Abbott Elementary Recap: Parental Guidance
Abbott Elementary celebrates mothers — and muvas — with a maternal-themed holiday episode that delivered some of the big laughs we’ve been missing this season. It’s an episode where the writers are clearly having fun, pulling from their own wealth of experience with their families, particularly Black family dynamics. From the infamous painting of the exhausted Black auntie on the edge of the bed in Barbara’s house (IYKYK) to her family’s insistence on laying hands on Gregory, the humor is universal, with little Easter eggs that are undeniably Black, a formula the Abbott writers have perfected.
Gregory finds himself at Barbara’s dining room table after she deems his Mother’s Day plans too depressing to be acceptable. On the Friday before the holiday, Barbara is in charge of the hallway decorations and finds the ones outside Gregory’s class, which consist of a few stick figures and a bland “Thanks, Moms” written in Sharpie, unsatisfactory. She and Melissa accost him about the lackluster display, criticizing his decision to make participating in decorating optional. Barbara hypothetically asks how his mother would feel if he didn’t do something special for her. Gregory answers matter-of-factly: “My mom passed away when I was nine.” But he promises he doesn’t need sympathy — on the contrary, for him, Mother’s Day is a great day to stop by Top Golf while all the dads are busy. Barbara is appalled at the idea of Gregory spending the day at “Topless Golf” and demands he attend her Mother’s Day brunch.
As everyone shares their Mother’s Day plans — Melissa is stopping by Barbara’s before heading to her own home while Jacob and Janine are going to a drag brunch at Rubestein’s — a snarky comment Ava made in passing sparks an idea in Janine. When Melissa and Barbara ask why Janine isn’t spending the day with her family (I love how no one cares about Jacob’s mom), she replies that her mom hates the holiday and her sister will be with her dad and step-mom. Melissa says, “Oh, you two have different dads?” right as Ava whisks down the hallway, retorting, “Of course, they do. You thought, with that height difference, they have the same father? Janine’s dad is probably Kevin Hart or something … cause they short!” Janine reveals to the cameras the “un-fun fact” that she doesn’t know who her father is, and she’s grown out of wondering. But something about the mention of Kevin Hart makes sense, as her mom apparently knew the comedian in high school, and they’re both “really funny.”
Janine visibly perks up at the idea of identifying her father, diligently finding any way to confirm or deny his paternity. With her laptop open to a Google Image search of Kevin Hart, she calls her mom, Venetta (is it just me, or was that not Taraji’s voice on the phone?), to discuss the possibility of being the comedian’s daughter. Venetta vehemently denies dating Kevin … but casually says they did fuck before rushing off the phone. Not to be deterred, Janine tries to contact Kevin Hart through any social media platform, including sending him a dollar on Venmo. Melissa offers to put Janine in contact with Kevin’s barber (whom she knows through a few degrees of separation) to get a piece of Kevin’s hair for a DNA test. While Janine waits on the results, Jacob goes on a goose chase of his own to fund the annual field trip after Ava informs him that there is no money in the budget, so they have to skip it this year, a situation Jacob says he’d rather die than go through with. He tries to set up a GoFundMe but discovers that the school has been suspended due to Ava’s fraudulent activity, so Melissa suggests he go to the PTA for help. Tariq continues to control the PTA — which now stands for “Parents Throwing Ass” — and is overseeing a meeting in the gym catered by a private sushi chef, proving once again he’ll do anything for a free meal. Over plates of carefully crafted nigiri and flutes of champagne, Tariq tells Jacob that the PTA fund is overdrawn, forcing Jacob to come up with something on his own.
Meanwhile, in the garden, Barbara finds Gregory speaking words of affirmation to his plants, a method that is supposed to stimulate growth and is a fitting metaphor to segue into an invitation to a brunch honoring mothers. Barbara slyly says plants tended to the most grow the strongest, but Gregory fires back with a word of warning, saying that “over-watering and over-pruning can sometimes smother a plant.” The statement goes in one of Barbara’s ears and out the other, along with Gregory’s polite decline, and she says she expects his presence on Sunday. Barbara takes the brunch at her house very seriously because she lost her own mother a few years ago and feels she needs to do something special to honor her. She goes into classic Black mom energy, buzzing around the house restlessly while insisting her guests do not lift a finger and that Gregory, “a fellow child of bereavement,” doesn’t spend the day alone. Despite it being over two decades since Gregory’s mom passed, Barbara’s family treats him like Orphan Annie, hugging his stiff frame and offering their condolences.
As if things weren’t already awkward enough, Taylor, Barbara’s daughter and Gregory’s ex, is there with her new boyfriend, who also treats Gregory with solemn pity. Melissa witnesses these excruciating exchanges while sipping her drink and grinning as if watching the latest episode of The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Before diving into the meal, Barbara instructs the table to “lift up our brother Gregory Eddie in prayer,” with Mr. Howard leaving his seat to “put healing hands on him.” Barbara begins to preach and sermonize before realizing she doesn’t even know Gregory’s mom’s name. Gregory, knowing that divulging that his mother’s name was Faith will only add fuel to the evangelical fire, tries to speed things along but messy Melissa, enjoying watching Gregory squirm, urges him to reveal her name.
The word “faith” invigorates the entire family’s praise of the most high. When Gregory tries to wiggle out of Barbara’s house during the prayer, she reminds him that God is watching and continues to pray that God holds Gregory close in His “deepest bosom because his mother is not here to do it herself.” This is enough for Gregory to leap out of his seat. Barbara follows him out of the dining room, saying he needs to be around community. Gregory disagrees, this time standing strong in his convictions, telling Barbara that having to talk about his mother continuously is sadder than spending the day alone golfing and that this form of grieving is her tradition, not his, before walking out the door. The prayer is still going by the time Barbara returns to the table and she’s more flustered than ever as she takes the pie out of the oven, prompting Melissa and Taylor to remind her that it’s okay just to relax and take a moment. She takes this literally and leaves … joining Gregory at Top Golf. There, he opens up about his mom and the pain of feeling that loss on holidays. He tells her he doesn’t need Mother’s Day to remember his mom, a sentiment Barbara now understands herself. She leaves him alone and goes to “swing a few home runs” as the two grieve in peace.
By Sunday, Jacob still doesn’t have a field trip solution, and the problem hangs over him during Rubenstein’s “Mother’ed Day” drag brunch. Janine is also preoccupied with her search for Kevin Hart, annoying her friend Erika, who feels they’re bringing down the energy. Right on cue with the entertainment, Ava appears at their table, ready to watch her favorite drag queen, Lisa Condo (a silly spin on Marie Condo, with the tagline “Is your house hunt dragging you down?”). She delights in seeing Jacob struggling with the problem she created, saying, “It’ll only get worse before it gets worse,” but when it’s time to support Janine after the DNA results prove Kevin isn’t her father, she’s there to lift her up. Janine comes to terms with not knowing her dad, and at the end of the episode, she gets an unexpected FaceTime from Kevin himself, asking her never to contact him again (I’m sure Mr. Johnson is allowed to hit him up whenever he’d like).
Though Janine’s goose chase ends in disappointment, Lisa Condo gives Jacob an idea for the field trip when she suggests he check out their performance at the next installment of Shakesqueer in the Park, where entrance is always free. Janine and Ava cosign the idea to take the students to Smith Memorial Playground, a historic and free Philadelphia park. To make sure enough slots are reserved for all the students, Jacob jumps on stage to ask the crowd to book reservations. He’s met with boos — who wants to see a random, plain-clothed white man on stage during drag brunch — but when Janine and Ava inform them it’s for the children and Jacob gets off the stage, they get the reservations they need to ensure their students have an annual field trip.
Teacher’s Notes
• Similar to the Manny/Janine storyline, tonight’s storyline feels like a nugget of something that was intended to be bigger but was cut short due to the writer’s strike. In a longer season, dropping information like the fact that our main character and her love interest share the experience of growing up without one of their parents would’ve gotten a bit more attention. Gregory and Janine already fit together like puzzle pieces, but this adds an entirely new level. Interestingly, we don’t see the two talk about it during the episode, but the similarity doesn’t go unnoticed.
• Special shout-out to Shea Couleé (Lisa Condo) and Symone (Divine Intervention) of Drag Race for their amazing job as guest stars. I was gagged!
• Melissa, explaining why Topless Golf could be a good idea: “Give me a warm climate, and I’m down for 18.”
• Jacob, dismissing Erika’s idea for a Get Hard 2: “You wouldn’t make a sequel to Citizen Kane.”
• Ava: “If he [Kevin Hart] is your dad, you two should buy a trenchcoat so you can go to R-rated movies.”