‘All American’ is a Netflix original sports drama which first released on the OTT platform in October 2018. After a grand response from the audience, the makers decided to go for a second season. The second season premiered on Netflix in October 2019, and the 16th episode was aired in March 2020. In this article, we are going to talk about the vital parts of All American Season 2. It is better to say beforehand that this article contains spoilers.
In All American Season 2 Episode 1, Spencer, the central character of this series, has a tough time to choose the team to play football in his senior year. On the other hand, Corey forces Grace to order a paternity test to confirm whose child was Dillon, his or Billy’s. However, after he spends some time with Dillon, he gradually comes out of his confusion and takes back his word. He does not even care who Dillon’s father was. Corey again returns to Crenshaw, apologizes to Spencer, and advises him to play for South Crenshaw High.
After these events take place, Corey brings his child from previous marriage Darnell from Nevada. Spencer, in the earlier season, had seen that his father coaches for a Nevada based University. It may be possible that Corey James All Americans decided to start a different family and joined at the end of Season 1.
Seeing this, Spencer gives Corey a choice, to choose either him or Darnell. Corey understood that if he sent Darnell back, Spencer would shift to his hometown and play under him. At this point, Spencer refers to his buddy Jordan about his issue. After having an in-depth conversation with his close friend, he felt that he does not have any problem with Darnell. It is only Corey with whom he has a struggle, a tussle between a son and his father.
All American Season 2 meanders further and shows Spencer’s mental fight about his father Corey, with whom he maintains an on-again-off-again relationship. Corey comes and leaves at different time-space of the story. He comes to his mother, and in an emotional and heart touching scene, cries on her lap and asks what is wrong with him that he does not want Corey to stay. Is he not good for Corey to stay?
In the earlier season, it was shown that Corey has cancer; this season, his illness comes back again. However, he left still from his house, not to bother his beloved family with his inconveniences. He left both his son- Dillon and Spencer at his own choice and started being disgusted with the world. The story of the show then portrays how Corey shifted to the woods and started counting his final days. However, Spencer, along with Grace and Dillon and Darnell, rescued him from the obscure location and requested him to come along with them, as they were a family at the end of the day.
However, the biggest twist of Season 2 of All American appears at this stage. When they were about to take Corey home, Corey succumbed to his illness and ultimately left the world. Corey went to the house to give his son Spencer the old jersey, which he had gifted him earlier. Worrying for his father’s late arrival, Spencer went inside to check on him, and he found Corey sitting breathless on a chair. Spencer cries and screams in pain, and the audience would relate to the pain he feels after seeing his father dead. It may be possible that this scene will remind them of the loss of a beloved in their lives.
Layla, the girl who dated Spencer, was given a mature role in All American Season 2 as it was shown earlier that she was a student of Beverly High, and she broke into her own house to make it look like a heist. This girl also has problems with her father, which gradually develops within the story of the series, and it is shown that she is living in a hotel, and his father is in a foreign city. It is shown that she is trying to reconcile and reconstruct the broken relationship with her father. It will be interesting for the audience to see a drastic change to Layla’s character when compared with the first season of this series.
The change in her character is portrayed by baggy clothes, careless attitude, and short-tempered nature. Spencer notices these changes and also sees cuts on her wrists one day. Predicting something unusual, he teams up with another girl, Olivia, to call Layla’s father and request him to come back. Layla, knowing all these, grossly misunderstands Spencer and Olivia, and breaks up with Spencer, cuts tie with the Baker family and avoids Olivia. Spencer was doing all these things out of care and love for Layla, but she misunderstood him for no reason.
At this point, we should shed some light on Olivia, who had a microscopic appearance in Season 1. The audience knows that she has a dark past, and she is a drug abuser and addicted to alcohol. In All American Season 2, her character faces a complete overhaul, and it is shown that she has found apurpose in her life after joining the Cotillion. She had an urge inside to change the identity of her community after she and Spencer were subjected to racial profiling by a woman.
However, a sudden change of mood in the show happens at this point. While Olivia and Spencer were going to ride the car, a black car appeared around the corner, and someone from inside tried to fire on them. Spencer tried to protect Olivia by coming in her front and got shot in his shoulder. The injury proved to be fatal, and it jeopardized the entire football career of Spencer. After that, he goes through surgery and extensive physical therapy so that he can get back to the fields as quickly as possible and redeem his scholarship.
Olivia again becomes lonely and bears the trauma of that night. She wanted just a little bit of support and communication from her dear ones, but everybody was unavailable. She also tried to communicate with her sponsor, but never got a call back from there.
There is also the character of Jordan in Season 2 of All American. He won a big game and was going out with a new girl every week, with Championship’s thoughts going out of his head. A girl Simone repeatedly wanted to contact him, but he declined. When he arranged a birthday party, Simone appeared there and informed him that she was pregnant.
Simone came from a very conservative family and was thrown out when they learned that she wanted to keep the baby. However, Jordan feels guilty about himself and promises to stay with her in all situations. At this point, the girl admits that Jordan is not the father of the child; she chose to tell him because his family was loving and caring compared to her family. However, Jordan becomes a Good Samaritan and contacts Simone’s mother to get her approval to take back her daughter to the family.
There is also the angle of Tyrone and Coop. In Season 2 All American, Tyrone gets released from the jail; Coop plans to kill him out of rage and gets poorly beaten by someone. Tyrone gets killed, but Coop behaves in such a way so that nobody thinks her of the prime suspect to kill Tyrone. An arrest warrant comes against her name, and she goes to the police station along with Spencer, Patience, and the rest of her friends’ group. She comes to know that the original killer has turned in who was none other than Ruth, who is Shawn’s mother.
By the end of this season, it is shown that Spencer’s shoulder injury has healed by now, and Billy resigned as the head coach of Beverly High because of some differences with the management. Layla goes on a tour with his father, and Spencer crashed at a board meeting to announce that he was re-enrolling in South Crenshaw High to keep itself as a public school. Spencer also manages to convince Billy to be the head coach of South Crenshaw.
The last scene shows that Tyrone’s older sister is coming to Crenshaw to avenge her brother’s death. Olivia, being alone, again turns back to alcoholism, but Spencer promises to her that she will find him at every stage of her life. Adding suspense to the ending, it is shown that the injured arm of Spencer had gone numb.
It is now up to the audience to predict what happened to All American Season 3. This season was a great watch, with some unusual plot twists and focused on some essential characters. The audience should wait a little more to see Season 3 of this fantastic show.