The COBRA KAI Finale Almost Had One Last Shocking Twist, but It Was Ultimately Cut
Cobra Kai co-creator Jon Hurwitz just dropped an interesting behind-the-scenes reveal about the show’s finale, one that could have stirred up some speculation about the fate of Terry Silver and John Kreese.
Hurwitz shared on X that the team originally filmed a now-deleted moment for the final episode’s montage, set to “Sweet Child O’ Mine.” The intended stinger is a Valley Monthly magazine cover questioning the mysterious disappearance of Terry Silver.
“You know the final beat of the ‘Sweet Child of Mine’ montage that ends on the Sports Illustrated?” Hurwitz explained. “Well, we had the camera drift further down the newsstand to find this other magazine showing that Terry Silver’s disappearance was still a mystery in the Valley.”
Of course, viewers already saw Silver and Kreese go head-to-head in a brutal yacht showdown that ended with an epic explosion. I’m not sure how anyone one the shore would’ve missed that explosion, it would’ve been all over the news and they would’ve known pretty quick whose yacht it was.
Regardless, Hurwitz and his team did entertain the idea of one last, wildly improbable Kreese fake-out just for fun.
He said: “We even took it a step further and had Martin Kove’s hand reach in to pick up the magazine, partly for the .000001% scenario we decided we wanted to imply that Kreese was still alive, but more so just to entertain ourselves since we always joke around about how Kreese likes to fake his own death.
“Once we saw what the boat explosion looked like, that minuscule chance we’d use the footage completely disappeared.”
Ultimately, though, they opted to leave the moment on the cutting room floor. “At the end of the day, we wanted our finale to end triumphantly and with credibility—not with an absurd confirmation that somehow John Kreese survived that fiery blast.
“We wanted Johnny, Daniel, and the rest of the characters on our show to be living in a world where there was no more danger of Silver or Kreese suddenly popping up and messing with their lives again.”
Hurwitz added: “Yes, Cobra Kai Never Dies, and no, we didn’t show the bodies, so I suppose there’s no proof that both men are dead. But for the here and now, let’s live in a world where there’s actual legitimate karate peacetime in the Valley, because that’s the story we intended, and it feels so good!”
So, while Kreese and Silver’s story arcs seem to have reached their explosive conclusion, I’ve seen some fans thinking that one or both of them are still alive. But, in my opinion, there’s no way they survived that blast.