Layla and Olivia have faced more than their fair share of issues throughout their friendship.
After going through so much, the two have faced many highs and lows, and the time has come to confront all of it: the good, the bad, and the ugly. They have had a wild ride, one that sometimes questions just how their friendship held up in the face of it all. Could it be that their shared history, early years of childhood, and sense of found family became so ingrained in them that letting the other go seemed impossible? Could it be that their shared friend group kept them tied together at points in time that otherwise would have seen them have a more permanent goodbye?
“Best Friends” begs the question of just how much a friendship can take before it breaks, or if some are just so strong that no amount of pain can truly destroy it. By the conclusion, “Best Friends” determines that the answer is the love they have for each other and that they know their bond is worth all the hard times.
Olivia's return is one of the highs of season 8. Olivia and Layla's relationship offers a stable sense of familiarity as the series heads towards its end. For all the pain the two have been through and caused each other, they are family, and that relationship helps tie into the ongoing teen drama that surrounds them through Tori, Khalil, KJ, and Amina. Olivia being back in the Baker house brings its own comical moments, such as her reactions to the events going on around her, including overhearing Tori talking to Khalil about KJ and Amina’s betrayal. Listening in while enjoying her snacks allows the audience to live through Olivia as she gets caught up on the teen drama that she is no longer a part of. Being able to look on as an observer gives Olivia the benefit of hindsight while being thankful for the adult, professional, and married life she has.
Rather than simply looking over their best and worst moments in a nostalgic conversation, Layla and Olivia use their experience to help give Tori perspective on what a messy fallout between romances and friendships can really look like. Layla and Olivia have been close friends their entire lives, so everything they went through as teenagers when disagreeing with each other, as well as what was going on between them and Spencer and Asher, became immensely personal.
The benefit of being able to look back on it years later is having the maturity and experience to recognize that none of them handled any of it perfectly. However, “Best Friends” mostly focuses on the back-and-forth secrets and development that came out of the love triangle between Olivia, Layla, and Spencer. All three of them had moments of being in the wrong, because that is what it means to be a teenager. As adults, Olivia and Layla are able to look back on those moments, and while they still throw in a jab about actions that may have crossed the line, it is never suggested, even for a second, that Layla and Olivia are both still living in the past. Instead, they use their experience to show Tori that sometimes a friendship can be stronger than all the strife it goes through.
Layla and Olivia’s point is an intriguing perspective, especially seeing how different it is from what Tori is going through with KJ, Khalil, and Amina. Tori does not have the same type of deep bond or history with any of them that Layla and Olivia do with each other. In Tori’s case, there is no childhood friendship at stake that she is reflecting on. Instead, what Tori must question is whether she was truly in love with KJ or if she was angry at him for wasting her time. That is how Layla describes her emotions toward Spencer back in the aftermath of the revelations about Las Vegas, and it helps shed light on what Tori may be feeling toward KJ.
Still, while Tori may have valued what their friendship had been before they started a romantic relationship, back when KJ was the new kid and Tori was his anchor at Beverly High School, it ultimately becomes clear that the relationship Tori has grown to cherish and value the most is with Khalil, the person who has shown up for her in the moments that count.
“Best Friends” does not treat Layla and Olivia’s issues like things that never happened because the characters themselves acknowledge that their relationship has never been perfect. They had times of not being close but also had times of coming back together when one needed the other. Even more notably, they address the cruel reality that sometimes the people closest to you are the ones you are capable of hurting the most. Each character has caused plenty of emotional harm to the other, and that is something they also mentioned. Olivia and Layla are both human. They are both flawed, and they both have so much love in their hearts for the other. Layla and Olivia’s friendship is also treated as the anchor that helps Layla voice her concerns about uncertainty toward her future.
“Best Friends” presents Layla and Olivia’s friendship as having a more adult and mature ease to it than it ever had in high school. They are beyond all that happened then, and Olivia is more than willing to listen to where Layla’s head is at and help talk her through coming to the decision to let Jordan in so that Jordan can be scared and uncertain with Layla about what comes next.
While this speaks to All American wanting to rely on the Layla and Olivia dynamic to show the strength of their bond, it still hurts the pacing of the season that Layla has not directly spoken to Jordan about her uncertainties, even though Layla had a similar conversation with both Coop and her father in previous episodes, which only took place within the last few days. Previous seasons of All American portrayed Layla and Jordan addressing issues and working through them together. That was one of the most significant parts of their relationship when they started transitioning from a platonic to romantic relationship. Layla had concerns that she was open about, and Jordan listened and respected her boundaries. Over time, once Layla became more comfortable and open to being with Jordan, she truly let him in and let their relationship flourish. Where is that mentality now?
Layla recalls how Jordan had made space for her and recognized her as being strong and capable of being able to hear hard truths, rather than being lied to, and how that seed helped continue to build the foundation of what they would eventually become. In that flashback moment, Jordan refers to Layla as one of the strongest people he knows, refusing the concept that she is too fragile to be told the truth. That is part of the baseline of their connection: that they each value what the other brings to the table and view each other as strong enough to handle anything. Layla makes it clear that she was not viewing Jordan as a romantic prospect in the direct aftermath of his marriage to Simone but explains how she was showing appreciation for realizing that she was seeing the man he could become and how that ultimately ended up having a much stronger significance than either could have predicted at the time.
All American’s eighth season initially suggested that Jordan and Layla were working toward moving over the hump they initially faced, and while the awkward reunion aspect was put to an end fairly early, the idea that Layla is actively not telling Jordan about fears that she is openly discussing with multiple other characters just comes across as a way to draw out the drama of their relationship. Olivia may be Layla’s best friend and sounding board in this moment, but it took too long to get to this point if part of it was going to rely on Olivia giving Layla advice about talking to Jordan about her feelings, something Layla would have already known to do anyway.
All American aims to show that Olivia and Layla's friendship is strong enough to withstand the pain they have gone through. This care that they have for each other only means that they grew stronger out of all the drama that had once existed between them. “Best Friends” does not fix all of the issues they once faced, but it is not trying to. Instead, it tells the story of recognizing that relationships can be complicated, and while Layla and Olivia’s dynamic may be more intense or complex than most, that does not mean it is doomed to fail.
Instead, they show that they can regain and continue a healthier version of their friendship. They went through a lot. They know that. They hurt the other in ways that some may find unforgivable. But Layla and Olivia chose to forgive because ultimately, they decided that the best parts of their friendship outweighed the worst parts of their actions and fighting. At the end of the day, “Best Friends” tells the story that Olivia and Layla are family, and that is a bond they would always fight for, no matter what.
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