"It was something I thought about from the beginning of this season," Brunson revealed of the shocking twist
Credit: Gilles Mingasson/Disney
Warning: This post contains spoilers for the April 8 episode of Abbott Elementary.
NEED TO KNOW
- A fan-favorite couple seemed to break up in the April 8 episode of Abbott Elementary
- Creator Quinta Brunson is unpacking why she chose to lead the couple down this path and why she really “liked” this storyline
- New episodes of Abbott Elementary air Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m. on ABC
Is it really over between Janine and Gregory?
On the Wednesday, April 8 episode of Abbott Elementary, the fan-favorite couple, played by creator Quinta Brunson and Tyler James Williams, came to an impasse in their long-awaited relationship.
An argument was rooted in planning their first trip as a couple ended with Janine suggesting that they break up, which stunned them both into silence and ended the conversation.
It wasn't totally clear how they left things, and Brunson is playing coy about whether it's really the end for the pair.
"You can see that [Janine] surprised herself. I’m not going to say whether she means it or not, but I think she surprised herself in saying it and wonders if she means it," Brunson told The Hollywood Reporter.
"But when she doesn’t hear anything from Gregory, it makes her feel like, 'Whoa, okay.' I think she was sitting there waiting for a protest but didn’t get one, which reinforced the fear that maybe it’s true. Maybe we shouldn’t [be together]."
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Credit: Gilles Mingasson/Disney
Brunson, 36, said she chose to spring this twist on fans "because 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 revealed. "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."
"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 told the outlet that there was a debate about when and how exactly they would have Janine and Gregory hit this bump in the road, but "we landed on this, and I liked it."
"We probably kicked pitches around, because at that point we talked about this episode coming sooner. But this was the one I liked the most. It felt small enough and big enough at the same time."
Credit: Gilles Mingasson/Disney
Brunson told PEOPLE last year that she had no qualms about possibly breaking up the fan-favorite couple, as she called it "good storytelling."
"I think there's nothing wrong with crushing [fans]. It doesn't technically deter me," she said. At the same time, she said, "I want everyone to have a good time here."
"It's really kind of amazing how invested they get," she said of the passion for the onscreen couple. "It’s always what you want. It's what you're writing for and writing towards. I love that they love Janine and Gregory so much. I love that they love Ava and Shawn. These things are so rewarding. That’s what you want."
Abbott Elementary airs Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m. on ABC and streams on Hulu.
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