All American Season 2 | Episode 13 “The Art of Peer Pressure” Review

Peer pressure can come in all forms and not necessarily just from your peers, but from ourselves. The pressure to succeed. The pressure to be the best. The pressure to do the right thing. Heck, even the pressure to just survive. The pressure can be felt from all angles and no one is safe from it. The pressure can either push us in the right direction or it can break us. Spencer, Asher, Coop, Jordan, Olivia, even Mr. and Mrs. Baker… they all fall prey to peer pressure in this week’s episode of All American. Some conquer it and some learn a hard lesson.

Double Standards

Forgive me, but I completely forgot that Laura’s running for DA. Oops! Don’t you hate when “minor” characters’ storylines get buried and then suddenly get brought back for it to conclude with no in-between? Anyways, that’s besides the point because this storyline got brought back for a good reason: to talk about double standards. Just as with real politics, the ugliness comes out as the election comes to an end. Laura’s male opponent doesn’t care to go below the belt by publicizing Laura and Billy’s separation. It’s not until Laura hears Olivia calls it bs that a man can get away with making it about Laura’s personal life rather than her career accomplishments that Laura decides not to be silent anymore. Just before the polls close she broadcasts live, not to stoop to her opponent’s level, but to address her separation (even though it’s no one’s business), speak about her accomplishments, and most importantly, remind everyone that if she were a man, her career accomplishments would be the only thing that mattered… not her personal life. Preach, girl! The broadcast is worth the risk, too, because she wins! Woohoo!

Ease In

When we last saw Spencer, he was pushing himself to get back on the field, feeling that pressure of the possibility of losing his spot and a chance to go to college. A month later, he’s getting the all clear to ease back into football – key phrase being “ease back into”. We all know how stubborn Spencer is when it comes to playing, though. He wants to play in the scrimmage, especially since a college scout will be there. Billy is hesitant to let him play in the game, but if he can pass some football test, then he’ll let him. Spencer passes, but when Billy asks how his shoulder’s feeling, he lies. Even so, Billy still doesn’t put him in the scrimmage until Spencer practically begs him, and the team doesn’t throw him any passes until he insists that he feels fine. Unfortunately, Spencer’s lie catches up to him when he takes a hard fall on his shoulder and he’s unable to move it for a minute. It’s then, when he realizes that he’s let his team and coach down, that he knows he has to go about healing the right way. Thankfully, his team is there to help him get back to 100%.

Who Did It?

Tyrone’s back and ready for vengeance. His first order of business: having Preach jumped in jail. This puts everyone on edge, for good reason. He advises Coop and everyone in Tyrone’s war path to lay low. Coop doesn’t take it too seriously until Flip goes “missing”, then she hunkers down at Layla’s while making sure Darnell keeps Spencer and Dillon safe and distracted instead of telling Spencer. However, not long after she’s there, JP says he admires her new music and that she never gives up or backs down and it sets something off inside her. First of all, since when does JP know anything about Coop? He’s the one that turned her music down. From what I’ve noticed, Coop doesn’t seem to follow through with anything, but maybe now she has. Maybe the pressure pushes her to do something incredibly stupid.

Right after JP’s words, Coop ditches Layla’s and goes to Patience’s house where she pretends she wants to hide out at her uncle’s in a different town. Really, she’s just there to get a gun. She then convinces Patience and an upset Spencer that they’ll be fine. She also convinces Patience to go ahead to her uncle’s and she’ll meet her there. Next, we see Preach ordering someone to get in and get out followed by Tyrone getting show on his porch in broad daylight. Just when I thought Tyrone was the show’s antagonist that couldn’t be killed and would keep coming back, someone goes and kills him. The question is, who? Did Preach enlist someone to do it after he was jumped in jail? Did Flip actually go with his family out of town like he says when he turns up or did he do it? Or did Coop actually follow through (I hate to use these words since I don’t want her to be the one who did it) with it this time?

Notable Mentions

• Olivia should not have to be taking on Asher’s addiction, and as her “best friend”, he shouldn’t be putting her in that position. He knew he couldn’t keep his promise to quit steroids cold turkey. Heck, he didn’t even try. As soon as he heard a college recruiter would be at the scrimmage, he didn’t hesitate to make sure he was on his A-game. Now, it’s taking an obvious physical toll on him, forcing Olivia to tell her dad. What else can she do? She’s just a teenager. A teenager who fights daily with her own addictions. She can only help Asher so much by herself.
• Well, I asked for Jordan to have a deeper storyline, and it looks like we’re getting it. I just didn’t expect him to invite Symone to come live with him. It’s a noble gesture considering her parents’ ultimatum of having an abortion if she wants to live with them at home. But I kind of think he’s picturing some fantasyland where this will be totally normal and okay with the already fractured Baker family.
• Coop gets arrested for Tyrone’s murder, but on what evidence?
• Patience tosses the gun in the river. Is she covering for Coop? – the most likely reason. Or, and this one is a far reach that I’m just throwing out there, will the surprise us all and have Patience as the one who killed Tyrone? – like I said, it’s a far reach.
• Who was protecting Grace in all this???
• Chris is back!

All American airs Mondays at 8/7c on The CW!

Featured Image: IMDb