(Warning: Spoilers ahead for Season 4, Episode 18 of Abbott Elementary.)
Ava (Janelle James), the principal of Abbott Elementary, got fired in last night’s episode. And viewers are losing their minds.
The set up for this plot twist all began in Episode 1 of Season 4. A construction site at a nearby golf course is causing issues for Abbott Elementary. Their power is going out, traffic around the school is insane, and hordes of white people are moving to the historically Black neighborhood to be closer to the course, threatening to gentrify the entire area.
When the staff at Abbott learned that the developer hired non-union construction workers, they threatened to report the company. Before they do, an attorney for the golf course appears at the school, apologizing for the inconvenience caused, and offers the school new computers, toys, chairs, and other equipment in exchange for their silence.
The school accepts the bribe and agrees not to report the developer. A decision, as last night’s episode just showed, that proves to be catastrophic. Someone tips off the school board, and they quickly arrive at the school to perform an audit, forcing the staff to scramble and hide the “contraband.”
“We need to get rid of the bean bags,” Janine (Quinta Brunson) proclaims to Ms. Inez, the librarian, after sprinting into the room.
“On it, this isn’t my first raid,” Ms. Inez responds, immediately hopping into action.
Despite some near misses, Abbott Elementary almost gets away with their plan, until the golf course lawyer shows up with fresh bribes in front of the school board. Ava takes the blame for the bribes to protect her staff, leading to her getting fired.
“THEY FR FIRED AVA??? holy plot twist don’t break my family up like this what is going on #abbottelementary,” one devastated viewer declared on X.
“When I catch that golf course person so help me God… #AbbottElementary,” another user wrote, more angry than sad.
Despite some initial fears by fans, executive producers and showrunners Patrick Schumacker and Justin Halpern clarified in an interview with The Wrap that James isn’t leaving the show, nor will they be writing Ava, her character, out of it.
“The story is not over — You will see Janelle in subsequent episodes,” Schumacker said. “But it is kind of a longer play. It’s not something that’s going to resolve itself super quickly.”
According to Schumacker, they created the storyline for Ava a little later in the season’s development process, realizing it made sense for Ava to take the fall for everyone.
“The development with Ava’s specific end at Abbott came pretty late in the game. When we were mapping out the whole season, we knew these bribes had to be paid off at a certain point,” Schumacker said. “We were looking for an ending that had a certain oomph to it and we were all banging our heads against the table, and Quinta [Brunson] was like, ‘What if we fire Ava?’ And we were all a little bit taken aback. The more we thought about it in that moment, it was like, ‘Actually, that really does make a lot of sense.’”
The pair also talked about some potential storylines in the next few episodes, teasing that Janine will struggle with obstacles preventing her from getting Ava rehired.
“She’s going to leave no stone unturned,” Schumacker said.
“That was what our question was going forward, everybody has their own reaction to it, but what happens when the little Janine that could can’t,” Halpern stated. “I think that’s an interesting story point for her as well.”
After such a monumentally jaw-dropping episode, viewers will likely buzz about this plotline for a while, wondering when their favorite out-of-pocket principal will once again walk the halls of their beloved Abbott Elementary.
