Abbott Elementary season 2 episode 7 recap & review: Attack Ad

The seventh episode of Abbott Elementary season 2 sees the teachers dealing with a commercial that is ruining the name of their school. The episode is now streaming on Hulu.

Recap

Janine gathers Tariq’s stuff at her house as he is coming over to grab it and take it away. She wants to completely cut him off from her life in order to restart.

Back at school, the teachers notice that the parents of their students are taking unusual jabs at them. Jacob finds out from one of his students that a commercial is criticizing Abbott Elementary and its teaching methods.

The teachers take a look at it and realize that it’s an advertisement for Legendary Charter Schools. They are using footage from Abbott Elementary, which is heavily edited in a way that suggests teachers here are not good to students.

Each and every teacher is featured in a bad light, except for Barbara, which is surprising.

The teachers try to break down how the footage got leaked, and Ava confesses that she let another camera crew in apart from the one filming the school.

Melissa brings in her lawyer friend, only for the teachers to figure out that there is no case here and they can never get rid of that commercial.

While Melissa continues to look into the situation, Janine is reminded by her friend, Erika, that she should not let her ex-boyfriend into the house where they lived together. After all, there is a lot of history there.

Tariq visits the school, and Janine feels comfortable around him and starts to think that Erika was probably wrong.

Melissa, on the other hand, googles about the Legendary Charter Schools. She gets the name of Draemond Winding, who runs it and is a big name in New York.

Upon hearing that name, Barbara tries to cool Melissa down, and the latter wonders why. Melissa points out how the commercial didn’t portray Barbara as a bad teacher.

A triggered Barbara clarifies that it has nothing to do with that; she just feels that they should find a different way to get what they want.

The teachers soon notice students leaving Abbott Elementary and realize that they should take some action.

Jacob volunteers to call Draemond, and to their surprise, he quickly picks up the phone. Draemond even agrees to come down to Abbott Elementary to talk.

He reveals that he once was a student here at Abbott Elementary, and Barbara was his teacher. Barbara remembers how she had comforted Draemond as he went through a lot as a kid.

Draemond continues to promote his school at Abbott Elementary, hoping to change the way this school works. Barbara interrupts him and helps him understand how what he is doing hurts teachers like her.

She manages to convince him to take down the commercial, but Draemond is still adamant about turning each and every school in Philadelphia into a Legendary Charter School.

Amidst all of this, Janine realized that it was a mistake to be comfortable around Tariq when he started tagging along with her for his own comfort.

Janine was so convinced that things are normal between them that she shoved Gregory away, though he was looking out for her.

Review

• The episode introduces Draemond, and it seems like he won’t be a one-off character and would work more like an antagonist for the show, but in a heart-warming way.
• It’s crazy to realize for how many years Barbara has worked at Abbott Elementary and what else there is to uncover.
• The arc around Janine restarting her life is taking one step at a time. It’s cool to see Tariq back as he was the funniest in this entire episode.
• The episode also built up a good mystery in the beginning on why Barbara would be spared in the commercial. The story around it paid off well.
• The commercial is quite hilarious as well, and the reactions from the teachers are worth watching.

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Also Read: Who is Ashley Garcia in Abbott Elementary?