In a separate interview with Polygon, the aforementioned back-up plan was further elaborated upon. If Shue hadn’t made a return, it would’ve been revealed that her husband had been catfishing Johnny through her account. Fortunately, plans came together in a much more fitting and crowd-pleasing way. Macchio went on to emphasize how Shue was “very protective of the character” and that she “had a good story” rather than “just be thrown into the show for the sake of saying ‘there’s Ali.’” Both Macchio and Zabka also revealed their favorite moments with her while filming — choosing their farewell moment at the Christmas party and the Golf N’ Stuff scenes, respectively.
It’s safe to say that there was indeed a great story for Ali that went beyond fan-service. Though she wasn’t the one to heal Miguel, she arguably did something even better. After sitting down for dinner with Johnny, Daniel, and Amanda (Courtney Henggeler), Ali instead further healed the rift between her two former loves. Building on the lessons Daniel had learned from Karate Kid 2‘s Chozen (Yuji Okumoto), she pushed them to see that they may even be two sides of the same coin. Her words and a final confrontation with Kreese (Martin Kove) served to finally bring them together to oversee a newly combined dojo. As such, fans have her to thank for the epic final scene and the interesting avenues put in place for Cobra Kai season 4.
Source: Collider; Polygon
Originally from https://screenrant.com/cobra-kai-season-3-elisabeth-shue-ali-mills-return/