21 Jump Street: S1E4: "Don't Pet the Teacher"

Written by Clifton Campbell

Directed by Lee Sheldon

Airdate: April 26, 1987

Guest Stars: Leah Ayres (Susan Chadwick); Geoffery Blake (Jeffrey Stone); Mark (Albert Janowitz)

What if you're working undercover as a High School student and want to date your teacher? The 2012 21 Jump Street film got a lot of mileage out of the awkward situation, for its fourth episode the series also took on the time-honored subject of crushing on your teacher. 

Jenko assigns Hanson to investigate a series of robberies and vandalism at a local High School. On his first day he has a flat tire but no jack to put on the spare. Susan, an English teacher at the High School, helps him out and they have a flirtation. Things get awkward when Susan is greeted by Hanson as a new student in her literature class. Hanson takes a seat next to Jeffrey, because Jenko named him as a potential suspect. Hanson befriends Jeffrey, who sells him Van Halen tickets.

Tickets to Van Halen

Jeffrey's a loner and has a reputation for mischief. He's in grief over losing his brother, a basketball star who died "in Cambodia." Jeffrey spends his nights selling discount concert tickets and doing graffiti. Hanson is weirded out when he thinks Jeffrey is also stalking Miss Chadwick at night and always leaving her roses. But the burglaries continue, Jenko chastises Hanson for failing to find the culprit and getting distracted by his crush on Miss Chadwick. 

"I'm not who you think"

I also neglected to mention the school janitor Albert, who is always acting shady. Hanson has Jeffrey arrested after the stolen goods are found in his locker, but later realizes circumstantial evidence points to someone else. Back at school Jeffrey finds Albert the janitor removing his brother's trophy from its case (he blamed for getting benched when they played together), and they have a confrontation, then Hanson arrives to make the arrest. It was the janitor all along. 

The ending is "Scooby Doo" all the way, I was expecting the janitor blame the "meddling kids" for messing up his plans. Apart from The Breakfast Club, school janitors often get a bad rap in pop culture for some reason (class bias?). Depp was able to show off his charm in the episode, while a subplot with Ioki studying for his police exam was all filler. Perhaps if the script had explored Jeffrey a bit more as a misunderstood loner at a huge High School, the story might've carried more weight. Otherwise, the episode is mostly mediocre. 

Final Report: B-