'Cobra Kai' finale: Tanner Buchanan, Mary Mouser on the evolution of their characters throughout Netflix hit

Yahoo

13-02-2025

It's the end of an era with the release of Cobra Kai Season 6, Part 3 on Thursday, the conclusion of one of Netflix's most successful shows. With Part 2 of the final season ending with a catastrophic death at the Sekai Taikai in Barcelona, each character is dealing with the aftermath of that traumatic competition.
But with that comes real growth for the show's characters in this chapter in the Karate Kid franchise. A particularly moving moment comes when Samantha "Sam" LaRusso (Mary Mouser), daughter of Ralph Macchio's Daniel LaRusso, and Peyton List's character, Tory Nichols, share an emotional and heartwarming moment together, re-establishing their friendship.
Sam and Tory have not always seen eye-to-eye, and were closer to mortal enemies than friends, but these kick-ass karate girls satisfyingly come together to end the show.
"I've been so grateful for the journey that Sam and Tory have gotten to go on. I'm so happy that they're finally in a place where they can have a sit down conversation at all, much less a conversation about their friendship, much less a conversation about the growth that they both endured," Mary Mouser told Yahoo Canada. "I think they built each other up as these enemies in each other's minds for so long and I know, on my side at least, ... realizing how much there was to learn from Tory for Sam is so cool to now see them, literally, legitimately, sharing tips, and being able to be a good listener to one another."
"It's one thing to talk at somebody, but it's something else to actually sit in and really let someone else tell you how to be, how to fight, how to live your life, do things that you feel confident you already know how to do. To open yourself up in that way is really powerful, and I was so grateful for it."
While this conversation happens in Episode 12 of Season 6, the second episode of the Part 3 release, the episodes were shot out of order, making this scene among the last that Mouser filmed for the show.
"That moment was so powerful. To get to spend that [time] with Peyton, and with Samantha and Tory, and what felt like kind of the beginning of Sam's karate arc ending with Tory, was really special," Mouser said.
But there's no denying that one of the characters with the most significant arc in Cobra Kai has been Tanner Buchanan's Robby Keene. From his strained relationship with his father Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and general parental neglect, to his rivalry with Miguel Diaz (Xolo Maridueña), he's come a long way since that first season.
"We all grew up with our characters, so it's been fun to even take some of his own lessons that he's learned along the way, and kind of incorporate them in my own life," Buchanan said. "And try and figure out what the right thing is to do as you're growing up and becoming an adult, and what your life is going to look like, and how to kind of execute it."
"It's been fun to play around with it and I'm lucky enough to have Josh [Heald], Jon [Hurwitz] and Hayden [Schlossberg] write such an intricate, fun character to play."
While the wild ride of the Cobra Kai Netflix series has come to an end, there's no doubting the show has given us robust character development throughout all six seasons, set to make fans miss all these beloved characters.