Cobra Kai

Season 2

Mercy Part II

1. When Aisha tells Samantha that she can't hang out because several members of Cobra Kai are watching a movie at Hawk's house, she is referencing Sylvester Stallone's 1987 film "Over the Top," a movie about a professional arm wrestler named Lincoln Hawk, an obvious reference to her friend's nickname.
2. When John Kreese pushes Johnny Lawrence into the mirror and breaks it, this resembles the scene in The Karate Kid Part III, when Mr Miyagi pushes Terry into the mirror and breaks it.
3. When Kreese mentions fighting all over the world he could be referring to his character on Rambo 2

Back in Black

1. During the opening scene, Daniel is seen adjusting portraits of Miyagi-Do karate Sensei. The portrait seen just before Mr. Miyagi is the founder of Goju-Ryu karate-do; Chojun Miyagi. An in-joke for karate historians.
2. When Robby & Samantha first get on the wooden platform in the pond they are supposed to be balancing each other out. Yet when they perform their moves, they are opposite to each other, but to the same side of the platform, including when they turn to the side. This move would unbalance the platform, as both of their weight is now on 1 side of the platform, despite this, the platform does not tip to the side.
3. Before he starts training Sam and Robby, Daniel mentions that it's been a long time since there's been more than one Miyagi-Do student. He could very well be referring to Julie Pierce from the Next Karate Kid (1994).
4. The scene where Cobra Kai students are in the concrete truck is not accurate. Inside the tumbler of a concrete truck, there are fins that move the concrete out if spun one direction and mix the concrete if spun in the other. If that were a real concrete truck he would have these fins.

Fire and Ice

1. The scene where Cobra Kai outdoes Daniel's demonstration is a homage to Revenge of the Nerds and the famous carnival skit battle.
2. Johnny tells Miguel Robbie was born in 2002. This would make Robbie about 16 years old.
3. When Johnny is making his commercial for Cobra Kai and says that his students will learn the way of the fist, this is an obvious reference to Bruce Lee's 1972 martial arts film "Way of the Dragon."

The Moment of Truth

1. The episode is titled after Survivor's song from the soundtrack of The Karate Kid (1984).
2. When Tory introduces herself as "Tory.... with a Y", this is a callback to the Karate Kid, where Alli introduces herself as "Alli... with an I."
3. Whether intentionally or not, in the spirit of the 1980's nostalgia, Facts of Life icon Kim Fields (playing a member of the beach club) has a cameo.
4. First appearance of Tory Nichols (Peyton List).
5. The title of this episode in Portuguese, "A Hora da Verdade", is the sub-title of the first Karate Kid movie in Brazil: "Karatê Kid - A Hora da Verdade"
6. The french title of the 3rd movie of the serie is Karate Kid : Le moment de vérité, translates to The moment of truth, the title of this episode.

All In

1. "No Shelter" playing during the chase scene in this episode was also playing when Johnny and gang were chasing Daniel after the Halloween dance in The Karate Kid.
2. According to Robby's driver's license, his middle name is Swayze, a reference to the late actor, Patrick Swayze. Ralph Macchio starred alongside Swayze in The Outsiders.

Take a Right

1. Chad McQueen was offered the chance to reprise his role of Dutch, but he turned it down. In order to explain his absence, Dutch was written as being in prison.
2. Not only was Rob Garrison in the original Karate Kid as one of Johnny's friends, but he was also in Iron Eagle, which is Johnny's favorite movie.
3. Ron Thomas, who played Cobra Kai member Bobby Brown, is a Sensai in real life and a former world martial art champion.
4. The episode title is taken from a scene in The Karate Kid (1984), when the Cobra Kai gang rode their bikes at the beach and Tommy told Johnny to look over the right side where Ali and Daniel were at a campfire.
5. According to this episode, the events in Karate Kid Part III take place during 1985.
6. Tony O'Dell (Jimmy) had more lines in this episode than his character had in The Karate Kid.
7. Rob Garrison (Tommy) was dying in real life (and in fact passed away on September 27, 2019), so his character was written into the show as losing his battle with cancer and would die near the end.
8. In the The Karate Kid, while Daniel and Johnny are in the finals match, Tommy yells "Get him a body bag", and this episode ends with Tommy being put in a body bag.
9. In real life, actor Gianni DeCenzo, knows Krav Maga, yet his character, Demetri, has no talent.
10. After Tommy's death from cancer, The Queen song "Show Must Go On" plays: this is fitting because it was recorded while Freddie Mercury was dying.
11. This is the first episode in the series to show an on-screen death of a character.

Lull

1. Kreese (Martin Kove) says that the picture of him during the Vietnam war was taken by a friend. He's possibly talking about Terry Silver, who was his comrade during the war and fellow antagonist in Karate Kid 3.

Glory of Love

1. This episode is titled after the song by Peter Cetera, which was the theme from The Karate Kid Part II (1986).
2. In the episode intro, not only did they use the Whitesnake song "Here I Go Again" but the famously sexy video (that had starred singer David Coverdale and Tawny Kitaen) is parodied with Johnny (who loves 80's glam metal) and Carmen.
3. Daniel's mother, Lucille, says "I made you some breakfast: bacon and eggs. I even bought you the Minute Maid because I know you hate the fancy stuff," and Daniel laughs. This is an in-joke reference to the first Karate Kid movie: when that was shot, Columbia Pictures was owned by the Coca-Cola Corporation, which often insisted that its products had to be placed into Columbia movies. Ralph Macchio disliked having to shill their drinks in the film and found it especially awkward that the script called for him to say "Minute Maid" instead of just "orange juice" in one scene.
4. The song "You're the Inspiration" by Chicago plays in the car while Daniel talks his wife. The song is sung by Peter Cetera, who also sang the song "Glory of Love" from Karate Kid 2.
5. Paul Walter Hauser and Alex Collins were both in the Clint Eastwood film Richard Jewell (2019)
6. Miguel is wearing the same red Cobra Kai jacket that Johnny wore in the original Karate Kid movie.

Pulpo

1. During the dinner scene, Daniel and Johnny talk about the blueberry pie incident, which was actually a deleted scene from the original 1984 film.
2. Pulpo is the Spanish word for octopus, possibly referring to the stuffed octopus Sam won on her first date with Miguel in season 1, as she takes it out of a closet right before going to a party with Robby.
3. During the party scene, Stingray can been seen with two malt liquor bottles duct tape to his hands. This is a game called Edward 40 Hands, from How I Met Your Mother, of which William Zabka (Johnny Lawrence) is featured in Season 8 and 9.

No Mercy

1. The book Sam is holding in class is "The Outsiders." Ralph Macchio (Daniel) starred in The Outsiders (1983). His character was coincidentally called Johnny.
2. Cruel Summer by Bananarama was played on the first day of school in The Karate Kid as well.
3. Stingray tries for get a job as a security guard at the high school the kids attend. Paul Walter Hauser played real life security guard Richard Jewel in the Clint Eastwood picture Richard Jewel (2019).
4. Paul Walter Hauser's character, "Stingray," was interviewing for a security job at the high school and the interviewer asked if he had ever worked security before. Paul Walter Hauser played Richard Jewell who was the security guard at the Atlanta Olympics considered to be the hero during the Centennial Olympic Park bombing.
5. Moon (Hannah Kepple) says, "Can't we all just get along?" It's a misquoted reference to Rodney King from the 1992 L.A. Riots, when he said, "Can we all just get along?"
6. Mary Mouser injured her hand and missed almost an entire day of filming, meaning the entire filming schedule had to be rearranged so that all of the sequences not involving Sam could be filmed in her absence and everything she was needed for would instead be filmed the following day. Mary initially wanted to fight through the pain and continue shooting, only for one of the directors to insist on giving her the rest of the day off so that she could go to the hospital and get it treated properly, even though this meant the entire cast and crew would have to adjust at the last minute and film huge chunks of the fight with limited preparation.
7. At the end of the episode, Aisha isn't seen training with Kreese and the other Cobra Kai students. Nichole Brown who plays her, posted on Instagram in September 2019, that she wouldn't be returning for season 3 stating that "They couldn't find a place to put me [in the scripts]. It's likely that her absence will be put down to her turning her back on Karate following Miguel's serious injury during the school brawl.
8. The fighting scene in the locker hallway was shot in one take.