[Editor's note: The following contains spoilers for Cobra Kai Season 4.]I’ve watched The Karate Kid Part III more times than I can count. I’m well aware that Thomas Ian Griffith’s Terry Silver is a bad guy. However, I still found myself hopeful that he truly had found a better path at the beginning of Cobra Kai Season 4. But unfortunately, that doesn’t last long and those Karate Kid 3 qualities slowly reemerge. Ultimately, Terry stoops lower than ever, resorting back to manipulative and extremely brutal tactics. Even John Kreese (Martin Kove) can’t escape Terry’s wrath this time around.
After the All Valley, it’s revealed that Terry rigged the girls finals to ensure that Tory (Peyton List) gets the win over Sam (Mary Mouser), jumpstarting his effort to open Cobra Kai franchises throughout the valley. We also come to learn that Terry has no intention of seeing that dream through with Kreese as a partner as originally planned. He convinces Stingray (Paul Walter Hauser) to tell the authorities that it was Kreese who assaulted him, leading to Kreese’s arrest at the end of the season and leaving him in charge of the dojo.
With Cobra Kai Season 4 now available to stream on Netflix, I got the chance to chat with Griffith about his experience bringing Terry Silver back to the series. We discussed the backstory details he needed to justify where we find Terry at the beginning of the season and the decisions he makes throughout it. Griffith also took a moment to assess the consequences of Terry’s Season 4 actions. Can he be redeemed after what he did this season? Griffith began:
“That’s a great big question. I think that’s a question Terry asks. If Terry, what he tried to put out asking for forgiveness, came back, if what he tried to put out saying, I believe in what I’m doing in our society right now today, I can impact kids positively and give them something, a tool that they need. We may not believe in that, you may not believe in it, I may not believe in it, but Terry believes in that and if I can give them that then I’m doing something good. And that’s very important for Terry to believe that he does throughout the whole thing.”
That right there is a key point for Terry Silver, and for all of the characters in Cobra Kai for that matter. I’m a big believer that Cobra Kai’s been able to turn things around for seemingly irredeemable characters especially well because it’s made a point of justifying their poorer decisions. No, you don’t need to agree with them, but you do need to understand why they make them, and Cobra Kai’s always prioritized that. Griffith continued with that in:
“Now, is he right in that? He does go to an extreme, but I think that’s because of the background he’s had and the lack of love for a simplistic way of looking at it, but how he expresses that. But you always hope that he’s redeemable in some way. And I think he believes in his heart, not only to be redeemable, but you’re gonna be redeemed because you were going against all odds. Everyone said this is wrong, but you believed in it, you committed to it.”
Looking for more from Griffith on his return to the Karate Kid franchise? You can catch our full conversation in the video at the top of this article!