"Teacher's Conference" is the sixteenth episode of the second season of Abbott Elementary.
The Abbott Elementary faculty attends PACSA, the annual teacher's conference. Janine spends her time bonding with Gregory over their bad luck when it comes to dating and get closer then ever. Barbara and Melissa make the acquaintance of a powerful school supplier but run into Kirsten as the main obstacle. And Jacob befriends a group of Addington teachers but comes to discover their true, dark colors.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Answer Cut: After realizing that Jacob, a gay man, did not make out with Tina Schwartz, Ava questions who she did make out with. It then cuts to her hotel room showing David, the hotel employee, as the culprit.
- Bad "Bad Acting": The reigning queens give loud and unrefined speeches to declare their presence to everyone at the conference just to get it over with.
- Bait-and-Switch: At first it looks like Ava knew about Janine and Gregory's fairy tale kiss. But she actually believed Jacob was making out with Tina despite being gay.
- Big Damn Kiss: Gregory locks lips with Janine while hiding in the Flower Room.
- Birds of a Feather: Jacob fits right at home with the other Addington teachers, but that goes downhill when he learns they're allowing high-scoring children from outside the neighborhood, excluding their own kids.
- Cold Open: Janine is introduced boring her kids with an impossible game of hangman (made worse since she forgot the original word and is stalling for time). Ava appears and participates to help out the kids.
- Conspicuous Trenchcoat: Kirsten appears in Abbott wearing a long trench-coat and shades like Inspector Gadget. She clarifies that she sees herself as Carmen San Diego.
- Continuity Nod:
- Gregory plans to take Amber to Poconos to make up for the LEGO flower gift.
- Kristen appears as a conference guest and recognizes Janine as "Bilbo", just like when they first met.
- Differing Priorities Break Up: Amber ultimately ends things with Gregory on the basis that they can't see eye to eye mixed with how he just doesn't get her personal interests.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: After learning about her boyfriend's busy schedule for their vacation getaway, Amber declares that they're not on the same page. Greg clarifies that he's on page 9.
- Drowning His Sorrows: Greg goes for a couple of drinks at the bar to cope with his dating problem. Janine shows her support by drinking alongside him.
- Enemy Mine: The Schemmenti Sisters briefly team up to intimidate a passing teacher who makes a cheap shot at Kirsten's fashion choices.
- Everyone Has Standards: Jacob has his issues with White Guilt and can be a clueless Soapbox Sadie, but he's taken aback and quietly appalled when he realizes the Addington teachers look down on a good portion of his students and only sees a certain fraction of kids as being "worthy" of getting a better education.
- Failure Is the Only Option: Gregory has to take his girlfriend on a mountain vacation getaway since she wasn't happy with his Valentine's Day gift. This earns him booes from his work friends for having to miss out on the teacher's conference.Gregory: So what's cool is that no matter what I do, no one's happy.
- Friendship Denial: Jacob gets along greatly with the Addington staff like a house on fire. But he decides to move back to his old house after learning of the corrupt standards that the Addington teachers follow along with.
- Glad I Thought of It: Ava says this word for word after Janina points out that "Very Important Principals" is a better name instead of " Very Important People".
- Insane Troll Logic: After Jacob points out that he's a gay man who couldn't have had a fling with a woman, Ava shuns him for bisexual erasure.
- Kick the Dog: Ava used Janine's name while exploiting the hotel's expensive luxuries.
- Kissing Under the Influence: Janine and Greg have an easier time kissing each other after getting drunk together.
- Lazy Alias: During her presentation on "problem teachers", Ava comes up with a hypothetical teacher named Janina. Janina is not pleased with her decision.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Jacob cheerfully notices that one of the events is "White Teacher, Black School". Janine
(who happens to be the creator of the show) looks at the camera and says she's not interested. - Let Us Never Speak of This Again: When they come back to work the next week, Janine and Gregory agree to forget that the kiss ever happened.
- Noodle Incident: Janine had a traumatic experience going on the Mr. Toad ride at Disneyland and describes it as going to hell.
- Opposites Attract: Defied. Gregory points out how he and Amber had too many differences which is what led to them breaking up.
- Seen It All: Melissa and Barbara have no interest in the teacher's conferences since they've been to those conferences since they first started their careers and know just about everything that each event has to offer.
- Squee: Janine and Jacob are in absolute heaven when they attend the teacher's conference.
- The Stinger: Ava informs her coworkers about a recent fling that she learned out which relates to one of her employees. She incorrectly assumes that Jacob was involved in the fling with Tina.
- Wham Episode:
- Janine and Gregory finally kiss.
- Melissa makes up with her sister, in the process, being informed that Legendary Charter School is coming for Abbott and how the original staff will most likely lose their jobs in the process.
- When hanging out with the Addington School teachers, Jacob learns that the school is actually allowing students from other neighborhoods to join, excluding their own neighborhood in search for the high-scoring students.
