#44 "Swallowed Alive" (Season 3 #9)

#44 "Swallowed Alive" (Season 3 #9)

Photo Gallery 1 (scroll to find correct episode once you get there)

Original Air Date: Feb. 5, 1989

Writer: Erik Blakeney

Director: James Contner

Production Code: 16319

Things To Note:

Opening Theme:

Closing Theme:

Song at end: Steve Winwood: "Can't Find My Way Home" Song in the tunnel scene: "Are You Sure" by the Staple Singers.

LOD:

Regulars:

Friends, Family & Guests: Joshua Cox [ Unknown ], Jeremy Roberts [ Unknown ], Randy Brooks [ Unknown ], Michael Champion [ Unknown ], Ian Tracey [ Unknown ]

Episode Summary from The 21 Jump Street Episode Guide:

NOTE: Stop with this one if you don’t want spoilers.

Hanson becomes an inmate in a juvenile detention hall in order to investigate the murder of one of the inmates

Detailed Episode Review (contains spoilers!):

(NOTE: I am doing these from the FX repeats. Email me with missing scenes & I’ll add them).

Commentary:

Cyndi Glass: One of the best 21JS episodes ever, almost a movie in itself. We find out that background checks were done on all the kids in the detention center and none of the JS cops ever busted any of them, so downtown is concerned for their safety. We see Ioki and Booker setting the stage for Hanson and Penhall to come in and be accepted. We see Fuller’s shock when he sees Hanson looking pale and ragged, and his need to pull Hanson off the case before he gets in too deep. We see Hanson’s anger and self-defense turn into something out of his control that he never intended, and we see the horror he feels at being "the Hammer" and being the Lord of the Damned, so to speak (I love when he makes that jerk kid clean toilets). We also see the limitations of this power, as he can’t help one kid who is being raped continually and another very young teenager who has feminine features and seems terrified by everything. Penhall’s howling claustrophobia is wrenching, even though in the repeat we don’t see what happened after they took him to the hospital. The tunnel scene is the most intense of the episode, with Hanson sitting alone with his cigarette and booze, in the tunnel where the warden has arranged for him to be alone to have sex with a girl from the female part of the facility. It’s telling that he’s smoking - most of the time you see him chomping on gum. I think the cigarette was a way to fit in, even though he had previously said he didn’t smoke (and I don’t think we ever see Hanson smoke in other episodes). Asking for the girl was a way of keeping his cover intact (why wouldn’t someone in power ask for a girl?) as well as trying to comfort himself by talking to and being around a girl instead of all the angry and closed-off boys around him. I think he wanted some closeness, and the result shocked and maybe even shamed him. When Hanson tells her he just wants to talk and tries to reassure her that she doesn’t have to have sex with him, she treats him with contempt, and he sits, alone even with her right there, silently overwhelmed by everything that has happened, and cries. The end of the episode is jarring, with a free for all fight in which the jerk kid, who ended up being the one they were trying to catch after all, is killed. Fuller walks out with Hanson, who is angry and disillusioned because he now sees where the kids go after he busts them. Fuller wisely advises him to give back - to pick one kid to help. At the end of the episode, the gentle feminine-looking kid is released, and Hanson is there to pick him up and talk to him, backed by Steve Winwood’s "Can’t Find My Way Home." It’s a beautiful ending to a remarkable hour of network drama.

John DeCarli: This episode, along with #29 "Orpheus 3.3," are my favorite Hanson episodes and probably my favorites of the entire series.

It's not perfect. I think a scene was edited out of the FX version where Dorothy comes and picks up Penhall at the county mental hosptial. Gina Nemo is listed in the credits but doesn't appear in the FX version. And if you watch closely, Hanson (or Depp?) is holding a cigarette in his hand as he walks off camera before the final commercial. A continuity error?

Otherwise, it's really good. I like the way the plot causes Hanson to progressively lose all his backup support and that he is forced to conftont his doubts by himself. This also plays to one of Depp's acting strengths: he gets to demonstrate emotional range and complexity with minimal verbal dialogue. There's real rage when Hanson defends himself against Matty in the courtyard and true sadness (and tearfulness) in the tunnel scene. (I do think the cigarette he holds here is intentional).

Finally, I think the use of music here deserves a special mention. The songs used here not only just serve to set the mood, I think they actually comment and elaborate on Hanson's emotional state. Which, for me, gives this episode an almost OPERATIC quality. How else can I explain the impact of the final, wordless scene?

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