12 things we learn about John Kreese in Cobra Kai season 3

Who is John Kreese? We learn a lot about his backstory in Cobra Kai season 3

Was John Kreese always so awful? Or did something happen that made him so vile?

Johnny Lawrence was the primary antagonist in The Karate Kid, but there was another one too: his sensei, Kreese. It wasn’t until I watched Cobra Kai on Netflix, however, that I realized the two share something else in common: the same first name.

But that’s not all they have in common. In Cobra Kai season 3 we learn more about who John Kreese is and why he is the way he is.

Here are 12 things we learn about Kreese that gives us a better understanding of him. The first three of which we learn within the first minute of Cobra Kai season 3’s second episode.

What we learned about John Kreese and his backstory in Cobra Kai season 3

1. John Kreese was once a busboy

Episode 2 opens at a diner in the San Fernando Valley in 1965. A guy wearing a letterman’s jacket and driving a convertible pulls up. Two people are with him, one of his buddies and his girlfriend, Betsy.

We immediately learn two things about the guy in the jacket: one, he’s a football player, and two, he’s a jerk. He purposely bumps into one of the busboys as he walks in. That’s why it’s easy to at first assume that’s Kreese in his younger days.

However, our first clue that it’s not is when a recruiter for the U.S. Army stops by the trio’s table. He drops off a brochure and encourages them to enlist for Vietnam. After the recruiter walks away, the guy in the letterman’s jacket crumples it up and throws it on the floor behind him.

The busboy he bumped into picks it up and looks it over until his manager yells, “Kreese! Tables are not going to bus themselves! Get back to work!”

2. John Kreese, the bullied freak

When the trio first sits down in the diner, the busboy comes to put silverware on their table. The football player’s girlfriend smiles at him, which provokes the jock to ask, “What are you looking at?” He then adds, “Loser.”

When the busboy walks away, the jock’s friend leans in and says, “He’s the one whose mom killed herself.”

The jock scoffs and says, “Explains why he’s such a freak.”

Then when Kreese is walking by their table with dirty dishes, the jock sticks his foot out and trips Kreese, causing everyone to laugh at him.

Am I the only one who thought it was a shocking twist to learn that Kreese had ever been picked on?

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