All American: Homecoming bosses on poignant bomb threat episode
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Warning: This story contains spoilers for All American: Homecoming season 2, episode 4, "We Shall Not Be Moved."
A major crisis at Bringston University sent the latest episode of All American: Homecoming into chaos.
Cam Watkins (Mitchell Edwards) picks up the phone in Amara Patterson's (Kelly Jenrette) office to someone threatening to blow up the school. The call sends the campus into lock down as law enforcement begins investigating. Simone Hicks (Geffri Maya) and others at the tennis court have both goofy fun and difficult conversations while Damon Sims (Peyton Alex Smith) and Jessie Raymond, Jr. (Sylvester Powell) deal with their complicated family situation. Cam is distressed after authorities grill him, while Simone finds a connection with fellow student athlete Orlando 'Lando' Johnson (Martin Bobb-Semple). In the end, an explosive device is found on another HBCU's campus and a suspect is found just blocks away from Bringston with a second bomb. The crisis may have been averted, but it still deeply affects those on campus and the people who love them.
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We spoke to co-showrunners Nkechi Okoro Carroll and Marqui Jackson about what they wanted to explore in the episode, Simone's new budding romance, and what's next on All American: Homecoming.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What inspired the episode?
NKECHI OKORO CARROLL: It's something Marqui and I talked about since season 1, because our HBCU community has been experiencing a significant degree of bomb threats, and I, personally, was very upset at how little attention and reporting it was getting. That fact that it was ongoing is something that, even within the community, a lot of people weren't aware of. We pride ourselves in the [All American] universe in providing an authentic portrayal through the lens of our Black community, so we felt like we were in a unique position to tackle a story like this to have a conversation around something that's really happening and hopefully provide some kind of blueprint, but not the only blueprint, for how our youth and processes and take steps in a healthy direction.
There's a lot packed into the episode. The students' discussion about Black people being resilient, depicting their distrust of law enforcement, and that energy release in that fun dodgeball scene. What did you want to touch on with the bomb threat through the characters?
MARQUI JACKSON: It's almost an instinctual thing. When you think about this event, it lends itself toward certain conversations. When you think about HBCUs in particular have been dealing with bomb threats, but people of color have been dealing with instances of trauma for centuries. We wanted to talk about that and the lens with which these things happen in our communities a lot. Looking at the world around us, I think we get desensitized to all these things that happen to us when we shouldn't. We looked at what the takeaways are for HBCUs. What their perspectives are when they are going through it and how they feel six months out. We wanted to tap into what the experience actually is like. We wanted to stay authentic to those voices while tapping into our own feelings about being people of color in this country and merging those two experiences together. There's uniformity to all of it.
What conversations did you have with the actors about the episode? What was it like to film it?
NOC: God bless our cast. They were so prepared and understood the magnitude of what they were taking on. They were as committed as we were to getting it right and representing what the HBCU community have been going through.
Every time I look at [Kelly Jenrette] I cried immediately. Their performances — Mitchell Edwards, he took it to another level in these two episodes. He's just been phenomenal this season, but these two episodes in particular. There were a lot of moments where we would sit in moments of silence, in awe of what was being done.
MJ: I told [Mitchell] that Cam is crucial and a centerpiece in a lot of ways to these two episodes. If we don't get episode 4 right, then episode 5 is gonna fall flat. I told him that what Cam says to the FBI agent in terms of what he heard on the call is the PG version of what he actually heard on the call. What he actually hears is so much more — the hate and vitriol. That perspective that only Cam has and is going to carry, so there will be a remnant of that in episode five. Cam comes to Bringston because it's supposed to be his oasis. He's used to fighting, looking over his shoulder, and losing people in really hard and tragic ways. He thought he was going to get a break from that at Bringston, and not even a year in he's dealing with something that feels reminiscent of being back home.
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Amara feels the weight of being responsible for the students. What part does this event play in her overall story as the new person running Bringston University?
NOC: In season 1, [Amara] was so vocal about her right for the soul of Bringston and now she's realizing that when you're in a leadership role where you answer to trustees and have to take all students' needs into consideration, it is not an easy balancing act.
The episode ends with a bomb being found on another campus and someone being caught with a second device blocks from Bringston. Were any other resolutions considered?
NOC: We explored all options, but once we locked down to work on the episodes we knew there was no other option but for it to have been a real threat. The reality is this is really happening at HBCUs. A couple of months ago, there was another one at Howard and this is a real experience for the HBCU community.
MJ: When we got into the weeds of it, we wanted to show that what was happening wasn't specific to Bringston. There's a breadth and depth to it because numerous schools were affected several times in a short amount of time, and it's still happening.
NOC: To broaden the conversation beyond Bringston shows that Black excellence was being targeted. It was more than one HBCU. That's how much Black excellence offended that perpetrator. We felt it was important.
What's next? How does Bringston heal after this?
MJ: A big portion of episode five is trying to bring more resources to campus, so we will see that journey and fight for her and Marcus. What does it look like to have more permanent mental health resources on campus, so that will be something they will work on throughout the season.
NOC: Also, how you continue to have that passion for life and dream big and unapologetically pursue it because that's what they're all doing. Whether it's through baseball or tennis or music for Cam, or dance for [Keisha McCalla (Netta Walker)].
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
All American: Homecoming airs Mondays at 9pm ET on The CW.
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