I’ve been waiting for Jordan’s reckless actions with his concussion to come back and hurt him, and it did in the worst way possible.
His first injury hadn’t even healed before he got knocked down hard in the homecoming game. Jordan’s (Michael Evans Behling) lucky there won’t be any long-term damage, but he’s not going to be able to play football again this year. His senior year.
That look on his face said everything. And I feel for him, but there are protocols put in place for a reason. I wanted the writers to give a good lesson to cheating these protocols, and they delivered even if it’s a heartbreaking one.
Jordan’s parents have money, so it might not be the end of the world. Just devastation for his dreams.
Jordan was having such an amazing season, but there have to be consequences. And I’m sure other high school players have done or thought about doing the same thing. It was a good and important story to tell. I’m looking forward to seeing where Michael takes his character from here.
This is where we can truly see his character growth, now that he has to figure out what’s next.
At least for his and Simone’s (Geffri Maya) sake, them getting married might be tabled for a minute.
I had a feeling that it was going to come out in “Put Up or Shut Up.” Just from seeing all the promotional images, it felt like this was the episode. And the Bakers acted exactly as we expected them to. Maybe even worse, given the circumstances.
I have to agree with Spencer (Daniel Ezra). Laura (Monet Mazur) is strong. She had all the right questions for the doctor. It annoyed me that Simone got irritated. Granted, everyone was stressed out by the situation. And it did lend itself very well to a drama-filled reveal of Jordan and Simone’s marriage, but Laura was handling the situation, and Simone blew it up.
Simone’s ex also showed up in this episode. Could that add even more complications to the marriage storyline?
South Crenshaw had a very different homecoming game experience. More players became eligible to play, so they finally had a full team.
It was so sweet that Coach Billy Baker (Taye Diggs) remembered Spencer’s father at the homecoming game because of his record of scoring seven touchdowns in one game. He even had his number retired and put on the field.
Was Billy just wanting to remember Cory, or was this a motivational technique to get Spence to play the game of his life in front of eight recruiters?
Either way, I liked the legacy, the little ceremony and the message to Spencer. And then the crazy game he came out with after that. The Chargers were not doing well in the first half. Then, Spencer almost beat his dad’s record but decided to hold it with him instead.
Spencer has such a beautiful soul. I’m sure he’s going to get to go somewhere great.
Olivia (Samantha Logan) skipped the homecoming festivities to focus on herself. She is on her way to recovery. She had a little rocky of a start, but I think she’s more serious about it this time. And she has a tough new sponsor to help her stick to it. I think I’m going to like this pairing with Olivia and Nurse Joy (Kellee Stewart). It looks like we’re going to see a lot of growth in Olivia through the rest of the season. Just like we saw in Layla (Greta Onieogou) last season.
I really love how much Layla has grown. In “Put Up or Shut Up,” I loved when Layla stood up to her dad. It isn’t right that he’s taking advantage of a female artist. And it’s worse that he doesn’t even see that he’s doing it. Layla continuing to stand up to her father has been great.
I want to see more of this side of her. We’ve had many other great storylines this season, so I get why she may only get a few scenes in an episode, but we need an episode to focus on her. Last week it was Olivia, and this week it was Spencer and Jordan. Next should be her.
I would also be quite happy with a Coop (Bre-Z) centric episode. I like that she’s getting involved in social justice activism. It will be an important episode, especially with everything going on in the real world.
But, sadly, Coop was right. We saw Mo (Erica Peeples) at the end of the episode, saying Coop finally let her guard down. Part of me thought Coop could be right, but she also likes to obsess over things. Regardless if she was right or wrong, I didn’t think it was worth her energy.
So, what’s next with Mo? What did she really come back to do? And, hopefully, Patience’s (Chelsea Tavares) documents are legit.
What do you think of Jordan’s concussion storyline? Tweet me @MandyTTCarr or comment below.
