‘Cobra Kai’: Vanessa Rubio Teases Expectations for Season 3 (Exclusive)

Season 3 of Cobra Kai will arrive on Netflix Friday, and fans are ready to see what happens after an intense Season 2 finale. One of the characters fans have grown to love is Carmen, played by Vanessa Rubio. PopCulture.com had a chance to catch up with Rubio, who teased what fans can expect from the third season.

“There’s so much to expect right after the end of season 2,” Rubio told PopCulture. “There’s so much to fix. There’s a lot to be repaired if it can all be repaired or some of it can be repaired. I think we are going to see a lot of that happening.”

Rubio is referring to the end of Season 2 where Carmen’s son Miguel (Xolo Mariduena) suffers a life-threatening injury after being kicked off a balcony by Robby (Tanner Buchanan). One of the final scenes of the Season 2 finale sees Carmen at the hospital with Miguel who is in a coma. It was one of the most shocking events in the series, and when Rubio first read about what was going to happen to Miguel, she got emotional.

“I was on a plane going to or from Atlanta where we shoot,” Rubio said. “I was finishing up the script and I was just bawling. Every single time I read that script, I was crying because I empathize and become so intimate with the circumstances of Carmen and that she is Miguel’s mom. That’s her baby, that’s her saving grace. Just to even read that on the printed page, I was destroyed.”

What makes Cobra Kai a success is characters like Miguel, Robby, Samantha (Mary Mouser), and Tory (Peyton List) along with The Karate Kid originals, Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) as they get in their share of fights. However, a character like Carmen is needed on Cobra Kai as she’s level-headed and looking out for her son as well as Johnny.

“They like how she is a mother and how believable it is,” Rubio stated when talking about the fans’ thoughts of Carmen. “And then also there’s this surprise attraction thing happening with her and Johnny, which takes the characters by surprise as well. I think she’s very grounded. She has a lot of dignity. She has a lot of goodwill to live her life coming from a hard past. She has a lot of drive.”