Coming off the heels of the epic crossover — I can’t wait until the It’s Always Sunny episode with the Abbott cast drops — Abbott gets back on track with a breezily predictable installment as we move into the second half of the season. It’s a bit of a filler episode, with little plot progression outside of some incremental movement between Ava and O’Shon, but there’s nothing wrong with that. Considering the stellar run the show’s had over the last four years, I think they deserve a filler episode or two, and Abbott uses this one to balance out the raunchiness the It’s Always Sunny gang brought into the school with a more endearing, education-centered episode.
While last week cheekily depicted a real issue through Charlie’s triumphant reading lesson, tonight highlights the nuances of dealing with students who are highly susceptible to falling into a state of arrested educational development due to a bevy of cultural and societal factors. I don’t have to remind anyone that we’re in an intellectual crisis — literacy rates are deplorable, attention spans are plummeting, and teachers across the country are expressing concern about the state of American students. But, true to form, Abbott doesn’t self-righteously shove these issues in our faces, lecturing on about statistics or writing the students as infantile or helpless. Instead, the show focuses on the subtle ways we begin to lose our students and how integral educators are for young learners.
Jacob’s student RJ reminds me of a younger version of the post-pandemic underclassmen I taught as an adjunct instructor: incredibly sweet but with a slightly glazed-over look in the eyes indicating a level of disassociation around education. These kinds of students don’t engage, their work is average, and school seems like something that happens to them independently of their free will. But then something magical occurred when I’d accidentally stumble upon one of their niche interests; they’d blossom like a flower, exceeding the minimum requirements of the assignment, and transforming into a different kind of student altogether. It was as if the student I usually experienced in class was merely a shell (can anyone tell I’m excited for the new season of Severance with this analogy?), but once activated, I found a person more than eager to learn and engage.
Jacob, a much more skilled educator than myself, knows how important it is to activate that spark in a student whose malaise could be preventing them from excelling — plus, RJ already has a suspension under his belt for absences and his home life seems to be less than stellar. Jacob thinks getting RJ to join an after-school club is the best remedy, but his instincts are misguided. First, he tries to get RJ to join the student podcast This Abbott Life, which sounds like the opposite of a good time for someone who has already proclaimed a disdain for talking. Naturally, it goes terribly with RJ contributing three whole words, four if you consider “uh” a word. Plus, do we really need to encourage more people to get behind a podcast mic? Next, he gets RJ to try Ava’s step-team, which he participates in with the same amount of enthusiasm he had on the podcast, so Ava points out that Jacob never took the time to even ask RJ about his interests.
RJ says he likes being outside in nature and hanging with friends, making him a prime candidate for Gregory’s Garden Goofballs. This epiphany elicits a hilarious video call between Jacob and Gregory, with Janine promptly steamrolling the call after hearing Jacob’s voice. An email notification on Gregory’s phone from “Angela@GNCcustomersupport” derails the conversation, with Jacob hastily welcoming RJ into the Goofballs as Janine prods in the background. The Goofballs warmly receive the new addition, and Gregory even bestows the highest compliment, saying RJ is as good with plants as he is. But RJ still displays an air of indifference. Jacob tells the camera crew, through the lines of Survivor by Destiny’s Child, that he won’t give up trying to find the right fit for RJ.
Janine’s quest to raise her students’ practice test scores is another subtle reference to the difficulties of education today, with her storyline recognizing how sometimes the teacher must adjust their techniques to meet how their students learn. Granted, she’s taking things a bit seriously for a practice test for an exam they won’t actually take until the following year, but that’s our Janine. At first, Janine’s cocky, convinced her class will knock the test out of the water because she knows the lesson like the back of her hand, but upon further inspection of said hands, it turns out she might be in over her head. When she frantically processes the scantrons and sees that the students did terribly, she insists the low scores are due to “cultural bias” before deciding it was because she had them take the test at an inopportune time.
The next day, Janine retests her students, having them take it first thing in the morning under a specially curated temperature, but the results are still abysmal. In the teacher’s lounge, Melissa points out that maybe the problem is Janine and not her student’s state of mind. Janine, appalled by the accusation, asserts that it can’t be her because she’s taught the test the same way for years and all of her classes passed with flying colors. Barbara and Melissa step in as the tenured educators of the group, teaching Janine that sometimes a new group of kids requires a different kind of teaching. She adjusts her methods, noting that these students are visual learners, and celebrates finally coming to a breakthrough. It’s all very predictable, abiding by Abbott’s now classic formula of throwing an obstacle at one of the more optimistic teachers, watching them fail miserably, and then smiling as they ultimately prove themself.
Elsewhere, O’Shon starts getting bolder with Ava, popping up on-site for problems that could’ve been solved remotely, making it known he pulled up in person on his own accord. Ava is still stubbornly dodging O’Shon’s advances, unwilling to succumb to the obvious tension between them, but she finally opens up to two unlikely confidantes, Janine and Gregory, for advice, not because she admires their relationship but because she wants to know what it’s like to “date a poor.” After learning that their date nights involve cooking food at home, she asks Gregory, the poorest man she knows, what he would hypothetically do for Janine if he were in the same tax bracket as O’Shon. Not that she explains the context of the hypothetical, leading Gregory to believe he’s getting a raise. She’s disgusted by his answer — getting Janine a “reliable, pre-owned, hybrid” car — and dismisses him from her office, saying she’d never give him a raise if he’s that irresponsible with money.
Abbott also introduces a new special guest star tonight with Eric Andre playing Cedric, a janitor sent by the district to train under Mr. Johnson. I felt the role and his performance fell flat for such a high-profile guest spot, though I did enjoy his deadpan, reactionary humor as William Stanford Davis carried the absurdity. However, I pray this possibly means that it won’t be the last we see of him and that he’ll be integrated into the cast of characters similarly to Cree Summers. Mr. Johnson immediately sniffs Cedric out as his inevitable replacement whom he’ll have to train himself, but the threat of young blood doesn’t scare the veteran janitor. He takes Cedric under his wing, teaching him techniques for removing permanent marker graffiti, fixing plumbing, and other janitorial secrets he’s learned in his years of service. He even shows his empathetic side when they encounter a sobbing Mr. Morton in the bathroom stall. The experience is so awe-inspiring for Cedric that he admits the district’s intentions but says he’ll never live up to Mr. Johnson’s presence. And he’s right, no one could ever replace Mr. Johnson!
Teacher’s Notes
• Although we’re bound to have a few filler episodes throughout a longer season, I’m eager for Abbott, now nearing four years on air, to begin playing with different narrative structures for the less plot-heavy installments. I would love to see something like when Modern Family did a full episode via Claire’s computer desktop or the beloved underwater episode of BoJack Horseman.
• Finally, my favorite lines:
Janine’s conspiracy theory as to why Melissa’s students scored higher: “Maybe the cultural bias is in the teaching. You subconsciously taught them your whiteness, and now, they’re thinking white-ly.”
Ava, after Janine says she isn’t rich: “Let’s pull up our bank accounts and put them side by side.”
The bus driver, after Jacob calls him a good listener: “Legally, I’m not allowed to wear headphones.”