Last week Season 3 of Abbott Elementary came to an end, and the one thing every single viewer had predicted would happen since the premiere of the pilot episode finally did happen: Nerdy, awkward school teachers Janine (Quinta Brunson) and Gregory (Tyler James Williams) got together. For real, for real. To get there, it only took an untold number of gawky flirtations resulting in direct-to-camera looks of embarrassment, a drunken one-off kiss (in Season 2, during a work conference), and several spectacularly failed attempts at dating other people while denying or downplaying their romantic interests in one another.
Surely plenty of fans have found joy in the resolution of this long-delayed one true pairing; if so, I’m genuinely happy for you. But call me the “will they-won’t they?” grinch — I’m mostly just relieved the convoluted storyline can finally (hopefully!) be put to rest. The writers’ insistence on making them the Jim-and-Pam of Abbott has long been the least interesting element of this smart and consistently funny series, and as utterly charming as Brunson and Williams are, even they couldn’t keep the perpetually unresolved sexual tension between their characters from grating by Season 3. (The episode where Jacob and Gregory attempt to go on a double date and Gregory gets distracted by seeing Janine out with school district rep Manny might’ve been less tedious had it not been such a similar iteration of several earlier plotlines.)