Abbott Elementary – Season 2 Episode 7 “Attack Ad” Recap & Review

Attack Ad

In Abbott Elementary Season 2 Episode 7, an ad for charter schools viciously attacks Abbott Elementary, making all of its teachers (except for Barbara) look bad.

Janine not only has to deal with parents not trusting her; she also has to prepare herself to see Tariq again. Her ex-boyfriend is back in town, and Janine is making him take back all his stuff.

Initially, Janine thinks their encounter won’t be a big deal. But Tariq actually wants to reconnect, and convinces her to get dinner with him.

Tariq tells Gregory he plans on something happening between himself and Janine. When Gregory warns Janine, she insists it’s none of his business.

Janine gets pretty excited about dinner with her ex, but Tariq’s childish actions eventually wear her down and remind her why she broke up with him in the first place. So, she cancels dinner (making Gregory happy), only to learn that Tariq has a girlfriend (or is lying about having one).

Meanwhile, the other teachers try to get the attack ad taken down. They speak with a lawyer, who claims it’s no use. They gave the camera crew for the ad full permission to film them, even if they were mistaken in believing the crew was the one that usually comes to the school.

So, they invite Draymond, the Legendary Charter CEO and man in charge of the attack ad, to Abbott. He arrives and claims that Abbott Elementary is just the same as ever. He used to be a student here, and he hates everything about the school–except for his favorite teacher, Barbara Howard.

Barbara admits to the others that she hid the fact that Draymond was her student. She says he was a good kid, but he felt like the world was turned against him.

Draymond claims to Jacob and Melissa that he only wants to help places like Abbott by turning them into Legendary charter schools. But the other teachers help Barbara realizes she can’t let his attacks on Abbott slide.

Barbara has a talk with Draymond. She tells him she’s so glad he succeeded. He says he was so lost at Abbott, but charter schools later helped him get ahead.

Barbara says he can’t blame everything that happened in his life on all public schools. In reality, what he’s doing is hurting teachers like her–people he wants to help.

He tells her she’s still teaching him, and decides to take down the commercial.

But Draymond later reveals to the documentary crew that he has greater plans than one commercial. He’s going to turn every Philadelphia school into a Legendary charter school–starting with Abbott Elementary.

The Episode Review

This episode of Abbott Elementary sees both the introduction of an interesting new character as well as the potential departure of another.

It’s unclear whether this was Tariq’s last goodbye. If it is, his presence in this episode allows for a sense of closure. Janine may be lonely, but she’s on the way to creating her own life apart from Tariq. And she needed a reminder of that.

It’s time for Janine to look forward from now on, and that’s the case for the rest of the teacher’s as well. They can’t look back to the school’s past failures, but they can do everything in their power to defend Abbott Elementary from Draymond (whose intentions, while pure, could see many Abbott teachers get hurt).