Warning: SPOILERS for Cobra Kai Season 5The return of Jessica Andrews (Robyn Lively) in Cobra Kai season 5 opens the door to flashbacks showing pivotal past events in the lives of Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and his family. Jessica, who Daniel met in The Karate Kid Part III, was revealed to be the cousin of Amanda LaRusso née Steiner (Courtney Henggeler), and they grew up together in Ohio. Jessica turns out to be the one who brokered Amanda's introduction to Daniel when she moved to Los Angeles, resulting in the two of them getting married. These are flashbacks Cobra Kai now needs to show now that Jessica is established as part of the LaRusso family.
Cobra Kai has excelled at using flashbacks, and the series literally begins with Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) dreaming about the worst moment of his teenage life: losing at the 1984 All Valley Under 18 Karate Tournament to Daniel LaRusso and his crane kick. Cobra Kai has been wildly effective at weaving in flashbacks from The Karate Kid movies starring Daniel and showing young Johnny's life before he found the Cobra Kai dojo. Starting in Cobra Kai season 3, John Kreese (Martin Kove) and Terry Silver's (Thomas Ian Griffith) backstory in Vietnam was revealed, with Barrett Carnahan and Nick Marini portraying the younger Kreese and Silver. Cobra Kai season 5 also showed Chozen (Yuji Okomuto) as a young boy being trained by his uncle Sato (Akihiro Kitamura), and Cobra Kai's origin of Silver and Kreese learning the Way of the Fist in 1980 Korea from their sensei, Master Kim Sun-Yung (Don E. Lee).
However, Jessica Andrews, and the revelation that she's a part of the LaRusso family, begs for Cobra Kai season 6 to present new flashbacks about Daniel's past. For instance, if Jessica introduced Daniel to Amanda, then she must have been present at their wedding. Indeed, Jessica also knew Mr. Miyagi since The Karate Kid Part III, and she must have also attended the funeral for Daniel's sensei when he died in 2011. Jessica must also have visited LA when the LaRusso kids, Samantha (Mary Mouser) and Anthony (Griffin Santopietro), were born. These pivotal events could be fleshed out by Cobra Kai flashbacks and deepen the audiences' understanding of the LaRusso family. Of course, such flashbacks would only make sense if they serve Cobra Kai season 6's greater story, but the series has also never shied away from fan service, and seeing more of Jessica and the LaRussos' past would deliver the same thrills as other Cobra Kai flashbacks.
Why Cobra Kai Will Never Recast Mr. Miyagi In Flashbacks
It's likely, however, that Cobra Kai will never cast another actor to play Mr. Miyagi (Noriyuki "Pat" Morita) in flashbacks. The entire Karate Kid/Cobra Kai universe is dubbed the "Miyagiverse" in order of Daniel-san's beloved sensei, and Mr. Miyagi is regarded as a saintly figure. While Cobra Kai has successfully cast a younger Kreese, Terry Silver, and even a younger Sato, who was Mr. Miyagi's longtime enemy, it would be a daunting, if not impossible, task to find someone to succeed Pat Morita in the role. This would be especially true if flashbacks were about Mr. Miyagi from 1984 onward since an actor would have to literally resemble and play Mr. Miyagi the same way Pat Morita did. It's to be expected that Cobra Kai will maintain Mr. Miyagi as a sacred memory as Daniel and others knew him, and never attempt to bring Mr. Miyagi back to life via another actor.
However, Cobra Kai could easily show flashbacks to Daniel and Amanda's past before the events of the series when karate took over all of their lives. Jessica as Amanda's cousin (and Daniel's cousin-in-law) lends itself to fun flashbacks showing how Daniel and Amanda got together and started their family. And even though Mr. Miyagi was alive during that time, Cobra Kai can still be creative in flashbacks so that he's never actually seen, but the audience would get to see fun, pivotal moments leading up to the events of Cobra Kai season 6.
Cobra Kai Season 5 is streaming on Netflix.