Review: Abbott Elementary, “Rally” & “Please Touch Museum” | Season 4, Episodes 21 & 22

And so ends another season of Abbott Elementary. Not quite the banger of a season that it had the potential to be at the start, but for the most part, the season avoided being or becoming a mess. (Plus, the biggest risk of the season—the crossover with It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia—paid off.) As expected, en route to ending the season, Ava got her job back as principal and the status quo at Abbott was restored. But while neither “Rally” nor the season finale “Please Touch Museum” take any big swings to end the season, there still manages to be a sense of the series working to move forward, at least in a character sense.

“Rally”

With Janine making it her mission to get Ava her job back, one would assume that she’d have had a multi-pronged and tired plan to do so at the ready. So the shocking part in this episode isn’t that Ava once again becomes Principal Ava—as the only shock in this story would’ve been that not happening—but how woefully unprepared Janine (as well as the rest of the Abbott Crew) is when going in front of the the disciplinary board to plead their case. Even the bit of Jacob watching four seasons of Law & Order to prepare (one of those little moments that instantly puts Jacob on my good side) is fumbled/bungled by Jacob apparently still not watching enough Law & Order to at least nail the faux legal jargon at any point during the meeting, instead freezing up. (Maybe he should’ve watched some David E. Kelley shows instead. Even Boston Public—also a show about a public school—could’ve helped Jacob more with his legal strategy, as it was also a show Kelley found a way to make a legal drama, without being a legal drama.) As presented, apparently the quest to get Ava’s job back begins with the characters just trying to wing it, despite having episodes to prepare for this moment.

The rest of the episode is just the countdown to Ava getting her job back. It’s Abbott Elementary 101, with everyone coming together to push back against the Big Bad in the form of the school board/school district/public education system as a whole. Considering how much the Abbott crew bungles up the plea to save Ava’s job in the first place (complete with getting additional suspensions), it’s for the best that the day is not saved by Janine and company but instead a combination of outsiders. The students’ protest not saving the day is the small dose of realism the show throws the audience’s way before the Faux-vengers assembling that takes place with the PTA (led by Tariq and Krystal, both ready to throw hands at the district, figuratively and literally), B.L.A.C.K.S. (who appreciate the Abbott has become an “unpredictable music venue” under Ava’s leadership), local businessowners (led by Ava’s dad, whose name is Frank and not just “Keith David”), “white savior” Miles, and fellow prinicipals (led by Crystal, helping out her soror with the “boar-ord”) all coming out to support Ava being reinstated and teachers being unsuspended. Of course, the disciplinary board doesn’t undo these things out of the goodness of their hearts or because they’re truly moved by any of this. Instead, also true to Abbott Elementary, they do it to save face.