Wrong moves all around left many characters worse off at the season’s end.
Much of the action surrounding the Homecoming game between Golden Angeles University and Coastal California took place off the field on All American Season 4 Episode 20.
Too many relationships were hanging on by a thread following the trauma of a swatting incident at J.J.’s murder-mystery party on All American Season 4 Episode 19.
What was remarkable was how the police siege ended.
Using what she’d learned as Laura’s assistant, Coop got the cops to leave by threatening legal action by her boss, the former district attorney, for their essentially using an illegal no-knock search warrant.
Continuing her comeback, Coop was the only young character who came out ahead in this episode.
At first, she did consider rekindling her relationship with Patience after the pleasant time they had had together at the party (before, you know, the raid).
Coop even told Skye what had happened between her and Patience. Old Coop would never have been that transparent.
Skye was pretty cool about it and got Coop to view what happened as falling back on old habits compared to moving on to something new. Coop, whose future is looking as bright as ever, eventually opted to look ahead, not back.
About the only other character to have a positive outcome was Grace, mainly because she’s getting to leave behind Crenshaw and all the Spencer-related drama.
It was fun to watch Spencer and Dillon make D’Angelo sweat as he approached them for their blessings for him to propose to Grace.
It had long been a fore-drawn conclusion for the two James brothers that he would propose eventually, and they were cool with it.
Dillon let it slip to Grace that D’Angelo would be proposing, so they were all hanging out when he showed up to do so.
The only real surprise was that Grace agreed to move to Oakland with him. It was left pretty fuzzy what this meant for Dillon. But since he only appears a handful of times each season, who knows if his residence will even come up? He could live in one of the Baker residences.
Where will Spencer go for common-sense advice next season? Probably Laura, the only other adult in his orbit who can be trusted to think things through. Preach has wisdom to share, but he and Spencer just don’t overlap much.
In this episode, Grace’s suggestion for Spencer: Give Olivia time and space to determine what her dream is. It would seem to be crusading, but the form it takes changes with regularity.
The problem that Spencer and Olivia have been dealing with this season is pretty simple: Her dream of the moment, to be a journalist, is trampling all over his dream to be a football star.
If social justice, a vast and cutting edge topic, is her concern, why does she keep focusing on her boyfriend’s football team? That screams conflict of interest, which any editor should be heading off.
Sure, Wade Waters is not a nice guy. He’s arrogant and entitled. He’s also not the first star athlete to suffer from those character flaws.
But her targeting Wade, partly based on confidential information that she’d gotten from Spencer and Jordan, was only making their lives more difficult.
This episode, starting with the swatting and moving on to Olivia’s background research into Wade, revealed that he’s proven to be a criminal. At least Garrett knew enough to cut his losses and dropped him from the team.
That wasn’t enough to remove Clay as an instigator. He bad-mouthed Olivia and Jordan punched him, breaking his hand in the process, and GAU almost lost the Homecoming game as a result.
Then he offered dirt on Garrett to Olivia. Rather than do the smart thing and pass off the idea to her editor to be assigned to a less compromised reporter, she decided to write the expose herself, isolating herself from Spencer.
And Laura did ask a valid question: why was Billy so concerned with Garrett’s skeletons? It certainly was more than just protecting his former players/sons. It was like someone was getting an itch to coach at the next level.
Such an investigation can’t help but disrupt GAU’s good start. The former star pointing the finger at the head coach is just a bad look, and it can’t help but drag the team down, including Spencer and Jordan.
That punch by Jordan has put an end to his promising season. And now GAU has no one to get the ball to Spencer, with Wade dismissed and Jordan and the original backup out with injuries.
Jordan was doing much better off the field. He told Layla how he felt, got her to admit she had feelings for him, and offered to wait until she came around.
Layla was correct not to jump into anything serious with Jordan. He’s Rebound Guy after Simone dumped him. He’s reacting without thinking.
Too bad Layla wasn’t as astute in business. She didn’t foresee J.P.’s retiring to spend more time with his latest inappropriately young girlfriend.
Also, she insisted on making it on her own. So J.P. turned over his label to his protege, Clay, who Layla had treated like a boy toy earlier this season. Oops!
Asher may have made some gains. Coach Montes praised him for keeping Coastal California in the game against GAU, even though he didn’t reveal his observation that Jordan was injured. So his coaching star is on the rise.
To follow Spencer and Olivia’s travails, watch All American online.
Did Coop make the right choice?
Who’s more at fault: Spencer or Olivia?
Should Layla give Jordan a chance, especially now he has nothing going on in his life?
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Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.