All American: Homecoming: Complicated relationships take the lead

Following JR and Keisha's act of cheating in "Pain Is Inevitable," they now have to deal with the repercussions of a kiss that never should have happened.

They had each already promised their respective romantic partners, Gabby and Cam, that nothing beyond a strong platonic bond existed between them, with Keisha trying to suggest, even after kissing JR, that the duo were just friends.

JR and Keisha remain separated for most of the episode, individually watching the fallout of how their kiss has impacted their friend group and the way their friends respond to them. It is ultimately a complicated situation, especially as JR and Keisha connect their growth as friends to how they relied on each other through JR's recovery.

Keisha's devastation over believing she has lost Cam, and their break-up that follows Keisha's concerns, allow for this to be a conversation about trust. Throughout season three, Keisha has made deliberate choices to avoid confiding in Cam about her concerns about her future and interest in street dancing. All the while, Keisha has claimed that she and Cam are not connecting as much as they used to.

To a degree, that might be a fair point. Cam's job has kept him busy in ways that have resulted in missing dates. But, that does not take away from how Keisha made the choice to lie to Cam, and his recognition that he does not feel that he can trust her comes from a strong enough backing from the season's events that it works as a significant motivator.

However, JR, Keisha, and Cam's conflicting dynamic is not the only one under the magnifying glass in "Un-Break My Heart," When JR questions why Simone is not berating him for his actions, Simone makes a reference to "glass houses," which could very well be a callback to the love square between Simone, Damon, Jordan, and Layla, when Jordan and Simone's connection had started to dissolve as both Simone and Jordan began finding comfort and connection with others.

Following Jordan and Simone's break-up, Keisha had warned Simone against taking her anger or sadness out on Jordan and Layla when Simone had her own romantic connection growing with Damon.

However, Simone has once again found herself in a similar situation, but this time, she is playing a different role. Although Lando is in a romantic relationship with Eva, ever since he has reconnected with Simone, there has been a jump in how much time he spends with Simone, and an underlying sense of romantic tension.

Simone knows that Lando is dating Eva, but continues to strongly rely on him with the explanation that it is because of the strength of their friendship and how he is a connection to who she used to be before her cancer diagnosis.

Unfortunately, there has not been much narrative interest in Lando and Eva's relationship anyway, as she feels more like an obstacle in the way of Simone and Lando's reunion instead of presenting Lando and Eva as a legitimate relationships that Lando believes can go the distance. It does not help that All American: Homecoming has not done much work to craft Eva as her own character beyond being Lando's girlfriend. Still, given how Simone leaves things with Eva at the episode's conclusion, it seems that may not even be the case anymore either as Eva declares that Simone has won.

"Un-Break My Heart" also has a specific talking point about the emotional relationship to one's legacy, as Simone struggles to determine how to move forward in tennis as her skills have changed while JR is saddened by Bringston's refusal to reinstate the baseball program.

Although it is upsetting that JR and Lando's efforts did not lead to the preferred result, unfortunately, this is also a storyline that failed to properly elevate the series. JR and Lando's strive to reinstate the baseball program could have been an interesting plot line, showing the duo going through the motions. But, it is hard to feel like their efforts are a strong loss when All American: Homecoming only ever references that they are in the process of working on it but never actually show it.

The audience is not privy to any of the work that JR and Lando do to try and reinstate the program, nor do they get to witness JR and Lando's presentation. So, by the time the official result came, it was not the most emotionally impactful negative, when it could have been a much more emotionally impactful arc.

"Un-Break My Heart" strives to fix it with a museum of the success that followed athletes from HBCU's. The concept is an exciting one, and one that reaches its donation goal fairly quickly as these students want to preserve the love that comes from HBCU sports and athletics following another Bringston sports team being cut from the school's list of programs.

"Un-Break My Heart" has placed itself as the beginning of the end, as All American: Homecoming's final three episodes prepare to be a potentially uncertain goodbye to the characters.