Yahoo Lifestyle All American Bosses Break Down Olivia’s Big News in Episode 2 — Including a Bonus Spoiler!
The following post contains major spoilers for Monday’s All American episode. Proceed with caution!
Jordan and Layla Baker very nearly turned into expectant parents during All American‘s latest outing. Fortunately for a panic-stricken Layla, she and Jordan won’t be called Mom and Dad anytime soon — but they will become a cool aunt and uncle in a few short months.
More from TVLine
Ratings: #OneChicago Trio Hit Highs With 'A+' Crossover, All American Returns Low
All American Mingles the Old With the New in Season 7's Soft Reboot - Grade the Premiere!
Yep, as revealed during Monday’s episode — which guest-starred former series regular Samantha Logan — Olivia is actually the pregnant member of The Vortex, whereas Layla’s seemingly affirmative pregnancy test was the result of a false positive. (Don’t feel any disappointment for her, though: A hugely relieved Layla realized, in real time, that she wasn’t quite ready for parenthood, after all.)
Sadly, since Daniel Ezra wasn’t guest-starring in this episode, we didn’t get to see or hear Spencer’s reaction when Olivia called him to share that he’ll be a dad. But TVLine did catch up with co-showrunners Nkechi Okoro Carroll and Jameal Turner, who broke down Olivia’s pregnancy revelation — complete with a spoiler about how many children she’s having! — and what it means for future Season 7 episodes.
TVLINE | Walk me through the pregnancy of it all. We spend the episode thinking Layla’s pregnant; it turns out Olivia’s expecting instead. Why was this the right time for both couples to broach that subject, and how’d you land on Olivia being pregnant?
CARROLL | For Layla, we see her in Episode 1, and she’s worried that she’s peaked too soon, right? At a very young age, she’s accomplished all of these big-ticket items. The one thing that she wasn’t ready for, but is a reality of young couples, was the idea of, “OK, are you ready to be a parent?” … As she’s navigating where she is and what she wants, we felt like that storyline — and the digging she would have to do within herself to acknowledge the fear of it, and if she was ready — would also help her prioritize if she really has peaked, or if that was just fear talking and she has more ahead of her. There’s nothing like that kind of scared to catapult you into, “Oh, you do want to do more. You do want to achieve more. You just reached one of the platforms, and now it’s time to keep going up to the next one.”
For Olivia and Spencer, their first pregnancy was always a storyline we wanted to do, and it was something I envisioned coming a little later this season. And it was our writers, as they were pitching out the episode, that were like, “Just go with us here. What do you think if it’s not just that Layla isn’t pregnant, but that Liv is?” And at first I was like, “No, no, it’s too soon. Let’s save that for another episode where she comes back later. I want them to enjoy their young married life.” And it doesn’t happen often, but I went home and I slept on it, and I woke up the next morning and was like, “Oh my gosh. We have to see Olivia pregnant. We have to see how this affects her life, and if we’re going to do that, then it does need to be now, so we can see how it progresses.” God bless Jamie and Adrian [Dukes], our writer, because I called them either late at night or super-early in the morning and I was like, “OK, just kidding! Forget the new storyline we just put in yesterday. I think your instincts are correct, and Olivia should be pregnant now.” And also, in an episode where they’re missing Billy and talking about his impact, what a beautiful way to extend the legacy of the Baker family than to know the new set of twins is coming. So that’s how it ended up being in the second episode versus later in the season.
TVLINE | I didn’t know it was twins! I guess we’ll find that out down the road?
CARROLL | Exactly. Spoiler alert!
TVLINE | You just alluded to something that I was going to ask about: As exciting as this is for Olivia and Spencer, they’re also not regulars this season, and I assumed most of their pregnancy journey would happen offscreen — but it sounds like we will get to see some of it play out on the show?
TURNER | We’re fortunate to be able to evenly spread it across, in terms of any OG [cast] appearances. Daniel will have an episode later in the season, so there will be more things that will be revealed [about the pregnancy] in that. In a really cool way, we’ll tie in everything that’s going on with him, as an anticipating father, that’s also connected to our newer characters. We found a way to anchor it to both, so that we’re still keeping the “Spelivia” impact alive, while also finding a way to connect it back to our newer characters. That will play out in a later episode.
TVLine also caught up with Greta Onieogou, who plays Layla, and she confirmed that Layla’s pursuit of new professional challenges will be “a huge theme for her this season,” as Carroll indicated.
“She has a lot more tools, a lot better ways of problem-solving and figuring out how to get through these moments in a way that’s much more healthy and proactive,” Onieogou tells us. “She definitely finds what that next thing is, and I’m really excited for people to see that.”
All American fans, how did you react to Monday’s episode — both Layla’s non-pregnancy and Olivia’s actual pregnancy? Hit the comments!
Best of TVLine
Sign up for TVLine's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
