‘Abbott Elementary’ season finale has a guest appearance from an Eagle who cannot sing
The school has had a roller coaster of a year and now the headliner for its festival has backed out. Can Eagles wide receiver DeVonta Smith help?
Spoilers ahead!
Abbott Elementary is known for packing Philly surprises throughout the season, whether it’s a field trip to the Please Touch Museum or a celebrity cameo. Wednesday’s season five finale was a doubleheader featuring one special guest star: Eagles wide receiver DeVonta Smith.
Earlier this week, showrunner and star Quinta Brunson — the West Philly-raised actor who’s become an Emmy-winning comedic juggernaut — hinted at the celebrity cameo for the finale in an interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
“I love the Eagles. It’s another Eagle, I’m sorry, but another Eagle will be joining us. I’m not gonna stop until I have the whole entire team,” she said.
Smith shows up in the episode “Ava & Fest” to help Dominic (Luke Tennie) impress principal Ava (Janelle James), who needs a headliner for the school festival, aka Ava Fest. (She tried getting the Bacon Brothers, but Kevin was out.)
Dominic introduces Smith as his play cousin and proposes that the athlete could be the talent, but Ava rejects him initially because she needs a musician.
“I could play the recorder,” Smith offers.
Ava, unsatisfied, walks away with a huff, and Smith admits he can’t actually play music. Later, when Dominic feels like he ruined everything, Smith tries comforting him: “If there’s one thing I learned from football, it’s not over ‘til it’s over,” he says.
Dominic realizes then that they should focus on what Smith can bring to the festival — a chance for parents and students to play with a Super Bowl champion. (Yes, Smith brought the ring with him.) They convince Ava to swap the concert for a celebrity football game, and it’s a big success; some parents push kids out of the way to get near him.
Meanwhile, there’s more drama between Janine (Brunson) and Gregory (Tyler James Williams), who are still reeling from their sudden and shocking break up. But fans of the couple will be relieved to know that they get back together after overcoming their disagreement, thanks to heart-to-heart conversations with Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph) and Mr. Johnson (William Stanford Davis).
At the end, Smith comes back on-screen while Jacob (Chris Perfetti) sits in the dunk tank. Barbara keeps hitting the target, but due to some malfunction, Jacob hasn’t fallen yet. Smith steps in to hand Barbara a football to see if that would work. Sure enough, she hits the mark and Jacob’s sunk.
The second finale episode sees the teachers in Miami for a conference, instead of the typical setup where students go on a field trip. That’s where they learn the tragic news that the district intends to close 20 schools, including Abbott. When Jacob organizes teachers to protest, he’s joined by The Office’s Kate Flannery, a Philly native who also makes a brief cameo on finale night.
Closing schools was another plot point that Brunson referenced during her Fallon interview, when she mentioned that “there’s a lot of real-life stuff happening in there taken from the headlines.” It seems that Brunson, who featured the Philadelphia Inquirer on an earlier episode this season, has been keeping up with local news: This year, the Philadelphia School District announced plans to shutter 17 schools in the city (the initial number proposed was 20).
In the show, though, Abbott is eventually spared — not because of some heroic effort, but because district leaders realized they had just made a significant investment in the school building when they installed a new furnace.
“It doesn’t make sense for us to close a school that we’ve already put that much money into. The only fiscally responsible thing to do is to keep it open, so you’re open,” the superintendent tells the teachers. The other piece of news, he adds, is that they need an assistant principal to help Ava with the increasing student body; that promotion goes to Gregory.
It’s been a roller coaster season for Abbott’s indefatigable teachers, with great highs (Teachers Appreciation Night at a live Phillies game) and serious lows (operating the school out of an abandoned mall).
The sitcom was recently renewed for season six, so audiences can expect more guest stars and Philly surprises in the future.
Smith now joins a list of more than a dozen notable cameos including many of his Eagles teammates (Jalen Hurts, Brandon Graham, Jordan Mailata, and retired Eagle Jason Kelce), Hollywood stars (Bradley Cooper, Taraji P. Henson, Leslie Odom Jr.), Philly legends (Questlove, Gritty, and the Phanatic), and, of course, the entire gang from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, courtesy of the two crossover episodes last year.
When Brunson appeared on Good Morning America this week, she was asked about her bucket list for guest stars and she had some hilarious answers.
“I think if I had a dream Philadelphia guest star, it would be something very silly. Like there’s a woman who walks around carrying candy on her head, the Candy Lady. I would love to get a cameo from her,” said Brunson. “Or we have a street Elmo who goes around and plays the drums, if I could get street Elmo on, but he’s not with [the actor’s union] SAG, so it’s kinda hard to get him on the show.”
Brunson added another anonymous Philadelphian: “There’s a man who stands on one of the corners and just sings and dances on Sundays, would love to get him on. I don’t know who his agent is, but if he sees this …”
Will we see our beloved Philly Elmo drumming for the camera next season? Brunson can probably make it happen.
