The funny thing is, I thought it was so important to know why he died. But I'm never going to know. Never.
— Hanson
During an initially routine assignment, Hanson and Penhall arrest a teen for burglary. To their utter shock, in reaction to that, the boy commits suicide. The other students at the high school, and Hanson, afterwards talk about this and deal with it in a healthy way, but Penhall acts strange in reaction and retreats himself and is cynic.
This episode provides examples of:
- Driven to Suicide: Walker, a teenage boy, commits suicide after he is arrested for burglary. Afterwards, the other high school students, plus the Jump Street officers, talk a lot about this, with Penhall eventually revealing that he sadly has personal experience with this subject.
- Dude, Not Funny!: When Penhall tries to make jokes about suicide, Dorothy, horrified and annoyed, tells him straight-out that that is just not funny.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Penhall's girlfriend Dorothy, in about every other scene she is in in the series, mistreats him and is annoying. In this episode however, when Penhall starts making horribly insensitive and inappropriate jokes about suicide note , she rightfully tells him what the audience is thinking:Dorothy: Doug, that wasn't funny. You said it was going to be a joke, but that wasn't funny! [...] You've been a real pain in the ass the last couple of days!
- Mood Whiplash: The opening scene is played for laughs, about a clumsy burglar. Then after the opening credits, the subject of the episode turns very grim and tearjerkery, being about suicide.
- Sad Clown: Penhall spends the first half of the episode making jokes about suicide, something which alienates the other characters. Turns out he does this to hide a painful and sad past, which never was revealed about his character before (even to his In Universe best friend Hanson) and he has difficulty talking about. Even lampshaded by that he plays "Tears of a Clown" (the Smokey Robinson song) as source music at a certain point.
- Source Music: Penhall puts on a cassette with music to listen to and turns the volume up, to drown out his pain and sadness. The lyrics happen to be suspiciously relevant too.
- Suspiciously Apropos Music: During a scene where Penhall tries to repress his memories of his mother's death and deal with the pain by going boxing, he puts on music to listen to. The song is "Tears of a Clown" by Smokey Robinson, with suspiciously relevant lyrics to how Penhall's feeling and acting. The title even strongly resembles the trope title "Sad Clown".
- Tropaholics Anonymous: After denying and suppressing his pain and anger most of the episode, at the end Penhall goes to a support group for people who have lost loved ones to suicide, and in the last shot, he begins to talk to them.
- Very Special Episode: This episode is about suicide amongst teenagers, which stands out as a heavy subject even against the other, also pretty serious, episodes.
- Worst. Whatever. Ever!: Penhall and Hanson call a burglar they see operate, the worst one ever. Not helped by the fact that he's apparently drunk, of course.Penhall: This guy is the worst burglar I've ever seen. He's drunk.
