All American Season 4 Questions 'If Love Is Enough' for Coop and Patience

[Warning: The following contains spoilers for the All American Season 4 premiere.] 

There's trouble in paradise on All American after a Season 4 premiere that delivered answers from a traumatizing Season 3 finale and promised new beginnings for virtually every character. Coop (Bre-Z) survived the shootout with Mo (Erica Peeples), but landed in a coma for three days. When Coop awoke and lied to the police to protect Preach (J. Kareem Grimes), her girlfriend Patience (Chelsea Tavares) realized that a lot of the drama that surrounds their relationship was caused by Coop's tendency to act first and think later. So while it was a miracle that Coop made it through this ordeal, there's definitely trouble ahead in Season 4. 

Coop wasn't the only one having a tough time at the start of the season. Layla (Greta Onieogou) escaped from Carrie (Anna Lore) before Carrie could throw both of them off a cliff, but the harrowing experience made Layla realize she needs to make some changes in her life, starting with moving out of her father's house and in with the Bakers. Meanwhile, Billy (Taye Diggs) went toe-to-toe with Spencer (Daniel Ezra) and called him out for his hero complex that could have gotten Jordan (Michael Evans Behling) killed if their secret practice session in Season 3 had gone wrong. That set Spencer, along with a lot of his friends, on a path of self-discovery in Season 4. 

Executive producer Nkechi Okoro Carroll spoke to TV Guide about the revelations in the Season 4 premiere and teased what's ahead in this season of "rebirth" for the All American teens, including for Asher (Cody Christian), who was noticeably absent in the season's first episode. 

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Let's start with Coop and Patience, because Patience makes the realization that Coop is the source of all the drama in their lives and seems pretty fed up. What does their journey look like in Season 4?
Nkechi Okoro Carroll: For Coop, especially in regard to her relationship with Patience, is love going to be enough? When Coop makes the choices she makes, and she makes them out of love, from her perspective, it does have fallout in other people's lives. This time we're going to track the fallout in Patience's life and if love is going to be enough for Patience to overlook what feels like what is becoming a pattern that's affecting their relationship and their lives. They are so close and so in love, and such a power couple, that the thing that Patience is really wrestling with is Coop's inability to see that the choices she makes in her life directly affect Patience's life. We're really going to go on a journey with Coop and Patience this season where we're going to get more in-depth into their relationship and what makes it work, what the pressures and strains are. [We] want to talk about two characters who are going through a rebirth, who are launching new aspects of their lives and how do they keep what they had that worked so well in the past while they are maturing and growing. 

How does getting shot affect Coop's music journey? She was really about to take off when all of that happened, so does the dream also get affected by her decision to go after Mo?
Carroll: Getting shot is going to affect Coop's entire life in a number of ways. She doesn't have the luxury of just focusing on music anymore, because of the ripple effects of what happened with Mo. Preach is now a single dad and she feels a lot of responsibility for that. She also has a close, growing relationship with Preach's daughter, who has no idea of Coop's involvement at all in the night her mom was shot. We're going to see Coop wrestling with what she feels she owes Preach, what she feels she owes [his daughter], and how best to repay them for that sacrifice, while also trying to figure out what's next in her life and her career while everyone she knows and loves seems to be moving in different directions. 

Layla also had a traumatic night in the Season 3 finale, but she seems to be really standing up for what she needs in the premiere. What does her path look like in Season 4? 
Carroll: We're going to see a very strong and determined Layla, who is learning to use her voice and use it loudly so she doesn't leave herself open and vulnerable to the type of situations that she found herself in over the last two seasons. She's been hurt and this isn't a case of what happened with Carrie is going to send Layla down this depressive spiral. We're going to see it affect Layla in a very different way. She's stronger than she was during her mental health episode in Season 2. She's stronger than she was then and we're going to see she's taken time to strengthen her mental health, she spent time in a facility, she's on her medication, she's in therapy, and she's using all the tools. So how does someone who is using all of the tools and experiences a kind of trauma bounce back from that ordeal? Sometimes we'll find that what seems like a healthy response, or what seems like a healthy way of coping with trauma, might just be a different version of masking it. Sometimes it takes those closest to you to challenge you on what your healing looks like. We're going to really dive into that story with Layla and her taking ownership over her life, what she feels she needs, and being very vocal about it in a way that she hasn't before. As a result, people are dealing with a very different version of Layla who isn't as easy to push around, walk over, or mold, frankly. … Friendships and the dynamics of those friendships will have to adjust to this new and improved Layla. 

By the people closest to her, do you mean the Baker twins or will someone unexpected be in Layla's corner this season?
Carroll: It's all of them. The beauty of the cast we have on this show is that they're such a brilliant, very big ensemble cast and it allows us season after season to have unlikely pairings with characters who have been on the show since Season 1, but maybe haven't really had deep, meaningful storylines together. So we push ourselves to continue to look for new ways to put people together and dive into mirroring storylines with people from both walks of life — South L.A. and Beverly Hills. Not just in Layla's storyline, but in a number of people's storylines, you're going to see some unlikely friendships and some unlikely parallel storylines bringing people together that you wouldn't expect. 

There seemed to be something going on at the State Championship game with the refs. Is it possible that the current state champs won't remain the state champs?
Carroll: The unfortunate side of not having live replay during high school games is that the call is the call. It doesn't matter what you see after that game is over and it's been called. The official record will always stand as the official record, even if everybody knows that it is of the result of a bad call and not really what went down during the game. We're going to see our heroes have to struggle with that and the blessings and curses that come out of being state champions and not being state champions. We are going to see the fallout of that where benefits that should have gone to the real winning team end up going to members of the other one…and how friendships and work relationships have to reconcile the reality of this time they got it wrong, and the consequences of them getting it wrong.

Billy calls Spencer out in a very real way in this premiere about his hero complex, and Spencer seems to absorb that. Can you talk about what Spencer not being a hero looks like this season? 
Carroll: We've had Spencer in therapy for specifically this reason. His therapist told him to put his mask on first. Grace has told him on numerous occasions, "It doesn't always have to be you." Billy, out of anger, in a very pointed, direct way, laid it all down for him which is, "There is part of you that has a savior complex and doesn't know who you are if you aren't the one out saving everyone." That really challenges Spencer. He doesn't actually know if he believes that's true about himself or not, but he knows that in order to figure that out, he actually does need to start living his life in a little bit of a different way. We're going to see that version of Spencer. We're going to see the Spencer that chooses himself first. We're going to see Spencer that's pushing himself to choose joy, and not necessarily feel the need to take on everyone's burdens. He's been like this all his life so it's not an easy behavior to unlearn, but now that it's at the forefront of his mind … he really needs to examine [the savior complex]. We're going to see him take that journey and sort of push back on that. The truth is, the James family is a Christian family and Grace very much believes in the purpose God puts in your life and you are who you are, so there's going to be a little bit of Spencer figuring out who he is this season, that's his rebirth journey. 

All American Boss Warns Season 3's Trauma Will Change Every Character in Season 4

Asher was conspicuously absent from the premiere after getting some devastating news that he can't play football in the Season 3 finale. What's going on with him? 
Carroll: His absence is calculated because he's actually out there getting second opinions and figuring out if his football career really is over. We're going to see him go through the various stages of grief. We're going to see him explore all avenues, but it's not going to look like what I believe a lot of people think Asher's reaction would look like. We're dealing with a different Asher than we were in Season 1, who's been through some stuff, who's had some growth. He's a little bit more aware of the role he plays in some of the events of his life, so we're going to see that Asher trying to process and figure out what the new dream looks like and if football is even really done for him forever. It's definitely an emotional journey. It's one that actually ends up with him relating to and developing close friendships with some people that he never imagined he would share anything in common with. We really start to explore a new side of Asher as he figures out what's next for him and if football and college football are still an option on the table. 

What are you most excited for fans to see in this new season of All American? 
Carroll: I'm excited to see the audience's reaction to sort of the new world order for these characters. Then of course, Spencer and Olivia. We finally got Spencer and Olivia together and I am excited for people to see what a real relationship looks like between the two of them and if it's sustainable. 

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