Abbott Elementary – Back to School

By: Atiya Irvin-Mitchell

We open with Ava (Janelle James) thinking she has seen a ghost, but it is an unfamiliar little boy in her office that she assumes a Victorian child is haunting Abbott Elementary and runs to tell the rest of the staff. Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph), Melissa (Lisa Ann Walter), Jacob (Chris Perfetti) and Janine (Quinta Brunson) don’t believe her, but they follow Ava and are greeted by Charlie and Charlie’s parents. Charlie is a new student and his family is new to West Philadelphia.

Abbott is a predominantly Black school and has been for many years, but Janine tells the cameras that the city is building a PGA golf course a few blocks away. This means a demographic change in the neighborhood because folks like Charlie’s parents are moving to West Philadelphia to play golf. Janine welcomes Charlie, who will be one of her students, and Ava pretends she didn’t forget the meeting with his parents.

We catch up with Gregory (Tyler James Williams) and Janine. At first, they joke that they’re just friends, but they’ve been seeing each other all summer. Still, they’ve decided they want to keep their relationship quiet to keep work complications to a minimum. They think no one besides Jacob knows, but, of course, Melissa, Ava and Barbara know. However, the trio has agreed to pretend to know about Janine and Gregory because they need the alone time.

Later in the day, we see that the golf course comes with problems in addition to the new students. The water gets shut off due to construction, there are bugs and the noise interrupts the teachers throughout the day. Unfortunately, the city is backing the project, so Ava says her hands are tied. At any rate, she reminds everyone that the staff meeting is tomorrow.

In order to prevent the children from finding out about Janine and Gregory’s relationship, Ava redirects them to a different topic for their podcast club. But the close call inspires an epiphany from Ava. As the principal, if Janine and Gregory get in trouble, she’ll get in trouble so she decides to take action.

We cut away to Janine and Gregory flirting during lunchtime and talking a bit about being discrete. Janine is worried about HR, but Gregory points out that the school is usually an HR-free zone. Gregory thinks they shouldn’t have to worry if no one reports them. Just then, Ava makes an announcement saying that HR will pay a visit to Abbott, so if anyone has a question about benefits or anything to report it.

The next day the golf course continues causing issues for the staff. Mr. Morton (Jerry Minor), Jacob and Barbara are all frustrated when they realize that the gas has been shut off due to the construction. Ava says there’s still nothing she can do about it and introduces Warren (Ben Onyx Dowdy): the district’s HR person. Janine and Gregory discuss their dinner plans and the HR person makes a dig at Janine for failing to thrive at the district. Warren is still a bit miffed that Janine didn’t take the job at the district and “wasted their time.” On Ava’s part she just not so subtly suggests that Janine and Gregory talk to Warren if they need to disclose anything. Janine says they’ve got nothing to report, but Gregory seems more willing. When Gregory asks why they didn’t just tell Warren, Janine says they’ve got all day.

Remember how the gas was cut off due to the golf course construction? It’s still not back on and for that reason the kids are now being served frozen chicken nuggets. The teachers all agree they’ve had it with the golf course construction because it’s causing way too many disruptions. Melissa admits she doesn’t have as many connections as she used to but decides to do some digging about the golf course project.

In the midst of this Janine realizes she forgot her presentation notes but can’t get away. Before the meeting starts, Gregory offers to go to Janine’s apartment to grab her notes. Unfortunately, due to construction, the traffic is bad, and he can’t get back as quickly as he’d hoped. Janine is afraid that if her presentation on an aquarium field trip doesn’t go as planned that the kids will fail their SATs. She tries to improvise, but it doesn’t go well. In the nick of time, Gregory brings her notes, but the teachers notice that Gregory has her house keys. He tries to play it off, but the other teachers notice the keychain is a bit too frilly to belong to him.

This inspires a lot of questions and Janine and Gregory aren’t good liars. After Mr. Johnson (William Stanford Davis) incorrectly assumes that the duo is sneaking around to sell drugs, Janine blurts out that they’re not selling drugs and that they’re just having sex. Despite the awkward announcement, all the teachers really seem to support Janine and Gregory’s relationship.

Post-meeting Janine and Gregory have a talk about why Janine is hesitating to make things official. Gregory admits he’s been trying not to worry, but the lengths she’s willing to go to in order to keep things under wraps is getting concerning. Janine says the last relationship she made official didn’t work out and she really wants “this” to work. Gregory gently points out that they’re not her last time. They hug and agree to go to Warren to become HR official, but they agree to not mention sex.

As promised, Melissa used her underworld connections and found out that the golf course is being built with scab labor. They can use that info to get the city to withdraw its support of the project. But, before that goes anywhere the project’s attorney Miles (Matt Oberg) from the golf course comes to talk to Barbara, Jacob and Melissa. Miles says since they’re going to be neighbors he doesn’t want any tension between them. Miles apologizes for the inconvenience and gives the teachers a $500.00 gift card. He promises that the workers plan to unionize ASAP and that the golf course will bring good things to the neighborhood. Then he offers to donate twenty new computers to the school. Miles says the golf course will happen no matter what, so why shouldn’t they go along with it and get something out of it? Ava’s only objection to the bribes is that she doesn’t want Warren to know and wants something, too.

Janine and Gregory go to Warren and Janine decides to start the story by going all the way back to 11th grade. Warren doesn’t want to hear about Janine’s misspent youth and just asks about their relationship status. After a shared look, Janine says Gregory is her boyfriend. Thanks to the lack of power imbalance between them, it’s as simple as filling out a form. Ava’s glad they’re now in the clear because that means she’s in the clear. With that said, Ava tells Gregory that their relationship is over. Janine says to just let her have it.

In the final scene, we see Mr. Johnson reporting Melissa for being obsessed with him.