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How Spencer Is Really Related To Coach Baker On All American

Photo: Kevin Estrada/The CW
Whether you've been a loyal fan since its premiere on The CW or just started binging on Netflix, there's likely one big question you have about football-centric teen drama All American: Is Spencer James (Daniel Ezra) related to the Baker family? At the end of the first season, we finally get that answer, and it's pretty painful for both Spencer and the Baker family.
In the premiere of All American, Crenshaw-raised Spencer is recruited to play football for a fancy high school in Beverly Hills, by Coach Billy Baker (Taye Diggs), who also grew up in Spencer's Los Angeles neighborhood. Coach Baker and Spencer's mom, Grace (Karimah Westbrook), were teenage sweethearts, we learn later, and it was Grace who pushed for Spencer to go to Beverly. However, some fans suspected that Grace's motives may have more to do with Coach Baker than the opportunities at a better-funded school.
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Spencer's dad, Corey (Chad L. Coleman), left the family when Spencer was a kid, and Spencer is still reeling from that abandonment. Given the romantic history between Grace and Coach Baker, some fans wondered if Coach Baker could be Spencer's real father.
However, midway through the season, Grace and Coach Baker vehemently deny it's even a possibility that Spencer isn't Corey's son, or that he could ever be Coach Baker's. It seemed, at the time, that this fan theory is totally squashed, and that the one-time romance between Grace and Coach Baker was simply a red herring.
Yet All American had another plot twist in store. It turns out that the reason Corey left in the first place — giving Spencer a ton of issues in the process — did have everything to do with Coach Baker.
Grace and Coach Baker may not have gotten together to create Spencer, but the two did rekindle their high school affair — for one night only. Corey left because Corey doesn't know if Spencer's younger brother Dillon (Jalyn Hall) is his biological son, or the biological child of Coach Baker. Though the truth is not definitively revealed about Dillon's parentage, the revelation is enough to totally blow up the Baker family.
So, what does this mean for Spencer going into season 2? For one thing, if Coach Baker is Dillon's biological dad, it means that he will share a sibling with Baker kids Olivia (Samantha Logan) and Jordan (Michael Evans Behling). Given Olivia's sometimes-crush on Spencer, and Jordan's perpetual rivalry with the teen who has so much of his dad's attention, this can only spell drama.
If Dillon is related to both Spencer and the Bakers, All American will hardly be the first teen drama to pull this plot twist. Dan (Penn Badgley) and Serena (Blake Lively) share a brother on Gossip Girl, as do Spencer (Troian Bellisario) and Alison (Sasha Pieterse) on Pretty Little Liars.
Keep your fingers crossed for a season 2 renewal: All American needs to show us the fallout of this bombshell revelation.
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