"Gregory's Garden Goofballs" is the third episode of Season Three of Abbott Elementary.
Gloomy Gregory is greatly graveled by a gaggle of giggling undergrad greenhorns who glory in his grand guardianship. Jolly Janine is jinxed with a jumbled and jarring journey at her job and Blessed Barbara bears with the beatboxing buffoon Tariq who's become the "Baba" of a beleaguered bijou boy.Translation
Tropes in this episode include:
- Accidental Misnaming: Jubilated over the idea of being a stepdad, Tariq starts calling his future step-son "Tariq Jr." or "TJ" even though that's not his name and the boy clearly doesn't like it.
- Chair Reveal: When Janine returns to her office to complete her approval quest, she walks in to see Ava reveal herself like a classic supervillain.
- Cold Open: Ms. Howard welcomes her class only to be startled by Tariq's return along with the reveal of him becoming an unofficial "stepdaddy" to one of her students.
- Cool Teacher: Discussed. To Gregory’s dismay, he's been christened as the cool teacher by the 8th Graders which explains why they like to hang out with him and ask for his input on various topics. Jacob is clearly jealous of him and the older faculty members mock him for thinking that it's a bad thing.
- Comically Missing the Point: After Barbara explains to Tariq that Janine is now working at the district, he assumes that she moved to Washington D.C.
- Continuity Nod:
- Mr. Morton is hitting a couple of rough patches with his new lover based on Gregory's testimony of them undergoing couples' therapy.
- Ava mentioned how AVA Fest was a fire hazard waiting to happen.
- Crazy-Prepared:
- Ava brings up how Janine is licensed to ride and operate a commercial bus in case of emergencies.
- Mr. Johnson has holy water in case of demonic possessions at school.
- Delayed Reaction: Imani takes a little longer to understand the jokes Ava throws at Mr. C. Justified since she has to rely on hearing aid tech and the feedback takes awhile to load for her.
- Disappointed in You: Barbara is ashamed of how Gregory’s incompetence destroyed a young girl's love life.
- Do Wrong, Right: Ava uses her previous examples of irresponsibility (taking 8th Graders to Game Stop, bringing a pet alligator to school) to explain to Janine on how teachers and faculty should go above and beyond to make their students happy.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Gregory and Janine's (and Jacob's) storylines resolve as followed:
- Janine secretly persuade Imani's parents to threaten the district by going to a slanderous reporter. Not wanting to face the backlash, they grant Imani her official interpreter.
- Gregory ultimately allows the 8th Grade Goofballs to hang out with him but only after establishing some ground rules for them to follow while also having them work in his school garden.
- "Eureka!" Moment: After learning from his best friend that his students are willingly spending their free time in Mr. Eddie's classroom and personal space, Jacob realizes that that makes Gregory the cool teacher.
- Failure Is the Only Option: Simon mentions to Janine that the district often approves of their employee projects (like getting an ASL interpreter for Mr. Hill's class) because they know how difficult they are to achieve and that they'll fizzle out over time.
- Failure Montage: Janine ends up traveling through different departments in her workplace just to get the ASL interpreter approved with each department telling her to go to another one for approval.
- Friendship Moment: When Janine admits that she couldn't follow through with getting an interpreter saying it was impossible, Ava uses their friendi- acquaintanceship as an example of how she can achieve the impossible. She then offers some words of encouragement that help Janine overcome her personal crisis.
- Good Stepmother: Played for Laughs. Tariq explains to Mrs. Howard that he's dating the mother of one of her students and is taking his new role as his stepdaddy very seriously. Nick the kid clearly isn't interested in him. Though he does get better at it when Barbara tells him to take it slowly.
- Hero of Another Story: Melissa rants to Gregory that she has tons of young girls who come to her for relationship wisdom on a regular basis.
- Hey, You!: Tariq openly calls Melissa the "Mean Italian Lady".
- Improbably Predictable: When she's discovered by Janine in her office, Ava casually states that she found a picture of Gregory in her desk. She doesn't have one but Janine's reaction is enough to prove that she would.
- Innocently Insensitive: Tariq takes full pride in being a stepfather that he doesn't consider the feelings of his supposed stepson or how uncomfortable he is with the situation.
- The Mole: Ava hoped to use Janine as her mole so she can exploit her administrator powers.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Gregory tells the boys who visit him that they shouldn't focus on girls and should spend more time studying. This results in Javon breaking up with his girlfriend Zora, leaving her in tears and Gregory in hot water. It's worse as Melissa explains that the other teachers have been trying to cultivate their relationship for a good while now.
- No Ending: It isn't clarified what happened to Javon and Zora's relationship.
- Noodle Incident:
- Ava brings up the time she organized a field trip to Game Stop and how she let one of her students bring an alligator to school.
- Janine mentions how Tariq got ran over four times on 52nd Street and Lancaster.
- Shout-Out: Manny correctly identifies Simon's Taken reference when he grimly says "Good luck" to Janine.
- The Stinger: Tariq approaches Judge Ava for his proposal of a "Parent Tariq Alliance". Later they poke fun at his ex Janine who isn't interested in their shenanigans.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Jacob clarifies to his bestie Janine that he is not insecure or bothered by the fact that the kids at Abbott have crowned Gregory as the Coolest Teacher in the Land over him.
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: Everyone on the administrative board knows about Jacob Hill and his persistent desire of joining their team no matter how many times they reject him.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Barbara is silently dreading having to deal with Tariq on a regular basis after he confirms that he's in charge of bringing young Nick to school and picking him up for the rest of the year.
- Toilet Humor: The kids who visit Mr. Eddie's room have a habit of breaking wind.
- Woman Scorned: While comforting Javon's heartbroken ex, the Mean Italian Lady proposes that they plan her revenge on the heartbreaker.
- You Owe Me: Metaphorically speaking, Melissa claims that Gregory owes them a new chain after his Shipping Torpedo fiasco.
