Abbott Elementary – 2 Ava 2 Fest

By: Atiya Irvin-Mitchell

In a meeting at the school district Superintendent Reynolds (Keegan-Michael Key) is praising Janine (Quinta Brunson). The librarian program is going well, and it’ll be able to help kids aside from the ones at Abbott Elementary. Superintendent Reynolds explains that Janine will now be able to help a lot of kids. When the meeting wraps up, she tells Manny (Josh Segarra) she feels sad. He says it’s just “the dip” a/k/a feeling down after completing a big project having been working on it for a long time. Janine says she’s glad to have an explanation for the way she feels, but notes that when you’re always working on big projects there will be a lot of dips.

At Abbott Elementary it’s time for parent-teacher conferences or “AvaFest,” as far as Ava (Janelle James) is concerned. Ava wants to make the night “unhinged” and put it over the top, but the teachers would like to keep things lowkey. Also, Gregory (Tyler James Williams) has to go to the district offices to drop off his proposal for his garden program. Before he heads off Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph) and Melissa (Lisa Ann Walter) want him to give Janine some of the things she left behind. Jacob (Chris Perfetti), of course, just wants Gregory to tell Janine he misses and loves her.

Later, Ava says she knows how to put AvaFest over the top when the teachers are decorating their doors. Ava shares that she got Questlove from The Roots to agree to perform. Barbara and Melissa remind her that last year she swore to get Jasmine Sullivan to perform and people were not happy when she didn’t show up. However, Ava promises that Questlove will be there. Melissa and Barbara tell Jacob to just ignore her and get ready for the parents to arrive.

In her new office, Janine is preparing for a party being thrown in her office when Gregory swings by. He gives her a card from Barbara, a box of belongings from Melissa, a framed photo of Jacob from Jacob, and a string from his favorite mop from Mr. Johnson (William Stanford Davis), and dirt from Abbott from Gregory with seeds planted in it. He asks if she’ll be able to attend parent-teacher night, but alas, her schedule won’t allow for it. In an interview with the camera crew, Gregory says that Janine helped him figure out that he belonged at Abbott, so he’ll miss seeing her face there.

In the gym, the kids have told their parents that Questlove is coming to Open House. They’re really excited and the teachers are getting nervous. Ava insists that she and Questlove go way back and that she helped to found the Roots. But, due to the excitement Barbara, Melissa, and Jacob are concerned about the backlash when he inevitably doesn’t show. At first, Barbara says she assumed they could just ignore Ava but now they need a backup plan.

Back at the school district HQ, Janine gets bad news from Superintendent Reynolds. She really wanted to be able to stick close to Abbott, but he wants her to start doing classroom assessments at a local high school. Unfortunately, this is non-negotiable because school district employees are supposed to help the entire district. Janine tries to hide it, but this really seems to bum her out.

At Abbott, the teachers are still expecting Questlove to be a no-show so they’re taking preemptive action. Barbara has invited her choir to sing some secular music. Jacob convinced a few of his Story Samurai friends to perform. Then there’s Melissa, who plans to do some celebrity impressions. Plus, Jacob sent out flyers warning parents that Questlove would not be in attendance.

Unrelated to Questlove, Janine is hesitating to make her new district position official. She doesn’t want to enroll in her new health insurance plan. Then she turns down a free parking pass. Plus, it turns out she hasn’t signed up for her 401K yet and she says she’d like something that requires less commitment. Finally, she doesn’t want the district-provided desktop because she prefers her laptop in part for its mobility.

Ava finds out that the teachers told the parents not to expect Questlove and she’s mad. But, she’s sticking to her story about Questlove being a friend. Barbara and company believe it’ll be better if the community isn’t expecting someone who will probably not show up. Still, Ava says Questlove will be there and now she has to make new flyers.

It’s time for Janine’s party and there is cake and a tradition. Long story short, they want to photograph her signing the paperwork that’ll make her an official district employee. But, before she can sign she claims she has the perfect pen in her office. The pen in question is in the box from Abbott that Gregory brought her. Janine decides that now is the time to read the card from Barbara. In the card, Barbara tells her how proud of her she and to follow her heart. Manny comes to check on Janine, who seems emotional, and she says she’s better than she has ever been.

At Abbott Elementary it’s time for AvaFest and the crowd is getting antsy. Like the teachers, they haven’t forgotten that time they were promised Jasmine Sulivan. And Barbara and Gregory are mostly just nervous about the potential backlash. The worry is interrupted by Gregory being notified that his gardening program has been approved. Gregory is really happy and he wants to tell Janine the good news immediately. However, a phone isn’t needed after all because Janine appears.

Janine joins the party and explains that she wants to be at Abbott permanently. Everyone is really excited to welcome her back. Except for Ava who was really looking forward to replacing Janine, so she tells everyone Janine was fired for being pregnant. (That’s illegal btw.) At any rate, Janine says she didn’t get fired because she never signed the contract, so technically she never officially started. Unfortunately, Superintendent Reynolds was pretty miffed she didn’t say something sooner and implied he’d be holding a grudge against Abbott Elementary. But, Janine says, it’ll all be fine.

Why did Janine come back? Janine explains it was a lot of different things, but mostly it was Barbara’s card. This surprises Barbara, who says she just said that Janine would do great things in the future. Janine says that part was important, but what really convinced her were all the things Barbara had the kids write. The kids all wrote about how much they loved and missed Janine. Barbara swears that she didn’t get the kids to write those things to convince Janine to return, they were simply true. Ava thinks that Janine came back to see Questlove perform.

This brings on another round of doubt about whether or not Questlove will appear. Ava wants to know why they won’t believe her about Questlove. The gang points out that she lied last year about Jasmine Sullivan. Yes, Ava says, but last year she told them that she was going to lie. Still, Melissa says, Ava is the principal who cried wolf. Ava says they are all going to feel foolish when Questlove does come. But Barbara says that’s enough, for five years they’ve watched her lie pathologically and cut corners and now they’re over it. She adds, that she doesn’t know if Ava is lying or delusional but Questlove isn’t coming. And then much to everyone’s surprise Questlove does appear.

Questlove keeps surprising everyone by corroborating Ava’s story that she cofounded The Roots and calls her “Honest Ava.” Then Questlove performs and students, teachers, and parents alike really enjoy it. Even Mr. Johnson, who interrupts Janine by telling her that since she’ll be sticking around he needs that strand from his mop back.

In what was almost Janine’s new office Manny, Emily (Kimia Behpoornia), and Simon (Benjamin Norris) are bummed that Janine didn’t take the permanent position. They talk about finding someone to fill Janine’s shoes and Emily offers to try. In the end, they all agree that no one but Janine can be Janine.