Samantha’s defeat at All Valley in Cobra Kai Season 4 is even more painful for Daniel LaRusso, who was at rock bottom after the Miyagi-Do defeat.
Warning: SPOILER for Cobra Kai Season 4.
Samatha LaRusso (Mary Mouser) did not win Cobra Kai Season four All Valley Karate Tournament, but her failure is worse for her father Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio). “The Soul of the San Fernando Valley” was at stake in Cobra Kai’s season four All Valley tournament. Daniel and Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) put their lifelong rivalry aside and join their dojos to stop Cobra Kai and their senseis John Kreese (Martin Kove) and Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith). But according to the bet Lawrence and LaRusso made with Kreese, the losing dojo would have to close its doors forever.
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Daniel is not used to defeating Kai in The Karate Kid / Cobra saga. LaRusso has always been the protagonist of the franchise, particularly in the The Karate Kid trilogy of films about Daniel-san and his late sensei Mr. Miyagi (Noriyuki “Pat” Morita). Whether at the All Valley tournament or fighting for his life in Okinawa in The Karate Kid Part II, LaRusso usually wins in the end – and he’s got used to it. When Johnny’s protégé Miguel Diaz (Xolo Maridueña) defeated Daniel’s student (and Johnny’s son) Robby Keene (Tanner Buchanan) in season one of Cobra Kai, it was the first time LaRusso suffered a defeat in the saga, and it doubled his Determination, Cobra Kai. Although he made up his Johnny and filled their dojos with capable young students, the fight against Cobra Kai has gotten tougher, not easier, and the stakes have increased significantly.
Sam’s loss of the very first All Valley Girls’ Karate Championship to her archenemy Tory Nichols (Peyton List) on season four of Cobra Kai had a far greater impact on Daniel. Aside from the fact that Sam’s failure meant Samatha would not continue LaRusso’s legacy of becoming the All Valley Champion, Daniel had to experience the pain of seeing his beloved daughter Sam defeated in the All Valley. Also, Daniel had finally accepted that his path “isn’t the only way,” and he encouraged Sam to combine Miyagi-Do’s style with Johnny’s offensive Eagle Fang methods to create their own system against Tory. While Daniel did not know that Terry Silver had bribed the umpire to get the fight in Nichols’ favor, at the moment it was a stinging rebuke that Sam lost despite using both methods of the dojo. When Sam cried they “got it right” and lost anyway, and Daniel has no answer as to why.
Miyagi-Do’s defeat in All Valley also meant Miyagi-Do had to close. But Daniel decided at Mr. Miyagi’s grave that he was going to break the agreement he and Johnny had made with Kreese. Although LaRusso is right that Cobra Kai’s Senseis Silver and Kreese have “no honor”, he also dishonored himself by not adhering to the pact he had made and by recruiting his “karate cousin” Chozen Toguchi (Yuji Okumoto), to be with him in Cobra. Fighting Kai Season 5. How Miyagi-san would think of Daniel-san’s decision to get out of his deal will never be known, but at one level it feels like LaRusso is betraying a fundamental tenet of Miyagi-Do in order to continue the war against Cobra Kai.
During Cobra Kai, Daniel-san measured his skills and progress as a sensei against Mr. Miyagi, who was and is the Karate Kid franchise’s gold standard for wisdom and always knows what to do. LaRusso sincerely tried to impart Miyagi-Do’s knowledge to his students using the methods Miyagi-san had taught him. But Daniel still feels like a failure, especially when compared to how Miyagi-san somehow had the right answer to every problem they encountered together in the Karate Kid films. Losing in the All Valley, Sam confirmed Daniel’s worst fears that he is a failure compared to Miyagi-san and in the eyes of his beloved Sensei. While Miyagi-san would never see Daniel-san like this Cobra Kai Season 4 left the defeated LaRusso at its lowest level since he first became the Karate Kid in 1984.
Cobra Kai Season 4 is streamed on Netflix.
About the author
John Orquiola
(2034 articles published)
John Orquiola is a features writer who has been with Screen Rant for the past four years. He began as an assistant director on various independent films. A lover of film and film theory, John wrote humorous film reviews on his blog Back of the Head that caught his attention from Screen Rant. John happily became the Star Trek guy at Screen Rant, directing feature coverage of the various Star Trek series, but he also writes on a wide range of topics from the Marvel Cinematic Universe to Cobra Kai. His other big nerdy loves are British TV series like The Crown, Downton Abbey and Killing Eve. John can be found on Twitter @BackoftheHead for photos of his meal.
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