diff --git a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/internal/SQLConf.scala b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/internal/SQLConf.scala
index 24f51ef16310693cedd79a30a6e39c8a256e12a7..a685099505ee82b1956dea61e80def615972bc84 100644
--- a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/internal/SQLConf.scala
+++ b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/internal/SQLConf.scala
@@ -551,9 +551,9 @@ object SQLConf {
     .intConf
     .createWithDefault(100)
 
-  val CODEGEN_FALLBACK = buildConf("spark.sql.codegen.fallback")
+  val WHOLESTAGE_FALLBACK = buildConf("spark.sql.codegen.fallback")
     .internal()
-    .doc("When true, (whole stage) codegen could be temporary disabled for the part of query that" +
+    .doc("When true, whole stage codegen could be temporary disabled for the part of query that" +
       " fail to compile generated code")
     .booleanConf
     .createWithDefault(true)
@@ -1041,7 +1041,7 @@ class SQLConf extends Serializable with Logging {
 
   def wholeStageMaxNumFields: Int = getConf(WHOLESTAGE_MAX_NUM_FIELDS)
 
-  def codegenFallback: Boolean = getConf(CODEGEN_FALLBACK)
+  def wholeStageFallback: Boolean = getConf(WHOLESTAGE_FALLBACK)
 
   def maxCaseBranchesForCodegen: Int = getConf(MAX_CASES_BRANCHES)
 
diff --git a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/SparkPlan.scala b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/SparkPlan.scala
index b1db9dd9dd8ac4935111b511c6bba7b2aad87952..c7277c21cebb2d02efc5a632054c427d9a81ec9d 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/SparkPlan.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/SparkPlan.scala
@@ -56,10 +56,14 @@ abstract class SparkPlan extends QueryPlan[SparkPlan] with Logging with Serializ
 
   protected def sparkContext = sqlContext.sparkContext
 
-  // whether we should fallback when hitting compilation errors caused by codegen
-  private val codeGenFallBack = sqlContext.conf.codegenFallback
-
-  protected val subexpressionEliminationEnabled = sqlContext.conf.subexpressionEliminationEnabled
+  // sqlContext will be null when we are being deserialized on the slaves.  In this instance
+  // the value of subexpressionEliminationEnabled will be set by the deserializer after the
+  // constructor has run.
+  val subexpressionEliminationEnabled: Boolean = if (sqlContext != null) {
+    sqlContext.conf.subexpressionEliminationEnabled
+  } else {
+    false
+  }
 
   /** Overridden make copy also propagates sqlContext to copied plan. */
   override def makeCopy(newArgs: Array[AnyRef]): SparkPlan = {
@@ -366,7 +370,8 @@ abstract class SparkPlan extends QueryPlan[SparkPlan] with Logging with Serializ
     try {
       GeneratePredicate.generate(expression, inputSchema)
     } catch {
-      case _ @ (_: JaninoRuntimeException | _: CompileException) if codeGenFallBack =>
+      case e @ (_: JaninoRuntimeException | _: CompileException)
+          if sqlContext == null || sqlContext.conf.wholeStageFallback =>
         genInterpretedPredicate(expression, inputSchema)
     }
   }
diff --git a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/WholeStageCodegenExec.scala b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/WholeStageCodegenExec.scala
index a41a7ca56a0a1ae1a7fa7a8223e22a1cf0158467..bacb7090a70ab7edfc1d16a65a4446691e90ad11 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/WholeStageCodegenExec.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/WholeStageCodegenExec.scala
@@ -382,7 +382,7 @@ case class WholeStageCodegenExec(child: SparkPlan) extends UnaryExecNode with Co
     try {
       CodeGenerator.compile(cleanedSource)
     } catch {
-      case _: Exception if !Utils.isTesting && sqlContext.conf.codegenFallback =>
+      case e: Exception if !Utils.isTesting && sqlContext.conf.wholeStageFallback =>
         // We should already saw the error message
         logWarning(s"Whole-stage codegen disabled for this plan:\n $treeString")
         return child.execute()
diff --git a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrameFunctionsSuite.scala b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrameFunctionsSuite.scala
index 50e475984f4580e4428da5dd90e3ace0c8db12f5..0681b9cbeb1d84fc5e349bc47802afd314ab60fd 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrameFunctionsSuite.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrameFunctionsSuite.scala
@@ -422,7 +422,7 @@ class DataFrameFunctionsSuite extends QueryTest with SharedSQLContext {
         v
       }
       withSQLConf(
-        (SQLConf.CODEGEN_FALLBACK.key, codegenFallback.toString),
+        (SQLConf.WHOLESTAGE_FALLBACK.key, codegenFallback.toString),
         (SQLConf.WHOLESTAGE_CODEGEN_ENABLED.key, wholeStage.toString)) {
         val df = spark.range(0, 4, 1, 4).withColumn("c", c)
         val rows = df.collect()
diff --git a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrameSuite.scala b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrameSuite.scala
index 13341645e8ff88329e299d718314b16273620986..5eb34e587e95f4e92df1409a6ebc80e01a39c58a 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrameSuite.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrameSuite.scala
@@ -2011,17 +2011,7 @@ class DataFrameSuite extends QueryTest with SharedSQLContext {
 
     val filter = (0 until N)
       .foldLeft(lit(false))((e, index) => e.or(df.col(df.columns(index)) =!= "string"))
-
-    withSQLConf(SQLConf.CODEGEN_FALLBACK.key -> "true") {
-      df.filter(filter).count()
-    }
-
-    withSQLConf(SQLConf.CODEGEN_FALLBACK.key -> "false") {
-      val e = intercept[SparkException] {
-        df.filter(filter).count()
-      }.getMessage
-      assert(e.contains("grows beyond 64 KB"))
-    }
+    df.filter(filter).count
   }
 
   test("SPARK-20897: cached self-join should not fail") {
diff --git a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/test/SharedSQLContext.scala b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/test/SharedSQLContext.scala
index cd8d0708d8a32bc87df6eec1eb660564b11094ba..1f073d5f64c6b72019e781ceb9faca394649dcba 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/test/SharedSQLContext.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/test/SharedSQLContext.scala
@@ -24,7 +24,6 @@ import org.scalatest.concurrent.Eventually
 
 import org.apache.spark.{DebugFilesystem, SparkConf}
 import org.apache.spark.sql.{SparkSession, SQLContext}
-import org.apache.spark.sql.internal.SQLConf
 
 /**
  * Helper trait for SQL test suites where all tests share a single [[TestSparkSession]].
@@ -35,7 +34,6 @@ trait SharedSQLContext extends SQLTestUtils with BeforeAndAfterEach with Eventua
     new SparkConf()
       .set("spark.hadoop.fs.file.impl", classOf[DebugFilesystem].getName)
       .set("spark.unsafe.exceptionOnMemoryLeak", "true")
-      .set(SQLConf.CODEGEN_FALLBACK.key, "false")
   }
 
   /**
diff --git a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/test/TestHive.scala b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/test/TestHive.scala
index 0f6a81b6f813b0b72c6dc3e3f5d4618f227b0728..10c9a2de6540a1108f72aa46a9ec4175df9507cb 100644
--- a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/test/TestHive.scala
+++ b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/test/TestHive.scala
@@ -51,7 +51,6 @@ object TestHive
       "TestSQLContext",
       new SparkConf()
         .set("spark.sql.test", "")
-        .set(SQLConf.CODEGEN_FALLBACK.key, "false")
         .set("spark.sql.hive.metastore.barrierPrefixes",
           "org.apache.spark.sql.hive.execution.PairSerDe")
         .set("spark.sql.warehouse.dir", TestHiveContext.makeWarehouseDir().toURI.getPath)