[Editor's note: The following contains spoilers for Cobra Kai Season 4.]It happened. Hawk (Jacob Bertrand) lost his mohawk. Or perhaps I should rephrase; Eli lost his mohawk.
After getting soaked by surprise sprinklers on the baseball diamond in Cobra Kai Season 4 Episode 4, Robby (Tanner Buchanan), Tory (Peyton List) and some of the other Cobra Kai students decide to stoop to an especially low form of payback. In Episode 5, they attack Eli in the tattoo parlor and shave off his mohawk.
Given where things ended for Eli in Season 3, I had a feeling we were creeping closer to a drastic style shift for the character, something that might reflect his Cobra Kai exit. In fact, I even asked Bertrand if it’s possible to maintain the Hawk look and mentality but shed the “strike first, strike hard, no mercy” principles when he was promoting the release of Season 3 last year. At the time, Bertrand said, “In all honesty, I think right now, even at the end of Season 3, I don’t know if he would be able to handle having the Hawk mentality while looking like Eli or being sort of the ‘good guy’ while having the mohawk because I think right now they’re so separated.”
But even with that inkling that the mohawk’s days were numbered, it didn’t make watching that particular scene any easier. Yes, Eli turned into a pretty big bully when he was peak Hawk, but there’s no denying that the look also gave him some much-needed strength and self-confidence. If only he could have shed the bully of it all while holding onto that style-fueled self-assurance. But this is also a dojo war we’re talking about here. What better way to break down one of the opposing dojos’ most talented students than by inflicting a major blow to his ego and obliterating the way he once carried himself?
It’s an especially crushing scene to watch and then threatens to end Eli's karate career, but ultimately, the loss of the hawk does blow the doors wide open to some significant growth in the character and that’s exactly what I discussed with Bertrand during our latest chat. He began by recapping how the plan to lose the hawk changed from season to season:
“Losing the hawk was something they had first joked about in Season 1 or 2, of like, ‘Oh yeah, that would be kinda cool to see what happens. You know, he’s super cool because of his mohawk, but what would happen if he lost it?’ And then Season 3 came around and they were like, ‘Yeah, you know, we’re thinking maybe Season 5 we can do the mohawk or whatever,’ and I was like, ‘Oh wow, okay.’ And then Season 4 came out and they’re like, ‘Yeah, we’re doing it this season,’ and I was like, ‘Oh, shoot.’ It felt like it came so suddenly.”
Bertrand did admit he was disappointed to learn the hawk was getting the ax, but when one door closes another opens, right?
“I was like, ‘Oh man, but that’s my thing! I like it!’ So I was a little bummed, but it really did open up new parts of the character because it was totally like, what is king Arthur without his sword type of thing. And it was fun to get to explore that and sort of dive into being Eli again, and just having really good people around him, like Demetri, the Binary Brother, there to pick him up and the good influence of Johnny and Daniel there picking him up. But yeah, it was really fun to get to be Eli and feel okay as Eli.”
Eager to hear more from Bertrand and his Cobra Kai co-stars Xolo Maridueña and Gianni DeCenzo? You can catch our full conversation in the video interview at the top of this article! And stay tuned. We have loads more Cobra Kai content coming your way soon.