Every so often, a “will they, will not they” storyline comes round that will get followers riled up in all the appropriate methods.
It is one in all TV’s favourite tropes. Jim and Pam from The Workplace, Ross and Rachel from Mates, Nick and Jess from New Woman. We’re suckers for it, even when we nearly all the time know the way it is going to finish.
However generally, we’re asking the mistaken questions. Perhaps “Will they” or “will not they” is much less vital, and what we should always actually be asking is “Ought to they?”
Janine and Gregory from Abbott Elementary are two of the present’s most beloved characters, and followers adore their flirtatious friendship.
Their chemistry is plain. We have even seen a touch of motion right here and there, and through Abbot Elementary Season 2, the colleagues lastly admitted to having emotions for each other.
Method again on Abbott Elementary Season 1 Episode 1, after we first met Janine Teague, she was in a less-than-ideal relationship along with her boyfriend of ten years, Tariq Temple.
Tariq is a rapper whose dream is to get his music off the bottom, and Janine is nothing however supportive.
We sense rigidity just about immediately when it turns into clear that Janine is doing the entire emotional labor within the relationship.
Tariq is not a foul man, however he is not very mature, and Janine has began to appreciate that she could have outgrown him.
Janine and Tariq break up within the Abbott Elementary Season 1 finale when he strikes to New York to pursue his music profession, and Janine decides to not go together with him.
After all, Tariq is not Janine’s solely love curiosity. Season 2 introduced us Maurice, who’s (yikes) Gregory’s greatest good friend. On Abbott Elementary Season 2 Episode 10, the fellows meet Janine and her good friend at a hookah lounge.
Gregory asks Maurice to not make strikes on any of his coworkers, however that does not cease Janine from connecting with Maurice exterior the bar. The 2 hit it off, and a quick relationship ensues.
In the event you ask us, Maurice and Janine by no means actually had a lot chemistry.
It is clear that the 2 of them are supposed to be a little bit of a detour on the way in which to an eventual Janine/Gregory second. The large kiss on Abbott Elementary Season 2 Episode 16 solely confirms that it is coming.
As soon as Janine breaks up with Maurice (in entrance of Gregory, no much less), all of us maintain our collective breath, ready for the inevitable hookup within the Season 2 finale.
Nevertheless it would not come.
And if we’re being completely trustworthy, we could not be happier.
That is to not say we do not love Janine and Gregory individually. How may we not? Gregory is good and type and the whole lot Janine deserves in a associate.
Janine is regular, optimistic, and the sort of particular person anybody can be fortunate to like. After all, she deserves a partnership the place she’s handled just like the goddess she is.
However in an effort to work out the place she’s going, Janine has to look again at the place she got here from.
On the finish of the day, Janine continues to be fairly just lately out of a decade-long relationship with a man-child (a well-intentioned one, however a man-child nonetheless).
She has little or no concept what it is wish to be on her personal or who she even is as an grownup with out Tariq. Not lengthy after she ended issues with Tariq, she and Maurice began relationship.
Janine is a serial monogamist — and there is nothing mistaken with that, however it could be a pleasant change of tempo if we may see our “robust feminine lead” stand on her personal two ft for some time.
She says on the finish of Abbott Elementary Season 2 Episode 22 that she’s not prepared for Gregory as a result of she is aware of that if she lets it occur, she and Gregory will grow to be critical in a short time.
I believe I did the appropriate factor. I wish to proceed the trail I’m on. I truly assume egocentric is nice for me, for now. Gregory is nice. He’s the best, truly. I assume I’m not prepared for him, however that’s okay. I’m okay.
Janine
In any case, he is not precisely a one-night-stand sort of man, at the least not the place Janine is worried.
However honestly, Janine deserves time to find out about who she is with no man bringing his personal baggage into her life. She has hundreds to find as a result of a lot of her life up to now has been wrapped right into a relationship.
There are different issues at play, in fact, like points with work and household, that she’s going to want to concentrate on in Season 3. And look, we’re not naive.
We all know followers need an explosive, romantic reunion between Janine and Gregory.
Finally, we’re not against the 2 of them dwelling fortunately ever after…sometime. However for now, Janine deserves to get to know herself first. A girl who will get to shine on her personal on tv is a uncommon factor.
We wish to see the viewers root for Janine for all of the attributes that make her distinctive. No man, not even one as nice as Gregory, ought to affect how the viewer sees Janine.
Clearly, Gregory and Janine each need to be glad, and if being collectively is what’s going to make that occur, then so be it.
However there isn’t any motive {that a} relationship must be the factor that fulfills these two unbelievable characters.
We wish to see them each discover happiness on their very own earlier than they’re introduced collectively for good.
Is that an excessive amount of to ask?
Haley Whitmire White is a employees author for TV Fanatic. You may follow her on X.
