Abbott Elementary Season 4 Eps 18+19 Recap

[00:00:17] Abbott Elementary Season 4 Episode 18 Audit and Season 4 Episode 19 Music Class are over, but class is here in session here on Recap Kickback. It's me, your host Chappelle, and we are back to talk about two more episodes of Abbott Elementary. And oh, these are some very special episodes where at least one of them is. And with me to talk about Abbott, we got the principal back. It's Gia. Gia, welcome back.

[00:00:41] But Chappelle, listen, I was very, I was very upset with that, with the first episode. You know, they, they played our April Fool's Day episode in March, and then I had to live with it for the rest of the week. So I was ready to come on here and do a little bit of a rant, you know, like just the audacity of Abbott Elementary in the Philadelphia School District to give us a monstrosity of an ending.

[00:01:10] But then, then music class came in and we had a very interesting B-plot in this episode that catered to our interests specifically. So I ask our viewers, do they listen to our podcast? I feel like the evidence is hard to ignore now, but I will leave it at that. Quinta, we know you listening. I know you listening, girl.

[00:01:37] Quinta, we love you too. We love you too. Tell Cree we said hey. Okay. Yes, y'all. Gia is alluding to, of course, season four, episode 18, Audit. They did some wild stuff administratively. But in season four, episode 19, they try to reel us back in with a bunch of references to Gia and I's, one of our favorite shows of all times. If y'all listening to this podcast, you already know how we feel about Survivor.

[00:02:02] And so we have, in the past, Gia, we've mapped the seasons Ava watches on vacation. Like, we have done the work to really point to the bridge between Survivor and Abbott Elementary because the connection is so clear. But to come into this episode, and I guess I'll give my background on it. I was, I hadn't watched the episode yet, but my mentions were blowing up. I kept getting messages from you listeners that are saying, hey, hey, you guys, y'all gotta check this out.

[00:02:31] We're like, what? Oh, they're making a Survivor reference. Oh, they, you know, okay, cool. They do that every now and then. But dear God, Gia, they made these Survivor references. They made the ones. It was an entire plot. There was a whole plot based around the TV show Survivor. And it was so good to, like, I was invested in the B plot. I don't even know what happened in the A plot. Like, music was involved, maybe.

[00:03:01] Maybe, I'm guessing, from the title of the episode. But, oh my God, I didn't even, I forgot Ava was fired during this episode. They really did the impossible here. And it was amazing how they did it. I just, I was obsessed with the whole plot. The name drops that they had in this episode were incredible. So, you know, somebody on the writer's staff watches the show intensely.

[00:03:28] Like, they have a very well-rounded knowledge of the show. Because they were doing several plot points here. I was, I was very invested. This was a great, great episode. It definitely lifted things up. I was like you. I, I, we, this is not the first time we have had a Survivor reference on the show. We have seen, we have already created a whole podcast around one line in season one.

[00:03:58] About how Ava watched Survivor on her vacation. Right? And we did a whole episode on, well, what seven seasons did she watch? What seven seasons do we think we watch? And so we knew that it was like implied that Ava is at least somewhat of a Survivor fan. But we were so wrong. I need to change my entire filing system after this at work. Like, I've been doing it wrong for years. I can't wait. I can't wait to talk about it.

[00:04:26] I know we have another episode to talk about before we get to the Survivor episode. But this was so special. And very similarly, I had people mention that Survivor was included in this past episode. But they've already done that before. So it didn't feel, I didn't expect it to be as thorough as it was here. Did you really think that we were going to hear the name Yul Kwan in Abbott Elementary? Like, that is a title name. Yeah.

[00:04:56] Like, he exists in the Abbott Elementary cinematic universe here. We are one step closer to getting Bryce Isaiah on Abbott Elementary, y'all. We are one step closer. Listen, that was my follow-up question, right? Because I still need to text Bryce about this, okay? Like, this is another important piece here. But we, so we know that Survivor is not just exists in the Abbott Elementary universe, right?

[00:05:25] It is a vocal point of Abbott Elementary as an institution. Right. So, we also know, for those of us that are Survivor fans, that Survivor has a pretty solid Philadelphia community. In that, like, we have a lot of very prominent Survivor figures, including one very prominent winner that is still very involved in the Survivor community that is from Philly.

[00:05:54] So, or that live in Philly currently. So, when are we going to get Bryce Isaiah as the guidance counselor for Abbott Elementary? Or, I was thinking about how can we make this work? I believe in the past we have suggested Jervis coming in as some type of figure, whether we have him as, like, a cast. I suggested PE teacher, I believe. I think that was a smart.

[00:06:22] I feel like that's something that, like, Jervis could pull off. Ramona is a chemist, so we could definitely get, like, a chemistry teacher in there. What if I was thinking too small? Because they, these are players that exist in Abbott Elementary universe now. So, like, what if we have them come as, like, motivational speakers? Like, a dare, like the, what was it? The fade program? Yeah. So, like, what if we have them come in as, like, spokespers?

[00:06:50] Like, you have a Survivor winner, Wendell comes in as, like, a sponsor or something like that? Like, the, the possibilities are endless here. Yeah. We, we finally got some nice stuff. You know, we finally got nice things. I know Abbott always delivers. And so, thank you all for obviously listening and for indulging us in our Survivor rant that y'all knew was coming the moment y'all saw this episode. Like, when y'all saw this episode, y'all knew, okay, now y'all listen to Chappelle and Gia talk about a show that has nothing to do with this.

[00:07:18] That seemingly has nothing to do with this that now has everything to do with Abbott Elementary. And so, yeah, we will get to episode 19 music class in just a moment. But we do have to talk about the initial shock, y'all. Let's, let's not bury the lead. We've already mentioned it once. Gia, Ava is fired in this episode. The district comes in because they've been hearing about some bribes that have allegedly been happening at Abbott Elementary.

[00:07:44] We think Crystal, the sorority sister, Tatiana Lee is the one who did this. And for a minute, Gia, it felt like we were going to get away with this. But by the end, Ava ends up taking the blame for all of the shenanigans and getting released by the district. How do you feel? I feel terrible. I feel like this was a plot point that was always kind of hanging over our heads because we know Ava has unconventional methods, right?

[00:08:14] When we know sometimes she has made very selfish decisions, especially in season one era Ava, season two era Ava. You know, we had a little more of a selfishly driven unconventional methods. Now we have just more unconventional methods in general that we get to see from this character. But I feel like this was always something that was a possibility. But for them to just throw it in our faces like that, right, when we were hoping that we would get away with it. I don't like it.

[00:08:43] I don't enjoy this fact. Like it's not in it. And the the the cast members, the the characters in the show are also kind of in shock that this is a possibility here. So. This is a point that gets brought into the next episode as well, but I was really not expecting it to go down like this.

[00:09:09] I'm kind of happy it's not a finale plot point, which is what I initially thought it was going to be. But Chappelle, I'm going to ask something. Because I think we're on the same page. It's more of a hypothetical. But like, OK, I think we're on the same page. It wasn't Crystal that that told the district, was it? You think it's Daya? I think it's Daya. I just don't. It feels like it's Daya. He told us that she was building her case. She did.

[00:09:39] We like, honestly, we can't even be mad at her because she told all of us what she was doing, that she was building her case against them. So. I listen, it could still be Crystal. It could very still be Crystal. We could go into the next episode and Crystal has this grand reveal of like someone goes to confront her, runs into her in the street or something like that, and we learn that it's still Crystal. It's not out of the realm of possibility. I don't think it's Crystal. I really think it's Daya.

[00:10:09] We have already been strongly hinting at the fact that it's Daya. And even though, again, Tatiana Ali is an amazing actress and Crystal is so insufferable a lot of times, I really don't think it's her. And even if it's not Daya, I still don't think it's Crystal. It's like a third party in there somewhere. So we know Crystal has a motive, right? She comes into Abbott in this episode and she basically goes directly up to Ava and like, look, I picked up at the district meeting that y'all ain't struggling like the rest of us are struggling.

[00:10:37] You have the essentials and we want to know how. I want in on the scam and Ava has been off her game anyway. As the episode has been on for probably about three minutes and we've seen Ava, not only has she walked into the school matching in matching outfits as Janine, but now she accidentally slips and tells Crystal that, uh, that she's been scamming the golf course. And I felt like, okay, I knew this was a bad omen because Ava has to really be off her game to do both of those things.

[00:11:05] You know, she's a lot slicker than to just announce what she's doing and also way slicker than to wear, uh, the same dress as Janine. So I knew we were in for a bad day at this point. Listen, was, is Janine just dressing better or is Ava off her game? That's the question I need to pose. I think if you ask Ava, Ava would say that Janine cannot dress better. So, uh, she does not have the ability.

[00:11:33] You know, I've been, so I've been rewatching season one for a project that we have coming up here. And, uh, they really, they really knack, they really knocked down on a Janine's sense of style as they should in season one. But, uh, it, it, it comes up a lot in there. So I, I didn't even realize in the rewatch that this is kind of like a smaller character arc for Janine, that she is dressing better, but it's coming up the consequence of Ava's employment.

[00:12:01] And I really don't know if I can accept this. She may have to bring that jelly bean bracelet back or not bracelet. Sorry, belt, the jelly bean belt back. Yeah, this is bad because once Ava reveals this, we then find out from Oshon that the district is coming. He knows better than to get involved though. He's like, look, this sounds like a good plan to go ahead and hide that stuff. I don't see nothing. I don't know nothing.

[00:12:25] And so the teachers have to now go hide these things because Janine has already, she's finally put in her bid, I guess I would say, for, um, for her bribe. She's been acting like a good Janine all season, but now she just needs some little readers for her. Yeah. She just needs some little readers for her kids, but the district is coming. So they have to hide the computers. They have to hide the scoreboard. They have to hide everything. I mean, they have a state of the art oven Gia. There's so much that they have to keep out of the view of the district so that they don't get in trouble.

[00:12:53] So I don't know who this new lunch man is that we have here. I love him. I loved him. Make him a regular cast member. Mm hmm. May like incredible because we're used to Sinead. And I don't know. We I think we had her briefly and not this episode in a previous episode. Um, I hope Sinead's actress is booked and busy personally. So maybe she was just busy during that time.

[00:13:22] But we I love the lunch crew. The lunch crew is the unsung heroes. And they added another lunch crew member here to the lore. I loved him. I need him in as the in every season as much as possible, please. Mm hmm. I'm pretty sure that's Devin. I'm pretty sure Devin is the one he's been popping up randomly every now and then. I think he's the lunch guy. But yeah, he he's here. He's got he's even taking bribes. So, yeah, we have to keep all that stuff hidden.

[00:13:51] And they have a good plan. They're going to stay after school a few hours and they're going to take everything apart. Gregory thinks Barbara and Mr. Johnson are not going to be much help. And Gia, Mr. Johnson overhears Gregory. And I thought I thought this was the end of Gregory's life. Like, I thought Mr. Johnson was going to end him. Honestly, it should have been. I think this is where like if if Abbott Elementary was going to have a character death, it was going to be Gregory in this moment. Yeah. So.

[00:14:21] Just saying. And it would have been deserved. It would have been like self-defense in here because Mr. Johnson was not playing around here. Right. Janine, watch a man. He should watch his mouth. OK, because Mr. Johnson not playing. OK, he's not going to shut it down. They have to get this scam going because there's so much stuff in here. There's so much stuff that they're snatching things out of like students hands. I was making note of the gym equipment. Right. They have like a little archery set.

[00:14:49] They, of course, have the parachute that we talked about. And when Roz has to snatch the beanbag chairs from the kids in the library, Cree Summer, where's her Emmy? Where's Cree's Emmy for Abbott Elementary? Because she said, oh, this isn't my first raid. And just started running out with all the beanbags. It was perfect. She was out here in the streets like before. She was fighting the good fight way before we knew what was happening. Oh, my God. She it was incredible.

[00:15:19] She's another one. Make her make her a main cast member. It's not not even a recurring character, like a regular recurring character. Make her a main cast member. Yeah, she's so good. She's so good. We get Manny back, though. And he's leading the district through the schools because. Yes. Manny's dead to me now. Listen, I don't care. I don't care if this is his job. He should said, fuck my job and say, you know what? You know what? It's not worth it, guys. Ava's a great principal.

[00:15:48] She would never do something like this. Like lie, Manny. Like lie. What is wrong with you, sir? Yeah. Manny seemed like he was like, OK, I'm here to show the district that Abbott has not been taking bribes because they would never do that. And so he's around. He's giving the dean from community the tour because. Right. OK. This this district, these district members are all familiar from somewhere.

[00:16:16] I'm pretty sure the black man was the black man in the office that was there for a hot minute from. What was it when? The Connecticut office merged with this one. Mm hmm. He's in there. He's a regular. I recognized him as well. He dealt with a lot of shit on the office as well. Here he's my enemy. We were allies on the office. Now he is my enemy because he got Ava fired. Yeah, this sucks. This sucks because they do their best to hide everything.

[00:16:46] Right. When we see them moving things into Melissa's safe, they even have to put stuff into Ava's secret bathroom. But it's really hard to get this stuff out of the open so the district doesn't catch on. It seems like they got away with it. You know, Mr. Johnson is telling stories about God knows what to distract the district. Everything's going to plan. Of course, man walks in and just announces everything. Snitchy McRat.

[00:17:15] Why are you yelling about the bribes and the extortion, sir? The whole point of this is to keep it a secret. You should not be telling everybody what we're up to. You should not be so happy that you are getting blackmailed, sir. Like that was a little too peppy for my taste. So maybe it's him. Maybe he's in on it. I feel like he's in on it. Daya for nothing. I still think it's Daya. But it could be just the golf course being the golf course. But still. Yeah. You think he blew the whistle? He was like getting he was getting extorted.

[00:17:44] And then he finally just like, I'm just going to call the district and get it. I still think it's Daya. But if it's not Daya or Crystal, this seems like the logical third option here. Right. We can't write him off because, I mean, it was just too perfect. He came in and just announced it to everybody. Exactly what was going on, that there have been bribes taken, that they've given a bunch of money and other things for this school. And, you know, at that point, there was nothing they could do.

[00:18:12] The district had all the information they need and they needed somebody to take the blame. They literally asked, OK, which one of you teachers wants to admit that this was you? And Ava, being the leader and the queen that she is, she could not allow one of the teachers to take the blame for this. So instead of letting the teacher get suspended, she went ahead and said, no, it was me. I'll take the suspension. And then we get the plot twist to you. Yeah.

[00:18:42] Yeah. So because teachers have unions, it is very hard for them to actually fire somebody. So this was going to look like a suspension for the teachers here, for any of the teachers that had fessed up, which honestly, I would have been fine with. Like, Janine, girl, you're young. You can come back. OK, like just take this. This was just was Janine's time to be the hero here or really.

[00:19:11] What should Manny should have done his part and helped with the hiding way beforehand. So like maybe Manny should have done more. Yeah, but that's another that's like, sir. You could have sent them a text or something. I just not. I just don't buy it. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Manny. But. Because Ava is not a teacher, she is a principal. It's actually very easy for them to fire her. So she is now fired.

[00:19:38] From being a principal because she's not part of a union, whereas if one of the teachers had just fessed up taking the hit for it. We could have gotten a just a tidy little suspension and it would have been fine. But nope. Ava had to take the fall because she is a selfless queen and none of these peasants can relate to her. I'm so sad because we love Ava. We've we've we've loved Ava since the beginning, but she has definitely gotten way better at her job. Right.

[00:20:08] She's a lot less selfless than she was. She actually went and learned how to be a principal instead of just like, you know, not, you know, she she's actually taking the time to really help the school. We see we you and I always flag up the moments where she uses her or not unorthodox like techniques to go in and to help the kids. She always goes above and beyond. And so this is a big hit for Abby and the teachers can tell, you know, even Barbara goes

[00:20:33] on and says to Ava, hey, I know that I was one of your loudest detractors. Right. Saying that you weren't fit for the job, that we needed to replace you and all this other stuff. But this wasn't this wasn't supposed to end like this. Like you're really good for the school and you don't deserve to get fired. It was almost not the firing that upset me the most because I was like, she'll be back like, please, like this is not going to be the end of Ava here.

[00:21:03] But then it was the speech with Barbara afterwards. She talks about how much Ava has grown over the years and really over the four seasons that we have watched her. That really made me tear up because Ava is such a great character in like realistic one of the characters that like young Gia would have loved to have growing up like that type of representation that is so important.

[00:21:30] I would have loved to have an Ava in my life when I was younger was as a like TV character to watch and root for. But the growth that we have seen here in this show, in this iteration of it, it was so, so hard to say goodbye to her. It was, it was so rough. And I mean, we're not saying goodbye permanently because she is in the next episode, but it just doesn't feel like Abbott's going to be the same, at least for the time being.

[00:21:59] I'm hoping we might get some positive outcome by the time we get to the finale. But we only have a few episodes left, so we can't be confident in that. Yeah. The episode started with Barbara showing up to work late. She overslept. Her wrist was hurting and she was just talking about how she just kind of got off on the wrong side of the bed that day. Eventually, Melissa will actually step on her wrist on accident.

[00:22:28] And so it's just the day is not going well for Barbara, but Ava did offer her the chance to teach the music class. Now I was with Barbara initially. No, no, I'm not actually. I'm not teaching a class, especially an afterschool class on top of all the other work that I do. I don't make enough money to do that. An unpaid position, please get out of my face. But by the end of the episode, Ava says, Barbara, I didn't give you that work because I wanted you to work for free and give you extra work.

[00:22:54] I gave you the music class because I want, I thought that it would make you more reinvigorated to work because it seems like you're getting a little burnt out or you were like not, not feeling the best at work right now. So it was a really sweet moment from Ava because she was, you know, obviously trying to take less work off of her plate, but also trying to do Barbara a solid. The next episode is called music class and Barbara will indeed take Ava up on that offer.

[00:23:19] But Gia, this episode had me really looking at Barbara crazy because Barbara earlier in the season has mentioned just casually, like you ever consider retiring? Remember that? And now she's talking about her phone's not waking her up and she's late for work and her wrist hurts and all this other stuff. I started thinking, are we moving closer to the, is Barbara going to retire storyline G? Are they doing that to us? They have teased this.

[00:23:49] Multiple episodes to see, like we had a brief plot point of this in season one, right? With the season finale, the Tartua situation. And we, we were quickly, this was an episode concern, right? It was done by the end of the episode. We knew she still had it. We were not worried. This is different because we had a comment in the middle of season four where Barbara just

[00:24:14] suggests like comments to Melissa asking her, has she ever thought about retirement? So that's already something that's kind of like a red flag to me, but it keeps getting brought up about it. So, and I, I feel like we, we know that Abbott is renewed for season five, but we're thinking about the grand scope of Abbott elementary when it comes for, you know, like another, like I'm assuming 12 seasons we're at least getting from here.

[00:24:44] So, and, and that feels low. That's like the low ball. So in our 16 episodes or 16 season arc of Abbott elementary, it would end with Barbara retiring, right? Yeah. We're in season four. So it logically, it does feel like eventually we will be getting to a point where Barbara is retiring, but it is too soon. It's too soon for us. We know we saw Barbara in her, in her glam. Get it.

[00:25:13] That is not a woman that is ready for retirement. Okay. Like you don't look like that and retire. Just we're, we're just going to, let's be honest right now, but we, it, it's been hinted at several times. So I don't know if this season is going to end with Barbara announcing her retirement, or if this is going to be something that is actually going to happen, or we're going to get some, like she's going to retire as a teacher, but she's going to say the music

[00:25:41] teacher or something along the lines of that. So I don't know fully, but I feel like we are going to get some type of upfront. Cause we've been doing a lot of passive aggressive stuff with this plot point here about Barbara retiring. I feel like we are going to get it. We're going to have to face it head on by the finale. Even if we don't get an answer at the finale, I think that this is going to be something that

[00:26:07] carries over into season five, but we're going to get an answer to some of our concerns in the finale of season four. Chappelle, I need to ask you something about this. Do you think we're getting a sad finale here? Um, yeah, I do. I actually do. I think that, I think that the energy is kind of low right now on Abbott. I think that like, you know, we kind of lost Ava early enough to where if we want, we can

[00:26:35] bring her back and that would be a win in some cases. Um, but I do think that there's so much to look at in the area of Barbara right now that I'm thinking, I don't know how to feel about that. You know, um, it just, her, her storyline is very somber right now. We'll spend the next episode, the music class where she has to navigate teaching another class outside of her normal work hours, but she's teaching the older kids a little bit and she's trying to teach them about music and she wants them to learn the fundamentals.

[00:27:04] But these older kids do not have time for that. They want to make TikTok songs and go viral and be famous. Um, and so she's trying to navigate all of that in the second episode and she will eventually realize that maybe she needs to, you know, evolve a little bit to teach the older kids and do things a little differently to teach them. But it didn't feel like she was, Oh, I'm Barbara and I'm back. Right. To me, it felt like, Oh, that was a cool little interlude that she did, but I could see her wanting to do maybe more stuff like that instead of teaching the kindergartners.

[00:27:34] So when it comes to Barbara, I'm very concerned. I'm not ready. I'm not ready for it. I'm really, I, I'm more at this point, I've accepted that we are going to end the season with a Barbara retirement, but I want us to move forward with like, okay, but how are we going to keep Cheryl Lee Ralph still in the show? Unretire. It happens a lot. People unretire. Yeah. Or do like part-time.

[00:28:02] So fun fact, actually, because obviously how can we make this about me? My father is also in the process of retiring, but he works, he works out of school too. He's a, he's a vice principal, but he's not fully retiring. He's going to be doing other work at the school, like more, a little more part-time. I don't actually imagine my, this man's never going to not work. Okay. Like this, let's just be real. Okay.

[00:28:28] Like this is not a man that retires, but it's going to be a little, you know, a little step back from the, the everyday duties that you can expect from some, uh, from a more full-time position. So right now I'm kind of expecting something along the lines of like, maybe Barbara does retire as a kindergarten teacher that works the full day, but maybe we'll get her in a more part-time capacity here.

[00:28:58] Um, that's not set in stone. We could be getting a bait and switch for this line and she's going to still be a full-time teacher in the seasons to come. But I do think that this is something that we need to consider moving forward. Yeah, it was a tough, it was a tough two episodes for Barbara really. And I, and I'm going to miss her if she's not here all the time. Right. So they can't write her off the show. It's just not possible. I won't accept it. I don't perceive that. Um, even the kids are starting to pick up on all the Barbara-isms, right?

[00:29:25] Um, I think one of the kids, she says like, do you know who the first person who went viral was? And they go, Jesus. And she's like, uh, yeah, actually. Yeah. But also James Brown, you know, like knowing that Barbara could just throw out a random Jesus reference in the middle of a music class. That's the kind of stuff we grow to know and love about her, you know, as Abbott elementary fans. So I need more of that. I need all of that. I was looking at the kids crazy. I was like, stop being mean to Barbara. I need her to stick around. Yeah. Like, can you kids fight?

[00:29:55] Because Barbara has been known to swing on parents. Okay. Like she can take all of you. Never forget. She did. She did swing on that parent. Um, yeah. Uh, the two standout students for me in that episode, in the music episode are Shamar and Sylvie. Cause they just were not having it. They're like, no, we're not doing this. Yeah. Can I also say though, in the previous episode, there was like the kids weren't super prominent. He, there were more props in the previous episode, but Mr. Johnson's comment about hiding the white kid. Yes.

[00:30:25] Incredible. So I feel like I have to give Charlie the award for the previous episode. Oh yeah. Get the bronzer. We got to make sure we keep all the bribes out of here. And I guess Charlie being the white kid in the building is a dead giveaway. There's something is amiss. And so, yeah, that was so funny. Charlie's taking, uh, has been going through a lot right now. He's the punchline quite a lot in here. They got a white kid and all of a sudden they got jokes. Yeah. We love Charlie though. We love Charlie.

[00:30:55] He's a little star, you know, like he, he seems happy with where he's at right now. Yeah. And so hopefully Barbara will get a little bit happier before this all goes on. But you know who is happy? Gregory. Gregory is like a pig in slop because the district has asked him to step in as the interim principal. But is he happy Chappelle? Because he just seems very stressed. I feel like we're regressing back to old Gregory right now, right?

[00:31:24] Like he's, he's definitely more sociable now, but I feel like this is going to be very much a, like the monkey's paw curls right now. Because he's finally getting the position he wants. But we're just in struggle one, which is the filing system, right? And we'll get into the filing system because I don't want to compare ourselves to Gregory and Melissa, but I feel like we would have figured this out very quickly. Listen, we'll get there.

[00:31:51] We don't even have to watch all 47 seasons of Survivor. We know which ones to skip here. Yeah. Gregory has the interim position from the, for the principal for, or from the district. And so while Ava is gone, he will be in that spot, I guess, until they figure out if, you know, Ava's going to come back or if they get a new replacement principal. So he's trying to do things his way. He's trying to do things that have never been done at Abbott before. They haven't done a morning announcement since 2021.

[00:32:17] You know, so he's really got a lot in front of him to kind of bring Abbott to the more structured situation that he probably would envision for a school that he's the principal of. But as you said, he cannot figure out the filing system. So Melissa comes to him and says they need to file a student's name. Gregory pulls out the files. And this is when he reads Natalie Anderson, blood versus water, and then the number one.

[00:32:43] Now, personally, I heard Natalie Anderson and I about broke my neck trying to look at the screen. I think you know how you like are watching something casually. I'm like, I'm sorry, what? The student's name is Natalie Anderson? I got so confused. It's like, what do you mean, Natalie Anderson? And then he goes on to say Michelle Fitzgerald, brains versus beauty versus brawn. Six. And I was like, wait, what does this mean? And so at this point, I'm all in. I'm tapping. I was like, okay, who else are we going to name? Is this the moment?

[00:33:12] And so between those two names, I thought, Gia, that was the reference everybody was tagging me about. I was like, oh, okay. That was cool. No, no. We will go on to reference so many other people. And I think, did you do an article about the Abbott elementary references as well? So I'm still, I'm still doing my regular recaps on Inside Survivor because I always love Inside Survivor and doing articles with Christine Callen. So, you know, like we're still on there, but I did, I am starting to do some articles for Surviving Tribal as well.

[00:33:41] But my first, so it's actually very timely because I just started, but also Abbott elementary just happened to have a survivor based plot line here. So naturally I had to create a guide of all of the Abbott elementary reference, or sorry, all of the survivor references that were created in Abbott elementary that we were mentioned this round. So in this episode.

[00:34:09] So the first one, so the one I had been seeing rotating around is the one that includes Boston Rob later, later in the episode, right? So that's the one I heard about. So I was not exactly sure how this all made sense, but this is where we get first introduced to the survivor plot line here.

[00:34:29] And for people that are survivor fans, but not super fans, I would say names like Michelle Fitzgerald, Natalie Anderson, two very iconic finalists of winners at war, might I add? Who would you have voted for to win winners at war? One of them. Correct. Correct. Correct.

[00:34:54] But so we had, so Natalie, like, if you actually think about it, like Natalie Anderson, Michelle Fitzgerald, those are two very, very default names, I should say. Like, you don't think too much, like, this seems like it could be anybody's name in any situation. It's a very, they're very American names, right? Like, these are not names, these are not unsuspecting names.

[00:35:20] Blood versus water, brains versus brawn versus beauty are a little more of a big question mark here, but we know what the references are here. And first of all, it's not blood versus water. Survivor writers said it was San Juan del Sur, but that is neither here nor there. And so that. Technically, it was blood versus water. I mean, technically. It was a blood versus water themed season, but blood versus water is its own season. Exactly.

[00:35:49] Blood versus water is a season that Tyson won. Then there was a blood versus water themed season. In San Juan del Sur. And that was San Juan del Sur, right? So I, listen, and when they said they made a survivor reference, I did not think they were, I would even call Natalie and Michelle deep kites. These are two very well-known winners in a relatively like season 29 and season 32, I believe.

[00:36:18] So these aren't like old school winners, but these are not, you know, like the, these are not, um, the biggest names in the show's franchise either. So I was possibly surprised in there, but for those that didn't know, those are like, that's our introduction to the survivor references. This episode is like, this is the filing system that Ava has now created because the hot dad filing system was too easy to figure out.

[00:36:47] So they had to think of something else. You know, you and I famously don't dream of labor. We don't believe in dream jobs. Not at all. However, if you told me it, my job was just to navigate Ava's filing system with survivor references. That's my dream job. I think that's it. I think that's the one. I think that final closing scene of Gregory and Melissa rush, joyously rushing through the file. That's me and you in another life.

[00:37:17] Absolutely. Absolutely. So yeah, we go from the Natalie and Michelle references to of course, the scene where they drop name drop Boston Rob. Gregory says, Melissa, does the name Boston Rob means something to you? And Melissa is almost offended that he would ask her this question because, you know, any, you know, uh, anybody who was in the survivor streets way back when knows Boston Rob's name. Um, and then we get even more.

[00:37:45] We get Sandra Diaz, Twine Pearl Island's help. Gia, at some points we actually get footage of Gregory and Melissa watching Survivor Heroes versus Villains. Which is a great season to watch. I knew exactly what, I was like, oh, it's the family visit. Yep. I was like, oh, it's a family visit. Look at Reed. And I would have had popcorn just like Melissa here because listen, we're going to ignore one of the people that comes on the screen during Abbott Elementary because we're not, we're not, it's not worth discussing.

[00:38:15] But we get a lovely shot of Jerry Manthe, Parvin Callow and Sandra Diaz, Twine. They exist. They are guest stars in the Abbott Elementary universe. And this is not the first I've seen of this clip because the first time I see it is Sandra Instagram posted about it. Oh, wow. I didn't know that. Someone told Sandra about how Survivor was mentioned in there.

[00:38:43] And of course, the first clip that we get of it is the first clip we get of them watching the Abbott and Abbott Elementary's Heroes versus Villains. It's a family visit episode. For Survivor fans, it's actually a pretty recognizable episode. It's pretty clear in the clips. That's what it is. But if you look at the cast, like these are three very iconic women in the Survivor universe here. But so someone tagged Sandra in a clip of it.

[00:39:10] And so she reposted it and talked about how her, Boston Robb. We'll get into some of the other references that are made later in the episode. But like they all have made the Survivor universe here or the Abbott Elementary cinematic universe, I should say. Yeah. Ava stopped into Abbott that morning to get some of her things. Clearly, her and Daya still aren't on the same page because she thought Daya still worked for her, even though, you know, she doesn't work there anymore.

[00:39:40] Like, I guess Ava thought Daya was just her own personal assistant. Whatever. She shows up and the teachers are very clearly missing her. Even Gregory, who has his, you know, her job. He even looks like he wishes Ava would come back. But Janine is really taking this hard. And so throughout the episode, she's trying to make sure that Ava is OK. Right. She low-key thinks Ava is in denial about losing her job and having other options. And she's trying to get Ava an appeal, I guess, for her job.

[00:40:10] Like, maybe if you appeal to the district, they'll let you come back. There's a moment, G.M., where Janine calls Ava's phone and we get her voicemail. And her voicemail says something to the effect of, If you play for the Golden State Warriors, please leave me alone. Why is Andre Iguodala still blowing up Ava's phone? Why does she have this on her voicemail? Get over it, Andre. Move on. I love that they have not completely dropped that plot line in there.

[00:40:38] Like, I love it. I want to know what they told him when he did his guest appearance on the show here. It's like, We own your name and likeness. Yeah, like, do you want to be on Abbott? I feel like someone just has to tell me, do you want to be on Abbott Elementary? I'm like, no further questions. Okay. Like, I'm going to... It's not me. But like, we've gotten quite a few celebrity cameos in Abbott Elementary, right?

[00:41:04] Like, it's become kind of a new thing that I feel like they're kind of on the wavelength of the White Lotus for like, who's going to be the new cast of the White Lotus? Who's going to be on the guest spot for this season of Abbott Elementary? People start putting in their wishlist of who they want to see. Obviously, ours are Bryson Wendell, Jervis Peterson and Ramona Gray, all the Philly survivor people. But, you know, we are...

[00:41:33] I want to know what they told him specifically. What they told Andre about this role. And like, and we make fun of you after your cameo here. I want to believe he said yes. But... I would like to believe that he's sitting at home watching Abbott Elementary every week and hoping that his name comes back up. Yes. I want to believe that there are these celebrities that are religiously watching Abbott Elementary and be like, I don't care how, get me on this show. Right. Use my name. Use my likeness. I don't care.

[00:42:03] Use me however you would like. I will do anything at this point. Like, Keith David in particular strikes me as someone that will like... Was like, I love this show. I'm going to be Ava. Like, he didn't audition. He just said, I'm going to be Ava's estranged father. Right. And we're like, sure. Let's write him in. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Dr. Facilier is Ava's dad. That just makes sense to me. It does. It does. I was happy with that reference.

[00:42:30] I mean, this was just such a reference heavy episode for me. And I was loving every second of it. Janine actually goes to what she believes is Ava's home. And it's not. It's Ava's P.O. box. Because why would Ava give you the address to her home? Are you crazy? And so when she gets there, Ava tells her like, nah, I don't really need Abbott as a job. It's not my primary source of income. I'm a hustler and I do all this other stuff. And so I'll be having a meeting at the luxury suites in the conference room, Elle, like in a few days. So I don't really need this.

[00:43:00] But if you set up a appeal, then I'll take it. You know, like I'll deal with it if that's what you're going to bring to the table. And so Janine is kind of hell-bent on making sure that Ava gets her job back. I think she feels really guilty because obviously, you know, Janine's readers are the ones that kind of threw, I mean, spellers are the ones that really threw this off. But Ava does not actually need this.

[00:43:22] In fact, when they pull up at the airport hotel, Gia, I didn't doubt Ava for a second. You remember when Ava was like, oh yeah, Questlove is coming? You're like, that's how I felt. Like I didn't doubt her for a second. But Ava has a legit conference that she is doing Teb Talks or Jeb Talks. What were they? Teb Talks. Teb with a B. Yeah. Tobias Talks. Right.

[00:43:51] And as the entrepreneur, philanthropist and life coach that she is, she has crowds of people, t-shirt cannons. Mr. Johnson's even there. They were going up for Ava in a way that- She has Mr. Johnson on her payroll. I don't think she's going to stop it. I was missing him this episode too, so I was glad he came back. Yeah. I mean, Melissa gets a shirt. I mean, the crowd is going wild for Ava and her techniques and her teachings. So at that point, I started thinking, is Ava coming back?

[00:44:19] I mean, she seems like she all right, Gia. I don't know. So I have a thought on this and I like how you interpreted it, Chappelle, right? It's like, I like that idea. But also, I think there's another layer to it of like, especially like a single woman does not have a super close relationship with her family. I know a lot of people were hoping that like, maybe this was an opportunity for us to pull

[00:44:45] in more of like, O'Shawn or Keith David's character into the fold of like, maybe they help her out here or something like that. But just looking at the logistics of this, a relatively single woman who is financially responsible for herself, right? You don't really have time to mourn the job that you had before.

[00:45:11] Like you don't, there's not a, there's not a waiting period. There's not like a grievance period for you to be like, I lost my job. I have time to mourn while, and like, I have extra money to pay these bills, you know? So we don't know exactly what financial situation Ava has. You know, she has challenged Ava or she has challenged Janine on this when she said, Ava, you are not rich.

[00:45:38] I'm like, let's combine, let's compare our bank accounts and see what you think about that. So, um, my interpretation of it though, was that you can't, like Ava doesn't really have time to mourn the fact that she is a, that she lost this job that she actually really liked in here because of somebody that, and we have heard from her in previous seasons, like the,

[00:46:05] uh, the, the fundraiser with the chocolates episode where she's talking, she's teaching the kids about scamming. One of my favorite episodes of all time, by the way, but she had to, she explained that like scamming is how you get by. Like you have to be a hustler to get by in a lot of these situations. So I really took this as Ava's Ava is in survival mode here.

[00:46:29] Not saying that she isn't good at the motivational speaking or that she doesn't get some form of enjoyment out of her motivational speaking. But I also think that she is realistic about the fact that she was fired from her job. The district already doesn't like her. The chance of an appeal is of the appeal working is very slim.

[00:46:51] So you have to look forward to what realistically can I do next to provide for myself and also make sure that I'm not miserable doing it. And Ava does have a certain set of skills that is very complimentary to being a motivational speaker, including trash talking her former employees when telling people about how it's not too late to find love. Don't worry. Right. Look at Janine.

[00:47:19] And speaking of Janine, she was taking this very hard. And I think that her and Ava have come such a long way. Right. Yeah. Like they have come so far from what season one when Janine like emailed the superintendent about Ava, you know, like it's just. I don't know. I think that this was such a such a big growth moment for the both of them because this was less about Ava not being able to let go. And it was more about Janine not being able to let go of Ava.

[00:47:46] You know, she lands on the idea that maybe she was the one struggling with Ava's departure and struggling a little bit more than Ava was with moving on. So great moments for Janine. She does get Ava that appeal, though. She does get her a chance to speak in front of the district to save her job. And so that moment will probably come before the end of the season. But while Gregory and Janine and Melissa are there talking to Ava about her future plans, Gregory does ask about the filing system and Ava breaks it down for him.

[00:48:16] And so now Gregory and Melissa have a great idea of how this survivor system works. I mean, they do have to go watch 47 seasons of Survivor. But I mean, I feel like that's worth it. They listen, all I got to say, listen, it takes a long time to watch Survivor. Right. And we know that Melissa hasn't seen all seasons of Survivor because her husband got Survivor in the divorce. Right. But this is work. So that's different. This is not leisure.

[00:48:45] This is actual work activity. You're telling me that the first like they watched enough Survivor in a day to get to Heroes versus Villains. Absolutely not. They looked up what the best seasons of Survivor were and started with Heroes versus Villains immediately. Like they were this was for leisure. OK. And they were in it. They were in it. The way they were eating that popcorn. You see, Gregory couldn't even take his eyes away from the screen. You think I enjoy this? Yes, I do, Melissa.

[00:49:15] I know you were in that. I know you were writing think pieces about how Parvati was robbed after you hear the vote count in here. And Gregory has to explain to you that Sandra played the social game better. I just picture the fights right now. Yeah. Except I think I think Melissa would give a shout to Sandra. I think they have like a similar vibe. I do think I I think Sandra interacting with Melissa is like the stuff of like true dreams being made here.

[00:49:45] Like this is a dream come true in this situation. I do think Melissa would be a big Sandra stand, especially with the like he's a stupid ass or like. Yeah. I feel like her her burning Russell's fedora hat is what won Melissa over, you know? Easily. Easily. Like that's where she's that's my girl. Like she will ride. She will ride for Sandra here. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:50:12] And when they figure out this filing system, obviously they get a couple other names and references thrown into the mix as well. We got a Sari Tiffany Fields mentioned. And I listen, listen, this is how I know there is a real survivor fan on that panel because they're listening to this podcast. They mentioned they mentioned a lot of big names, right? I believe everybody that was mentioned besides Sari was a winner, right?

[00:50:41] So we know that they they did look through some of the winners. Boston Rob, obviously a very big name in 2003. So that joke kind of writes itself here for like the recognizable name as far as recognizable names go, but but but but they pulled out the big guns in the closing segment here where they're saying Sari Tiffany Fields here.

[00:51:06] She's the only person we got the full government name on here. And it was three specifically. They knew what they were doing. OK, because they don't do that for anybody else in the segment. But it's because Sari is Sari. So she deserves a special distinction here. Yeah, yeah. Riddle me that there is this. I need to know who who made the survivor references this episode. In fact, I'm about to look up who wrote this episode as well. But show yourself. Yes.

[00:51:36] Tweet us at me at me. Email us recap kickback at gmail dot com and let us know. Hey, join the show. Let us know. Come come holler at us. Join us. Join us for interview or whatever you want to do. If you need us in the writer's room, here we are. But yes, we have more survivor references for you. I want to introduce. I want to talk to you about a man named Earl Cole in Sean Rector. And that'd be a towery if you have time. We heard of dreams. Have you seen Survivor Fiji yet?

[00:52:05] If not, I need you to do a review. Yes. And so, yeah. So we get one last reference. Of course, we get the Yul Kwan reference as well. So it's just it's also good to see both of my interests collide. I don't think I'm supposed to be that happy. But I was so happy. And I thought there was a little hope here. Ava is potentially going to be coming back to Abbott Elementary if things go well with the district. But I am concerned about some other things, including Melissa. And I'm sorry, not including Melissa. Yeah.

[00:52:35] Including Barbara and maybe her future with Abbott or what level she will be with Abbott. I don't even know how Gregory goes back to teaching after being a principal either. So I'm just concerned all around that we're about two episodes, three episodes away. And there's some things up in the air in season four. And so I'm very excited to see how it ends and how it begins, I guess, in season five. Gia, is there anything else from this episode you want to talk about before we wrap up? Yes.

[00:53:03] I just need to mention Kate Peterman was the writer of this episode. And Brittany Nichols was the director. So I'm about to look them up. But Kate and Brittany, I just want to say thank you. Yeah. Thank you for listening to the podcast, obviously. And then thank you for including these survivor references in our favorite show. Gia, this is so much fun.

[00:53:33] This is obviously one of my favorite episodes. Despite Ava being fired somehow, music class just shot up the ranks as one of the ones that I'm not going to forget anytime soon. And so we will be back in two weeks to give you another recap of Abbott Elementary. And then I think after that, it's our finale. And so Gia, we're on the way out. Oh, my God. I'm not ready. I'm not ready for season four to be over this.

[00:53:57] I think when we look back at this season as a whole, this is in contention for my favorite season that we have had so far. I feel like it has been so strong for many reasons here. But I'm so excited. Like this is this has been such a great season in here. And I'm excited to see how we actually close everything out. Yeah. Same here. I'm so excited. I think that each season is getting better and better and better.

[00:54:27] And yeah, I really am enjoying this. I'm enjoying this journey with you. But I am concerned, you know, like we've had a lot of ups. I think it feels like we're preparing ourselves for a few downs as well in the Abbott Elementary, like, you know, storyline. And so we will be back in two weeks to discuss what that looks like as we wrap this up. But until we come back and talk about Abbott, tell everybody where they can find you and what you're working on.

[00:54:53] Oh, you can follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Blue Sky and TikTok at Classically Gia for all of my reality TV shenanigans. I am trying to be a little more active on TikTok in particular for my survivor takes. So keep an eye out for that. But I'm also doing regular writings on Inside Survivor with my good friend Christine Palin.

[00:55:18] And now I'm on Surviving Tribal as well, writing about how Abbott Elementary made Survivor references. And who knows what else I'll write about on there. I'm still a newbie. I'm trying to figure out how shit works over there. So, you know, we'll figure it out. And then can we talk about our plan coming up for the next week? Oh, absolutely. What's going on, Gia? We have a bracket.

[00:55:42] Now, listen, we have been teasing the idea we want to make our Brant Steele of our Black cartoon characters a regular thing, right? So this is something we are still working on, but that is still going to be something that we are developing. So we're in the midst of that. But while we are working on that, we have another thing happening in March to celebrate bracket season.

[00:56:09] And that is we are going to be creating a bracket of our top Abbott Elementary moments of season one in particular. So this is just season one we were talking about. But Chappelle and I are going to go through a bracket for Abbott Elementary season one to eventually crown the ultimate Abbott Elementary moment in here. I'm very excited to talk about it. I believe we will have that out in like a week or so.

[00:56:39] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're going to go through the March. So we're going to figure it out. But I think it's going to happen soon. And I'm very excited for it. But so stay tuned for that as we have some more information for you. But I'm very excited, too, because I haven't done a single bracket this month yet of this year. So I'm very excited to get back into it here. Yes, me too. Me too.

[00:57:07] We need more Abbott coverage, especially now that we know the writers are listening to this podcast. So we're going to give them more things to talk about. And then you can keep up with all the stuff I have going on by making sure you subscribe to this very podcast. Go to your podcatcher of choice. You would download wherever you listen to your podcast and make sure you hit subscribe and download the podcast. We need the views. We need the streams. We need the clicks. We need likes. We need the engagements. Support Recap Kickback and your Abbott Elementary coverage here. Go to RecapKickback.com slash subscribe in order to do that.

[00:57:35] Or come look at our beautiful faces on YouTube. YouTube.com slash at Recap Kickback. That's it for Gia and myself. Class is over. But you can catch us all here next week for our bonus coverage of Abbott Elementary. Peace.