Last year, Abbott Elementary's second season ended with an epic fake out: while on a sleepover school trip, Janine and Gregory confessed their feelings for each other in the surprisingly romantic setting of The Franklin Institute (who knew!) and then... decided to stay friends??
Fans of the show either swooned at this continuation of their slow-burn relationship or lost hope (and interest) in the series ever delivering on this particular storyline.
In either case, it seemed a safe bet that these two characters would spend a lot of time apart during the next season and maybe even explore other dating opportunities.
Season 3 opened with a five-month time jump (a creative way to account for delays from the Hollywood writers and actors strikes) and with Janine now working for the Philadelphia school district.
This potentially series-changing news was walked back a bit when we learned that it's only a temporary internship and that it also included Janine being on-site at Abbott two days a week.
This having-it-both-ways work situation for Janine (Quinta Brunson) has proved to be a template for the third season, where several character arcs felt more like circles that brought everyone back to their original starting point.
Ava (Janelle James) cycled through an entire one of these in the space of the first episode, after a Harvard (campus wifi-assisted Education Connection) degree makes her a principal who's now a stickler for the rules.
The disgruntled teaching staff decides that the devilishly unprofessional Ava they know is better than this new no-nonsense version who took away their off-campus lunches, so they summon her back with a favorite dance song by the time the credits roll.
Ava's cheerful impropriety is arguably the best part of the entire show, so of course, her playing it straight was never going to last.
Still, even just the few minutes we get of her outsized take on scholarly decorum are priceless, and it would have been interesting to see her find a leadership balance on her own over the course of more than one episode.
The District storyline seemed to promise an exciting, game-changing reset for the series but instead turned out to be an empty threat due to a lack of true stakes for everyone involved.
Janine's internship was a perfect-on-paper career match for her relentless enthusiasm, attention to detail, and facility with red tape.
Working in different buildings may have given Janine and Gregory the green light to pursue a relationship. Or, even better, the space to date other people.
In this hypothetical scenario, did I want Janine's other potential dating person to be District representative Manny (Josh Segarra)?
HECK. YES.
It was the cruelest of cruel bait-and-switches to give us Josh Segarra in a variety of cozy earth-toned sweaters and then NOT have him become a love interest for Janine.
(Do better, Abbott Elementary.)
Even when strictly focused on Janine's career aspirations, the District storyline failed to provide any real tension because there was never any narrative doubt that Janine would return to teaching.
Part of this was because throughout her internship at the District, Janine always seemed to be either at Abbott or meeting up with Gregory (Tyler James Williams) and Jacob (Chris Perfetti) for after-work drinks.
If it felt like she never left the school, that's because she was always there!
Janine even spent a lot of time in her old classroom micromanaging the substitutes who were now teaching her students.
Without a clear, extended separation from Abbott, it was hard to see Janine's internship as anything other than a fun after-school job.
Her administrative wins with the District (such as the librarian program) were so closely tied to Abbott that it was easy to overlook their wider applications.
It seems that Janie herself was lulled into thinking she hadn't really moved away from Abbott. When her internship ended and District Superintendant John Reynolds (Keegan-Michael Key) gave her a full-time position, she was shocked to learn she'd be expected to work with schools other than Abbott.
Yes, she should have realized this much sooner, but we as viewers also should have seen this coming.
After all, there were signs: right before being offered the internship, Janine started her fourth year of teaching as her usual upbeat self with no burnout in sight.
When Manny and the other District reps praised her ideas and floated the internship opportunity, Janine seemed flattered but ambivalent rather than excited.
She finally consulted her mentor Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph), who reminded Janine that she'd still have Abbott to come home to when the internship ended.
Between Janine's initial reluctance to participate and the District's office setting not getting equal screentime to Abbott's school campus, the District storyline never really had a chance to fully tempt Janine or engage the viewing audience.
It squandered the opportunity to make Janine's internship a real turning point for her career choice and even her life, since her return to teaching was pretty much set in stone from the start.
What the District storyline did provide, however, was enough space for other members of the main cast to grow and shine.
Jacob's arc was perhaps the biggest departure from a personal status quo. He broke up with his longtime live-in boyfriend and ended up renting a room from Melissa (Lisa Ann Walter).
The two became not just roommates but close buddies who shared inside jokes and dinner leftovers in the breakroom. This affected their dynamic with the other teachers and even Mr. Johnson (William Stanford Davis).
We got to see Barbara's preternatural calm tested by her dislike of the new librarian (Cree Summer) brought in by Janine's pilot library program. And, we saw Janine summon the courage to stand up to her beloved mentor when she was wrong.
Meanwhile, Gregory unwittingly became the "cool teacher" and was inspired to create a school program proposal of his own, "Gregory's Garden Goofballs."
The District storyline served as a release valve that gave these subplots room to breathe. Janine's journey was still centered this season, but there was more time left to expand the world of Abbott without her daily presence.
However, those very same teacher subplots could have happened in a regular school year, so was the District storyline really necessary?
Should the series just forget it ever happened and go back to its previous schoolday-focused stories every week?
That seems to be where the show is headed since Janine's abrupt exit after her internship has definitely burned bridges at the District. This will undoubtedly create even more difficulties for Abbott to obtain necessary resources in the future.
Season 3 featured some great celebrity cameos like Bradley Cooper and Jalen Hurts, but a return to original form for the series would severely limit opportunities to introduce new recurring characters.
Also, Gregory's personality is still wildly inconsistent! That really needs to be fixed if next season is going to be confined to the school setting.
When the series began, Gregory and Janine were both idealistic and offbeat in complementary enough ways that a close friendship (and perhaps more) between the two seemed plausible.
As time went on, though, Gregory's quirks went into overdrive and also seemed to pop up at random during his default setting of stern and inflexible.
The few times we saw him get emotionally close to Janine revealed him as a potentially great romantic partner. However, the show always yanked his character back into acting distant and vaguely judgmental.
If the show is truly committed to a glacially-paced, chemistry-free romance between Janine and Gregory it needs to show us why these two people are better together than apart, because so far that hasn't come across at all.
(TEAM MANNY!!!)
Abbott Elementary Season 3 tackled Hollywood strike delays with creativity and aplomb, but the District storyline was a great idea that just didn't go far enough.
Somewhere out in the ether there's a version of Season 4 where Janine stays at the District and serves as a valuable inside contact for Abbott. SHE MARRIES MANNY (your version of this season may vary), goes on adventures with her Abbott friends, and fosters systemic change in her new position of authority.
For better or worse, Season 4 may bring us back to the start where the world of Abbott Elementary is just five classrooms and a breakroom. It worked before, so there's no reason it can't do so again.
Still, this detour with the District storyline has shown that the series can benefit from a revamp.
The District storyline failed to provide a narrative Doorway of No Return since Janine never risked physical, professional, or psychological death by accepting the internship.
Everything was always going to be the same, no matter what she chose.
This lack of real stakes made Season 3 an exercise in treading water and a missed opportunity to expand rather than contract the world of Abbott Elementary.
However, each episode this season has featured some laugh-out-loud lines that are still buzzing in the back of my head.
How are all of you Abbott fans enjoying Season 3 so far?
What do you think will happen in Season 4?
(Bonus points if your answer involves Manny!)
Let us know in the comments!