(Spoilers for The Karate Kid spinoff Cobra Kai will be found below.)
Cobra Kai continued to crane-kick the generation gap with Season 4 in such a way that we get to see O.G. characters as squabbling, soap-opera senseis while the younger characters are the ones keeping reality (outside the dojos) together. One of those characters would be Tory Nichols (portrayed by Peyton List), who has made many bullying turns (particularly against Daniel LaRusso’s daughter, Samantha) but has worked toward redemption and nearly achieved that goal by the Season 4 finale. What’s next for Tory when Season 5 arrives?
Well that depends on how she reacts to this gut-punch.
That’s the moment when Tory realized that Terry Silver bribed an All Valley Tournament rep into making a call (against Samantha) that set her up to win that trophy. Tory thought she earned the trophy, fair and square, but if one goes back and looks at the referee calls, one was definitely iffy, and it happened so quickly that everyone let it go. Except that now, Tory probably won’t be able to let it go.
Tory’s had a rough go of things, for sure. She supports her whole family by working odd (and humiliating) jobs while, in comparison, most of her peers (other than Hawk, who lost his righteous hair) have a relatively easy time simply attending high school. She might even decide to bolt from the dojo, and if she does so, I hope this is what comes next:
Following the framing of John Kreese by super-karate-villain Terry Silver, Kreese will be stuck in jail on charges of aggravated assault and attempted murder. Silver had forced Stingray (Paul Hausser) to make these allegations against Kreese, even though Silver was the one who did the horrible deed. Tory, however, could help fix things — perhaps there’s surveillance footage, and Tory could discover it while looking for dirt against Silver? — and spring Kreese from the joint.
If this happens, it would help complete Tory’s redemption arc, and it wouldn’t seem out of the blue for this to happen. After all, Kreese is the only adult who stepped up to support Tory during her awful home life. Kreese even went to Daniel’s wife, Amanda, and told her that Tory is actually a decent person who’s been trapped in terrible circumstances. So, it would make sense for Tory to want to help Kreese defend himself against those criminal charges. Then maybe they can both put an end to Terry Silver’s reign and start a completely new dojo. Because hey, one can never have too many dojos in this show.
Netflix’s ‘Cobra Kai’ is currently streaming the first four seasons on Netflix.