Posted in: Netflix, TV | Tagged: cobra kai, Jon Hurwitz, Mary Mouser, Peyton List

Cobra Kai: List, Mouser, EP Hurwitz Discuss Tory's Lone Wolf Journey

Cobra Kai stars Peyton List, Mary Mouser, and EP Jon Hurwitz on why Tory Nichols might just be one of the series' biggest underdog stories.

As much as Cobra Kai's been about the redemption journey of Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka), every main character had their respective rough journey filled with obstacles to overcome to where the moral lines blurred as to how often characters found themselves at both ends of the spectrum as about everyone dabbled with being on Miyagi-Do Karate and Cobra Kai, even Johnny and his biggest rival, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio). As far as students go, there's probably no question, as Johnny would say, "Toughest nut to crack," and arguably, the series' biggest underdog story is Peyton List's Tory Nichols. Struggling to provide and care for her family in L.A., she's forced to grow up quickly, working jobs and trying to be with her ailing mother along the way. Normal is such a luxury, but she gets by not projecting any vulnerability and tapping her frustrations primarily with Cobra Kai.

Initially recruited by Johnny for his no-nonsense style, she found her slice of normal ascending the top of her class at the karate dojo, making friends there, who also go to the same high school, but also making enemies initially with Daniel's daughter Samantha LaRusso (Mary Mouser). As the two went through the gamut of battles, physically and psychologically from social status to dating, the two eventually came to understand one another being one of the last main Cobra Kai students to finally buy into Miyagi-do late in the final seasons. In season six, she was to participate in the Sekai Taikai with Miyagi-do before a breakdown made her quit the dojo and rejoin Cobra Kai under John Kreese (Martin Kove). List, Mouser, and EP & showrunner Jon Hurwitz spoke to Bleeding Cool about Tory's unexpected journey, the struggles for the actors to maintain despite their on-set friendship, how Amanda LaRusso (Courtney Henggeler) and Kreese connected when others couldn't, and why the pairing of her and Robby (Tanner Buchanan) made sense.

Cobra Kai Stars Peyton List & Mary Mouser, and EP Jon Hurwitz on Tory Nichol's Underdog Story

Bleeding Cool: Many of the younger characters evolved from rivalries to friendships. The one that stands out the most is Tory's journey, who remained so distant, even to the end, for the most part, to where none of her friends, or even her boyfriend Robby, could reach her in her suffering. Only John Kreese and Amanda LaRusso could reach her. Could you dive into the dynamic and finally come to a resolution compared to all the others?

Hurwitz: Tory was a character when she entered the show, designed to be a big, scary threat to Samantha LaRusso. Being 'Cobra Kai,' we always like to show both sides of the story, and we're grateful we have had all these seasons to get there. With her storyline over the years, Sensei Kreese, more often than not, is scheming, and he's got ulterior motives with things. With Tory, the relationships seem to have an element of purity we saw. He related to her and connected to her in certain ways. Amanda came through in unexpected ways in prior seasons as well, so as we were entering those final five episodes, we wanted to have a moment for each of those characters with Tory to help button up her storyline while she's also coming to terms with Samantha, who was her greatest rival throughout the show and her loving relationship with Robby, who in a lot of ways felt like her soul mate on the show.

Peyton, how did you navigate through the fiercely protective nature of Tory? What's been the biggest challenge for you balancing her distant nature, and if you also want to chime in, Mary, Tanner, about how you navigate that part of the relationship?

List: I didn't expect this character to be on the show until the end and doing season six. I thought I would be guest-starring on the show. To have grown Tory as this character until the final season to where she is now has been the most unexpected insane journey. She's gone through a lot.

Mouser: It's almost hard looking back at it now; I don't know that even in season two, I could have known where we'd be now and what Samantha would stand to gain and needed to learn from Tory. Looking at it now, I love the scene in the aquarium of those intermix of scenes where she's having the conversation with Devon (Oona O'Brien) and Sam interrupts. It's like that moment, too, for Samantha and Tory to have hard conversations but still talk through.

It was fun because that was as far as they had ever made it. They had made it to being friends, but having their friendship now tested is like when it was so fragile. It was fun to do, and then we had some more scenes throughout the season we've gotten to explore more, but communicating with Tory is not easy. She does not want to be open, and Sam is usually somebody who loves to throw the door open and bring somebody right in.

It was not that with Tori, which was hard for me to play. It was this fun journey we got to go on together to like finding them, being friends. We both are so friendly with each other off camera that we joked about "How it's so hard to hate you. It's so hard to hate you, then we had to like each other," and I was like, "This is ten times harder. How do I barely like you? Because I really like you, and I don't pretend to barely like you." It's been fun, but I'm so glad that both of them have learned from each other.

List: It's funny how we got one take even with Ralph, like when Ralph's episode he's directing (Episode 3, 'Sleeper') when we're outside after the sleepover. We had one take at that, so that adds a lot of the emotion and the feeling is having one shot.

Mouser: Yeah, they were like, "So we have no time left on the schedule. You guys are going to get one take each, knock it out." We were like, "Okay, sure, let's see what happens," But it made it genuine.

Season six, part three of Cobra Kai, which also stars Xolo Maridueña, Jacob Bertrand, Gianni DeCenzo, Vanessa Rubio, Thomas Ian Griffith, Alicia Hannah-Kim, Lewis Tan, and Yuji Okumoto, premieres February 13th on Netflix.

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