Abbott Elementary blindsided viewers with a shocking split.
During the Wednesday, April 8, episode of the hit ABC series, Gregory (Tyler James Williams) and Janine (Quinta Brunson) argued over plans for an upcoming couples’ trip. Janine then broached the subject of a break up and while their decision wasn’t seen, Brunson confirmed off screen that the fictional couple have parted ways.
“No one saw it coming. I think that’s a great time to throw a stone at the settled earth. It was something I thought about from the beginning of this season,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “They’ve been in a relationship for a while now, and we’ve seen them be really great and go through the honeymoon phase, but I wanted to get under the surface a little bit about what could be going on with these characters and how, in relationships, things like this happen.”
Brunson wanted to tell a realistic story.
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“We see it every day — couples who look kind of perfect from the outside. There can be things going on in that we don’t know about, that they discover within their relationship,” she continued. “We talked about this a lot in the room about relationships and past relationships, current relationships, how you never know. It could be this one little thing that leads you into an argument.”
The actress added: “This small thing was actually a catalyst for possibly some larger discussions that need to happen between two people who are trying to spend a lot of time with each other and possibly their lives together.”
While teasing the rest of the season, Brunson addressed the chances of Janine finding love elsewhere.
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“You will see Dominic again before the end of the season. We absolutely adore having Luke Tennie. He is wonderful. He’s the hardest-working man in show business right now. The boy is everywhere,” she shared. “It was so funny when he first showed up, he was like, ‘Yeah, I’m on The Pitt too.’ And I was like, ‘Damn, you really are working.’”
She concluded: “What’s crazy is we wrote the character of Dominic, and Luke auditioned, and the minute I saw his face, I barely needed to look at the audition tape. I was already a huge fan of him on Shrinking. I knew that he would have what it took to pull this role off. He’s incredible to me. I opened his audition tape and was like, ‘Yeah, I don’t even know why I opened this.’”
Abbott Elementary airs on ABC Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m. ET and is available to stream on Hulu the next day.