Jessica Andrews is the tritagonist of The Karate Kid Part III and a supporting character in the Netflix original series Cobra Kai.
She is portrayed by Robyn Lively.
Early Life[]
Jessica is originally from Columbus, Ohio and was born on February 7, 1967. Little else is known about her early life other than that she enjoys pottery and mountain climbing. Jessica grew up with her cousin Amanda Steiner, with whom she was very close.
In 1984 or 1985, Jessica's boyfriend cheated on her with her and Amanda's high school rival, Elizabeth-Anne Rooney. This caused her to move across the country to get away for a while and clear her head. Jessica stayed with her Aunt Pat in Los Angeles and was working at a pottery store run by Charles in 1985.
The Karate Kid Part III[]
Jessica meets Daniel LaRusso in 1985 when she is working at a pottery across the street from his and Mr. Miyagi's new bonsai store. Though he has a brief crush on her, it ends when she tells him about her boyfriend; the couple broke up two months prior but Jessica is planning to return to her home in Columbus, Ohio to get back together with him. Daniel and Jessica form a friendship and she helps with his business. She grows concerned about the rift between Daniel and Mr. Miyagi due to Terry Silver's influence and gets caught up in his rivalry with Mike Barnes. Jessica helps Daniel defend the bonsai shop from Mike, Snake, and Dennis by smashing a pot on Snake's head, before she is kicked away by Mike.
Later, Jessica teaches Daniel the basics of rock-climbing to help him retrieve a valuable bonsai tree for Mr. Miyagi. However, they are ambushed at the cliffs and nearly dropped into the rising tide by Mike and his friends until Daniel agrees to fight him at the All-Valley tournament. The last night Jessica is in town, she and Daniel go dancing at a club. There, they are harassed by a guy who hits on her (having been paid by Silver), provoking Daniel into a fight. Daniel ends up breaking the guy's nose, shocking Jessica and causing her to scold Daniel before leaving. Later that night as she is packing to leave the next day, Daniel shows up and apologizes for what happened. Jessica accepts his apology and encourages Daniel to make amends with Mr. Miyagi. As Daniel leaves, she asks him to keep in touch.
Interim Years[]
After this, Jessica returned to Ohio. It is unclear if her relationship with her boyfriend worked out. Shortly thereafter, when Amanda was preparing to go to college in Los Angeles, Jessica made sure to put her cousin in touch with her friend Daniel, who was still living out there, so she would have a friend in her new city. Amanda and Daniel ultimately hit it off and ended up getting married. Amanda, Daniel, and their children Sam and Anthony would often visit her family in Ohio. Jessica, remembering how much Daniel loved her mac and cheese, made sure to make some for him whenever she saw them. During this time, Jessica became a mother to at least two daughters, who rock-climb like her.
Cobra Kai[]
Amanda, upset over Daniel's obsession with defeating Terry Silver and Cobra Kai Dojo, leaves the valley to return to her hometown of Columbus, Ohio with her children to have a break from the karate drama. She reconnects with her cousin, Jessica, and the pair, along with Sam and Anthony, heads to a bar they frequented in their youth. Jessica had Mac and Cheese prepared for Daniel only to find out that he didn't make the trip. As the women catch up over beers, they have a profound conversation and open up about the problems Amanda's facing with Daniel. When Amanda mentions Silver, Jessica is shocked to hear that he's returned; she never told Amanda about her and Daniel's history with Silver because it was traumatizing for both of them. She reveals the extent of how Silver and Mike Barnes tormented her and Daniel, and how it strained his relationship with Mr. Miyagi.
After, the two get into a confrontation with Elizabeth-Anne Rooney and her gang. Jessica sticks up for Amanda and a brawl breaks out. Amanda is nearly overpowered but Sam saves her by kicking Elizabeth away, allowing the group to run to safety. Back home, Jessica and Amanda discuss how Sam takes after both of her parents in protecting her family. Jessica notes how they just got into a bar fight over high school drama and advises that Amanda cut her husband some slack; Silver did a real number on him, and Daniel has every right to hate him. Jessica also mentions that she still has occasional nightmares about Silver, likely a result of the time that she and Daniel were almost pushed off a cliff by Mike.
Trivia[]
- Jessica was originally intended to be Daniel's love interest but their relationship was made platonic due to the age difference between Robyn Lively and Ralph Macchio, who were 16 and 27, respectively. So they decided to become friends and Daniel had someone to talk to.
- Robyn Lively talked to William Zabka who plays Johnny Lawrence and is an executive producer of Cobra Kai about possibly reprising her role as Jessica in the future, which she ultimately did in the fifth episode of the fifth season.
- It was then revealed that Daniel met Amanda through Jessica, as Amanda happens to be Jessica's maternal first cousin.
- In 2015, Lively and Zabka had previously both co-starred as martial arts instructors in the Amazon Prime series Gortimer Gibbon's Life on Normal Street, of which the former was series regular and the latter was a guest star as Sensei Jeff.
- Robyn Lively was 16 years old when during the filming of The Karate Kid Part III. However, her character Jessica was born in 1967, and she would have been 18 or 19 years old during the events of the film in 1985.
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The Karate Kids Heroes | ||
The Karate Kid (1984) |