Cobra Kai season 3: Did Kreese’s girlfriend really die?

Is Kreese’s girlfriend really dead in Cobra Kai season 3?

I don’t know about you, but I always wondered what Kreese’s girlfriend or wife might look like in Cobra Kai season 3. What kind of woman would she be? Would he treat her right or would he be abusive? Was he a confirmed bachelor?

Maybe I haven’t been paying close enough attention. I still don’t know if he ever married, but one of the things we learn about Kreese in Cobra Kai season 3 is that he had a girlfriend back home when he left for Vietnam.

And, similar to how Daniel first met Ali, their relationship also started because of a fight.

The beginning of episode 2 starts as a flashback to 1965. Kreese works as a busboy in a diner. A girl, Betsy, comes in with her boyfriend, David, a football player. He’s a total jerk to Kreese, but later when Kreese is taking out the trash he sees David hit Betsy.

Quick side note here. As we all know, Martin Kove reprises his role as Kreese from The Karate Kid movies in the Cobra Kai series.  In a fun bit of casting (and also a trippy one if you think about it too long or hard), David is played by his son, Jesse Kove!

Anyway, Kreese is not about to let David treat Betsy like that. That’s not how you treat a lady. He takes David and his buddy on to show them how bullies get dealt with.

After Kreese beats David up, Betsy asks if he’s alright. He says he’s had worse. Then, since David was her ride, he asks if she needs a lift. That’s the start of their relationship.

Kreese’s girlfriend is an absolute sweetheart. When she says goodbye before he boards the bus to leave for basic training, she says she’ll be there when he gets back and makes him promise to come home to her.

When he’s deployed to Vietnam, she writes and sends pictures, and it’s clear he’s nuts about her.

But then, in episode 6, “King Cobra,” a sergeant hands Kreese’s commanding officer, Captain Turner, a red envelope. He pulls out a letter, reads it, and says, “Jesus.”

Then, he hands it back to the sergeant and says, “Not a word of this to Kreese, understood? A distraction like that could get him killed.”

We never get to see what’s written in the letter, though. We don’t know who it’s from or what it says that Captain Turner doesn’t want Kreese to know.

We find out in episode 10. Captain Turner, Kreese and the rest of their unit are captured by Vietnamese soldiers. They pull out two of the U.S. soldiers at a time and make them fight each other to the death on a plank above a pit of snakes.

Kreese blames himself for getting everybody caught, and so does Captain Turner, who’s disgusted with him. Turner is also a disgusting person who’s an “every man for himself” type. When Kreese volunteers to fight against Turner in place of one of his fellow soldiers, Turner starts the mind games.

He says he’s still got something to live for. Kreese says he does too. Turner says, “I don’t think so,” and that’s when he says Kreese’s girlfriend is dead.

Naturally, Kreese is shocked. He calls Turner a liar. Turner says a letter came right before the mission with news she had wrapped her car around a tree on her way to visit her grandma in Pasadena. He didn’t tell Kreese because he needed him focused on the mission.

But at that moment Turner needs Kreese as distracted as possible if he has any hope of overpowering Kreese and throwing him into the pit to save his own life.

But did Betsy really die?

She must have, right? When Kreese came back from Vietnam, surely he would’ve visited her grave to pay his respects, or is she actually still alive and will come back in season 4?

What do you think?