It was Jordan’s turn to determine how to handle life post-Billy.
And he didn’t do too badly, all things considered, on All American Season 5 Episode 14.
The All American brain trust takes an intriguing approach to how the main characters process Billy’s death.
That started with recovering addict Olivia on the brink on All American Season 5 Episode 13.
Now that Olivia has her life more together, it is Jordan’s chance at the spotlight.
Jordan settled on home repairs as his coping mechanism, even though he’s shown zero mechanical abilities.
He found one of Billy’s old to-do lists and took it as a sign. Now that he’s the man of the house, he would take care of those repairs. Unfortunately, the necessary skills didn’t come along with that title.
It’s a shame that Laura was busy dealing with her grief. She could have saved Jordan so much time if she had explained how she always had to bring in a professional to clean up after Billy had “fixed” something. That sounds about right.
Jordan’s lack of repair skills was hardly his most significant problem, though. That would be A.D. Barnes appointing him the poster boy for the future of GAU football.
Barnes was just doing his job: trying to salvage a multimillion-dollar football program. He just saw positioning Jordan as the recently killed coach’s legacy and the future of GAU football as the best way to temper the penalty from the NCAA disciplinary committee.
Sure, it was cold-blooded and calculating to trade on sympathy for Billy. But the scope of Garrett’s scandal didn’t leave him much room to maneuver.
Some of what happened was on Jordan for not asking Barnes a few questions about the press conference he was planning. He might have looked less like a deer in headlights if he knew at least a little of what was intended.
Also, Jordan got precious little good advice from all of the media-savvy people around him: his reporter twin sister, his former politician mother, and his record-executive girlfriend.
Olivia and Laura should be cut some slack because they’re also grieving. And Layla, who has been there for Jordan every step of the way, had to deal with an artist looking to commit career suicide.
Olivia suggested talking with Spencer, who did come through for her last episode. But that was a blip in Spencer’s recent behavior, as his idea of how to deal with grief has been to ignore it.
Jordan persisted in attempting to reach Spencer, to the point of crashing his and Kia’s party. Based on his recent behavior, he should have known that Spencer would be of no help.
Layla finally got him on the right path when she explained that Billy’s gift was getting people to understand that they already knew the correct answer if they would listen to their inner voice.
Jordan showed his leadership qualities by rallying the team and facing down Barnes, essentially telling him to get with the squad’s plan for GAU football’s future or be left behind since that information was going out to the media anyway.
It was an effective framing mechanism when it was shown that Jordan’s voiceover was actually him talking to Billy at his gravesite.
While Olivia and Jordan appear to be coming out the other side, Spencer continues traveling to a dark place.
Apparently, Spencer had his transfer pique, spouting off to Coach Kenny, then running off to hide with Grace in Oakland.
Kenny must have thought he’d come to his senses, and Spencer didn’t bother to tell anyone else: not his housemate, not his soulmate, not his A.D. He did mention it to Grace, whose measured responses revealed what she thought of his knee-jerk reaction.
Rather than deal with his self-generated chaos, Spencer chose to get drunk at a party he hosted with Kia, at which he managed to offend, in no particular order, Flip, Jordan, Fausto, and Kia. If people from all parts of his life were telling him off, that should have been a sign. Yet he remained largely oblivious.
Spencer’s epiphany should be coming on All American Season 5 Episode 15. That’s none too soon.
At least Laura’s grief-blunting activity was reasonably innocuous: mothering.
Instead of staying at G.W.’s empty house without Billy, Laura temporarily moved back into the Baker sorority house with all the girls. Yet all of them, save Coop, whined because she was touching their stuff. As Coop correctly noted, it is her mansion.
When Olivia delicately brought it up during their spa day, Laura reacted embarrassed. What she was doing was pretty much reflex, performing normal daily activities.
Later she explained to Olivia that she was doing more wifely tasks like she used to do for Billy. Olivia told her it was OK to turn the page.
At least there was one non-Billy-related storyline as Patience’s video premiere event arrived.
Unfortunately, that meant the return of Patience’s superfan/stalker Miko, who just happened to bump into her at a local cafe.
Miko gave Patience too much to think about, much to Layla and Gia’s worries. That led to Patience doing a post for Miko’s website for her original fans.
Then it came out that Miko had hand-delivered flowers to the Baker residence.
So this overzealous fan knows where Patience lives. That can’t end well, can it?
To view Jordan’s development, watch All American online.
Is Jordan in a good place now?
Why is Spencer being such a jerk to everyone?
How much of a problem for Patience will Miko be?
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Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.