Rewatching 21 Jump Street! Corrupt science! International spies! Nerds wearing turtleneck sweaters! It’s season four, episode thirteen, “Research and Destroy.”

 What’s goin’ down: Somebody’s making and selling synthetic heroin around town, so Hanson, Hoffs, and Ioki are undercover at an MIT-like school for science geniuses, to find out which egghead is up to mad science.

I don’t even know.

Here’s Hanson: Hanson doesn’t fit in with the whole “science” thing, as he’s constantly goofing up in the lab. This, nonetheless, catches the eyes of the bad guys, who seek to recruit him because of his “adventurous” nature.

Science Depp.

Penhall’s prerogatives: No Penhall this week. I could be wrong, but I believe Peter DeLuise was off filming the 1991 vampire movie Children of the Night.

Undercover blues: In addition to the drug plot, Ioki investigates a Chinese student who is being pursued by a spy (yes, a spy) who wants to apprehend him and haul him back to China. Also, as one of the few girls in science school (boo), Hoffs is romantically pursued by all the nerds.

Spycraft.

Goin’ to the chapel: Instead of meeting at the Jump Street chapel, our heroes reconnoiter with Captain Fuller twice in one of the drug victims’ hospital rooms. I guess it was a time/budget-saving thing.

Torn from today’s headlines: Lots of references to floppy discs being cool and high-tech, with a room full of science nerds getting all excited about an entire box full of floppies. Devo’s “Whip It” appears on the soundtrack, almost a decade after it was a hit.

Trivia time: One of the suspects is played by Wallace Langham, who went on to star in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

“Caruso’s sunglasses have nothing on my wavy hair.”

Jumpin’ or not? A middle-of-the-road episode. There are a few laughs here and there, but the cop case and the spy intrigue didn’t have a whole lot of bite. Not jumpin’.

Next week: Green and red.  

****

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