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Jordan Baker is a main character on The CW series All American. He is portrayed by Michael Evans Behling.

He is Coach Billy Baker's son and was also Beverly High’s quarterback, whose world was thrown off its axis when Spencer joined the football team and his family. Initially, Jordan couldn’t stand by while Spencer took his father's attention, especially when that's the one thing he was always trying to get. As time passed though, he and Spencer grew increasingly closer until they became best friends and started considering each other like brothers.

After leading his team to the State championship twice, Jordan graduated from high school and started attending Golden Angeles University, also joining its football team. Meanwhile, after breaking up with his high school girlfriend Simone, who moved to Atlanta for college after graduation, due to long distance making their relationship fall apart, he started an adult relationship with his childhood friend and long-time crush Layla, whom he proposed to in “Now That We've Found Love” and then married in “Victory Lap”. It was mentioned in “I Do (part 1)” that in his senior year, he won the second title with GAU but left the game with concussion, which unfortunately led to him retiring from playing football. He was then offered a coaching job at South Crenshaw High School, which he accepted.

All American[]

Season One[]

In "Pilot", Jordan, Beverly High's QB, introduces himself to Spencer. Turns out, Jordan, is Coach Baker's son. And Olivia is the coach's daughter. Jordan introduces Spencer to the group including Layla and Asher.

Spencer's first practice doesn't go very well. After he runs the wrong plays, Jordan calls him out on it. Billy asks Jordan to take Spencer under his wing and give him a chance.

Jordan brings Spencer to the Baker house, and Spencer takes notice of how amazing the house is. Jordan reveals that his mother, Laura, is an attorney. While they're hanging out, Jordan overhears his dad on the phone. Billy wouldn't have recruited Spencer if anyone on his team had half his potential. This visibly upsets Jordan who tells Asher they need to get rid of Spencer.

Together, Jordan and Asher develop a plan and get Spencer to come to a party that night and take shots. Spencer's worried since they have practice the next day but they assure him it's just drills. Jordan and Asher pour their drinks out, but Spencer gets pretty drunk, and it shows the next day.

At practice, Spencer quickly learns it's scrimmage day, and he was tricked. He gets angry and starts to fight, but Billy breaks it up.

After the win, Coach Baker and Spencer walk off the field together -- which Jordan sees. Jordan's feelings are obviously hurt, and he's a little jealous.

In "99 Problems", Jordan has become more accepting of Spencer. However, as Jordan and Billy are running plays together, Spencer interjects and steals Jordan's thunder and Jordan is clearly hurt. Jordan is intimidated by Spencer and he has to live with him.

After the Booster Party, both Olivia and Jordan confront Billy about giving most of his attention to Spencer. They feel unimportant to their father but Billy tries to reassure them that's not the case. Finally, The Bakers have a family meeting to air out their feelings and reach a solution; Jordan even apologizes to Spencer. Present at the family dinner.

In "I", Jordan and Spencer seem to have reconnected. However, after Asher and company make their distaste for Spencer very clear, racial tension rises in the hallway of Beverly High; prompting intervention from Jordan to prevent the termination of Spencer's transfer permit. Aware of why Spencer and the team have yet to accept each other, Jordan is still blind to his own privilege.

In an effort to better understand Spencer, Jordan invites himself to Spencer's house in Crenshaw. Jordan has crossed a line with Spencer, but Spencer's family is all open arms and invites him to stay for the gathering. While at the cookout, Spencer realizes that his old teammates no longer accept him. And, to make matters worse, Jordan is a threat to Spencer's place among them. Present at the ruthless football game between Beverly Hills High and Crenshaw. Jordan receives a startling wake up call when he and Spencer are harassed by police officers during their ride back to Beverly Hills. Jordan has never experienced this and chooses to stand up for himself. The cops get more aggressive with Jordan and proceed to slam him on the pavement before handcuffing both he and Spencer.

They finally make it back to the Baker's home in Beverly Hills. But Jordan, who has not yet processed what just occured, storms out of the kitchen when Billy expresses frustration over his son's actions. Later, just as Jordan begins to gain some headway with his father during a visit to a local Crenshaw barbershop, he finds out that Billy and Grace have a past via photo album shown to him by the owner as they reminisced about Billy's past.

In "Lose Yourself", Jordan finds out that Billy has set up a Crenshaw Trust Fund account. Things get even dicier when Jordan spills the secret to a in-denial Olivia. Eventually, Olivia believes Jordan. They try to tag team Billy with questions, but of course, he turns them away, which only makes them more curious.

In "All We Got", Jordan and Olivia meet their grandfather, Willy. It's revealed that, for the past 17 years, Billy has been supporting his father. The encounter is awkward. Jordan and Olivia have differing views on the whole situation. Jordan feels stupid and guilty. Olivia just wants to keep the past in the past. Spencer's party is going smoothly until Willy appears and Billy is pissed; forcing Jordan and Olivia to finally come clean about their "investigation".

Olivia tells Jordan about her stint with Asher.

In "The Choice Is Yours", during an impressive game against Culver City, Jordan isn't the best protection for Asher. This creates tension between the two. Jordan knows that Olivia slept with Asher. Jordan scores the winning touchdown. In the locker room, everyone is excited -- except Asher, who confronts Jordan -- but he tells Asher to stop whining.

Billy tries to mend Asher and Jordan's friendship by taking them to Malibu's practice game. Jordan meets a potential love interest, Ripley, a cheerleader for Malibu's team. She agrees to go on a date with him. Here, Asher and Jordan are still at odds; resulting in a physical altercation. Jordan spills the beans about Olivia to Asher who is apologetic but Jordan is trying not to hear him. He believes Asher took advantage of Olivia. Billy makes Jordan and Asher walk home together; as they're walking, Asher opens up about his financial issues and apologizes for sleeping with Olivia, he recognizes that it was a mistake. Jordan forgives him and apologizes.

In "California Love", by dating someone from the opposing side, Jordan could lose his alliance with his team. Despite this, he takes a chance with Ripley. She's turning him into a changed man. Ripley gives him the confidence to take a walk on the wild side -- meaning sex on the beach and smoking weed. At the end of the episode, he worries about staying out late because of the game against Malibu, but Ripley changes his mind by skinny dipping.

In "Homecoming", Jordan walks in from the night before barefoot and high. An attempt to stand up to Billy leaves him feeling rather guilty about the entire situation.

Next, Jordan finds Asher in the restaurant while he's on a date with Ripley. He confronts Asher about the homecoming fiasco. Asher feels guilty and embarrassed, but Jordan suggests making things right.

Jordan shines on the field without Asher, even scoring the winning touchdown. Jordan confronts Asher, knowing that he gave their plays to the Malibu team.

All American: Homecoming[]

Physical Appearance[]

Jordan is vert tall and muscular. He's incredibly handsome looking, which explains how many girls he hooks up with. He's biracial: half black, half white. He has short black hair and brown eyes. He dresses pretty averagely.

Relationships[]

Spencer James[]

Spencer is Jordan's former Beverly High teammate, roommate, and best friend. They initially had a rocky relationship as Jordan saw Spencer as a threat to having the father-son relationship he always wanted. Therefore he was jealous of everything Spencer did. However their initial drama was eventually put in the past and now they love each other and developed a bromance. In season 5, however, Jordan eventually decided to transfer out of Golden Angeles University after he found offers from Coastal California College (recruited by Asher Adams) and Wilmont who would actually build a team around his skillset

Olivia Baker[]

Olivia is Jordan's twin sister. Growing up they were best friends and no matter how far apart their parents were they always had each other. However once they got to high school they distanced themselves from each other. Though they still had each other's back. They finally talked about how they felt in Coming Home, and agreed that their love was strong enough to beat anything and they'll never loose each other.

Asher Adams[]

Asher is Jordan's best friend. They have been for a really long time. However after finding out that he slept with Olivia Jordan was furious with him. However after telling him the full situation Jordan forgave Asher. However they had another fight when Asher gave Malibu the tip on their playbook. But the two have still remained friends. In season 5, as Asher gains success as a coach in Coastal California College, he formally recruited Jordan to transfer to the college after Golden Angeles University were under investigation for Bounty Gate.

Laura Baker[]

Laura is Jordan's mother. He appreciates everything she does for him and Olivia however their mother-son relationship was put on a rocky hold in Season 2. Because of his anger about his father having an affair with Grace, he started getting into fights, crashed Olivia's car, and almost got a girl pregnant. Because of all of this Laura was extremely hard on Jordan and made sure he got the punishment he deserved, which he obviously wasn't a fan of and always grounded him. She eventually patched things up with him and supported him through thick and thin.

Billy Baker[]

Billy is Jordan's father. They have had the most complicated relationship on the show. Jordan has always wanted a special father-son relationship but felt like Spencer was blocking him from that. However that bond was slowly starting to develop, but hit a few rocky points when Jordan started hanging out with his grandfather, Willy Baker. That bond was temporarily broken when Jordan found out Billy had an affair with Grace. He was even more furious with him. So following that he tried to push Billy out of his life and tried to give him what he thought he deserved but Billy's love for his son was the only thing keeping him there. Eventually Jordan and Billy repaired what they lost and maintained the father-son relationship Jordan wanted all along. However, it was lost again when Billy died in season 5.

Simone Hicks[]

Main article: Jordan and Simone

Jordan and Simone first met in season two after his parents' announced their separation and he went into party/frat boy mode, sleeping around. During this time, Simone told Jordan she was pregnant and tricked him into thinking that the baby was his. However, later in the season Simone told Jordan the truth about the baby and that she lied because the actual father, her ex-boyfriend, was unreliable and she knew Jordan would step up. Jordan eventually forgave Simone for lying and decided to still be there for her, even going with her to help her tell her parents about the baby. They eventually turned that friendship into a relationship after realizing they had feelings for each other and started dating. When the group all went to Las Vagas for Coop's tour during the summer in between junior and senior year, Simone and Jordan impulsively decided to get married, with Olivia and Spencer as their witnesses. They kept their marriage a secret from everyone until Simone let it slip when Jordan was in the hospital after he got sacked during a football game in season three. Despite almost everyone disagreeing with their marriage, pointing out that they were too young and it was too soon, Jordan and Simone refused to get an annulment, giving into Simone's mom to throw them a real large wedding. However, Simone started to feel the pressure of moving to Atlanta, where she had decided to attend college, and, when the big day eventually arrived, she got cold feet, not wanting Jordan to settle just for her dreams by forcing him to follow her due to being married. After talking to each other, they both understood that their marriage was actually a mistake and agreed to get an annulment, deciding to just stay a couple. Right after graduating from high school, Simone moved to Atlanta and they decided to go long distance, but when she came back to Los Angeles for her freshman year fall break, she noticed how close Jordan and Layla had become, realizing that they had clearly developed feelings for each other: this made both Jordan and Simone acknowledge that their relationship didn't work anymore and that they had grown apart, prompting them to break up.

Layla Keating[]

Main article: Jordan and Layla

Jordan has known Layla for most of his life, as she has been his twin sister’s best friend since childhood, thus having always been basically part of their family. Over the course of season four, Layla and Jordan grew increasingly closer, developing an undeniable and strong connection which even Simone observed, leading to her breaking it off with Jordan since it was clear he and Layla had fallen for each other, something which both initially tried to deny, insisting that they were just friends. However, after some much-needed clarity, they both soon realized they had to be honest about how they really felt, admitting that Simone was right and confessing their feelings to each other, which led them to finally start a relationship at the beginning of season five, even though they agreed to initially keep it a secret in order to avoid the Vortex’s opinions. As their relationship grew increasingly stronger, they finally told everyone they were a couple later in the season, soon after Billy's death. In the season finale, Jordan also admitted to Layla that she was his first crush and, in the same episode, he proposed to her, who happily accepted. Still together and engaged, in season six, the two focused on planning for their wedding as well as dealing with Layla's resurfaced mental health problems. They eventually got married in "Victory Lap" once Layla was finally in a good place.

Appearances[]


Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • In the season 6 episode, Kids See Ghosts, Michael Evans Behling portrayed Jordan Baker and as young JP Keating during a EMDR session in therapy in the episode.

References[]

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