ends up showing up at his house where he catches him having a party. One of the guests says that he has a Habsburg jaw which is a nod to the German Royal family. The Habsburgs had a habit of marrying their cousins and people connected to their bloodline but it just led to them getting a massive protruding jaw so it’s not really a compliment.
Silver also calls Daniel Danny Boy which is what he also called him in Karate Kid 3 as a means of intimidation.
Daniel makes a peace offering with some Coors and Johnny of course drinks these all the time. However we learn in the season (episode 4) that his dad actually also used to drink it and that Johnny kept one of his cans as a reminder of his father.
In episode 2 Johnny ends up drinking some of Daniel’s Blue Belgian white. Daniel ends up chopping the top off this bottle which is a reference to when Mr Miyagi did it in the films.
Johnny complains that the beer is too fruity and not to his taste which is actually a bit of a play on how ignorant he is as Blue Belgian White is actually produced by Molson Coors who of course also make Coors.
Now speaking of Alcohol, Terry Silver ends up kicking a bottle of wine to show that he’s back and this actually has the name Kamen on it which is a nod Robert Mark Kamen. Kamen is an American Screenwriter that wrote the first three films and he also owns a vineyard called Kamen estate wine. This actually appears on the wine box and like I’ve been telling you for years, it’s all connected.
Jump to episode 2 and we get Daniel trying to teach Johnny about Mr. Miyagi’s ways. He imparts a lot of his teachings into Johnny and also talks about Shinpo who founded over 2000 dojos teaching his ways. Shinpo and Miyagi were related and he very much kept his teachings alive.
Cut to Cobra Kai and we can catch a poster hanging up for the 51st all valley. The date on this is 2019 and I’m guessing that this series is just gonna probably skip everything that’s happened over the last two years.
In Kreeses office we can also catch a picture for the US army, which of course calls back to his past. Mirroring this we meet Kenny who’s father is also in the Army and they pretty much reboot the Daniel and Johnny origin story which him being a newcomer in the town that gets bullied. This is carried out by Anthony La Pusso aka Danielson’s son and at one point he chases him to the point that Kenny has to jump over a fence which reflects when Daniel almost did it in the original movie.
Kennys gamer tag is also KennyTheJet99 which is a nod to Benny The Jet, a pioneer of Karate in the Us. Kenny’s dad is also called Pain which may be a reference to Major Pain or it may be a reaaach.
Johnny takes Daniel to a Webber Industrial warehouse and Webber was actually the original surname for Daniel in the script. However after casting Ralph Macchio they decided to change it to La Russo to reflect that he’s Italian. Johnny puts Daniel through the Cobra Kai paces which includes hitting back baseballs, something that he also had Miguel do in season 1.
He also makes the character do bare knuckle pushups which a student was forced to do in the first film. When Miyagi and Daniel visited Cobra Kai, John pulled one of them out the lineup and punished them by forcing them to go off and do these.
They end up having a fight with some Hockey Players and after Daniel kicks the crap out of them he stands around doing the prone, waiting and pacing move that Mr. Miyagi also did after beating someone up.
Kind of shows how much Mr. Miyagi influenced him and it’s a really nice touch.
Jump over to episode 3 and we very much see the differences between Johnny and Daniel. Daniel eats with chopsticks whereas Johnny won’t and they also break out the old protective pads that Mr. Miyagi had.
On top of this we also get several more flashbacks of Silvers time in Vietnam which riff upon the third season. Here we witness the pair get their matching Cobra Kai tattoos which have both become staples of the characters.
Interestingly though we learn that Silver got his removed and I wouldn’t be surprised if down the line that it showed back up again after he got a new one. Tattoos are of course supposed to be permanent and Silver getting his lasered off is also symbolic of how he tried to forget the bond that he made with Kreese.
Jump to episode 4 and both Kreese and Silver bow to one another which is a reference to what they did in Karate Kid 3 before fighting Mr. Miyagi.
Throughout this entry we also get lip service paid to the ice breaking scene which also was heavily tied in with Chozen. Daniel talks about how his mother dated Mr. Harris who was a teacher that popped up in the first film. Mr. Harris didn’t know him but I bet he knows him know after banging his mother.
Silver also brings up his line ‘if a man can’t stand he can’t fight.’ He said this to Robby in Cobra Kai but originally the villain said it to Daniel perhaps foreshadowing how Robby could end up switching sides at some point.
Johnny says you couldn’t leave well enough alone which is a nod to when he said it in the first film. This actually came after Daniel had soaked him in the bathroom which may have been given a nod to in this entry when Cobra Kai get soaked with sprinklers.
Cut to episode 5 and both Kreese and Terry go to Johnny and Daniel to ask them to tell their students to leave Cobra alone until the tournament. This is something that Miyagi did to Cobra Kai in the first film and it’s sort of like Poetry they rhyme. Terry’s toxic waste scandal is also brought up to which we heard about in the 3rd film. I don’t know what it was with 80s movies but there was always something about toxic waste, even made the ninja turtles.
Shortly after this scene we also see the Johnny twitter account in which you can see that he’s is still using the phrase hash brown instead of hashtag.
Now in episode 6 Daniel goes to Robby to warn him about Silver and he actually talks about how he regrets breaking someone’s nose and getting blood all over his shirt. The character actually did this in Karate Kid 3 when he lashed out after losing his temper.
He also slags off Silver and oh…oh my god he’s standing behind me isn’t he?
Episode 6 also has Johnny and Miguel trying to recruit girls at a football match which could be a nod to the one in the first film. Also it’s football yeah, not soccer and you can’t do anything about that as YouTube have disabled dislikes.
Episode 7 fleshes out more of the rivalry between Anthony and Kenny and we get a subtle callback to the original Karate Kid film. His friend says looks like everyone’s doing something new which Johnnys friend said in Karate Kid 1.
Anthony later visits the dojo and we see several newspaper clippings chronicling his dads journey in the original films.
Cobra Kai Season 4 Ending
In episode 8 we’re introduced to more of Daniel’s family including his cousin Vanessa. She’s actually Julia Macchio who’s Ralphs daughter.
Johnny is called to meet Silver at Kreese’s old dojo which is where the pair tried to gang up on Mr Miyagi. However he ended up winning, unlike Johnny who gets the crap kicked out of him.
Now slowly things build to the all valley and we get a performance by Carrie Underwood who sings the moment of truth from the original soundtrack. Knowing their moves, Cobra Kai are able to beat a lot of Miyagi Do and Miguel gets a back injury. This lays him out for a bit which is very similar to what happens to Daniel in the first film but Miguel ends up leaving whereas Daniel stayed.
Daniel also says never put passion before principle which is a nod to Mr Miyagi’s teachings.
Calling back to the Bloodsport references we also see Robby doing what I’m calling a wind down kick which is something that Van Damme did in the film.
Eli and Robby end up in Sudden Death Overtime which last happened at the end of Karate Kid 3. Eli wins but Tory beats Sam and now Silver gets to open Dojos across the entire Valley.
Tory catches him paying off the referee and he also ends up framing Kreese for the attack on Stinkray.
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