Everyone on All American Is Going to Feel the Consequences of Coop's Latest Brush With the Law

[Warning: The following contains spoilers for the Monday's episode All American. Read at your own risk!] 

Uh-oh, Coop (Bre-Z) is in trouble once again on All American. The crew thought they might finally get a chance to relax after Preach (J. Kareem Grimes) was let off with a slap on the wrist after shooting Mo in the Season 3 finale, but that was not the case. With Preach admitting to shooting Mo — and there being video of the shooting to back him up — it became clear that Coop lied to save him and she was arrested for obstruction of justice. It is the worst-case scenario that Patience (Chelsea Tavares) had been dreading ever since Coop first told the lie. 

Now "it's coming home to roost," according to All American showrunner Nkechi Okoro Carroll, who shared with TV Guide how Coop's arrest will have consequences for everyone she cares about, especially Patience and Spencer (Daniel Ezra) as they struggle with the promises they've made to focus on themselves this season and not get sucked into Coop's drama. But can they really desert her at such an intense time of need? 

Elsewhere, things between Jordan (Michael Evans Behling) and Layla (Greta Onieogou) are getting warmer and Carroll explains why the two have become so intrinsically linked this season. Check out what else the showrunner had to say about Coop's arrest and everything that went down in the emotional episode directed by Ezra himself. 

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Daniel Ezra directed this episode. What can you say about the experience of watching him behind the camera?
Nkechi Okoro Carroll: We were so excited when Daniel expressed an interest in directing. We've talked a lot about our jobs as storytellers and the actors being a version of storytellers, writers being a version of storytellers, and directors being a version of storytellers. Everyone just has different tools. We were very excited to see what he would do with this material because he does have such an amazing grasp of performances and how to get the best performances out of actors, and out of himself. He has a very strong interest in cinema and visual styles and cinematography. We felt like all of that was going to be the perfect mix to have him direct [this episode]. We wanted an episode that had some weight to it, where we were really going to be digging deep on the actors' performances, and it was really about the characters and the difficult situations they would go through. This was a really great episode for him to sink his teeth into. It's a huge emotional episode for the character of Preach, played by Corinne Grimes, for Billy as he's stepping into his new role as interim principal, for Grace as she's figuring out why she's reacting the way she is to Billy wanting to be principal. There were so many great character journeys in the episode that it was the right one for Daniel to really sink his teeth into and boy, did he exceed our expectations. 

This cop, Porowski, has been around for a while when it comes to the Mo case. Are we going to find out there are deeper motivations for why he is coming after Coop as hard as he is? 
Carroll: He's been sticking around for a while and if you've been paying close attention, he's been around since the Tyrone case. He is the one that tried to arrest Coop for the Tyrone shooting back in Season 2. So he has a very vested interest in not being made to look like a fool by these teenagers in South L.A., and it feels like that's what keeps happening. It has come to be personal because he's got these unsolved cases out there. Tyrone's case was ultimately solved because Sean's mother turned herself in, but now he has this shooting with Mo and he knew from the jump that Coop had been lying to him in the hospital, but he couldn't put his finger on what she was lying about. Then he finally found what he's been quietly searching behind the scenes for all this time. 

It's very personal for him because he believes in law and justice. He believes that these kids, especially Coop, but also Preach, have been playing fancy and loose with [the law]. From that perspective, there is very much a personal motivation…It becomes a little too personal from the cop's perspective, and that's what we are seeing with him. 

Coop has had brushes with the law and usually you can see how she can get out of it, but this time the case is very solid against her. How worried should we be that she's going to have to do some jail time?
Carroll: It always comes back to you. Eventually, the universe is always going to come back to you and make you have to address or pay for the things that you managed to slip away from. Coop has had a lot of brushes with the law and she's always just kind of flipped out of it. It's kind of what Patience said at the start of the season. The choices that Coop makes are what keep landing her in the situation she's in. Eventually, it had to come home to roost. Eventually, she was going to have to face the music for some of the lies that she's told and some of the brushes that she's had but escaped from. As much as Detective Porowski is a pain in everyone's butt, he's not making up charges. Coop did lie. She obstructed justice and it needs to be answered for. 

Speaking of Patience, this was her absolute nightmare from the start of the season. How is she going to deal with Coop being arrested? 
Carroll: Patience loves Coop. I don't think anyone can question her love for Coop, but it's starting to come at a cost. The question that Patience really needs to answer for herself is what price is too high to pay for loving Coop. It's unfolding all these months later, the way she was scared in the premiere. We're going to find out that Patience is very much in a space where she's worried about the future and fate and what that's going to mean not just for Coop herself facing jail time, facing this trial, but how this happened at a critical time for Patience in terms of her music and album release. Her star is supposed to be shining bright right now, but her main concern Is that the woman she loves is in trouble with the law in a very, very serious, major way. Patience is really struggling to honor the commitment she made to herself to put her needs, her dreams, and her aspirations on the front burner. She's at a crossroads and trying to honor both herself and her life with Coop is not an easy thing to do. 

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I've been really proud of how Spencer has at least attempted to subdue his hero complex this season. How is this situation going to test him? 
Carroll: Spencer has been trying really hard. He recognizes after going to therapy with Dr. Spears all the work that he's done on himself. He does have a little bit of a superhero complex and he doesn't always have to be the savior. Part of that comes from him sort of being a parent-ified child, which you see sometimes in single-parent households, where he was forced in to sort of becoming an adult at a very young age when he felt a responsibility for his mother and his brother. That's where his savior complex originated and being conscious of it now and actively trying not to have that be his default — that's the first step in sort of addressing it. It doesn't mean it's an easy thing for him to do. Walking away from something that could be detrimental to you, but [if it] means walking away from someone you care about, is not an easy thing to do, especially for someone like Spencer, whose every inclination and tendency lends itself towards charging in to save the day. He's actively tried to have a more healthy approach, and that's going to be something we see him struggle with when it comes to this situation with Coop. 

Separate from Coop, I've been sensing a vibe between Layla and Jordan for a while now. Am I imagining that or is there something bubbling underneath the surface as they've gotten closer this season?
Carroll: I'm not going to get in trouble with myself, but I will say that they have definitely become closer and what we've really been developing is this beautiful best friendship between them. For so long, Layla was his twin sister's best friend who just used to be around, annoying him when they were younger. Then it was that she was Spencer's girlfriend, and now they actually have their own friendships developed out of a beautiful place. Both of them are in a season of life where they need each other in their lives. Jordan has Simone 3,000 miles away, and he's missing his girlfriend, but he's going through these huge life changes. He's gotten into a D1 school, but he got in as a preferred walk-on. He really, really has to put in the work if he wants to see any playing time on the field. He's trying to balance school, young adulthood, and flying back and forth to see Simone in Atlanta. There's just a lot of stuff that starts coming up in his life that it becomes easier to lean on the people who are right next to [him]. He really finds himself leaning on Layla in that way. 

Similarly, Layla has really sort of put up walls. [With] the incident with Carrie and almost losing her life, she just feels like she needs to sort of smash the world with both hands and go after what she wants professionally. If anyone's paying close attention, it's almost like she's using that as an excuse to not really in-depth engage with people. The only person who has really noticed and the only person who has actively fought against those walls is Jordan because he's legitimately worried about what it looks like if she successfully gets those up and blocks everyone out. He's been fighting so hard for her and what he feels is the healthier version of her. 

All American Season 4 airs Mondays at 8/7c on The CW.