Abbott Elementary – Librarian

By starrymag | March 19, 2024

By: Atiya Irvin-Mitchell

 

 

The episode begins in the teacher’s lounge with the staff noticing that Melissa (Lisa Ann Walter) is in a good mood. She explains that she’s happy because she finally found a person to rent her spare room. Since she made an ill-advised financial decision years ago, becoming a teacher, she could use the extra money. After some near misses she thinks she finally found a roommate who is a good fit. Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph) says she’s still nervous about the idea of Melissa putting her personal info out on the internet. Ava (Janelle James) suggests a side hustle before sharing her house with a stranger. However, Melissa explains that she didn’t use her real info on the post she made, and she thinks she found someone normal. Then, Jacob (Chris Perfetti) walks in and says he thinks he found a room to rent and based on some of the detail she shared Melissa realizes he’s the person she rented her room to.

 

Later in the library Janine (Quinta Brunson) has an announcement to make about her pilot program. For years Abbott Elementary has been without a librarian for its library. While it still doesn’t have the budget for one, Janine figured out way to bring in librarians to schools in need of them. She found Library Sciences graduate students who need experience in libraries for schools in need of librarians. Janine thinks it’s a win-win for everyone. She introduces Rosalyn Inez (Cree Summer) who says this has been a dream of hers for years. Everyone, except for Ava, seems really excited to welcome her. Manny (Josh Segarra) says they’ll be using the feedback from Abbott’s teachers to decide if the program is implemented in other schools.

 

Jacob moves in with Melissa and they’re both pretty nervous about it. That is until Jacob says he wants to watch “Real Housewives of New Jersey.” Melissa is a huge fan, and they agree to watch it together. We see them bonding over the show and over the fact that they unintentionally chose partners that were just like their parents. Gary reminded Melissa of her father and Zach was like Jacob’s mother. Plus, they like sour cream and onion popcorn.

 

Back in the library Gregory (Tyler James Williams) is definitely a fan of the new librarian. He loves the way she has organized things. As it turns out, without a librarian finding pretty much anything in a library is a nightmare. When Barbara comes to pull out a few books for her children’s reading hour she’s annoyed when not only does Rosalyn insist that she check the books out before leaving, but she doesn’t let her have a few of her selections. The reasoning is that some of them are reserved for other people and others are library-only books. Additionally, under Rosalyn’s watch there’s a three book limit that Barbara isn’t wild about. When she complains to Ava about Rosalyn it seems Ava is all ready to pick a fight, until Rosalyn surprises her with a copy of a book that had gotten lost while Ava was reading it.

 

In the teacher’s lounge Jacob is in an unconventional shirt that Ava wants to make fun of, but then Melissa intervenes on his behalf. Unable to mock Jacob, Ava insults Mr. Johnson (William Stanford Davis) instead which makes him cry.

 

Things get a little more tense in the library when Barbara brings her class in. Rosalyn has to ask them to leave because they didn’t schedule time to be there, and another class is already browsing. Rosalyn explains that having multiple classes in the library makes things too chaotic. Ultimately, Barbara takes her class and leaves, but she isn’t happy about it. When she bumps into Janine and Gregory, she talks about how annoyed she is at the new librarian and says she’s treating the library like an exclusive restaurant. She wants there to be changes or she might have to leave negative feedback.

 

When Janine goes to talk to Barbara about the library situation, she says Rosalyn’s rigidity is killing her kids’ love of reading. Additionally, Barbara shares that the program is biased in favor of the older students and excludes the youngest kids at the school. Janine promises she’ll take Barbara’s feedback and fix the problems.

 

At Melissa’s house Jacob shares some concerns. He worries that the school’s ecosystem can’t handle them being friends. Because Melissa stopped Ava from insulting Jacob, she insulted Mr. Johnson causing him to cry for the rest of the day and not complete a lot of his usual tasks. Additionally, Melissa sharing her lunch with Jacob caused other teachers to think everyone’s food was up for grabs. This caused a lot of conflict. They agree that for the school’s sake their friendship should only exist at home.

 

During story time Janine tells the camera crew that Barbara’s feedback is a gift. Janine explains that this made her decide to dedicate part of her program to getting pre-readers excited about reading. The kids are really enjoying Rosalyn’s rendition of the Three Little Pigs, but Barbara is still unimpressed. It doesn’t help when some of the kids wonder why Barbara doesn’t read as well as Rosalyn does.

 

Melissa and Jacob are trying to pretend they’re not friends, but they’re texting each other inside jokes. Mr. Johnson catches on, and they beg him not to say anything. They explain they’re not ready for people to know about their friendship and he reluctantly agrees to keep it a secret, but she warns them that they’re playing a dangerous game.

 

Barbara is in the middle of story time for her class and the kids start asking to go to the library. At first she tries explaining that it’s not their scheduled time, but then changes her mind. She shows up at the library with her kids. When she arrives Janine and Manny are talking about how well things are going, but then things get tense when Barbara passive aggressively implies that Rosalyn’s scheduling system doesn’t matter. Janine says she’ll handle it and Barbara tells her that the library program isn’t helping. She calls the program an unwelcome distraction and takes her students back to class. Janine thinks she’ll come around and Manny says it’s a little more complicated than that. The school board gives what older teachers have to say a lot of weight. If Barbara says she hates the program that could be the end of the program.

 

Janine is in the hallway trying to figure out how to make the library program Barbara-approved and Gregory gives her some much needed advice. He says the older kids love having a librarian and the little kids love it too, the only person who doesn’t love it is Barbara. Also, Gregory thinks that Barbara is wrong because kids need libraries and libraries need librarians. He adds that it might not be intentional, but Barbara is taking advantage of their relationship. Barbara’s disapproval bothers Janine, but Gregory points out that Barbara isn’t right about everything. Janine, who has a lot of mother issues, is afraid that if she goes against Barbara about the library program, she’ll never speak to her again. Gregory says that is a risk she might have to take because the librarian is good for the school and having a librarian could be good for a lot of other kids.

 

Jacob and Melissa go public about their friendship. They’re expecting more weirdness, but everyone is pretty nonplussed about them being friends. They come to the conclusion that the school’s ecosystem might be stronger than they thought.

 

Janine reluctantly goes to Barbara to talk about the program. Once there Janine says that the library program is working for everyone, but Barbara yet the program isn’t about Barbara. Janine admits that she hates the idea of disagreeing with Barbara so much that this conversation will haunt her nightmares, but she’s wrong about the program. Janine is going to move forward with the program, and she encourages Barbara to leave whatever feedback she feels is necessary.

 

With the camera crew, Janine admits that she values Barbara’s opinion so much that she forgot that Barbara’s opinion isn’t the only opinion that matters. Later when she and Gregory are going through the feedback, they receive an email from Barbara. Janine is worried that it’s going to be negative, but instead Barbara praised the program much to Janine’s relief.

 

When the kindergarteners are in the library Rosalyn is doing story time and invites Barbara up to read with her. Could this be the start of a better relationship? Maybe.