What You Need To Remember From Season 2 Of All American

After (almost) a year-long hiatus, All American is finally back for its third season. The CW teen drama’s extended absence was affected by Covid-19, but you won’t be able to tell when you watch the new season. That’s because the Beverly and South Crenshaw high students are living in a coronavirus free world onscreen. In their universe, the main priorities are the fight to keep South Crenshaw open and uncovering the scandalous behavior and hookups that happened over the summer.

Season 3 will pick up after the summer break and the start of senior year. At the end of the last episode, each of the main characters hoped for new beginnings during their break. But, a few had lingering, unresolved obstacles hanging over them that will need to be addressed. There was also a last second plot twist that will surely impact Spencer’s (Daniel Ezra) storyline on and off the football field.

Usually All American’s premieres open with a quick recap to catch everyone up. But, that brief rewind will surely leave a few things out since the previous finale addressed plot points from both seasons. So, in case you forgot, here’s all the important drama that unfolded last year. 

Each All American character experienced life changing events during season 2, but the Beverly High student who grew the most is arguably Jordan Baker (Michael Evans Behling). After winning the championship in season 1, Jordan considers himself to be a local celebrity. He indulges the attention he receives and has emotionless hookups with multiple women. His cockiness is unbearable until Simone (Geffri Maya), a woman he had a one-night stand with and then disregarded, shows up at a party and tells him she's pregnant.

Jordan moves Simone into his house and builds a nursery, but she later admits that he isn't really the baby's father. But because they formed such a strong bond, he still wants to be a part of her life and help her raise the baby. He even helps Simone mend her relationship with her mother so that she can return home. 

They do technically break up, but Simone gives Jordan a highlight reel of his football games to express her gratitude. This gift makes him realize he has feelings, so he professes his love to Simone on the football field. After his “Hail Mary” attempt, they end the season in a relationship. Gone is the playboy Jordan from episode 1. He is now a reformed man, happily in love. 

All American is a teen drama, so of course there is a love triangle going on. Well, it's actually more of a square. Season 1 Spencer spent most of his time dating Layla (Greta Onieogou) while Olivia (Samantha Logan) and Asher (Cody Christian) became a couple. In season 2, Spencer (Daniel Ezra) and Layla break up, which was great news for Spencer and Olivia shippers who have picked up on their chemistry since the pilot.

On top of that, Asher lies about using steroids and the fact that they got him suspended from the team, plus he had Coach Billy Baker (Taye Diggs) cover for him. This all adds to the stress in his already rocky relationship with Olivia, and just before the finale, they split up.

In episode 16, however, Asher and Olivia agree to be friends and he invites her to spend the summer with him on a boat so they can work out their issues. Although she turns him down, she does call him her boyfriend and says she will be waiting for him when he returns.

But while she appears fine to everyone on the show, viewers know that Olivia is struggling with feeling left behind by her friends and family. We learned in season 1 that Olivia went to rehab for drug addiction, a trigger for which can be alcohol use. Her loneliness eventually tempts her to drink again, so she calls her sponsor for help, but the sponsor doesn't pick up.

With Asher away for a few months, Spencer and Olivia are together for the entire summer. The two exchange a few flirty looks during her cotillion in episode 10, but they never express explicit feelings other than friendship. And though Spencer tells her in the finale that she is never alone and will always have him, he is too late. Before Spencer walks in, Olivia convinces herself that alcohol is not as dangerous as taking a pill, so she sneaks a sip of vodka to numb her pain.

She ends the season technically in a relationship with Asher, while hiding her struggle to stay sober from both him and Spencer.

Coop (Bre-Z) and Patience (Chelsea Tavares) have had the strongest and most consistent relationship on the show for almost two seasons, so they were bound to face some problems. Coop wants be a rapper and we've seen her show off her skills multiple times. In season 2, we learn that Patience also can sing, and that she performed on a track with Coop. It turns out that Layla’s father, well-known music producer JP Keating (Elvis Nolasco), preferred Coop’s songs that featured Patience singing so much so that he wants to take Patience on tour. Coop becomes jealous, which temporarily ends their professional and romantic relationship until Coop realizes she overreacted.

Patience does, however, sign on to work with KP and tour with him for the summer. Conveniently, Layla realizes that she enjoys making music like her mother and father, so she asks Coop to be her first client. She sets up a small, indie tour with Coop that just so happens to hit all the venues Patience is set to tour. That is doubly great because KP can look after Layla, since she's only checked out of rehab a few weeks prior. Patience, Coop, Layla, and KP spend the summer playing music around the country. 

For part of season 1 and 2, Tyrone (Demetrius Shipp Jr.), a gang member in Coop and Spencer’s Crenshaw neighborhood, threatened their lives. He was responsible for killing their childhood friend Shawn (Jay Reeves) and his older brother, which set Coop out on a revenge mission. Coop worked with District Attorney Laura Baker (Monét Mazur) to put Tyrone behind bars, but he is eventually released from prison. To ease the constant fear that Tyrone, now free, might hurt her or someone she loves, Coop aims to kill him in season 2. Preach (Kareem J. Grimes), Coop’s friend who is in Tyrone's gang, decides to kill Tyrone on Coop's behalf to protect her. Unfortunately, Tyrone figures out Preach’s plan and has the police waiting for him. Having violated his parole, Preach is sent to prison.

With Preach incarcerated, Coop and Spencer are vulnerable again. Spencer gets wounded in a drive-by-shooting orchestrated by Tyrone and the injury keeps him from playing football. To end the bloodshed, Coop considers going after Tyrone again, but she's too late: someone killed Tyrone on his front porch. The police initially arrest Coop because she can be seen on video footage walking near Tyrone’s home with a gun. But eventually, the police release Coop when Shawn’s mom, Ruth, confesses to killing Tyrone to avenge her sons. Tensions seem to temporarily settle after her arrest, but not so fast...

At the end of season 2, a mystery woman who turns out to be Tyrone’s older sister Mo (Erica Peeples) visits Preach in prison. She says she knows Ruth did not work alone to kill her brother and that she's out for vengeance. Later, Mo can be seen following Coop.

Though she only appeared in one scene, Mo is already much more intimidating than Tyrone. Spencer and Coop may feel safe now that Tyrone is gone, but there is a new big bad in town.

Spencer’s injury impeded his football season in season 2, but he also had to deal with the unexpected death of his father Corey (Chad L. Coleman). Corey passed away during a weekend getaway with Spencer, his mom Grace (Karimah Westbrook), and little brother Dillon (Jalyn Hall). Spencer took some time to grieve, but he decided his father would want him to play football, so he rushed through physical therapy to heal. Though he gets to play in the jamboree game and they win, Spencer is distracted. It was his first victory without his father and Coach Baker understands, telling him he is in for a "year of firsts."

After that conversation, Spencer goes to his father’s grave, where Darnell (Da'Vinchi) shows up and tells him that this might be goodbye for a while. Darnell's school — and Spencer’s former school — South Crenshaw High, is being converted to a magnet school that local students would have to win a lottery to be able to attend — the others would have to enroll elsewhere. To fight the change, South Crenshaw High students plan a sit-in at a local restaurant to convince the school board to keep Crenshaw as-is, but it doesn't do much when the meeting to determine the school’s future is pushed to the next day.

Later, Spencer receives a gift from Coach Baker that honors his father and realizes that returning to Crenshaw would make his father proud. He also knows that being one of the highest ranking football players in the country means recruiters will visit the school, and thus bring in revenue. He attends the school board meeting and says he will return to South Crenshaw High as a resource to keep the school open.

Meanwhile, Billy — who plans to move out after separating from Laura — is also looking for a change. Although Beverly High won the jamboree, he is still under investigation for keeping Asher’s steroid use a secret. The boosters initially want him to resign, but Asher’s dad Harold (Casper Van Dien) tells him that the boosters wrote letters encouraging the school to keep him as a coach. Billy realizes that the boosters only changed their opinion so that they can hold this favor over his head, so he swoops into the jamboree celebration and announces resignation as the head coach of the Beverly Eagles.

After Spencer and Billy make their announcements, they meet on the South Crenshaw field. In a moment that resembles their first encounter in the show’s pilot, Spencer has a proposition for Billy: South Crenshaw High will stay open temporarily, but he has to win a championship to secure its future after he graduates. He says Billy missed his opportunity to win a championship with Corey years ago at South Crenshaw and now he can fulfill that dream with Spencer. They officially join the rival squad and leave the Beverly Eagles behind. And their new partnership seems unbeatable until the final moments of the finale...

Before he defects to Crenshaw, Spencer makes a game winning catch in the jamboree after falling hard on his injured shoulder. It feels like a major moment, but he stands up and feels fine. Later, he checks in with his physical therapist who clears him and says he is completely healed because it would be obvious by now if there was any residual nerve damage from being shot in the shoulder. She says there would be signs like numbness or pain.

The last scene of the finale finds Spencer at the Baker household. He tells Olivia he is there for her, but can sense she is sad, so he suggests they watch a ridiculous reality show. When Spencer goes to the kitchen for snacks, he reaches for a container and drops it immediately. He stares at his hand in pain and has a terrible realization: he has the numbness and pain his doctor described, which means he likely has lasting nerve damage. Olivia walks over, clearly understands what has happened, and that's where the episode ends.

Spencer spends most of the finale convincing the South Crenshaw High school board and Billy that he is worth betting on and will lead them to a championship. Now that he is injured again and might not be able to carry out that promise. He is one of the best high school football players in the country, but this injury could end his career — and South Crenshaw High.