The school is hit with an attack ad from a charter school company, portraying Abbott and all of the teachers except Barb in a bad light. With a number of parents pulling their kids out of the school and transferring to charter schools, the teachers attempt to get the ad taken down. When their attempts fail, Jacob calls the CEO of the charter company, who, to his surprise agrees to come down. It turns out, he has a special connection to Barb, who manages to convince him to take the ad down. Meanwhile, Tariq is back in town to pick up his stuff from Janine's apartment, and wants to try and hook up with Janine again. Janine agrees to go out to dinner with him again, but after talking to Gregory and remembering how burdensome and inconsiderate he was, she changes her mind, and Tariq reveals he already has a new girlfriend.
This episode contains examples of:
- Aroused by Their Voice: After one phone call Jacob says Draemond (played by Broadway vet Leslie Odom Jr. with his natural baritone) "sounds handsome" and is giggly at their first meeting.
- Answer Cut: After her fellow queen applauds her for finding the rat behind the commercial and asks for her secret, Melissa assures her that "she has her ways". The confession cut reveals that she just Googled it but she likes to maintain an aura of darkness.
- Aside Glance: Gregory stares at the camera aghast when he realizes Tariq (who dated Janine for a decade) doesn't know her favorite movie. When he then lets her know that he knows it's Jumanji, he then smugly looks at the camera.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Janine expresses eagerness in catching up with Tariq for the sake of reliving old times. Then she finds that he doodled on her desk with permanent marker followed by a call from the chump asking her to give him a ride.
- Biting-the-Hand Humor: The slanderous ad about the school is being run on Hulu, the show's streaming hub.
- Brick Joke: The Stinger reveals Tariq composed the charter school's extremely catchy jingle.
- Coincidental Broadcast: Subverted. The teachers learn there's a commercial attacking them on the television and turn on the TV, hoping to watch it...only to see a totally unrelated commercial. Ava comes in with it loaded onto a laptop.
- Cold Open: The story begins with Jacob spilling the tea to Gregory about a student's mother who was arrested for protesting better working conditions. As he hears the chisme, Greg manages a game of Red Light, Green Light with his class.
- Comically Missing the Point: Draemond points out that their principal knows more about the cast of Love Island then she does her own students. Ava confirms that she knows just as much.
- Continuity Nod: Tariq catches Gregory working on the school garden while insisting that he wasn't doing anything to make it better.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Barbara reveals that Draemond suffered a troubled homelife when he was only a boy who believed that the world had turned against him.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: Jacob's phone call to Draemond starts with threats, then Jacob agreeing to a meeting, then Jacob being happy that Draemond complimented his voice.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Mr. Hill is heartbroken to hear that his student Joshua is being transferred to a charter school.
- Fan Boy:
- Tariq is an anime and manga fan and collected various toys from his favorite media.
- Jacob is a fan of One-Punch Man.
- Foreshadowing: The Abbott commercial slanders all of the teachers with the exception of Barbara Howard. Additionally, she's the first one who insists that they don't fight whoever created it after Melissa learns who's responsible. When Draemond introduces himself, he reveals that he came from Abbott and thinks highly of his old teacher Ms. Howard.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: While Barbara remembers Draemond as a troubled boy growing up, Ava and Melissa remind her that he's now a full grown man who's tarnishing Abbott's reputation.
- Full-Name Ultimatum: Barbara orders her former student Draemond into her classroom by sternly calling him by his full name. He immediately obeys, respectfully saying "Yes, Mrs. Howard" and following her with his tail between his legs.
- Innocently Insensitive: Tariq once told Janine that he considered his plush Charmeleon to be the only one who understood him.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: Ava thinks that calling Draemond via phone isn't going to work given his status as a CEO. To her shock, the weirdo actually answers Jacob's call.
- Ironic Echo: Tariq has trouble naming Janine's favorite movie while he's talking with Greg. His inability to think of the movie just encourages Janine's decision to renounce him.
- Loophole Abuse: The staff has no legal recourse for stopping the commercial as Ava gave the film crew permission to enter the school and the staff members all signed the liability waivers without reading the fine print.
- Love Triangle: Janine looks noticeably uncomfortable as she sees Amber shooting the breeze with Gregory.
- Malaproper:
- Melissa says the commercial triggered her "fight or fight" response. Gregory tries to correct her, saying it's "fight or flight", but she scoffs.
Melissa: No, I'm not a flipping bird, Gregory.- Later when Barbara tires to get her friends to let the issue go by insisting "they go low, we go high", Melissa interprets it as striking them in the eyes and nose.
- Manipulative Editing: The producer of the slanderous commercial took clips of the Abbott staff going about their school days and manipulate them into looking like oppressive and insensitive teachers.
- Meaningful Echo: Tariq talks with Gregory about Janine's favorite movie which he can't remember. Near the end, Greg correctly guesses that it's Jumanji.
- The Mole: Legendary Charter School was able to enter the school since they passed off as the Mockumentary crew that Ava hired.
- Morality Pet: Draemond still holds Ms. Howard with high regard. And it's thanks to her intervention that he decides to take down the commercial. That said, she wasn't able to talk him out of his true operation.
- Noodle Incident: Janine recalls a time she and Tariq went to Medieval Times which led to Tariq freeing all the horses.
- Old Flame Fizzle: When Janine's childish ex-boyfriend Tariq rolls back in town, she's first taken in by his charm and agrees to have dinner with him. When she realizes he's still the same exploitative douchebag she broke up with, however, she shuts it down, reassured that she made the right choice in dumping him.
- Pet the Dog:
- In-universe example; the charter school CEO, a former student of Barb who attended Abbott, portrays only her in a positive light (and portrays her as a charter school teacher) because she was his favorite teacher at Abbott.
- Jacob's students make fun of him all the time, but they do like him, which shines through in this episode when one of them sees the ad and assures Jacob that they all know he's doing the best he can.
- Racial Face Blindness: Ava let the charter school's film crew in, not realizing they weren't the Mockumentary crew they're used to, since all film crews are made up of "moderately attractive white men with beards."
- Shout-Out:
- Tariq kept merchandise of Pokémon, Gundam, and Attack on Titan (among other interests) at the place he shared with his now ex-girlfriend.
- Jacob finds out about the commercial from a student talking about One-Punch Man.
- Skewed Priorities: Ava doesn't like the sudden rise in transfers because it means more paperwork for her to fill out.
- The Stinger: After replanting the flowers in the school garden, Tariq explains how he's made progress as a rising song writer. He was even hired by Legendary Charter Schools to write their jingle.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Now that they identified the source behind the slanderous commercial as a man named Draemond, Ava and Melissa plan on going to his mother/grandma for revenge.
- Sucky School: Deliberately exaggerated In-Universe by the attack ad to make Abbott seem much worse than it actually is.
- Take a Third Option: Rather than attack Abbott, by the end of the episode, Draemond reveals to the film crew that he plans to turn Abbott into a charter school.
- Unwanted Assistance:
- Janine doesn't appreciate Gregory warning him about Tariq's intentions with their "catch up" and says that it's "none of his business".
- Barbara doesn't approve of Draemond's methods of building up charter schools as it involves dragging public school teachers through the mud.
- Villain Has a Point: Despite his approval for the slanderous ad, Draemond does bring up valid points about Abbott's poor conditions mixed with Ava's less than stellar experience as a principal.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Draemond reveals himself to be this type of villain. After leaving Abbott and bouncing around public schools, he ended up in a charter school that gave him everything he needed to succeed in life. This developed his new desire of turning Abbott into a charter school while slandering public schools to gain support.
- Wham Line: At the end of the episode, Draemond reveals his plan to take over Abbott and turn it into a charter school, introducing an overarching threat into a show that had been thus far episodic:Draemond: I plan to turn every elementary school in Philadelphia into a Legendary school. Next stop: Abbott.
