Abbott Elementary season 2 episodes 1, 2 & 3 recaps & review

Abbott Elementary enters into its sophomore season with the same vibrant and comfortable humour as the original, with the eclectic story arcs and characters returning to the screen.

Episode 1 recap: Development Day

Abbott Elementary season 2 premiere kicks off with Janine driving to the school all jovial and cheerful. She recaps her recent life of independence following her breakup with Tariq.

Instead of the Development Week program, Ava and everyone else at school are celebrating the game day. Later on, Janine announces she has invited the Flyers mascot Gritty, to everyone’s pleasant surprise.

At first, Janine seems to be breezing through her breakup, a fact she loudly expresses to her colleagues time and again. However, reality entails a contradictory situation.

Janine is running low on money to pay her rent and is accumulating quite a debt. Moreover, her car is also being towed due to the dozens of unpaid parking violations — and she has to thank her ex for all her current struggles.

Meanwhile, Gregory is getting hyper-anxious over the increased curriculum that he has to contend with this year. He prepares a very meticulous and rigorous plan to tackle the year but Barbara points out all the emergency crises his plan doesn’t account for.

Barbara then puts Gregory’s mind at ease and advises her on how to best go about the work. Janine eventually becomes a bit relaxed about her situation too and a new year at Abbott Elementary begins.

Episode 2 recap: Wrong Delivery

A box full of new books gets wrongly delivered to Abbott Elementary instead of Addington Elementary. Janine and the other teachers are impressed by the school but Janine doesn’t want to admit it.

Barbara decides to return the box to the school together, claiming it’ll also give them a chance to take a tour. Later on, they arrive at the charter school and behold all the better features it possesses over its crumbling and ill-funded school.

An envious Janine wishes to provide her students with the same level of the facility as Addington. She seeks the rest of the school board’s grant money to buy a computer for her students.

She even wins the Shark Tank-style pitch meeting that Ava hosts, with everyone else failing to pitch anything interesting. However, the mice infestation in Abbott Elementary takes precedence over the computer.

In the meantime, Gregory is evading Barbara because his relationship with her daughter Taylor isn’t going great. He tells Jacob that he’s been ghosting Taylor for a while now.

Later on in the episode, the two confront each other and Barbara ends up giving Greg a shocker. She tells him that Taylor herself has been ghosting him and that she told her Gregory is broke.

Episode 3 recap: Story Samurai

Melissa is having a hard time managing her combined class, struggling to keep the students in check and the third-graders separate from the second-graders.

However, she always puts up a brace face pretending everything’s fine and dandy. It’s because when Ava offered her an aide, Barbara exclaimed she’s a veteran and can handle the load; Melissa agreed vehemently and couldn’t backtrack now.

However, when things get a bit too much for her to handle and as a consequence she starts to lash out at cardboard cutouts, Barbara talks with her.

She asks her to get whatever help the school district provides them and enlist the help of the aide teacher. Melissa agrees and later on meets the aide — an overtly animated and goofy Ashley Garcia from Frankford.

Meanwhile, the travelling storytelling troupe ‘Story Samurai’ is arriving at Abbott Elementary. Jacob is over the moon at the news as he used to be a part of the troupe during his school days and is a self-professed veteran of it.

The Story Samurai arrives and perform their extremely cringe-worthy improv act. Jacob, oblivious to the fact that it’s all so corny, enjoys the show while his colleagues all laugh at it.

Later on, Jacob decides to join the troupe for the afternoon show and his colleagues except for Janine encourage him to do it. They’re ready for the laughs but Janine isn’t keen on Jacob becoming the butt of the joke.

So she stops him from performing, telling him how everyone perceives him as a cornball and laughs at him, not with him, much to his shock.

Gregory tells her she should let him be if that’s how Jacob truly is and they love him for it. She realises her mistake and encourages him to go to the stage and perform the routine.

Jacob puts on a mad corny show, replete with the trademark cringe he brings with him always. But his colleagues appreciate him for being him, and for the laughs too.

Review

• Abbott Elementary is already three episodes into its sophomore instalment and so far, the show has been able to recreate the same magic as its first season.
• In addition to the gags and the laughs they inflict, the show is moving forward with the character arcs. Janine is recovering from her not-so-breeezy breakup.
• Meanwhile, Gregory is also over his relationship with Barbara’s daughter Taylor. He’s also likely going to contend with his “broke” problem.
• Speaking of financial problems, the show has established that the central couple — Janine and Gregory — is going through similar struggles.
• At this point, it seems like the two are eventually going to grow closer due to their mutual financial issues. Perhaps a shared living is in order?
• Splitting the bills and payments would certainly benefit both of them, plus give them the chance to forward this cutesy dynamic they’ve been on since season 1.
• Meanwhile, Melissa and Jacob’s characters have been given considerable screen time so far too.
• The third episode does a great job shedding some light on Jacob’s corniness that comes with him trying to be all “I’m an ally and I know black culture” without harping on him too much.
• Melissa’s struggles with students allow Abbott Elementary to add to the commentary on the current state of US education.
• An episode devoted to the hijinks or even the personal stories of Mr Johnson.

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