Review: Abbott Elementary, "Juice" | Season 2, Episode 5
Blame falls on Janine and, as Lizzo foretold, the juice when bathroom chaos erupts at Abbott
Many times in my life, both before and since becoming a critic, people would often tell me to just turn off my brain while watching something, instead of overthinking it.1 I bring this up now because I definitely found myself seemingly overthinking a lot of this week’s Abbott Elementary episode, “Juice,” as I was watching it.
On the one hand, “Juice” ends up precisely in the place one would expect from an episode of Abbott Elementary: with Janine learning a lesson from Barbara and Barbara also providing some grace to Janine as her reluctant mentor. Things also land on another inadvertent win for Abbott, thanks to the district’s refusal to give them what they need until things become completely dire; this week that occurs in the form of the school’s bathrooms.
However, it was the catalyst for this plot that has led me down the path of overthinking, the titular juice. Obviously, Janine’s hubris and belief that she’s revolutionized things as a young teacher is the root of the story and the …