Name: Abbott Elementary season 2 episode 8
Director: Randall Einhorn
Released: 2022-11-17T07:30:00

Abbott Elementary season 2 episode 8 ‘Egg Drop’ sees Janine contend with her scientific incompetence as she attemps to conduct the titular experiment with her second-graders.

Recap

Mr Morton is about to conduct an ‘Egg Drop’ science experiment with his eighth-graders and Janine deems it a wonderful exercise she wants to take part in along with her students.

Morton tells her the experiment is far too advanced for her second-graders but Janine insists.

When it comes to the eventual demonstration, though, the egg-dropping contraptions made by Janine’s students fail, resulting in all the eggs cracking and making a mess on the floor.

Her students are horrified but Janine is hell-bent on making this experiment a success with her students so she calls for another round, but Mr Morton can afford another experiment in the midst of his busy

Gregory meanwhile, tries to reason with Janine and get her to stop her toxic positivity regarding this science experiment. He lays the facts straight and tells her she can’t experiment if she doesn’t know the science behind it herself.

Janine confesses that she’s not used to not getting anything. For most of her life, she’s persevered through everything with her “can-do” approach wherein she tries her best until she succeeds; failure is hard for her to accept, and Gregory argues that’s the foundation of the scientific endeavour.

Meanwhile, Barbara is facing a problem of her own when one of her student’s mother visits the class daily with the expletive that’s tattooed on her chest. She later asks her to cover it up and she does, zipping her jacket up that has another expletive printed over it.

Barbara later confronts her about her choices in clothing, questioning it, and the student’s mother gets offended by Barbara’s preconceived notions. Barbara later recognises her erroneous judgment, finally apologising to the woman for the same.

Janine holds another science experiment with her students, this time it’s not dropping eggs but lifting them in the air, with helium balloons.

That experiment fails too but the students at least have fun this time around, more or less, before Abbott Elementary season 2 episode 8 rolls the credits.

Review

Abbott Elementary season 2 episode 8 draws a parallel between Barbara and Janine as they contend with their ill notions about scientific endeavour and persons from different walks of life.
However, while the tiny bit of the rough edges they have, the episode also shows the gold deposits their characters possess.
Barbara admits her mistakes and errors while making assumptions about someone from a background different from her. Meanwhile, Janine, despite her slight incompetence, persists and attempts to do right by her students, teaching them a lesson in fun in the process as well.