Cobra Kai

Season 3

Aftermath

1. In the end credits there is a tribute to Rob Garrison, who played Tommy, a former Cobra Kai member and Johnny's childhood friend. Tommy died from cancer in Cobra Kai: Take a Right (2019) and Garrison himself passed away on September 27, 2019 from kidney failure.
2. During the school meeting, an angry parent tells Daniel that he (Daniel) was the bully back in his school days. This is a reference to the popular fan theory that Daniel was the true antagonist of The Karate Kid (1984).
3. This is the first time where Miguel appears but has no dialogue.

Nature vs. Nurture

1. Martin Kove (John Kreese) and Jesse Kove (David, the varsity captain) are father and son in real life.
2. This is the first episode in the entire series where Sam(Mary Mouser) does not make an appearance, with the exception of being mentioned only
3. Barrett Carnahan auditioned for the roles of Kyler and Brucks before getting the role of the young John Kreese.
4. Marks the first flashback dealing with Kreese's backstory in the third season.

Now You're Gonna Pay

1. The episode title is a quote from the original movie: Johnny said it to Daniel after he and the other Cobra Kai guys chased him down and caught him at his apartment complex before beating him severely, until Mr. Miyagi jumped in to beat all of them and save him.
2. One of the newspaper job postings that Johnny circled with a question mark is for female dancers.
3. Ed Asner's final episode. Due to his death, Ed was unable to return in Season 4.
4. The sunglasses Nathaniel wears after being beat up are the same sunglasses worn by Daniel after getting a black eye from Johnny at the beach during their first fight. Daniel's mom told him to take the glasses off so she could see his eyes.

The Right Path

1. The cheer being performed by the cheerleaders is the same one from The Karate Kid (1984).
2. Kumiko (Tamlyn Tomita) is making her first appearance in the The Karate Kid 'universe' since Karate Kid II (her only other appearance). It was said in The Karate Kid Part III with Daniel stating at the beginning of the film that Kumiko was offered a dancing career in Tokyo that she could not refuse, much to Daniel and his mother's disappointment. They had formed a romantic relationship in Part II.
3. Kumiko (Tamlyn Tomita) refers to no other man tried to fight to the death for her, a reference to the fight at the end of The Karate Kid Part II which Daniel won after Kumiko was first taken hostage at a village celebration by the villain Chozen, who threatened Daniel to a fight to the death.
4. While Daniel and Kumiko are catching up over tea, she mentions seeing the Cranberries in concert in 1995 and lists a few songs the band performed, including "Dreams". This Cranberries song was used in The Next Karate Kid (1994), while Julie was practicing kata at the temple.
5. Sam leaves school after being punished saying "This school sucks" her father did exactly the same many years before, saying "This school sucks" when he was scolded after a fight with Bobby.
6. The Moody Blues song "Rock n' Roll Over You" is sampled in this episode.
7. When Daniel hold a meeting at the Doyona headquarters, above him is the company's logo in Katakana. The first two letters strongly resemble that of Toyota.
8. During the soccer game Hawk scores a goal and celebrates it in exactly the same way as the portuguese soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo.
9. Robby officially meets Kreese for the first time at the end of this episode.
10. First anticipated appearances of Tamlyn Tomita and Yuji Okumoto as Kumiko and Chozen, respectively.

Miyagi-Do

1. The flashback at the start featuring footage from The Karate Kid Part II (1986) features a snippet of never before seen footage when Daniel replies "I know" to Myagi. This part of the scene was not in the feature film version.
2. Amanda LaRusso calls John Kreese "Rambo". Martin Kove, who plays John Kreese, appeared in Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) as Ericson.
3. The scene where Johnny lies about Miguel being a "Make-A-Wish" child to get into a Dee Snider concert has a real-life parallel to a 20/20 news story relating to allegations of misuse of the Make-A-Wish foundation, including one incident that claimed two teenagers manipulated a sick prepubescent child to enable them to attend a Twisted Sister concert, which had Snider as its vocalist, with her under the same kind of false pretense.
4. When Daniel enters Chozen's dojo, the magical shrine from the animated series The Karate Kid (1989) can be seen displayed on a shelf.
5. In the jail-time visit scene between Robbie Lawrence and John Kreese, John Kreese talks about Johnny Lawrence in his first tournament losing to Vidal. Vidal is actually a reference to real life black belt karate expert Darryl Vidal in the original film. Also Darryl Vidal starred as a self-named character (simply as 'Vidal') in the original movie. He was the losing semi-finalist to Johnny Lawrence in the All Valley 1984 tournament, you'll see his name up on the competition progress boards. Darryl Vidal was also Pat Morita's stunt double doing the crane kick on the beach scene in the original film.
6. One of the Cobra Kai group, Mitch, offers to his colleagues a "warm beer" which the rest chastise him for. This is also a reference to the original movie where when the Cobra Kai gang rides in on to the beach party, one of them turns and offers similar to the rest of the group.
7. When Johnny checks his Facebook Friend requests, all of the Friend requests are from crew members that worked on the series, except for Ali.
8. Reunites characters from The Karate Kid Part II (1986): Kumiko, Chozen, and Yuna.
9. This episode marks the first time Amanda visits the Cobra Kai dojo, and the first interaction between her and Kreese.

King Cobra

1. When confronting Kreese in his dojo, Amanda sarcastically mocks him, calling him Rambo. Martin Kove appeared in Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985).
2. When Armand Zakarian agrees to the deal with Daniel and Amanda, he says "I love the double-dip." The actor who plays Armand, Ken Davitian, happens to own a restaurant called 'The Dip.'
3. In The Karate Kid Part III, Terry Silver wore his hair in a ponytail. This was possibly a tribute to the character of Ponytail, introduced in this episode.
4. "Ponytail" was written in as a red herring. His resemblance to Thomas Ian Griffith was meant to trick audiences into thinking he was Terry Silver when it is actually "Twig" who is Silver.

Obstáculos

1. The title of this episode is Spanish for "obstacles"

The Good, The Bad, and the Badass

1. The first time in the entire Karate Kid franchise that Kreese is shown wearing a gi with sleeves.
2. In the scene in which the three heads of the competing dojos (Johnny Lawrence, Daniel Larusso and Kreese) are making their case to reverse the cancellation judgement on the All Valley tournament, when the three are sitting down together there is a young man wearing glasses sitting behind Johnny Lawrence. This young man is actually Daniel Macchio, the real life son of Ralph Macchio (who plays Daniel Larusso), whom he had named in honour of his character from the original movie. He is making a brief non-speaking appearance.
3. Title is a clear nod to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966).
4. Miguel's first time visiting the Miyagi-Do dojo and Robby's first time visiting the Cobra Kai dojo.

Feel the Night

1. The snake is actually not a Chinese Cobra. It's a Black Rat Snake, indigenous to North America.
2. Sam says it's not 1984. 1984 was the year the original Karate Kid film was released
3. When Johnny receives the Facebook message from Ali, the message list shows that he's also friends with Shane Keller and Mallory Yund. Both Keller and Yund are producers on Cobra Kai.
4. Mrs. Mills is the first character to return from the original franchise who is not portrayed by the original actor, Sharon Spelman.
5. The song "Feel The Night" by Baxter Robinson plays during Johnny and Ali's date at Golf 'N' Stuff. This is the same song used for Daniel and Ali's first date in the original film.In the version of the song used in the original film, Robinson sings the song with Lisa Nemzo. In this episode, the version of the song used features Robinson singing alone.
6. Daniel and Miguel officially meet each other and interact for the first time ever in this episode.
7. This episode marks the third time in the series where Miguel has visited the LaRusso home, but the first time he's actually been inside their house. His first visit was in season 1, episode 8, where he was seen going around the back of the house, and his second visit was in season 2, episode 7 when he went to return Mr. Miyagi's Medal of Honor.

December 19

1. The title is a reference to the date of the All Valley Karate Championships in the original The Karate Kid (1984).
2. Tory is wearing a skeleton-decorated outfit, similar to the one that Johnny and his "gang" wore in the '84 movie.
3. This is the first episode in the whole series to be over 40 minutes
4. During the Christmas party, Johnny warns a waiter to watch where he is going, as he is wearing a white jacket and the waiter is carrying a tray of pasta. This is a callback to a scene in The Karate Kid (1984), when Daniel ran into the country club's kitchen and bumped a waiter, drenching himself in marinara sauce.
5. When Ali (Elisabeth Shue) and Johnny (William Zabka) leave the club, Ali says: 'Thanks for making me feel like a kid again' to which Johnny replies: 'We had our own little time machine'. This may be a nod to 'Back to the Future part II' in which Elisabeth Shue portrays both teenage and middle aged Jennifer Parker. It could also be a nod to the movie "Hot Tub Time Machine", where Billy Zabka appeared in a small role.
6. In the entirety of the Karate Kid franchise this is the first time that Daniel and Kreese have gone head to head.
7. Thomas Ian Griffith had stated that despite the reference to his character, Terry Silver, he will not be appearing in Cobra Kai. In May 2021, it was confirmed that he will be reprising the role in season four further fueling rumors that fans believed this was intended as deliberate misdirection.
8. The young man who thanks Kreese after being freed is Terry Silver, his friend from The Karate Kid Part III (1989). He is the man Kreese is calling.
9. During the final fight Johnny and Daniel both act according to their teachings. Johnny strikes first and hard. It's only when he gets distracted by Robbie that Kreese achieves the upper hand, which is the exact warning Kreese gave him in the dojo during The Karate Kid (1984). Daniel's first action is to save Johnny. Every blow Daniel lands afterwards is only in defense to Kreese's moves. He is stopped by his daughter before he has a chance to attack the helpless Kreese.
10. While Thomas Ian Griffith has stated he won't reprise Terry Silver in the upcoming season, some fan speculation has led to the possibility of Sean Kanan reprising Mike Barnes. Unlike Griffith, Kanan has publicly mentioned his interest in reprising the character and makes frequent references to the show on his social media platforms.