Nearly everyone who saw the first Karate Kid movie can recall a certain line. Neither Daniel nor Mr. Miyagi sent it. “Get him a body bag! Yeah!” screams a child wearing Cobra Kai black on the sidelines of the All Valley Tournament. The line became a symbol of popular culture. Tommy, portrayed by Rob Garrison, was the child who yelled it. The majority of people chuckled. It was cited for decades by some. Few people were aware of the story’s conclusion until much later.
Tommy never played a major role in the 1984 movie. As a member of Johnny Lawrence’s group, he was boisterous, cynical, and quick to poke fun at Daniel LaRusso when the chance presented itself. Like the majority of those Cobra Kai boys, he had a mean streak that was shaped by a dojo that valued aggression. However, he also occasionally displayed other traits. Tommy was among the first to retaliate when Kreese turned against Johnny following the tournament defeat. Most retellings ignore that detail, but it’s important.
A few of those original faces reappeared when the Cobra Kai series debuted on YouTube in 2018. In Season 2, Episode 6, Tommy made a comeback. This is the kind of episode that makes it hard to watch without getting a lump in your chest. A phone call informs Johnny Lawrence that Tommy is seriously ill, in the hospital, and running out of time. For a final day, Johnny, Bobby, and Jimmy let him loose. They are motorcyclists.
They fight in the bar. In the mountains, they set up camp. It functions as a love letter to a group of middle-aged men who were once teenage bullies but eventually turned into just regular people with regrets, cancer diagnoses, and unspoken things.
Everything lands at the scene of the campfire. Tommy, quieter than he had ever been in the 1984 movie, confesses to Johnny that he had previously harbored feelings for Ali Mills, something he had never disclosed to anyone. It’s a modest admission.
Not very dramatic. However, it bears the burden of thirty-four years of friendship and the silences that accompany such a period of time. That nite in the woods, he passes away quietly while sleeping. The ambulance shows up when the others awaken, and Tommy’s body is carried out in a body bag in a detail that feels deliberate and a little tragic. One last silent callback is given to the child who shouted that line in 1984.
At the age of 59, Rob Garrison passed away on September 27, 2019. After being hospitalized for more than a month due to kidney and liver failure, which ultimately resulted in organ failure, he died in a West Virginia hospital. The timing was startling in a way that still makes me uneasy. Shortly after the episode aired, he passed away himself. He had filmed the peaceful, dignified death of his character. The third season of the show began with a memorial card honoring him.
The campfire scene is one of Ralph Macchio’s personal favorites from the entire series, according to the actor who portrayed Daniel LaRusso in every version of the franchise. From someone who has spent forty years in this universe, that is noteworthy. Shortly after the episode aired, Garrison tweeted his gratitude to fans, saying it made him feel wonderful. Reading that now makes me feel a little uncomfortable.
It’s difficult not to think that Garrison received a fitting farewell, both in real life and in fiction. The character was at peace. The actor who portrayed him had the opportunity to witness how the audience reacted to his finest performance. That’s a big deal.
