Key Takeaways
In “All American,” How Does Billy Baker Meet His End?
Taye Diggs Has Left “All-American,” But Why?
This week’s episode of All American (airing on February 13) offered a startling and devastating conclusion. The death of Taye Diggs’ Billy Baker at the episode’s conclusion marked the end of the actor’s run on the CW series.
A bus tire blew while Coach Billy and his team were returning home. Because of the collision, the bus was sent careening toward a cliff, but he and the players all managed to get out before it went over. According to Billy, at least. He boarded the bus again to find Jamari (Simeon Daise), and his death and that of his family were revealed later in the episode. What a brave way for a good man to go.
In “All American,” How Does Billy Baker Meet His End?
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Although “All American” saison five episode eleven “Time” has a happy beginning, it sets up the program’s devastating conclusion with subtle indications surrounding Billy (Diggs), who is on his way out of South Crenshaw High.
Many of the characters, including Spencer, Billy’s son Jordan (Michael Evans Behling), and the rest of Billy’s previous Beverly Hills High squad, have doubts about his decision to leave the school during a combine and throughout the episode. At the end of the combine, he had a change of heart and decided to stay. But on the way back from the presentation, things heat up when a school bus has a flat tire and goes off a cliff.
Everyone gets off, and it appears to be fine, but then Billy re-boards the bus—which is barely holding on by a thread—to rescue his trapped student, Jabari Long (Simeon Daise). Without actually showing Billy’s death on film, Spencer’s mother Grace (Karimah Westbrook) visits him to deliver the devastating news, while a heartfelt voicemail from Billy to Spencer about his decision to remain at South Crenshaw plays in the background.
Because of the ambiguity surrounding Billy’s death and his student’s fate, the episode closes on a cliffhanger; hopefully, these questions will be answered in the next installment.
Taye Diggs Has Left “All-American,” But Why?
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In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Diggs explained why he left after five saisons: “it was simply a sense.” He continued, “I approached [Carroll] very gingerly, and said, ‘I haven’t made any decisions, but this is what I’m thinking,’ and she understood. “Soon after, she began suggesting fantastic ways for me to escape.
As soon as she shared her thoughts with me, I was hooked. I’m really enjoying my time on the show. To act, all an actor needs is a gut instinct. Having finished what I could, I felt ready to go on to other challenges.”
Despite the fact that some viewers may have questioned whether or not Diggs’ departure necessitated the death of his character, the actor told TVLine that he believed it to be the only viable alternative.
The easiest option would have been for him to become a professor at a university, but “given the intensity of the relationships between me and my family, and me and the team, it would not make sense if I was still alive and wasn’t still in contact with these children of mine — these students, these young men that had such an influence on my life,” he said. “To my surprise, the way I was instructed to leave was quite impressive. That sort of treatment has never been meted out to any of the characters I’ve played. It was quite an honor for me.”