Tommy appears in one Cobra Kai episode. One. And for some reason, it is more difficult to develop than most storylines that take several seasons. The show takes a break from its teenage drama in Season 2, Episode 6, “Take a Right,” to check in on a group of middle-aged men who were once the bad guys. What it discovers there is something more subdued and poignant than any tournament fight the series has ever staged.
Tommy had cancer, which is the straightforward explanation for his illness. cancer that is terminal. Tommy is already in a hospital bed when Cobra Kai Season 2 picks him up; he has clearly changed from the confident young man who once yelled, “Get him a body bag!” at the 1984 All Valley Tournament. When his options run out, Johnny Lawrence, Bobby Brown, and Jimmy show up and do what old friends sometimes do: they let him go for a final motorcycle ride up to Big Bear Lake. No hospital gowns, no doctors, no fluorescent hallways. Only the mountains and those who knew him back then.
It’s probably the right decision for the episode to avoid dwelling on the specifics of his illness. The cancer is practically irrelevant. The scene actually depicts a group of people sitting around a fire, aware that their time together is running out, and making the most of what little time they have left. In that campfire talk, Tommy reveals something the show had never previously discussed: he had feelings for Ali in high school, but he let them go when Johnny started dating her. In part, he joined Cobra Kai in order to become closer to Johnny. Even now, decades later, he is the one who, when things get too serious, deflects with a joke.
Overnight, he passes away. He was sleeping soundly in the woods with his friends close by. Tommy zips into a body bag in the last scene, which is a direct reference to the line that summed up his entire presence in the franchise. It’s as gentle an exit as the show can write, but there’s also a tiny, purposeful cruelty. That one was well earned by the writers.
What transpired a few months later adds complexity to the narrative. Tommy’s actor, Rob Garrison, passed away on September 27, 2019, at the age of 59 from liver and kidney failure rather than cancer. Before his organs failed, he had been in the hospital for roughly a month. Fans who had just watched “Take a Right” on YouTube Premium assumed, understandably but incorrectly, that Tommy’s death was pre-written as a tribute to Garrison, who had fallen ill during filming.
This was directly addressed by William Zabka. Zabka clarified that Garrison was in good health during the filming of that episode. He was full of energy, eager to return and give Tommy a fitting farewell. The sickness developed later. There might be a subtle poetic quality to the way it transpired—Garrison had the opportunity to record his final performance as Tommy, end the role with honor, and leave it with a sense of accomplishment. He had no idea that it would also be his final act.
Garrison worked as a restaurant manager and performed in local theater in Wheeling, West Virginia, for the majority of his career outside of Hollywood. Although it wasn’t his primary source of income, the Karate Kid role was important to him. Long after most actors would have moved on, he maintained ties to that fan base. The first episode of Cobra Kai Season 3 is dedicated to him.
With all of that background, there’s a sense that “Take a Right” has more significance than it was intended to. Tommy’s cancer narrative was created as a way to end a chapter and provide Johnny and his old pals with a special time together. Without anyone’s intention, it changed into something else.
