Abbott Elementary didn’t waste any time updating fans on Janine and Gregory’s relationship status.
During the season 4 premiere, which aired on Wednesday, October 9, Janine (Quinta Brunson) tells the camera crew that she and Gregory (Tyler James Williams) decided to just stay friends. Well, turns out Janine was just joking and Gregory comes into the frame to update Us on how well things have been going since they started dating over the summer.
Janine and Gregory think only Jacob (Chris Perfetti) knows about their relationship but, actually, the whole school is onto them. Ava (Janelle James) decides to help them by calling a district HR rep so they can disclose their romance, except Janine starts to worry Gregory — and Us — when she stalls on going public.
Eventually, Janine and Gregory have no choice but to come clean when Mr. Johnson (William Stanford Davis) questions their odd behavior and attributes it to them dealing drugs.
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“We’re not selling drugs,” Janine says before blurting out, “We’re having sex.”
Gregory subsequently asks Janine whether he should “be worried” about how hesitant she seems about their future together. Janine, however, clarifies that she just wants them to work unlike her past relationships.
“We’re not your last time. We’re this time,” Gregory notes. Janine and Gregory finally get on the same page and the episode ends with them officially filing their relationship status with HR.
Before the season 4 premiere, Williams, 32, teased how Gregory and Janine’s relationship would change now that they confronted their feelings for each other.
“I can tell you right now, we changed the way we did everything. We changed the way we did literally everything,” Williams exclusively told Us Weekly this month. “Each year we have to approach them and their dynamic differently — specifically the way they interact. We had a lot of conversations before the season started and then after the season first started as we were sharpening and narrowing things down.”
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The costars worked “really hard to make sure” there was a visible shift between Gregory and Janine.
“[It is] new and fresh and different from what the previous seasons were. This season should feel tonally different for them,” he hinted. “[When season 4 starts], this will be the first time that Gregory is in the school having fully disclosed and tried to explore what happened with Janine. Obviously it’s a workplace and it’s going to make things a little complicated. The biggest thing that I can tease is how do you interact with a coworker that you have now expressed feelings for and definitely had some sort of physical interaction with? That’s really his biggest challenge this year.”
Williams praised the writers for finally taking the big narrative step.
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“We have people in our writers’ room who are deeply invested in Janine and Gregory as people, as individuals and as a couple. They address them as if they exist,” he noted. “When you have people who’ve given this much care to it— from an actor’s point of view — I’m not concerned about what’s going to be written for Janine and Gregory because we all approach them with the utmost understanding. We just have to find the most interesting road for them to travel that is unique and carves out our own lane.”
Brunson, 34, meanwhile, was just as excited to see where this chapter takes Janine and Gregory, telling Us, “I’m really pumped about that [story line]. I’m excited about Janine and Gregory both as individuals and as people who have had a situationship up until now.”
Abbott Elementary airs on ABC Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m. ET. New episodes are available to stream the next day on Hulu.
