Abbott Elementary – Season 2 Episode 5 “Juice” Recap & Review

Juice

In Abbott Elementary Season 2 Episode 5, Janine advocates for a new juice in the cafeteria–one with more juice and less sugar. Barbara isn’t so enthused with the idea, and opts out of accepting the new juice for her classroom. Her philosophy is, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Janine and Gregory soon learn that she was right. After their classes finish lunch and have the new juice, all the kids have to use the restroom at once. The first floor bathrooms can’t handle the mass influx of students and soon become out of order.

Rather than use the second floor bathrooms, Janine and Gregory implore Barbara for the use of the private kindergarten bathroom. She agrees–in the case of emergencies only.

But when they use the restroom too often, Barbara kicks them out of her classroom and tells them to go to the second floor.

When Barbara’s class has its free period, however, Janine and Gregory go back in with their students. Barbara is furious when she catches them. Her anger is only stoked further when one of their students causes this bathroom to become out of order and also takes down all the second-floor restrooms.

Now, all the teachers have to take their students to the third floor, and Barbara isn’t happy with Janine and Gregory. Janine apologizes, but she wishes Barbara could have explained her reasoning for not accepting the juice and for kicking them out. Maybe Janine would have made different choices had a more experienced teacher helped her out and answered her questions.

She also complains that the city won’t fix their bathrooms for another week because they still have one left that’s working. Suddenly, Barbara has an idea.

She finds a baseball bat (from Melissa’s room, of course) and returns to the third floor to make sure the last bathroom is not in working order. Now, their situation is an emergency, and the city will have to fix it.

After showing Janine how to fix that problem, she tells her she’s willing to help further. From now on, she’s going to set aside office hours to give advice to other teachers.

Melissa could probably use some advice herself, as she’s dealing with an increasingly difficult teacher’s aide. Ashley Garcia is better at disrupting her class than she is teaching it.

Melissa gets Ava for help, but Ava loves Ashley’s zany nature and enlists the aide to help her with personal projects.

Jacob notices that Melissa isn’t engaging with Ashley. Maybe that’s why she’s helping Ava and not Melissa. He suggests that Melissa get to know Ashley instead of just giving her orders.

Melissa incorporates this advice and gives Ashley more validation–which sharply betters her job performance. Maybe they can get their classroom in control after all.

The Episode Review

While this episode’s premise is almost a bit too goofy, that’s easily forgiven due to the comical image of Janine and Gregory fearfully stepping back from Barbara and her baseball bat. It’s also nice that the show hasn’t lost sight of Barbara and Janine’s mentor-student relationship, and are continuing to build in that direction. It seems the two have a lot more to teach each other yet.

I’m excited for the season moving forward. Ashley Garcia (aka Ava’s mini me) should be a fun addition to the cast–especially as a counterpart to Melissa’s no-nonsense attitude.