‘Abbott Elementary’ Premiere: Tyler James Williams Spills on Janine & Gregory Defining Their Relationship

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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Abbott Elementary Season 4, Episode 1, “Back to School.”]

Abbott Elementary Season 4 kicked off with a bang as a new school year begins, and so does Janine (Quinta Brunson) and Gregory’s (Tyler James Williams) long-awaited relationship.

It didn’t take too long for the premiere episode to reveal that Season 3’s finale kiss led to the pair finally making things official. While things were official behind the scenes, Gregory and Janine’s effort to keep their romance under wraps from their colleagues was not as successful. Forced to be responsible regarding the situation, Ava (Janelle James) calls in an HR rep to offer guidance and accept any requests or information that might be pertinent, in hopes that Gregory and Janine would disclose their relationship for legal reasons.

But Janine is reluctant, putting the couple in an awkward position as he questions her interest in their relationship. Janine reassures Gregory that she’s all-in on them, but her desire to keep things secret for the time being is spoiled when she forgets her field trip presentation to the faculty and Gregory takes her keys to pick it up at her apartment.

Disney/Gilles Mingasson

Delivering the folder to Janine mid-presentation, the couple is caught, and she panics to the point of blurting out, “We’re having sex” in front of the school’s teachers. Ultimately, Janine was anxious to tell HR about her relationship because the last time she made a relationship official, it didn’t work out. While things seem different this time around, the pair ultimately disclosed their arrangement with human resources and will carry on into the school year as boyfriend and girlfriend.

We caught up with Williams, who is opening up about Gregory and Janine’s road to a relationship in the Abbott Elementary Season 4 premiere, and teasing what fans can expect moving forward as episodes air on ABC this fall.

Janine and Gregory fake out the audience at the beginning of the episode, making viewers believe their kiss didn’t lead to a relationship. That wasn’t the case though, and they’re officially on as a couple. What were you most excited about exploring their dynamic this season?

Tyler James Williams: I actually wasn’t sure if that [fakeout] was gonna work or not. I think we’ve traumatized people enough with fakeouts that we can kind of lean on that a bit. But it was really fun because when you’re going into Season 4, you’re always looking for ways to keep the show fresh. So them being together added a nice wrinkle acting-wise for us to track through scenes, and you’ll see that through episodes as we continue. There’ll be scenes that normally would have gone one way, but now that they’re together, Janine and Gregory’s dynamic and how they speak to each other would be a little bit different. So it’s kept it alive and new and fresh, I think in a way where most shows going into their fourth seasons, it could kind of get stale.

Disney/Gilles Mingasson

Gregory shows some uncertainty towards Janine when she is reluctant to disclose their relationship to HR. Will we see more of those moments of doubt play out as they continue to learn more about each other?

Yeah, them being together brings out aspects of them that I don’t even know if we knew were there until we actually started playing with it.
The little arguments they have throughout the season are interesting and show sides of them that I don’t think you would have ordinarily seen. I think people are very different when they’re in relationships and having to interact with their significant other than they would be with just a coworker or friends. It’ll definitely be something that tracks through the season. Much like the conversation that happens outside of the school as they’re trying to decide what to do with HR. There are these nice, more intimate moments in the midst of the chaos that is the school that I’ve come to fall in love with.

Gregory and Janine’s relationship announcement is fairly shocking but not totally unexpected. How do you set the tone for an awkwardly funny scene like that where they’re exposed in front of their colleagues?

When we talked about that moment, I think the analogy was popping the cork off of the champagne. They have to just say it. They’ve been trying to hide it for so long, and I love the abruptness of it. We could try to slow-walk this and have a really nuanced way [of handling it] or she could just come out and say we’re having sex. And that’s kind of what it ended up becoming and I think it’s very them. They’ve been so covert and trying to do things on the low that their outing felt like it needed to be an outing. But it was also on their terms. I thought that at some point, Jacob would probably end up saying something, and that would also be a very chaotic choice, but I like that we went with this one.

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Janine’s presentation that Gregory was retrieving for her moments before that scene, involved the idea of bringing the school on a field trip to the Baltimore Aquarium. Will that become a reality as the season goes on? 

We’re always going to end our season on a field trip, but this is Abbott don’t ever trust what we’re giving you at face value [Laughs]. There’s gonna be a turn or a twist of some kind. But I can say that there is a field trip being planned because that’s how we end our seasons. It just may not go as according to plan as it’s presented to you.

Ava “releases” Gregory from their “situationship” towards the end of this episode. How will their dynamic be different now that he’s with Janine?

I think over the course of the show Ava has become slightly more considerate. But then she’s always gonna relapse. That’s the thing about her. She’s going to try, but then she will relapse at some point So I think you can expect that as well. She’s grown to love Janine. So I think she’s not trying to step on her relationship, but then also she’s Ava and will assert dominance at any given time. So I love her growth and lack thereof at the same time. She is going to attempt to be a little bit better, but then also fail at that consistently.

Abbott Elementary, Season 4, Wednesdays, 9:30 p.m. ET/PT, ABC