"Festival" is the nineteenth episode of the second season of Abbott Elementary.
Abbott Elementary sets up a festival in order to try to gather support from parents against a petition to turn Abbott into a Legendary Charter School.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Janine mentions that she would have resorted to begging in order to sway the Abbott parents.
- Bouncer: Mr. Johnson serves as one for the festival. He's even armed with a curling iron for protection.
- Brick Joke: Mr. Johnson warns Jacob not to get too close to the gym's scoreboard as it can fall at any moment. After the festival, the scoreboard ends up falling.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: The arrogant nitwit Tariq manages to keep the Abbott parents from leaving the festival by pulling off a captivating performance.
- Butt-Monkey: Per Melissa's insistence, Jacob has to be the main victim of the dunking booth since all the Abbott parents don't like him very much.
- Change the Uncomfortable Subject: Gregory quickly asks if Erika finished signing so he can get out of talking about his standing with Janine.
- Character Development: Janine is highly impressed with Gregory as he actually hired Tariq, despite his animosity towards the jerk, to help save the school festival.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Barbara and Melissa initially bring up how Crystal is one of the few parents who are actively involved in the school and cares for her children's academia. She's the first parent who openly defends the Abbott teachers against the Legendary King.
- Cold Open: The beginning of the end starts with the Abbott staff dreading the petition to turn Abbott into a charter school reaching the school board. And as Janine rallies her work friends to fight back, Jacob tries to figure out who Lee Daniels is.
- Continuity Cavalcade:
- Barbara and Jacob both bring up how parents hardly ever come to Open House.
- The first parent Janine tries to talk to is Crystal, the mom with the b-word tattoo.
- Erika lets Greggo know that she knows about the "whoops" in their private garden.
- Janine works with her step dancing class for the upcoming festival.
- Mr. Morton is the first person to take advantage of dunking Jacob in a tub of water.
- Amber returns with her own Telfar bag.
- Tariq also returns to save the festival as it's headliner. He also mentions that Legendary Charter fired him after his jingle was revealed to have violated copyright laws.
- A parent positively mentions how Abbott has a goofy mural.
- Joshua's mother appears in the festival to testify how her boy was kicked out of Legendary Charter.
- Crazy-Prepared: After (correctly) assuming that Ava would pull an Ava on everyone, Gregory called in a back up artist to serve as the festival's headliner.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: The Legendary King's efforts to hijack the show to promote Legendary ends with all the parents picking apart his logic while also confirming their loyalty to Abbott Elementary.
- Disappointed in You: Barbara expresses disappointment in Draemond for not listening to her advice and for going through with his plan to take over Abbott.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: After Greg points out that they need 500 names to get their petition to work, Ava begins listing random names.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Janine expresses annoyance over Ava taking her festival idea and getting everyone to agree with her.
- Dumbass Has a Point: When Draemond tries to bring up how Legendary Charter uses a lottery system to pick it's students, Tariq mentions how he plays the regular lottery and always loses.Tariq: Hold on, hold on, hold on. I play the lottery every single day and I never win. This man is playing the Power Ball with our kids!
- Everyone Has Standards: For all the cockamamie schemes she's pulled throughout the show, Ava admits that locking all the doors in the school is too stupid for her.
- Failure Montage: In spite of their enthusiasm, the Abbott teachers are cursed with bad luck as they have a harder time getting signatures for their counter-petition.
- Festival Episode: The Abbott team decide to put on a grand festival to lure the parents to come in and unknowingly sign their names for a petition to counter the Legendary Charter petition.
- Frame-Up: Played for Laughs. After a mom gets angry at Melissa for stapling a flyer on her son's newly bought sweater, she openly blames Jacob for coming up with the idea (while using a random passing white man as her scapegoat).
- Fun with Acronyms: With everyone on board with the festival idea, Ava decides to call it "AVA Fest". She clarifies it stands for A Very Abbott Festival.
- Glad I Thought of It: After Janine hypothetically suggest that they throw a big festival during Open House in order to get signatures from the parents who want to come in, Ava hijacks it by proposing they throw a big fun festival to get the signatures. She says this again when Tariq appears as the new headliner.
- I Lied: Ava lied about Jazmine Sullivan coming to AVA Fest to trick the parents into coming.
- Instantly Proven Wrong:
- Janine tries to inspire hope in her coworkers by insisting that they'll still be Abbott Elementary even if they go charter. Then Ava walks in to tell everyone that the school will be renamed "Legendary Schools Presents: Abbott Charter".
- After Ava insists that there are no stupid ideas, Allie's (another teacher) idea of locking all the doors and shutting themselves inside in protest causes her to reconsider her stance.
- When Draemond proclaims that any Abbott parent can talk to any charter parent about how better it is, one mother steps up to reveal that she was a former charter parent whose son was victimized by Legendary.
- Just Here for Godzilla: In-Universe. One parent openly confesses that he's only interested in dunking a white dude in water and nothing else.
- Mistaken Age: Invoked. Janine plans to warn parents head-on about Charter's dark agenda and isn't worried about being ignored because many will mistake her for a "lost child".
- Mistaken for Destitute: Erika assumes that Gregory is begging people for money after he approaches her in her car.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Downplayed. Tariq was fired by Legendary Charter after getting them in trouble with his copyrighted jingle. And during the festival, he plays a part in rallying the parents to turn on his former boss.
- Nice Job Fixingit Villain: Draemond played the biggest role in his own downfall. Crashing AVA Fest to try to boast about Legendary and warn against signing the teachers' petition, he ends up putting his foot in his mouth, letting it slip that not all their children will be allowed in, and allowing a mother to tell everybody that her son got kicked out of Legendary for not getting high enough scores. The result is that where Abbott was struggling to get the community behind them, they suddenly had all the support they could need thanks to Draemond himself.
- Oh, Crap!: Janine is shocked to see the Legendary King appear in the festival.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- The usually mild-mannered and gentle Jacob angrily shouts out "SON OF A B***H!" after hearing that Delicia Sloth has allied herself with the Legendary King. He also displays more moments of anger and irritability as he's been losing sleep because of the Charter dilemma.
- Realizing that there are no other good ideas that can save them, Token Religious Teammate Barbara proclaims that they must trick the parents into signing their names without their knowing.
- Running Gag: Jacob having to use his phone to research a given celebrity but ends up dropping it on accident.
- Shout-Out:
- Jacob mentions that he's been called Stuart Little by a parent who likes him.
- Mr. Johnson sweeps Draemond off the stage like Sandman during Amateur Night at the Apollo.
- Stating the Simple Solution: After the Legendary King brings up how his Charter system will have the funds to transform Abbott into a better charter school, Crystal openly questions why don't they give that money straight to the school and it's teachers to better support them.
- The Stinger: Tariq ends the episode chilling in the dunk tank while talking about his current life.
- Take a Third Option: To end a petty squabble between two cafeteria men over how they should cook their macaroni dishes for the festival, Ava goes with "¡por que no los dos!".
- Tranquil Fury: After Draemond appears and ruins the festival with his twisted truths, Melissa calmly tells Barbara to "give her a signal" so she can chuck a baseball at him.
- Uncertain Doom: Discussed. With the fear of Abbott turning Charter becoming a potential reality, many Abbott teachers are fearful that not only will they be out of a job but that many of their students will no longer be able to attend because of the charter system's self-serving standards.
