The Cobra Kai Season 5 finale was an all-out brawl, with fists flung and swords swung. But at the start of Season 6, members of the rival dojos (existing and fallen) are living in harmony — at least for now.

In the first look at the opening eight minutes of Season 6, Part 1, seen above, students and sensei are getting along, exchanging pleasantries instead of blows.

“It is peacetime in the valley,” Ralph Macchio tells Tudum. “Peacetime in the Valley” is actually the title of the final season’s first episode, and Macchio adds that Daniel and his karate-instructing colleagues, Johnny (William Zabka) and Chozen (Yuji Okumoto), are (mostly) on the same page. “Everybody’s feeling like a chapter is closed, and we can look forward to working together to create the best Sekai Taikai experience for our students,” Macchio says, referring to the global karate tournament the students will compete in.

Zabka agrees: The death of Cobra Kai and the incarceration of Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) have calmed the chaos and sparked an era of tranquility. “The genie’s back in the bottle,” Zabka says. “Silver’s in jail. Everybody’s eyes are open to the deception that happened, and the Big Bad is out of the way. The opening of Season 6 is a result of that. It’s the day after the storm, and the sun is out and everybody’s back on track. School’s open and life’s moving forward.”

Moments of peace have been rare throughout the series. If you found the handshakes, hugs, and head nods deeply unfamiliar, the cast also found it jarring to be in a state of bliss. For Peyton List, playing Tory Nichols often means suppressing hurt, expressing anger, or having a short fuse that leads to combat. But being all smiles? “I didn’t even know how to play it, because it’s never happened on the show,” she says about shooting the early scenes with Robby (Tanner Buchanan) and Devon (Oona O’Brien). “It felt really weird.”

Mary Mouser, who plays Samantha, adds it was different experiencing friendliness within Miyagi-Do, where her former enemies are now teammates. “It felt out of character in a way. Samantha has had [peace] at home, but bringing that to the dojo is a weird feeling. It was like Too Many Cooks.”

Jon Hurwitz, who co-created Cobra Kai with Josh Heald and Hayden Schlossberg, is very enthusiastic about starting the final season with this energy shift. “There’s always so much conflict and so much darkness looming. These characters you’ve fallen in love with over five seasons are actually at peace with one another,” says Hurwitz. “Rivalries like Robby and Miguel, Johnny and Daniel, and Sam and Tory are in the best places they’ve ever been. It was was nice to have this reset and look forward in the absence of enemies lurking around the corner.”

Episode 1’s first minutes also show Miguel (Xolo Maridueña), Robby, and other students training for the Sekai Taikai. The event is prestigious, but the stakes are heightened when Daniel reveals to his wife, Amanda (Courtney Henggeler), that it’ll be the end of his full-time sensei days. He calls the Sekai Taikai his “karate swan song.”

Peacetime in the valley might be a breath of fresh air, but the rest of Season 6 might take the wind out of you. As the trailer shows, there’s imminent danger. “Sensei Kreese [Martin Kove] is joining forces with Kim Da-Eun [Alicia Hannah-Kim] and is going to raise a dojo of homegrown Korean fighters in the image of Cobra Kai,” Heald says. “Be careful, because on the other side of the world some dark forces are looming.”

As for the rest of the season, Schlossberg says fans can expect to see some unexpected character configurations. “Putting our characters in different environments with different pairings is something that we love to do because we want every episode to feel different. It's got to bring a new dynamic.” And while the season begins peacefully, Hurwitz suggests their utopia won’t last.“The question is, will they implode from within? Will conflicts reemerge within our team? And eventually, will they be up for the task when the challenges show up at the Sekai Taikai?”

With Cobra Kai and Eagle Fang alumni joining forces under the Miyagi-Do umbrella to train for the Sekai Taikai, the table is set for an epic showdown. But we’ll have to wait for the rest of Episode 1 to find out what happens — and what their new dojo name will be. Brace yourselves: Part 1 of Cobra Kai’s sixth and final season kicks off July 18.