Abbott Elementary Recap: Bounce Back
03/26/2025 09:00 PM
Ava's unceremonious termination may have been the most realistic conclusion to the Girard Creek bribery storyline, but that doesn't mean it'll keep a bad bitch down. This is Ava we're talking about, and as sad as witnessing her relinquish her ID badge was, what's more realistic is seeing her bounce back before her heels hit the pavement outside the school. We all knew Ava wasn't going anywhere; she's too engrained in the show's fabric for this to be a cut-and-dry storyline. Co-showrunner Patrick Shumacker confirms this in an interview with TheWrap, saying Ava's "story is not over … but it is kind of a longer play. It's not something that's going to resolve itself super quickly."
While the episode still leaves Ava's future up in the air, we get to see her character in a way we haven't before. For us as viewers of a television show, the firing is a huge plot point, shaking Abbott Elementary at its core. But we have to remember that within Ava's universe, the school is merely a stitch in the complex fabric that makes up her life. Shit, it's not even her main source of income. Ava is a woman who casually dated Andre Iguodala, appeared on the cover of Inner City Doomsday Preppers Magazine, and has a hookah flavor named in her honor. It's not a matter of what Ava will do without Abbott but what Abbott will do without Ava.
Gregory is the first to understand how quickly things can fall apart without Abbott's HBIC when he encounters what I'm sure is the start of many obstacles as he attempts to fill her shoes as interim principal. His reign begins as mild-mannered and meticulous as he is, with the most boring reading of the morning announcement that could only be rivaled by Ira Glass. It's fun to see Gregory's ambitions to become principal reignited — a lot of his character-building spawned from his inability to stray from his rigid ideas of how life should go, but now we see him return to his goal as a mature and well-rounded man. But not too well-rounded … Gregory's neuroses remain as present as ever once he spirals as he realizes he can't decode Ava's complicated filing system. What ensues is a level of Type-A puzzle-solving madness we haven't seen since Brooklyn 99's Ray Holt (RIP Andre Braugher!) and Amy Santiago.
Melissa enlists his help updating one of her students' files to reflect a garlic allergy (poor kid, imagine a lifetime without garlic bread). However, when he tries to locate the folder, he's mystified by the strange notations Ava used to organize everything. Instead of using the "hot dad scale" as she did in the past, now phrases like "Natalie Anderson Blood vs Water 1" are the sole clues they have inside Ava's brain. I was as stumped as Gregory until he brought up Boston Rob. My age is showing, but similar to Bravo's darling Ciara Miller, I had no idea what an absolute cutie Boston Rob was in the aughts because I only knew him from The Traitors. Melissa, however, as a "warm-blooded mostly straight woman who was alive in 2003," immediately picks up on the Survivor connection, and the two get to binging, but watching the series in its entirety would take an obscene amount of time, so they have no choice to but to consult the mastermind herself.
The episode also tests Barbara's character development as she begins her time as the instructor for the music class. I have the same complaint I had earlier in the season; it would be nice to see Barbara outside of storylines regarding her stubborn nature. We do see incremental growth, and her Barbara-isms remain as charming as ever in the hands of Sheryl Lee Ralph, but I want to see more. Barbara, like Gregory, is known for her rigidity, and when she struggles to connect with a different generation of students, she must learn how to adjust her teaching methods. She has her work cut out for her with the older students as they're not as easily appeased as the kindergartners looking at the world with a fresh set of eyes. It takes her about two seconds to realize the older kids do not care about learning the "fun-damentals" and are more interested in creating a viral video. They roll their eyes as she teaches them how to spot the difference between minor and major scales, but everyone perks up after a student starts playing a video he made on his phone, remixing Barbara saying "fundamentals," accompanied by the class dancing along to the beat.
Barbara, unimpressed by the music video, haughtily says, "Honey, that's not a song; that is a collection of noises." Jacob, who has been hilariously and characteristically sitting in on her class, senses Barbara's hurt feelings, relating to her frustrations as a teacher to the older students. He reminds her of her talents as an educator and suggests that she try to meet them where they're at. Like the majority of things Jacob says, his sentences trickle in one ear and out the other, with the only words from their conversation permeating Barbara's consciousness being "You're a great teacher," and she exits the breakroom saying she'll have to figure it out alone. First, she tries to get the students to learn chord progressions by studying their favorite songs, but giving the kids extra homework for an after-school club obviously doesn't move them. Eventually, the storyline wraps up neatly and predictably, with Barbara finally helping the students improve their video — sometimes, you just have to accept Gen Z for who they are and get on the TikTok train.
Janine, on the other hand, stays true to her roots. Ironically, Schumacher told TheWrap that it was ultimately Quinta's idea to go through firing Ava, but for her character, it's a worst-case scenario. Janine watches anxiously while Ava returns to the school two days after the audit to pick up the rest of her belongings while having to wear a visitor's badge (gasp!) despite physically looking better than ever in what might be one of Janelle James' best wigs. She prods Ava for information on her emotional well-being, but the disgraced principal insists she's better than ever, with spare time to focus on her "far more lucrative side hustles," including public speaking, which is perfect for someone with the traits of a great cult leader. Janine is the inverse of Ava, as her universe is anchored by Abbott. She can't fathom a world where Ava's tenure ends in such a devastating way and vows to find a solution with the district. Though she isn't able to accomplish much outside of leaving a message with Manny and discovering there is an option to appeal, Janine determinedly tracks Ava down to what she thought was her house but is actually her P.O. box (obviously, she wouldn't give any of them her home address).
Ava is unbothered by Janine's updates for her case, rolling her eyes at the thought of begging for her job back and "giving them a chance to fire me twice." What she's truly interested in is an upcoming "TEB-Talk" she's filling in for at the last minute. Suspicious of the knock-off nature of the event and its drab location in an airport hotel's Conference Room L, Janine pushes her old boss to file the appeal, but Ava couldn't care less. Ava's nonchalance frightens Janine so much that she ropes Melissa and Gregory into trying to pull the excommunicated principal away from her speech to prepare to plead her case to the district. Ava's focus is firmly on her job at hand, which, surprisingly for her coworkers but not at all to me, is an extremely successful speaking engagement with a packed house.
Rebranded as a life coach and philanthropist, she brags about bringing Abbott out of the bottom one percent and refers to herself as the "compass" for the dutiful crown hanging onto her every word while Mr. Johnson shoots a T-shirt cannon into the crowd. She inspires her followers with tales of a "little annoying woman" (Janine) and a "slight man" with "edamame arms" (Gregory) finding love before reciting lyrics from "Closing Time" like a motivational quote. By the end of her speech, the gang from Abbott has to stand in line behind adoring fans to get a chance to talk to her. Janine admits that Ava is doing perfectly fine without her job as principal, while Melissa and Gregory ask her for the key to the code. She explains how the player name and season numbers correspond with the students' names and their bus routes since alerting parents to traffic delays is one of the most frequent uses of a student's file. Gregory is so impressed by Ava's system he's inspired to reorganize his desktop. This small act of care and attention to detail proves once again how Ava goes above and beyond for her community, and I'm positive we'll see them return the favor in the episodes to come.
Teacher's Notes
• Finally, the best one-liners of the episode:
Barbara: "They took a recording of my voice, chopped it, screwed it, and Lucy Liu-ed it into oblivion."
Barbara getting out Barbara'd:
Barbara: "Do you know the first person to ever go viral?"
Student: "Jesus!"
Ava queuing her music: "Hey Lexus, play Ava-Flav's 'Ooo She's Serious About That Paper' playlist."
