Abbott Elementary – Valentine’s Day

By starrymag | February 14, 2023

By: Atiya Irvin-Mitchell

 

 

We open in the teacher’s lounge with Jacob (Chris Perfetti) and Janine (Quinta Brunson). Fun fact: it’s almost Janine’s sister Ayesha’s (Ayo Edebiri)  birthday. Janine is going to facetime her to wish her a happy birthday and Jacob would love to meet her. Janine says sure, but she warns Jacob that her sister is a lot. Why? Apparently, she makes mountains out of molehills and never stops talking. It seems to fly over Janine’s head that the same could be said about her. Warning aside, Jacob is still really excited to meet the other Teagues. Janine gives her a call and introductions are made. When Janine asks if Ayesha has any fun b-day plans, she mentions that she might go out with some friends who just got married. But Janine acts as if the single sentence is oversharing, which Ayesha and Jacob seem a little confused by. Then, Janine wishes her sister well and tells her to have a good one. Janine says it’s impossible to get Ayesha off the phone. Gentle reminder, they were on the phone for under two minutes. Janine tells Jacob that Ayesha can just go on and on and never stops talking. It seems, according to Janine, that she really can hold you hostage. However, Janine then proceeds to hold Jacob hostage with a long story.

 

Later on, we learn it’s Valentine’s Day and the teachers are talking about their plans. Or lack thereof in Melissa’s (Lisa Ann Walter) case as her boyfriend Gary (Bruno Amato) hasn’t mentioned any arrangements. Jacob’s boyfriend Zach (Larry Owens) on the hand made him breakfast in bed, which Jacob finds very swoon-worthy. Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph) is struggling to make a reservation and is advised by Jacob to try an airport restaurant. Janine shares that Maurice (Vince Staples) is swinging after school with a surprise gift. And last, but not least, Gregory (Tyler James Williams) ordered three possible gifts for Amber (Naté Jones). He just needs to choose one so that he knows which ones to send back.

 

In the principal’s office Ava is excited to get a visitor. He’s a “hot dad” named Tristian (Chinedu Unaka) who says he’s there to complain. Ava is disappointed that he’s not there to live out any romance novel scenario but takes the complaint. Tristan has a student in Jacob’s class and resents that it’s Black History Month and the students, his son included, are getting all their lessons from a white teacher. Ava’s still annoyed but promises to look into it.

 

On a lighter note, Janine has a not so secret admirer. It is not another teacher, to be clear, but a student named Donnie (Randy Perrine). He presents her with a heart-shaped valentine and says he wants Janine to be his valentine. Janine tries to redirect the kid’s affection to someone without a prefrontal cortex without hurting his feelings. But Donnie says he needs a woman. Janine tells the camera that sometimes kids will bond with their teachers and confuse that bond for a crush. Also, Janine is short, so she thinks they sometimes mistake her for a big kid.

 

Ava follows through on her promise to Tristan and sits in on Jacob’s class. This freaks Jacob out because Ava never does evaluations. He worries he’s messed up and is about to be fired. However, Ava is pleasantly surprised by Jacob’s lesson on Martin Luther King and Malcom X. It contains a lot of info that even she didn’t know. Jacob is leading a discussion with the kids about how the two actually weren’t the enemies most people believe they were. They talk about how MLK and Malcolm X started to agree with each other more and more towards the end of their lives. Jacob says history is constantly being rewritten and often people with hidden agendas. Jacob shares that it’s important to question everything, even him.

 

Elsewhere Janine’s secret admirer saga continues. Donnie, thinking she’ll find this helpful, straightens up Janine’s desk.  He then tells a surprised Janine that he sees a real future for the two of them. She goes to Barbara and Melissa for advice on how to manage the situation. When she finds them in the hallway Barbara has taken Jacob’s airport restaurant advice, but Melissa points out she’ll need to buy a plane ticket first. Melissa is still bummed by the fact that Gary’s still MIA. Barbara has to leave, but Janine lays out Donnie’s crush to Melissa.

 

Melissa says she has been there, of course. Janine assumed the crush would blow over, but instead the kid is really going out of his way to impress her. Melissa says it’s puppy love and not to worry because it’ll fizzle out on its own. Jacob comes by towards the very end of this convo and, unfortunately, doesn’t have the context of the puppy love comment. He assumes that Melissa and Janine were talking about Greg, so he starts to share about Greg’s feelings for Janine as if she’s aware of them. At first Janine thinks they’re talking about her student. When Jacob says Gregory’s name, Janine realizes they’re not on the same page. Horrified Jacob tries to walk it back, but Janine doesn’t want to drop the subject. She’s shocked that Gregory likes her.

 

Janine is deep in denial about Gregory’s feelings. Jacob points out all the signs: the candy, the dancing, the jealousy over Maurice. But Janine tries to chalk it all up to normal friend behavior. Plus, Janine points out that Gregory has a girlfriend and she’s Janine’s total opposite. She can’t even entertain the idea.

 

Back in class Jacob’s students continue discussing Martin Luther King and Malcom X’s similarities. Fun fact: both men were against capitalism. There’s a brief interruption when the students notice Jacob’s incredibly nervous and sweaty and ask if he’s okay. He says of course, but Ava’s continued presence is still throwing him off a little. At any rate, Ava reminds Jacob not to forget to mention that MLK wanted universal basic income. She’s been there for three of Jacob’s classes and she’s gotten a lot out of it. Then, Ava surprises Jacob through her willingness to partner up with a kid for the reading assignment.

 

In the teacher’s lounge the possibility of Gregory’s romantic feelings has Janine shaken. So, she asks Ava, Barbara and Melissa about it. Well, technically Mr. Johnson (William Stanford Davis) outs her about it when she’s hesitant to name names. She’s expecting them to confirm that she and Gregory are just friends, but the ladies plus Mr. Johnson say it’s obvious to everyone but Gregory and Janine that they like each other. This freaks Janine out, but Barbara says you can like two people at the same time.

 

Ava goes back to Jacob’s classroom and runs into Zach. He came to surprise Jacob with a romantic V-Day lunch. Ava is afraid this’ll interrupt Jacob’s next class, but Zach says it’s his free period. She surprises Zach by being a little disappointed that she won’t get to do a deep dive into the “I Have a Dream” Speech. Zach observes that Ava seems to be enjoying learning. She brushes it off at first, but then admits she’s confused. Not on the subject matter, but it seems as though she just never liked school. Though Zach says that now that she’s matured, she might be interested in learning. Very reluctantly Ava admits it has been interesting.

 

Janine goes up to Gregory and asks him to talk. If you’re keeping score at home Gregory doesn’t know what Janine knows. Janine is about to bring it up, but then he just asks her for advice about which gift to give her for Valentine’s Day.  Janine drops the subject and tells him to give Amber the Lego bouquet set. She seems to take the gift as a sign that everyone else is wrong about the two of them. You wouldn’t give someone a Valentine’s Day gift if you were in love with someone else, right?

 

The end of the day comes, and Ava has another talk with Tristan (Jacob’s student’s father). Ava tells Tristan that she sat in Jacob’s class, and it was very informative. Furthermore, she says that she talked with the students and learned that Jacob teaches about Black history year-round. Jacob is a white teacher, but he’s making sure to include the parts of history a lot schools comfortably exclude. She also points that Tristan didn’t have a problem with his teaching before now. Reluctantly, Tristan has to admit that he didn’t really know that much about Jacob’s teaching style.

 

The end of the day continues to be filled with cuteness. Barbara bought the cheapest tickets she could find and has a reservation for her and her husband. Melissa has given up on Gary, but he then appears and shows her that he rigged the vending machine to spell out “I love you.” Next, there’s Zach and Jacob. Zach altered his surprise to include Ava. She tells an excited Jacob that his class inspired him to go back to school. Then, Donnie tells Janine that he’s got a new sweetheart in mind and asks for his heart back.

 

Amber comes to school and bumps into Maurice. She realizes that Maurice got Janine a Telfar bag and is impressed. If you’re unfamiliar with them, it seems they’re pretty expensive. Amber wishes aloud that Gregory got her one, too. When Gregory appears she tries to hide her disappointment that he got her the Lego bouquet. And when Janine receives the bag she’s grateful, but got way more excited over the Legos. On the way out of school Amber seems to notice that each couple gave a gift that the opposite one would have enjoyed more.