Abbott Elementary – Fight

By starrymag | January 17, 2023

By: Atiya Irvin-Mitchell

 

 

Gregory (Tyler James Williams) and Janine (Quinta Brunson) are in the teacher’s lounge and Gregory piques Janine’s curiosity when he tries to hide a flier in his mailbox. Janine noticed that the flier had Gregory’s last name on it, and he reveals that it’s a flier for his father’s landscaping business. When she gets a closer look, she sees that Gregory’s father has his arm around a young man and assumes that it’s Gregory’s brother. Fun fact: Gregory is an only child. He explains that his father just pretends his business is family run because family businesses are more marketable. Janine is a little surprised that his father hired a fake son as opposed to just asking Gregory. Ava (Janelle James) just thinks that Gregory’s fake brother is hot.

 

In Janine’s class the kids have a writing assignment: write one paragraph about a cat with a silly job. It should be a fun activity, but there’s a problem – two of Janine’s students aren’t getting along. Two little girls named Joya (Miranda Lark Winans) and Zara (Jordyn McIntosh) didn’t want to sit together, so they got out of their assigned seats and moved locations. When Janine asks why they have done this they both say it’s the other person’s fault and it devolves into name-calling. Janine says they’re all going to treat each other with respect and makes the girls get back to their seats together. She then tells the camera that the girls don’t get along and it has been getting worse lately, so she decided to make them sit together. Janine is hoping this will result in an unlikely friendship, but then one of the girls tells the other that she’ll beat her up. In spite of that Janine remains optimistic.

 

Gregory tells the camera that his father is in town for a big landscaping convention. He doesn’t seem to be looking forward to the visit because whenever his father is around, he just criticizes him. He waits outside of his classroom like a soldier waiting for an inspection, which confuses Ava. But, in case you forgot, Gregory was a military kid and his father Martin (Orlando Jones) is a Lt. Colonel.

 

Back in the teacher’s lounge Melissa (Lisa Ann Walter) is annoyed. When Ava comes in and asks why she explains that she is crunching the numbers to figure out how Mr. Johnson’s team beat her in their fantasy football league. Ava is wondering the same thing and after Mr. Johnson taunts them, they decide to form an alliance to crush him.

 

The next members of the Abbott Elementary staff to meet Martin are Jacob (Chris Perfetti) and Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph). They’re excited to introduce themselves and tell them about the garden they’ve been working on. Martin noticed that the garden had a lot of Eddie family landscaping techniques and when Jacob and Barbara say that neither of them employed them, they realize that Gregory has been secretly gardening behind them. He has been doing it much so that there’d be no garden if Gregory hadn’t been constantly fixing their mistakes when they weren’t around. Barbara and Jacob are shocked, but Martin says he’s impressed at his son’s initiative. Gregory just looks shocked as he doesn’t get compliments from Martin very often.

 

In the cafeteria Barbara tells Janine about Gregory’s covert gardening, but she only gets to be surprised for a few moments. The conversation gets interrupted by Joya and Zara having a confrontation that ends with a milk carton being stomped on. Janine’s plan to nurture a friendship between them by making them buddies for the week is still not working.

 

After school some of the other teachers are telling Janine that Joya and Zara are probably never going to get along. But Janine won’t accept it and insists that she can use her conflict resolution skills to help them become friends. She says when she was growing up her mom and sister fought constantly, and she was like a hostage negotiator and a hostage simultaneously. Now, Janine says, they’re closer than ever. Jacob points out that Janine’s sister currently lives in Colorado. Melissa says that some people just hate each other and that’s okay. Janine still won’t accept it.

 

The next day Ava goes to Melissa to discuss something urgent. The urgent thing is their shared desire to crush Mr. Johnson (William Stanford Davis). At Ava’s church her pastor said one of the players might not play this weekend. The player that might be out is Mr. Johnson’s best player, so Ava says if she picks up the backup player first they’ll win. She just needs Melissa to distract him and in exchange she’ll give her twenty percent of her fantasy football earnings.

 

Janine added another layer to the buddy system to help Joya and Zara understand each other. She assigned a project where the girls have to trace one another and then fill it in with what’s special about them. It’s a nice idea in theory, the reality is far less cuddly than Janine is hoping for. The kids who go before Joya and Zara do the assignment, but the girls use it to insult each other. Zara draws a picture that shows that she thinks Joya is full of it and Joya’s picture says that Zara smells. Zara gets angry and throws both of the pictures on the floor. That’s the final straw, Janine says, and they need to settle their differences or they’ll both be banned from watching Toy Story with the rest of the class tomorrow.

 

Elsewhere Martin calls Gregory and surprises him by saying he is proud of what Gregory did with the school’s garden. Martin was so impressed that he wants him to help him out on a landscaping job. Gregory decides to accept it because he could use the extra cash, but really, he is clearly happy to have his father’s approval. He then tells the camera that his father has never wanted his input on anything, ever.

 

In the cafeteria Janine is happy because Joya and Zara haven’t given her any problems that morning. Then, a girl comes up to her and asks if she’s the girl she’s supposed to beat up. Janine is confused and then horrified when Zara waves over her older sister. Zara and Joya did come to an agreement…they’re going to settle their differences by having their older sisters fight. Janine tries and, mostly fails (she’s very small), to break the girls up and then thankfully Barbara comes and makes them knock it off.

 

After the lunch Melissa is enacting plan to help Ava beat Mr. Johnson in fantasy football. She gets a little girl named Tasia to carry some dirty paint water to the bathroom to empty out in the sink. Tasia is small and the bucket is not so, Melissa hoped she spills the water on the bathroom floor. This allows Ava to send Mr. Johnson to the bathroom to clean it up, which prevents him from being able to make the substitution that would’ve allowed him to win this week’s round in fantasy football.

 

Gregory and Martin complete the landscaping job and Martin has a proposal for Gregory: he wants him to join the family business. In the past, Gregory says, whenever they’ve tried that it has just revolved around Martin telling him he’s doing everything wrong. But Martin says he doesn’t want Gregory to work for him – he wants him to work with him and inherit the business when finally retires. Gregory has a lot to think about.

 

It’s the end of the day and Janine is pretty bummed out. It seems she’s starting to realize that Joya and Zara don’t have friendship in the cards for them. Barbara invites her into her classroom to talk about it. When Janine tells her that she feels like she failed, Barbara says it isn’t that complicated. Sometimes people just don’t get along and it’s no one’s fault. When she asks why this is bothering Janine so much Janine admits she hates it when people fight because it reminds her of her mother and sister putting her in the middle of their arguments. Janine explains that even now when her sister comes to visit Janine, she wants it to be a secret. Barbara tells Janine she needs to get comfortable with the idea that some conflicts can’t be resolved. Well, at least not in a way that leads to a lifelong friendship.

 

Gregory is teaching the kids to grow seeds in paper towels. The project is going well and Jacob swings by to chat. Once there Jacob learns about the job offer and is upset at the idea of Gregory leaving. But the good news is that Gregory likes where he is. When his father told him he had a new-found confidence Gregory realized that it was due to his time at Abbott Elementary. With that in mind, he has no plans to leave. Unfortunately, a kid then swallows the seed and the wet paper towel, so they’re off to the nurse’s office.

 

In Janine’s class the kids are enjoying Toy Story and both girls seem touched by hearing “You’ve Got a Friend in Me.” Joya and Zara go for the tissue box and Janine braces herself for another skirmish, but the girls surprise her by sharing the tissues without any problems. They’re not friends, but they were civil so Janine’s happy.

 

When the school day is over Janine is alarmed to see Gabby (Kayden Grace Swan) and Keke (Madison Griggs), her students’ older sisters, together at her door. At first, she’s afraid the girls are going to fight again. Instead, they tell her that they realized that they have a lot in common, so now they’re friends. After that Janine calls her sister and asks her to come visit. She also promises that she won’t tell their mother.