"Alex" is the ninth episode of Season Three of Abbott Elementary.
Gregory notices that Alex, a young boy from Janine's class, hasn't been showing up to school lately. So he and Janine look into his case and the results force Janine to make a life-changing decision. Elsewhere, Jacob acts petty towards Barbara and Melissa after learning that they submitted to the power of A.I. software to help them with responding to his extensive e-mails.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Artistic Licence: During Ava's hiring process, she immediately dismisses a group of potential teachers just for being 5'5" and under. In the real world, she would have been penalized for committing height discrimination.
- Birds of a Feather: Janine's replacement, Mercedes, shares similar vibes with Ava which made it easier to choose her.
- Bittersweet Ending: Janine and Gregory successfully convince Alex to come back to school so he can avoid going to truancy court. But afterwards, Greg is in disbelief over Janine leaving Abbott to work full-time at the district. And Janine herself is rather perplexed if she made the right choice while sitting in her office. Also, Alex runs away from the Garden Goofballs despite Gregory's intentions.
- Cold Open: Barbara and Melissa start the episode expressing dismay at how kids these days are stuck on their cellphones. When they suggest a game of Patty Cake to some girls, they're disturbed at how bleak and modern their version is.
- Continuity Nod: Greggo is following up on a proposal made by a representative from the Philadelphia Activities Funds program to get funding for his Garden Goofballs Program.
- From the Mouths of Babes: Two girls demonstrate their version of Patty Cake which contain rather bleak references to the state of the world along with pop-culture references.
- The Generation Gap: Melissa and Barbara's version of Patty Cake is rather tame compared to the nihilistic and depressing version two girls play in front of them.
- Hidden Depths: Mr. Johnson boasts that he's become familiar with Iranian culture after their misrepresentation in "300".
- Hypocritical Humor: Barbara and Melissa assure the camera crew that they learned about AI in order to identify it when reviewing their students' works so they can stop it. That doesn't mean they won't use that privilege themselves.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: Mr. Eddie tries to dismiss a student with a loose tooth by saying that he's busy. She points out that he's coloring vegetables.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While the two queens are technically in the wrong for using AI to respond to Jacob's e-mails, they bring up how exhausting it is having to respond to his long, boring and overly-tedious messages with sincere effort. They even mention that they used their AI messages as the alternative would be to rudely tell off Jacob for his long, boring and overly-tedious messages.
- Kick the Dog: Ava has been dreaming of the day she gets to officially replace Janine and is ecstatic to get started now that she's leaving Abbott. She even calls for "security" since Janine is technically trespassing.
- Malicious Misnaming: Played light-heartedly. Now that Janine won't be working at Abbott anymore, a somber Melissa declares that she doesn't have to remember her name anymore and calls her "Janice".
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: Janine has officially quit Abbott Elementary and is replaced by a new teacher named Mercedes.
- Oh, Crap!: Janine gets this when she casually chats with Super Nintendo John Reynolds and worries if his surprise visit means that she's getting fired.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Gregory describes Alex as a quiet child who likes going to the library to read, not the kind of kid who would just stop coming to school.
- Raised by Grandparents: Alex's primary guardian is his grandmother Virginia. There's no mention on where his parents are or if something happened to them.
- Scatterbrained Senior: Alex's grandma doesn't have all her marbles. Along with mistaking Janine and Gregory for repairmen, she doesn't understand the gravity of what can happen to Alex if he misses school too many times.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: District protocol limits the teachers' involvement with their students to calls to their homes and forbids them to actually go to their houses. Janine, of course, won't stand for that and invites herself to Alex's grandmother's home to talk to Alex herself, over Gregory's objections.
- Shout-Out:
- Jacob refers to the two queens as Decepticons after learning that they were using AI software.
- Alex is a huge fan of The Price Is Right and spends his truancy days watching it. Granine try to use the show to convince Alex to come back to school.
- Javon's rules of the Garden Goofballs Club sounds alot like the rules for another club.
- Skipping School: Alex has stopped coming to school, and if he misses one more day, he will be sent back a grade. Turns out Alex misses Janine and doesn't want to go back if she's not there.
- So Proud of You: Barbara is openly proud of Janine for securing an official job at the district.
- The Stinger: Gregory tries to introduce Alex to the Garden Goofballs. It goes poorly due to the older boys making fake rules about the club mixed with Alex running away to see "The Prince is Right".
- A Taste of Their Own Medicine: Jacob chastises Barbara and Melissa for posting AI generated messages to his e-mails. Their argument for doing it is that Jacob's e-mails are so long and boring and he sends so many a day they don't have the time to read them all. Later, Mr. Johnson asks Jacob to read his newsletter on the history of spring cleaning, and Jacob ends up using AI for the same reasons.
- Wham Episode: Janine has a full time job at the district meaning that she'll no longer be working at Abbott.
- Worst. Whatever. Ever!: Jacob declares today to be his Worst Day Ever after learning that his senpais used AI software and that his best friend forever Janine will be leaving Abbott Elementary.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Javon takes pride in how he wrote his essay without using AI to cheat. Mr. C even assures him that he didn't doubt Javon because he got a D for his essay.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Ava is in total disbelief when the last potential candidate for the first hiring batch has a jelly bean belt when she explicitly stated that she didn't want.
