Cobra Kai season 3: Ralph Macchio reveals the backup plan for that big spoiler

So, now that Snake Kai The third season is being broadcast on YouTube, we can talk about This one scene, can’t we? If we give a big spoiler warning first.

[Ed. note: This post contains major spoilers for Cobra Kai season 3.]

Let’s even throw in John Kreese’s original, ridiculous photo in his Special Forces costume (it was hanging in front of the original dojo in the 1984 movie) to make sure his eyes don’t accidentally miss a key word or two.

Actor Martin Kove tweeted this in May 2018, before the premiere of the first season.

Okay, are we all okay?

Snake KaiThe big reward for season 3 is, yes, Elisabeth Shue, like Ali Mills, returns to the Valley. The openings that the show’s writers and original co-stars of Shue made to bring her back have provided fans with a charming meta-cliffhanger in the first two seasons. Season 2 ended with Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) throwing his cell phone on the beach, unaware that Ali (now Dr. Ali Mills Schwarber) had accepted his friend request on Facebook and contacted him again.

Still, at the time, there was no public commitment from Shue to return to the world of The Karate Kid. At a media roundtable in early December, Ralph Macchio (Daniel LaRusso) said he did not know that his former co-star would return until he received the scripts for season 3.

“There was an alternative plan if it was not available,” said Macchio. “When did we find out? I think it was happening during the filming of season 3, it was about, you know, the logistical side of it, at least from my perspective. I think I found out when I got the scripts, actually, how it was going to be. “

Leon Bennett / Getty Images Photo

The alternative plot, said Macchio, would be that Ali’s inner husband was the only one responding to Johnny. “That was the setback, the ‘how do we aspire to get out of the room’ of what we write,” said Macchio, “who would be her husband doing the comings and goings on Facebook with Johnny.”

Much to the relief of the actors and writers, however, this became unnecessary. Shue / Ali returns to her childhood home for the holidays, recently (but amicably) separated from her husband in Colorado. She reconnects with Johnny (just as he rekindled things with Carmen, Miguel’s mother, no less) the way old school friends do during the holidays. Then she invites him to the Christmas party at the Encino Oaks Country Club, of which Daniel is also a member. The two rivals sit down for a quiet dinner (the third together in this series) full of reminiscences.

That’s right. The story does not give Shue a central role, nor does his appearance really alter the story. In addition to the fan service, it has a more subtle influence on Snake Kaidialogue of. It represents the view that Johnny and Daniel, both, are good guys and bullies; both can be thoughtful and altruistic, and both are your worst enemies. In other words, she is speaking for the fans.

The first two seasons of Snake Kai I tried, with varying success, to present this idea, but it really needed Ali’s return to do that job. For Johnny and Daniel, being their boyfriend was the only good thing they had in common.

I was afraid that, in establishing Ali’s post-Valley life as a pediatric surgeon since the first season, the writers would try something exaggerated, like making Ali the doctor who helps Miguel walk again. That would have been a mistake; connecting Daniel and Johnny in a downturn the third time was the right touch. In the end, it is what the fans wanted, for these two to stop fighting and finally collapse and become friends.

Cobra Kai season 3 is streaming on Netflix now.