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“April Fool’s” episode last Wednesday Abbott Elementary It was all fun and (exhausting) pranks, but this week, there was noticeably less laughter between everyone’s favorite teacher couple at school.
Episode 19 of Season 5 began with Gregory (Tyler James Williams) and Janine (Quinta Brunson) trying to plan the couple’s first trip after moving in together earlier in the season, but differences over their individual philosophies on money and time quickly turned the process from fun to daunting, with Gregory wanting to book an Airbnb and take an eight-hour car trip to the Outer Banks to save money, and Janine preferring direct flights, a hotel and a resort. Spa treatments.
The couple initially decides to change their vacation destination to Atlantic City as a happy medium, but Janine later approaches Gregory during Business Day with a settlement that she considers “a little more compromise”, telling him that she went ahead and bought their trips to the Outer Banks herself because money was the issue. Gregory calls the purchase a “waste,” Janine says Atlantic City was a “cheap idea,” and the argument spills over into the couple’s home life, leading Janine to question how they can make their relationship work if they can’t even take a simple trip. Gregory says they won’t do it if they can’t get on the same page, and Janine responds by saying maybe the two should break up.
Viewers don’t know exactly what will happen next, as both Janine and Gregory are left stunned into silence. However, Jacob (Chris Perfetti) receiving a text from Janine the next day that sends him throwing in the trash in front of Mr. Johnson (William Stanford Davis) seems to be confirmation that the two have indeed broken up.
Below, Bronson speaks with Hollywood Reporter About Janine and Gregory’s breakup, and whether this could lead to any romantic developments with Abbott Elementary’s newest teacher, Dominic, played by Luke Tenney, preparing to hit the 100-episode mark for the series. Abbott With the recent news of the sixth season renewal of the ABC comedy series.
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My first question is very broad: why?
(He laughs.) I’m sorry, that really shocked me. I’m trying to get an answer together. Did you have more for it?
Why break up…why now?
Because no one saw it coming. I think this is the time to throw a stone on stable ground. This has been something I’ve thought about since the beginning of this season. They’ve been in a relationship for a while, and we’ve seen them be really adorable and go through the honeymoon phase, but I wanted to dig a little deeper into what could be going on with these characters and how things like this happen in relationships. We see it every day – couples who look perfect on the outside. There could be things going on that we know nothing about, which they discover in their relationship.
A few episodes ago this episode, when Janine and Gregory decided to move in together, I thought for a moment that it might be their undoing, but then they compromised nicely and got a new place together. How did you decide that the trip would be the impetus for their breakup?
Because it was a seemingly small thing. It just seemed like one of those things that can get really big, and you don’t even know why. We talked about this a lot in the room about relationships, past relationships, current relationships, and how you never know. It could be this little thing that leads you into an argument. I’m in my room, so I’m just looking around, but, for example, if one person likes to sleep with the TV on and the other person doesn’t, that seems like a small thing, but before you know it, it can get really big and it’s like, “Wait, why are we fighting now?” This little thing was actually the catalyst for some larger discussions that needed to happen between two people trying to spend a lot of time with each other and possibly their lives together.
To that point, I wondered, when Janine says, “Well, maybe we should break up,” does she really mean it?
From watching you can see that she surprised herself. I won’t say whether she meant it or not, but I think she surprised herself by saying it and wonders if she meant it. But when she doesn’t hear anything from Gregory, it makes her feel like, “Whoa, okay.” I think she was sitting there waiting to protest, but she never got one, which reinforced the fear that this might be true. Maybe we shouldn’t [be together].
Were there any other scenarios you thought of instead of the trip that might lead to them breaking up?
I don’t remember. We got this, and I liked it. We probably exchanged ideas, because at that point we talked about this episode coming soon. But this was one [concept] I liked it more. She felt small enough and big enough at the same time.
Having talked about introducing this moment previously, how did you decide where to place the breakup in the season?
Sometimes, in network television, it’s a balancing act when it comes to what your show is actually about. Abbott It’s a show about teachers in a public school who go through situations and they do that every day to their students, and we want to stick with that drive. This is the engine that keeps the show going. There’s also a balance between, “I can’t stop you when you can get locations, when you can get cast, and when you can decide how many days you have to shoot.” It’s all part of the production process. And also scheduling. We were impressed with a lot of appointments this year.
The Olympics were going on. Which prompts the television network to have an interesting schedule. I also didn’t want this to happen when we were going off the air for three weeks. And I didn’t want to come back to that either because it wasn’t fun to come back with that story. I wanted to have some fun first. I can’t say enough about the real balancing act of knowing when and where stories should come, and it seemed too much to be random and I didn’t want it to continue. For example, if this had been going on since Episode 8, I don’t think people would be having a good time right now.
Yes, we won’t do that.
clearly. Your energy is so funny on the other end of the phone. I’m cracking up. You are not happy with me.
I’m just an investor. That’s it.
Okay. I love him.
What can you tell us about Episode 20? The title is “Night Out,” which can happen in many different ways after a breakup.
One thing that’s going to happen is we’re going to revisit one of the show’s iconic locations, which I think is really fun. It was fun for me anyway, and for us to tell the story. You’ll see some very different sides to many of our characters, not just Janine and Gregory. I hope people enjoy it. I just hope they have fun. Let’s just have fun, guys. right?
Well, speaking of fun, the unanimous opinion online is that last week’s April Fool’s Day episode was great. Did you see the uproar over the April Fool’s joke on social media about Janelle James not coming back?
I did. Firstly, I hate him because I hate pranks. I’m actually a lot like Gregory on the show. I don’t enjoy pranks. But the fact that people are so upset about this is just a testament to how important Janelle is to this show. No one wants to see that at all. And everyone who had deceived him was, rightly, as upset as they should be. This does not happen. But that just shows you how much people love the character of Ava. I agree with everyone. Ava is very important to this show, just like everyone else in my opinion. They are all my children. It was a trend. I will say that.
We don’t know how Janine will handle being single from this point on, but on a scale of one to 10, what are the odds of her going back to Tarek? [Zack Fox]?
Oh, my God. This is crazy. But hey, with Janine, I’d say five. You never know sometimes with that girl.
I’m also curious about Dominic. Could there be anything romantic there, and will we see him again before the end of the season?
You’ll see Dominique again before the end of the season. We absolutely adore having Luke Tennie around. It’s great. He is the man For the most diligent in show business at the moment. The boy is everywhere. It was so funny when he first showed up, and he said, “Yes, I’m there the house Also, I was like, ‘Damn, you’re really working.’ But what’s great is that he deserves it. He’s so great, and a pleasure to work with. And I’m so glad he’s only getting more exposure in this industry, so you’ll see him again. That’s all I’ll say, you’ll see him again.
How did Luke come to be on the show?
The crazy thing is, we wrote the character Dominic, Luke auditioned, and the moment I saw his face, I barely needed to look at the audition tape. I was already a huge fan of his Shrink. I knew he would have what it takes to fulfill this role. It’s unbelievable to me. I opened up his audition tape and said, “Yeah, I don’t even know why I opened this.”
You mentioned that the show is a drive, which is what you said THR In the past, “your goal was always to keep an engine going and keep turning out quality sitcom relief.” Has it gotten more difficult to come up with new ideas over five seasons, or do you feel like you have more potential now?
I think Season 5 felt like, “Okay, we’ve built a lot over four seasons.” And I felt like it was safe to say we were going to get a season six, so I felt like, “How do we not pack everything into season five and save some good stuff for season six?” I have a lot of good things I want to do, and stories to tell, but we have to stretch this out because 22 episodes is a lot, and I want to keep some good things for the future. This is what became difficult. What stories do we want to tell this season, and what stories do we want to tell next season?
That’s a good problem to have.
that it. I am very grateful for this problem.
Season 6 renewal news is now public, and that will put you at the 100-episode mark. How do you feel, and are you already thinking about how to commemorate that moment?
Oh man, I’d be so happy. We’re going to make a cake. That’s the only thing I can think of now, is cake. I don’t know why I don’t have any other ideas, but cake is really interesting to me. I probably won’t even eat it. I just want to see the 100 episode cake.
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Abbott Elementary New episodes air every Wednesday at 8:30pm on ABC.
