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Terrance "Terry" Silver is a fictional character in the Karate Kid universe portrayed by actor and martial artist Thomas Ian Griffith, serving as the main antagonist of the film The Karate Kid Part III (1989) and the fourth and fifth seasons of the sequel television series Cobra Kai.
Season 1: Silver's, Kreese's, and Barnes's ruthless and unethical actions during the 1985 All-Valley Tournament led to the tournament committee issuing a lifetime ban on Cobra Kai from participating in the All-Valley. As he never met Silver or Barnes during his time as a student under Kreese, Johnny appeals the ban by acknowledging the problems of the previous Cobra Kai, promising that his new version of Cobra Kai is nothing like it and is dedicated to helping change kids' lives for the better. The committee agrees to reverse the ban much to Daniel's chagrin, who is a member.
Season 2: Silver is seen in archival footage, when Daniel tells his students a brief synopsis of his time reluctantly training with Silver due to Mike Barnes forcing him to compete in the 1985 All-Valley Tournament to defend his championship title (from The Karate Kid Part III). After listening to Daniel's story of how his Cobra Kai membership and the Cobra Kai culture negatively affected his personality, Demetri and Robby reconcile with Chris, and Demetri and Chris work together to lift a rock back up.
Season 3: A young Silver is seen in flashbacks during the time when he and Kreese were soldiers in the Vietnam War. When they are both captured, a Vietnamese officer forces Silver to fight Captain Turner, However Kreese offers to fight Turner instead of Silver (who would certainly lose the fight). After Kreese defeats Turner, Silver expresses his gratitude towards Kreese and pledges his undying loyalty to Kreese. At the end of season 3, Kreese is seen picking up a photograph of himself and Silver in Vietnam. Remembering the promise Silver made to him, he calls him up in 2019 asking for his help in taking on Johnny and Daniel, who have teamed up to train their students for the next All-Valley.
Season 4: In 2019, Silver rejects Kreese's initial request for him to rejoin Cobra Kai and hangs up his phone call. When Kreese crashes a party at Silver's beach house, he tells him that Johnny and Daniel have joined forces. However, Silver still refuses to help and admits to being addicted to cocaine in the 1980s and realizes the absurdity of his plan to terrorize Daniel and Miyagi in 1985. He says that after the 1985 All-Valley Tournament, he hit rock bottom, lost his business and went into rehab and therapy to turn his life around. He is now in a relationship with Cheyenne Hamidi, whom he is helping to release a Mindfulness app and has made a living investing in firms. Silver has even gone so far as to remove his cobra tattoo on his ribcage to remove all traces of his association with Cobra Kai.
Kreese's unexpected reappearance into Silver's life eventually causes him to regress back to his old ways. Remembering his promise to Kreese and convinced that he cannot escape his past, Silver abandons Cheyenne and agrees to return to Cobra Kai. However, Silver states that he wants to do things differently to avoid repeating their previous failure. Following a confrontation between Cobra Kai and Miyagi-do/Eagle Fang, Kreese and Silver visit Miyagi-do so that Silver can reintroduce himself to Daniel and Johnny and to reaffirm their agreement to halt hostilities before the tournament. Although Silver apologizes to Daniel for his past actions, Daniel forces the duo to leave as he remembers the ways in which Silver had deceived him. Insulted by Daniel's dismissiveness, Silver becomes more determined to win.
After a period of time training together at Cobra Kai, Kreese comes to believe that Silver is attempting to undermine him with conflicting lessons and by suggesting Kreese has a weakness during a lesson. When Kreese reprimands Silver, Silver attempts to prove his loyalty by purchasing numerous properties for Cobra Kai dojos for expansion, including their original dojo. He also uses Johnny's son and Cobra Kai student Robby Keene to lure him into a trap to brutalize him and demoralize Johnny's students, particularly Miguel Diaz. Kreese orders Silver to stop beating Johnny, and a bewildered Silver gets drunk and furiously brutalizes Raymond "Stingray" Porter, a former adult Cobra Kai student desperate to rejoin after Kreese rejected him earlier.
During the tournament, Silver and Kreese give conflicting instructions to their students, straining their relationship further, though they eventually win the tournament after Tory Nichols defeats Samantha LaRusso in the female division. He later announces that Cobra Kai will be expanding as a franchise all across the Valley, while abandoning the original dojo, much to Kreese's dismay. However, after the tournament, unknown to everyone (sans Tory) Silver had paid off the referees into bribing the matches in Cobra Kai's favor. Later, while Silver and Kreese celebrate their victory at Silver's beach house, Silver proceeds to tell Kreese that his weakness is Johnny. A resentful Silver then admits his own weakness for Kreese by pledging a life debt to him and decides to do away with it by ending their friendship and having Kreese framed for attempted murder and aggravated assault, as Silver had coerced Stingray to frame Kreese for his beating in exchange for rejoining Cobra Kai. As Kreese is apprehended by the cops, he furiously swears revenge on Silver, who tauntingly promises to recruit some "old friends" to teach at the new Cobra Kai dojos and to defeat Daniel and Johnny once and for all. With Kreese behind bars, Silver takes complete control of Cobra Kai for himself.
Season 5: Now in complete control of Cobra Kai and Kreese incarcerated, Silver begins expanding the dojo across the Valley. He buys out several local dojos while recruiting a group of new senseis from South Korea, including Kim Da-Eun, the granddaughter of Kim Sun-Yung who had created the style that had influenced Cobra Kai. Tory confronts Silver for bribing the referee at the All-Valley Tournament, but he maintains it was necessary to ensure Cobra Kai's success. Upon discovering that Daniel has recruited Chozen Toguchi and plots to take down Cobra Kai, Silver vows to retaliate. First, he has Mike Barnes' furniture store burned down when he attempts to help Daniel and Chozen find incriminating evidence against him. He then proceeds to form a rift between Daniel and Amanda, straining their marriage. When Daniel tries to get Stingray (who was bribed by Silver) to turn against him, Silver gets into a fight with Daniel, in which he seriously injures and demoralizes the latter, promising that the real pain is only beginning for him. Amanda eventually reconciles with Daniel after learning more of his history with Silver from her cousin Jessica Andrews who was around when Daniel had originally faced him and witnessed what kind of person Silver is. It is revealed Silver plans to get Cobra Kai into the Sekai Taikai, the most elite karate tournament in the world as part of his endgame for Cobra Kai to expand on a global scale. During the tournament round of the Sekai Taikai tryouts, Silver once again bribes the referee in Cobra Kai's favor. Despite Cobra Kai winning the boys' round, Cobra Kai loses the girls' round after Tory abandons her match. Cobra Kai ultimately is let in, but Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang also qualify.
Later, Terry and Kim have Tory punished for fleeing by making her use the 'Quicksilver' method on a stone dummy, making her right hand bleed (in a grim call-back to Silver training Daniel with a wooden dummy). Barnes, Chozen, and Johnny eventually decide to attack Silver by themselves, while the Eagle Fang and Miyagi-Do students, with help from Tory, hope to expose Silver to the Cobra Kai students by finding security footage of his assault on Stingray at the dojo, which Silver had covered his tracks by erasing. However, they manage to discover footage of Silver confessing to Tory about bribing the referee and upload it to the dojo's YouTube channel. In the ensuing fight at Silver's house, Barnes is knocked unconscious, with Johnny fighting off his henchmen, resulting in being pulverized until he rallies and defeats them with the help of a recovered Barnes, while Chozen defeats Silver in a fight to the death. However, while Chozen has his back turned, Silver heavily wounds him with a katana. Silver then makes his way to the dojo, but is too late to stop the footage of him and Tory's conversation being shown to his students. The revelation of the truth shakes Silver's students (and possibly Kim's) faith in him despite his attempts to defend his actions as his true nature begins to slip. Silver, still exhausted from his bout with Chozen, engages in a fight with Daniel who calls upon Silver's own training and finishes him off with a crane kick. Led by Kenny, the Cobra Kai students and Kim completely abandon Silver, throwing their Cobra Kai shirts on him while Stingray reveals to the truth to the police as he is taken away. With the evidence provided by both the students and Stingray, Silver faces a litany of criminal charges.