Bad news for fans of “All American” … Episode 11 of season 5, broadcast last night in the United States, was the scene of the death of an emblematic character of the series.
Warning, the following article contains spoilers on episode 11 of season 5 of All American, available in US+24 on Salto. If you don’t want to know anything, go your way!
The episode of All American broadcast this Monday, February 13 on the CW has reserved a tragic surprise for fans of fiction. Coach Billy Baker, who was embodied since the launch of the series by Taye Diggs, has indeed died in a dramatic accident during episode 11 of season 5.
While the team was returning from a sports competition, a tire on the bus burst, causing an accident. Billy managed to get out of the vehicle with the rest of the team – or so he thought.
After calling his wife and daughter to tell them he was fine, he realized that Jabari (Simeon Daise) was still stuck in the bus balanced on a cliff. The coach then decided to return there in order to save the teenager. In the final scene, Jordan (Michael Evans Behling), who was at the scene of the accident, announces to his family that Billy had not survived.
If this death is a shock for most viewers, the series having so far chosen to spare its main characters, showrunner Nkechi Okoro Carroll told our colleagues from Deadline that the departure of Taye Diggs had been planned long before the writing of season 5.
“At the start and end of each season, I have a conversation with the actors about their character’s journey.,” she explained. “And it was during one of those conversations with Taye that we started wondering about his character’s future: ‘Is Billy’s journey on the show over? And if so, what might his departure look like?’ For me, there was only one way out for Billy, because the character would never have just left after fighting so hard for his family.”
The next episodes of season 5 of All American will allow us to see how each of the characters will apprehend this tragic death. Jordan will thus have to face the guilt he feels following his last conversation with Billy. He indeed argued with the latter and did not answer his call.
“When you have the opportunity to speak to someone and you send them directly to voicemail, and all of a sudden that person is no longer there, that you will never have the opportunity to call them back and to have a conversation with her, it weighs on you“, explained Nkechi Okoro Carroll to variety. Olivia and Jordan will also both have to deal with the death of their father, and face their demons.
On January 12, the CW announced that All American was renewed for season 6, which should arrive on the air next fall. The fate of its spin-off, Homecoming, is still in the balance.