SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from the Season 7 finale of The CW‘s All American.
The Season 7 finale of The CW’s All American leaves audiences on a cliffhanger that puts the relationships of most of its characters in limbo.
The episode takes place on the day of the big Beverly vs. Crenshaw rivalry game, which has also turned into a (quite literal) family affair with the reveal that Cassius is Jordan’s cousin, and his decision to take the coaching gig at Beverly wasn’t an altruistic one. In fact, Cassius is hell bent on destroying the Baker legacy by clinching every record and every title that once belonged to his uncle, Billy Baker.
The kids are also dealing with their own problems, as Khalil is wrestling with both his feelings for Amina and his relationship with his dad. Meanwhile Amina both starts to understand she might have feelings for KJ and, at the same time, needs to focus on herself and her future after she’s accepted into a boarding school that could be her ticket to Stanford. And anyways, KJ is very much making moves on Tori, who finally stands up to KJ for stringing her along the last few episodes and demands better for herself.
All of this conflict, obviously, makes its way to the field, where everyone feels like they have something to prove. But, audiences will have to cross their fingers for a Season 8, because the episode ends without an answer as to who wins the big game — or what most of these characters’ relationships are going to look like moving forward.
So far, All American hasn’t been renewed, but MyRumors previously reported that the CW is still making a decision on whether to bring the legacy series back for another season.
In the interview below, showrunners Nkechi Okoro Carroll and Jamie Turner spoke with MyRumors about where they hope to take the story from here.
DEADLINE: I think we have to start at the end and work our way back, because I wasn’t expecting that cliffhanger. Why did you decide to end it with the football spiraling and not give us an answer on who wins that game?
NKECHI OKORO CARROLL: I mean, honestly, it was the strongest ending. Not even just this season, but this whole series, part of what’s been at the heart of it is this ongoing rivalry between Crenshaw and Beverly that always ends up getting personal beyond just two football team rivals. So we felt that given everything that had happened this season, and where we got to in the finale, in terms of Beverly finally facing off against Crenshaw and essentially the two branches of the Baker line — the Baker family and the Jeremy family — finally facing off against each other, that we wanted to leave the ultimate decision of who won that game and what does it mean for the future of the Bakers and the Jeremys for, fingers crossed, Season 8.
DEADLINE: We see Jordan kind of come to this realization that he’s being unfair to KJ during this episode, but he makes it very clear to Cassius that he isn’t ready to work on that relationship yet. What work would they need to do to possibly reconcile?
CARROLL: I mean, truthfully, it’s a place of trust, right? It’s that trust and that bond needs to be, not even rebuilt. It needs to be built. For KJ, Jordan sort of has that moment where Cassius rightfully points out that KJ had nothing to do with this. Not only that, KJ stood up for Jordan. Jordan is mature enough to realize in that moment he’s been taking it out on a child, which he shouldn’t. But as for what Cassius owes him, if there’s ever going to be any uniting of the Baker and the Jeremy branches, that is going to take a lot of trust building and a lot of bridge building and a lot of forgiveness. Those are things that Jordan cannot rush.
DEADLINE: I was really proud of Tori for standing up to KJ, and I’m glad he came to his sense. But this whole love entanglement just got a lot more complicated with Amina realizing she might have feelings for KJ. Meanwhile, Khalil is realizing he’s got feelings for Amina…how do they begin to untangle all of that?
JAMIE TURNER: I mean, me personally, that’s the beauty of YA drama. One of the main themes in this episode beyond recognition was also growth and new opportunities. When you look at where Amina started this season, and where Khalil started this season, and then where they ended up, where they land by the end of the season, they’re different — different for the better. So it creates future complications for us with this dynamic, I think, in the great way, similar to how it kind of created the really cool and fascinating complications between Spencer and Olivia and Layla back in the day. Amina’s starting to realize that she does have feelings for KJ. She’s also starting to understand the value of putting herself first. She’s there also to see where his heart kind of lies, which is yet another telling reminder that she needs to focus on herself. So it just creates these opportunities where as they continue to grow as individuals, understanding that timing is everything. Maybe the plan now is the focus on, how can we grow internally? I think you’re going to see a little bit of that, obviously, with her, with Khalil, and then we’ll see the growth of the relationship between KJ and Tori as well.
DEADLINE: It did bring me back to the early days of All American. I am hoping we will get to see more.
TURNER: That’s the emotional spine of this show, spearheaded by NK and her love for this, you know what I mean? There’s so many more stories and so many more avenues to explore between the four of them, plus others. We have other peripheral players that we can potentially fold in as well as we potentially and hopefully move forward.
CARROLL: Also, I have the pleasure of having a front row seat to the complications of teenage love lives through my son and his friends and their relationships, and it never ceases to amaze me how deep and serious it all feels for them. I want to be like ‘Guys, I’ve been married 23 years, wait till you get here,’ but in the moment for them, it is all so epic. So being able to bring that to TV is just is an absolute joy for me. Nothing makes me happier. Also, at the same time, honoring the growth and graduation and maturity and the realization of dreams for our OG cast. The cast that moved on from the show moved on from the show because their storylines completed. Spencer made it to the NFL. Olivia became a famous author and journalist, and they’re about to be parents to twins. Asher got the coaching gig of his life, getting to go to New York with Coach Mrs. Montez, and be near coach Montez and continue to learn from his mentors. They were teens for so long on the show, and we had the beauty of longevity in seeing them go from their teen years into their college years into their dreams as adults. Jordan and Layla and Coop’s dreams kept them in LA, but the others, they graduated, and that makes me so proud.