"Work Family" is the eight episode of Abbott Elementary's first season.
Upset to hear that Jacob only thinks of her as just a work friend, Janine is determined to make him and her faculty members into true friends. Meanwhile, Barbara coaches Greg on how to improve his teaching skills.
Tropes
- Accidental Misnaming: Tariq refers to Jacob as "Jake" during the car ride.
- Armor-Piercing Question: While talking about their respective issues, Gregory asks Janine if her boyfriend Tariq makes her happy. Janine is left speechless and unable to answer.
- Armor-Piercing Response: The reason Jacob didn't want to tell Janine about his relationship was because that would mean she would be allowed to give opinions on his love with Zach. And he wasn't ready to weigh in on her relationship with Tariq.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Janine and Tariq have been dating since the 8th grade. Continuously. With no breaks. Or dating anyone else. It's mentioned that this may not be very healthy, as discussed below in High-School Sweethearts. But it's also shown that Tariq is genuinely a sweet guy, and we see him make a genuine and not-too-cringy display of love for Janine in the middle of his performance. Considering how distant her parents are, he's someone who's definitely been there for her from a young age.
- Cringe Comedy: Played with with Tariq's performance for the kids. Everything we've seen so far suggests he's a cringe-worthy lyricist and general embarrassment. And indeed, his lyrics aren't very good and he always undercuts his presence by hyping himself too much. But when he actually performs, his beats are decent, his stage presence is confident, and he keeps going long enough that the kids and even teachers can't help but get into it. He may not be a great musician, but he's an okay performer.
- Damned by Faint Praise: Called upon to praise Tariq in front of the Abbott staff, even people-pleaser Jacob can only muster up, "He's a real extemporaneous thinker." And "he's spirited."
- Dance Party Ending: The last scene shows Gregory and his class having a fun little dance after one of his kids gets an answer right.
- Dark Secret: Melissa admits that her cousin turned down a chance to assassinate Bobby Kennedy.
- Defrosting Ice King: Barbara notices that Greg has a strict, merciless reliance on teaching mathematics to his students. So thanks to her's and Melissa's lessons on embracing silliness along with reflecting on what type of job he wants, Greg starts to become more flexible with his teachings. Even allowing dancing brain breaks during his lessons.
- Dramatic Thunder: As Janine vows to make her Abbott work friends talk so they can become better friends, a flash of thunder appears. She smiles over how perfect the timing was.
- Drugs Are Bad: Abbott holds an anti-drug assembly entitle Friends Against Drug Exposure (F.A.D.E.) with Tariq being hired as the head performer.
- Tariq himself seems to believe this and incorporates it into his music, which goes against the general trends of mainstream rap culture.Tariq: No one's in that anti-drug, anti-alcohol lane. You never hear a song about broccoli. Except that song called Broccoli. But that was also about drugs.
- Tariq himself seems to believe this and incorporates it into his music, which goes against the general trends of mainstream rap culture.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Played With. Gregory is still invested in his principal goal and is slowly warming up to his current teaching job. But his father makes it clear that he doesn't approve of the job and expects him to leave as soon as possible.
- Food as Bribe: To convince everyone to partake in her friendship building activity, Janine shows up with delicious chicken and only provides to those who participate.
- Helpless with Laughter: Ava is so caught up in a laughing fit that she falls over a library chair.
- High-School Sweethearts: Criticized by the Abbott staff. Everyone is concerned over Janine having only dated Tariq since 8th Grade believing that she should have considered dating other people for the sake of experience. Though Ava just laughs at her for dating only one man who comes off as a loser.
- Just Friends: An odd variation. Jacob confirms that he considers Janine to be a good work friend but doesn't want to get closer than that. Janine takes offense to this given how close they've been since their school careers took off.
- Manly Man: Gregory dad's Bob proclaims that teaching is a waste of time and that having a principal's position is more fit for a real man.
- Metaphorgotten: Played With. Gregory has issues with his kids asking random questions for the math problems he gives. But as the two queens explain, those questions should be encouraged and answered as they help the students better solve the given problem.
- Mood Whiplash: As Gregory dances with his class, Barbara pops in pleased with his growth as a teacher. But the good mood is ruined when Ava shows up with a dollar bill in her hand.
- Necessarily Evil: Gregory views the upcoming national exams as a necessary evil.
- Noodle Incident: Barbara mentions that she no longer allows tap dance shoes in her kindergarten class.
- Oh, Crap!: Greg gets a tiny one when Barbara warns him that if the entire class fails in spite of his rigid teachings, then it'll be on his head instead of theirs.
- Running Away to Cry: Janine runs out of the room after everyone criticizes her (or makes fun of in Ava's case) for having only dated Tariq.
- Shout-Out: Jacob admits to loving Green Book despite its racist implications.
- Straight Gay: Jacob is revealed to be gay and in a relationship with a man named Zach.
- True Companions:
- Janine hopes to achieve this level of friendship with her coworkers at Abbott Elementary. Though she makes a start with Jacob who reveals more of his personal life to her.
- Melissa admits that she would kill to protect Barbara.
- Umbrella of Togetherness: Greg pulls out an umbrella for Janine while she's outside in the rain.
