All good things must come to an end, including the greatest karate saga of all time. However, before saying goodbye to Cobra Kai, I spoke with EPs/writers/directors Jon Hurwitz, Josh Heald, and Hayden Schlossberg as well as cast members Ralph Macchio, Xolo Maridueña, Tanner Buchanan, Peyton List, Mary Mouser, Jacob Bertrand, and Gianni DeCenzo about the final episodes. Please note: these interviews will contain major spoilers.

After a shocking result in the Sekai Taikai, Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai must reckon with their pasts while facing an uncertain future both on and off the mat. Almost 40 years after the events of the 1984 All Valley Karate Tournament, it’s all been leading to this.

“It felt like we’ve been on opposite sides, and [in] this last season, we really did try to come together,” Buchanan expressed, reflecting on the moment his character finally tells his girlfriend that he loves her. “Robby kind of screwed you over multiple times by not being there for you when your mom died, and then [not] going after you when you left, or trying to be there for you. I always think he’s had the most love for Tory, but I think he just — sometimes in the middle of chaos is just the right time to let somebody know, say, ‘Hey, I just wanted to remind you, I’m here and I’ll always be here.’ So, I think that’s probably why.”

“There were so many miscommunications between those two,” List added. “I think Tory was just kind of down in the fight and so, I think Robby saw that, and knew, okay, she needs to hear this, this is really how I feel and she needs to hear this in order to come back.”

Meanwhile, Miguel, Samantha, Hawk, and Demetri are all off to college, so I asked the actors what each of them are most proud of regarding their characters and the future that they chose. Mouser answered, “I feel like Sam is definitely [the] queen of, like, if I could go back in time. She’s maybe better with hindsight than foresight, but I think, yeah, she’s learned a lot in that process. The thing in the last episodes that I was most excited for and proud of was her choice to, at the very least, not let all of her past mistakes make her want to hide in a corner and not participate. She was still willing to go and do something that was a big shift and a big change, and want to go do that for herself, so I was excited for that.”

Maridueña explained, “I’m most proud of, I guess, the commitment, like we’re saying, to that found family and the folk around him. I think it honestly reminds myself of a lot of the relationship that we have outside of the story. I’m just really proud of Miguel for finding that father figure, and now being able to have that secure family and go off to college. I think that that’s, like, you see he desperately wants that at the beginning and to secure that down with a couple of extra folks now is pretty cool.”

“I’m really proud of all the mistakes that Hawk made. I think those are the best things he did,” Bertrand told me. “We learned from them. He wouldn’t be where he’s at without all of the bodies he left behind.”

“I love that Demetri was able to get into MIT and Hawk couldn’t,” DeCenzo joked. “All of my Instagram comments are just talking about, like, ‘Oh, at least he got into MIT,’ which sucks because I didn’t get into MIT. And so, anybody that doesn’t know the show, my family thinks that I’m going to MIT now.”

Macchio, who is also an executive producer and has played this role since The Karate Kid, opened up to me about what a young Daniel LaRusso would think of where he ends up in the finale: “I think he would be happy where he lands. I think throughout the 65 episodes, he might have been like, ‘Snap out of it! Come on, you should have learned this by now.’ But that’s always been the balance — there’s the first time I’ve said that word today — therein lies the balance of Cobra Kai. You have to kind of create these fall down, scrape your hands, skin your knees, get back up, even when sometimes it would not feel completely truthful. That was always my toughest challenge in playing through the 65 episodes, is I feel he would know better but for story, we had to make him not know better in that moment, then redeem it later. So it’s a careful balance but our writers and creators have done a beautiful job, and it ends and lands in a really, really good, fun way.”

One of the standout scenes from not only the last episode, but the series overall is when all of the students, Chozen, and Daniel come out in their black Cobra Kai gis in support of Johnny Lawrence, who is fighting in the final match of the Sekai Taikai. Heald shared, “I mean, the imagery on this show is so powerful. That Cobra Kai gi carries weight with it. There are moments on the show where it first appears and you see a glimpse of it, and there’s the moment when he shows it to Miguel in the trunk of his car in season one, and we’re kind of leading up to the black gis, the tournament gis that Johnny reveals to his class at the end of season one. So it’s just always carried with it a heft, so nothing would really show visually the full support that Johnny has earned from both [of] his co-senseis, his students, and his community than them all coming out, and even if it’s for one day only, we are all Cobra Kai.”

As for the Sekai Taikai fights, there’s an extremely devastating moment where Axel, at the instruction of his co-senseis, purposely breaks Robby’s leg. Considering how the character has continually come in second and this was his chance to finally win, I had to find out the reasoning behind this decision. Schlossberg responded, “Well, it’s really difficult figuring out who’s going to win and lose when you’re rooting for everyone, and there can only be one winner at the Sekai Taikai — well, I guess one male winner, one female winner. But I think with Robby, we just liked the story of him coming in second but being okay with it because it shows all the development that he had as a character and his strength of will compared to his father, who we saw come in second at the end of The Karate Kid and then go on a downward spiral. When we met Robby at the beginning of the series, he’s a troubled kid, even in a worse place than when we met Johnny in The Karate Kid and so, we just love the idea of showing the audience that, hey, you know what, you could end just like Johnny did in The Karate Kid and come in second place, and still the future looks bright, and he was the perfect vessel for that kind of message.”

However, despite the loss, Robby does get an incredible ending with Tory, the two of them starting careers in competitive karate together. “As for Tory and Robby, and their kind of happy ending together, more than sort of any characters on the show, in some ways, they felt like soulmates. I mean, they both just came from really rough starts, and had some anger to work through and lots of issues over the years, but to watch them both grow and sort of once they found each other, to be there for each other. We love that the arc this season that they had with [each other], it was like the two of them against the world, and that, obviously, had some major hiccups with the Sekai Taikai in Barcelona, but as they came back together, we thought it was important that they were there for each other in these big moments,” Hurwitz voiced. “Tory, obviously, has this big victory on the mat that’s pure, and we’re so happy for her, but to see that Robby’s hard work, as heartbreaking as it was for him to suffer that unfortunate injury and to not get that trophy, sometimes you can still move on. I think that’s the point of the series, is that it’s not about a trophy, it’s about picking yourself up. You have [a] second, third, fourth, fifth, a million chances in life to turn things around, and Robby’s going to have a happy life, and hopefully, the two of them together.”

We discussed significant moments from Part 3 of Season 6, all of the different character journeys throughout the series, and the conclusion of the Sekai Taikai.

Watch my interviews below:

All episodes of Cobra Kai are now streaming on Netflix.