A ‘Cobra Kai’ Actor Opened Up About Why Their Character Went To The Dark Side

(Spoilers will be found below, so beware.)

Cobra Kai released the first third of the final season last week, and as viewers now know, a high-ranking member of Miyagi-do has now reteamed with former Cobra Kai terror-sensei, John Kreese. He’s back on the scene after springing himself from prison, although the show doesn’t dwell on whether he was fully exonerated by Stingray’s retracted accusations following Terry Silver’s arrest.

Maybe we’ll hear more about those details in the future, but for now, we’ve seen that Kreese is training a new dojo and having hallucinations in the woods, although he did take time out to visit Tory. He tried to sway her back into his fold, and she wasn’t having it, given her knowledge that Kreese had fixed her victory (by bribing a ref) a few seasons prior at the All Valley Tournament. However, the end of Season 6, Episode 5 shows that Tory decided to attend the Sekai Taikai international tournament on the dark side. What prompted this decision? Collider’s Perri Nemiroff asked for clarification on what “Tory thinks she can get from Kreese that she can’t get from the people around her who clearly love her so much,” and here’s how actress Peyton List responded:

PEYTON LIST: That’s a really good question. I think what she can get from him is being his number one, and she can’t be anyone else’s number one.

TANNER BUCHANAN: Just throwing Robby under the bus on that one.

LIST: [Laughs] An authority figure!

That part of the season wasn’t handled in the most nuanced way. Tory had revealed mid-sparring that her mother had passed away, and both Daniel and Johnny decided that the fighting should end because Tory was clearly working something out on Samantha. Tory then stomped off, and nobody went after her, which makes zero sense in the context of Miyagi-do, and Tory apparently never even touched base with her boyfriend, Robby, about her decision to rejoin with Kreese. Generally, Cobra Kai manages to overcome story blips like these due to the show’s heightened sense of reality, but Tory’s actions remained puzzling, until now, that is. Hopefully, more texture will arrive regarding that heartbreaking decision when the show returns in November.

(Via Collider )