We’re only three episodes into season four, and in some ways, this episode felt like an end with a lot of looking towards a new beginning. The shooting shook up a lot, and that alone is setting characters in different directions. And of course, there’s still the question of where will All American go after senior year?
Spencer James (Daniel Ezra) has got the opportunity of a lifetime. He can graduate early and start playing college football so he can start as a freshman. This is what dreams are made of. But, unfortunately, his vision isn’t looking exactly how he pictured. The coach he was looking forward to working with has gone. Did the writers really just spend an entire episode making us think Spence was leaving and looking like we were losing Spelivia, all to just have him change his mind next week?
On the one hand, how could Spence leave at the beginning of the season? The show is based on a football player named Spener. I get frustrated when writers do bait and switch like this. Even if we know, it can’t possibly happen anyways.
So, Spence is going to turn down his dream? That would be insane. Jordan Baker (Michael Evans Behling) is looking at junior colleges to work towards his goal, and Asher Adams (Cody Christian) has to find a new dream altogether. So, how can Spencer turn down this opportunity? I’ll just have to trust that the writers have something up their sleeves to make it make sense.
The rest of the episode was good for so many characters. Asher is finally moving forward with figuring out what he wants. He’s back to the drawing board with colleges, but he’s looking forward to what’s next. This should be an exciting storyline for him. He’s struggled so much with trying to make his father proud. Now he can find something that’s just for him.
And that’s all because of Layla Keating (Greta Onieogou). She’s living her dream now. She has her own record label, and she signed an artist that turned her down twice! I love this side of Layla. She’s come such a long way. And I’m okay if the writers want to pair Layla and Ashe back up. They may even be better for each other now.
But seeing Layla be so cold to Tamia “Coop” Cooper (Bre-Z) was hard. Layla had a point, though. She was staking her entire company on Coop, thinking she was just waiting for Coop to be ready to get back into the studio after her shooting. As hard as that conversation would be, Coop should have been upfront because Layla is her friend. I hope Layla and Coop can work it out. I love their friendship. Of course, it hurt Layla so much because they are such good friends now. If the writers do this right, this could be a good storyline of them coming back to each other.
Coop may have other things to worry about first, though. Preach’s (Kareem J. Grimes) daughter looked up what happened to Mo. Just like Coop knew she would. I don’t know how Preach was ever going to tell her what actually happened, but this doesn’t make it any better.
I will miss Coop working towards her music dreams. That was a great storyline. I don’t really want to go back to a gangs storyline.
Circling back around to Spencer, while we spent an entire episode thinking maybe he was actually going to leave. We finally got Spence and Billy Baker (Taye Diggs) making up. All thanks to Grace James (Karimah Westbrook). I loved the scene between Billy and Grace when she confronted him about what was going on with him and her son. It’s not surprising that he’s mad at himself and taking it out on Spence. But they really needed to make up now.
Spence leaving gave us a touching moment between Grace and Billy, and it gave us some incredible Spelivia moments. I love how they are on the same page about their first time together being special. I’m glad they are waiting. It was worth the wait for them to get together, and I’m sure waiting for their first time will also be worth the wait.
Another happy part of this episode was not only Coach Montes (Alexandra Barreto) and Billy being a team helping Jordan find a school, but Montes asking Billy to coach the All American game with her.
There were a lot of great moments, but I still don’t like how the main storyline went. Now, let’s see why Spencer decides to give up on this opportunity.
What reason do you think Spencer gives up on playing for Toledo? Tweet me @PrimetimeAddiction or @MandyTTCarr or comment below.
