Sam and Miguel seem to get back together at the end of Cobra Kai season 3, but ultimately, their relationship is doomed to fail; however, their inevitable breakup is not necessarily a bad thing. A lot of the show’s drama has centered around the rotating relationship pairings of Sam, Miguel, Tory, and Robby. That will likely continue into season 4, but while Sam and Miguel seem to have patched things up for the moment, they likely won’t last.
About midway through Cobra Kai season 1, Sam LaRusso and Miguel Diaz started dating. Miguel was struggling to find his place in a new school full of bullies, and Sam was trying to balance her new life in the popular crowd with her old group of friends. Both looking for acceptance and support, the two got together in what appeared to be a positive, encouraging relationship. However, a series of disagreements over Robby and Sam’s friendship and Cobra Kai’s brutal style of karate caused them to split up.
After spending two seasons circling each other, Sam and Miguel got back together at the end of season 3. But will it last this time? If past Karate Kid stories are any indication, the answer is no. Miguel and Sam’s relationship has mirrored Daniel LaRusso and Ali Mills’ from the first two Karate Kid movies in a few key ways. Ali started dating Daniel after rebounding from her more toxic relationship with Johnny, just as Sam started dating Miguel after rebounding from a toxic relationship with Kyler. The ex-boyfriends in both stories were also the main bullies – just as Daniel started dating Ali while feuding with Johnny, Miguel started dating Sam while training to fight back against Kyler.
Of course, that rocky foundation didn’t up well for Ali and Daniel. Their relationship was built on a mutual desire for acceptance and a shared dislike for Johnny, rather than a genuine, wholesome interest in one another. Because Sam and Miguel’s relationship is based on a similar foundation – a reaction to how they were being treated by other people – they too may be doomed to fall apart all over again. Cobra Kai has traded heavily in parallelism with the original Karate Kid movies, which suggests Sam and Miguel’s relationship isn’t made to last.
That might not be such a bad thing, however. Relationship drama has been a primary source of conflict on Cobra Kai, so continued relationship turmoil between the two leads makes sense from a storytelling perspective. Furthermore, a breakup also doesn't mean the end of Miguel and Sam having a relationship — Daniel and Ali managed to stay friends in adulthood after acknowledging why they didn’t work romantically. The things about Sam and Miguel’s relationship that do work – their mutual respect and shared values – are things that can thrive in a friendship, but which may not be enough to support a long-term romantic relationship. If the two do follow Daniel and Ali’s story and break up again, they’ll hopefully do it for the right reasons and maintain a strong friendship through the rest of Cobra Kai.