Valentine’s Day wasn’t a special occasion for the gang in Beverly Hills and Crenshaw.
Only the primarily secret couple of Jordan and Layla came out better off on All American Season 5 Episode 5.
And now that JJ is in their business, how long can that last?
This situation all falls on Layla after too many weeks of will they or won’t they? She wanted to keep things casual, while Jordan doesn’t do casual.
Since he got through his man-whore phase, Jordan falls fast, and he falls hard. Also, he’s been on the rebound from breaking up with Simone, so he was more susceptible to wanting a new relationship.
Did Layla learn nothing from the whole Clay experience? She needs to spell out the parameters of a relationship.
Especially to Jordan. He tried to plan a special Valentine’s Day event, and she pretty much told him to pump the brakes.
That’s why he spent the entire speed-dating event bemoaning the uncertainty of his secret relationship, to the point that he spilled about it to the largely oblivious JJ.
At least Layla finally came clean to him after recruiting JJ to help her plan an evening with Jordan. Yes, it made sense that she wanted to keep their relationship to themselves and away from the Vortex. But now that JJ knows, that ‘ship has largely sailed.
It will be interesting to see how Olivia, who has been burying herself in her work, will react when she discovers that her housemate is hooking up with her twin brother.
Jordan at least knew how to plan for a romantic evening, unlike, say, Spencer and Billy.
It turned out Spencer had a better handle on what Alicia, his chillin’ buddy, wanted for Valentine’s Day than Coop.
He should have listened to his gut instead of following Coop’s advice, watching “Pretty Woman,” and even taking notes.
Fortunately, Alicia didn’t scare easily and confronted Spencer about his bizarre behavior. She humored his concept of Valentine’s dinner and didn’t get offended when Spencer admitted to sleeping with Olivia. She didn’t see their relationship as exclusive.
And things worked out in the end for them, ironically thanks to “Pretty Woman.”
And didn’t Spencer handle things horribly with Olivia, telling her that the roses weren’t for her? Then, even worse, he attempted to explain why he had the roses to begin with, but she smartly begged off before he made more of a fool of himself.
Spencer does get credit for bailing out Billy with those hand-me-down roses. Billy, who, like many old married guys, had forgotten about Valentine’s Day. Laura was busy losing Preach’s case, so she had probably also forgotten the holiday.
Besides, Billy had been busy playing Bernstein to Olivia’s Woodward as they worked to take down Garrett without derailing Spencer and Jordan’s college careers.
Billy offered the sound suggestion of tracking down a former assistant coach who might have dirt on Garrett. Little did he know that the assistant she located was one of his former teammates.
Billy managed to do right by both Eric, his old friend, and Olivia by sitting down with Eric and convincing him to tell what he knew to Olivia.
And then, just before her article was published, Garrett resigned. So next week’s mystery will be determining who tipped him off about Olivia’s article. And can she and Billy still find a way to get Garrett out of coaching?
JJ almost managed to redeem himself, helping Spencer set up for his dinner with Alicia and aiding Layla in her plans for Jordan.
Also, he finally realized that he was doing Asher wrong and tried to work out on Valentine’s Day. However, the lure of a flip-flop party was too strong, and Asher saw JJ abandoning his post. It’s good that Asher recruited Jabari for that starting weakside linebacker spot.
By the time JJ starts to take football seriously again, it’s likely too late for him at Coastal California. Maybe there’s a juco out there with his name on it.
Also dropping the ball was everyone at Laura’s law firm when it came to Preach’s case. First, Laura took Coop off Preach’s case because she was too emotionally invested.
But someone had to have some investment in the case. Darius mishandled the briefs, and Preach lost custody of Amina, at least temporarily.
Coop was correct to stand up to Laura and insist that she be put back on the case because she felt like the person who had let Preach down the most.
Coop’s rough edges almost cost her in pursuing a legal career. She had no idea what was involved in her interview to audit that professor’s law course.
She didn’t realize there would be such competition just to audit a class. Also, she knew she was out of her element during the interview and gave up.
But, as Coop does, she rallied and insisted that the professor give her a do-over.
And once she let her real story come out, she won over the professor and got approved to audit the course.
To revisit Jordan and Layla’s history, watch All American online.
Was Layla justified in her approach?
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Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.