It's Time for Team Building: A Hilarious New School Year Begins as "Abbott Elementary" Returns for Season 5

And with a box of several-month-old stale donuts and Mr. Morton falling through the ceiling, ABC’s Abbott Elementary is back for a new school year with the series’ Season 5 kick off.

The 30 times nominated, 4 time Emmy winning comedy series Abbott Elementary is back on ABC for Season 5. Jumping into a new school year, Janine (Quinta Brunson), Gregory (Tyler James Williams), Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph), Ava (Janelle James), Melissa (Lisa Ann Walter), Jacob (Christ Pefetti), and Mr. Johnson (William Stanford Davis) are back for more hilarious elementary school faculty fun.

Picking up where the last season left off, it is Development Day at Abbott Elementary. All the teachers are in attendance to prepare for the new school year, with a few changes and new faces. Janine and Gregory are still going strong, Barbara is still high on life as she finds a new stride through her music class, and Melissa is set to move up to the 6th grade, taking on a new position as a home room and math teacher. When one of Barbara’s old students, Dominic Clark joins Abbott as a fourth grade teacher, Janine is quickly worried that Barbara will fall back into her more stoic and cold self. But Barbara doesn’t budge.

Ava is welcoming all the teachers back for the year, sharing a slideshow of her vacation pictures with her new man O’Shan. Everyone seems ready to start the new year, but, unfortunately for the staff, the school district didn’t forget last year’s extortion scandal with the golf course. When a “suit" named Craig shows up towards the end of the meeting, the entire crew is forced into a day of mandatory team building exercises (not games!).

Moving from the gym to the library, Craig forces everyone to share a few things about themselves with their coworkers. Mr. Johnson brags about completing a triathlon by only swimming, revealing to Gregory that he can’t ride a bike.

A gas leak forces the obligatory exercises out into the parking lot, and Barbara is still high on life, providing endless support to Dominic. Janine, who feels her place as the happy-go-lucky mentee is being threatened, begins a journey to find her new role at Abbott. With Melissa moving upstairs and Barbara beaming, Janine decides to take on a less optimistic personality by assigning herself “the downstairs grump."

On the other hand, Melissa’s confidence is shaken by Jacob and Morton, who warn her about the ruthless nature of middle schoolers. Screaming profanities and confidence-shaking jabs at her, Melissa starts questioning whether her choice to move to 6th grade was the right choice.

Meanwhile, Gregory is determined to teach Mr. Johnson how to ride a bike. Spoiler alert: Mr. Johnson falls, shaking his trust in him.

Through all the hijinks, Craig’s activities continue to get put to the wayside as the faculty can’t maintain their focus. Threatening to have them all come in on the weekend, the team has to start these activities over again. Janine finds herself partnered with Dominic, who she jealously bites at about having Barbara’s phone number already. Janine can’t help herself but answer some of Dominic’s questions, realizing her new role is to move on from being a mentee to a mentor to the new teacher.

Barbara is able to boost Melissa’s confidence back up with her new upbeat, joyous energy.

But Craig’s activities still aren’t getting done. When they all gather up to support Mr. Johnson on his bike riding lesson, the team convinces Craig to count the success as completion of the team building exercises.

While the students haven’t arrived yet, this year is bound to be filled with hilarious new situations you won’t wanna miss.

Abbott Elementary season 5 premieres tonight, October 1st on ABC. You can catch new episodes weekly every Wednesday on ABC and on Hulu the next day.

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