Quantum Leap
Season 2, Episode 9:
So Help Me God
Sam: Since the law requires a trial by a jury of one's peers, we have no choice but to reluctantly accept these white jurors as Lilah's equals.
Written by Deborah Pratt
Directed by Andy Cadiff
Airdate: November 29, 1989
July 29, 1957
Sam leaps into a milquetoast young country lawyer who must defend a young black woman charged with murdering the son of a powerful Southern political figure.
Tropes:
- As the Good Book Says...: The Bible is quoted more than once (see the title even), but most prominently where Sam uses it to get the truth of what happened to Houston out of Myrtle, who had been pressured into silence with religious threatening.
- Black Gal on White Guy Drama: It turned out that the woman, Delilah, had been in an abusive and initially non-consensual relationship with him (possibly referencing how white men would often rape their female slaves/servants). When she was about to leave him and stop being a servant in his father's house, he attacked her and his own mother shot him to stop it.
- Cannot Tell a Lie: Sadie Cotter is a pious and honest woman, who when asked to speak the truth, said she "didn't know how to speak any other way."
- Clear Their Name: A variant, in that Sam is trying to prove that a client killed in self-defense rather than with malice aforethought. He ends up proving that she never killed the victim at all.
- Deep South: The setting of the episode is the South in the late 50s, where a black woman is suspected of killing the son of her wealthy employer (who unofficially runs the entire town). You can bet your ass there's plenty of the worst of the South on display, though a few characters avert the stereotypes as well but they are by far outnumbered.
- Genre Savvy: Sam assumed that both the judge and the captain would object to him calling Sadie to the stand, so he headed them both off by getting a Federal subpoena and the US Marshall to enforce it.
- The Ghost: Houston Cotter is dead by the time the episode starts (naturally, as the entire episode takes place almost entirely during the trial of his accused murderer), but he is the driving force of the episode and is talked about constantly.
- Happily Married: Colbert "Captain" Cotter and his wife Sadie. He's fixed the trial against Lilah to prevent Sadie from being exposed as the one who killed Houston.
- Locked Out of the Loop: It takes Al roughly a day after Sam leapt in to get in contact with him, and as such is unaware that Sam changed Lilah's plea:Sam: Listen, I'm here to save Delilah Berry from the electric chair.
Al: We already ran that scenario. There's no problem.
Sam: No?
Al: No, she pleads guilty to a lesser charge, then she gets 20 years instead of the chair.
Sam: Uh... that's probably before I... pleaded her not guilty.
Al: What'd you do that for?!
Sam: 'Cause she's not guilty! - Love Makes You Evil: In the end, it is said this is what led to Houston Cotter to abuse Lilah, because he was in love with her (a black woman) but at the same time he was a racist in the segregated South. Those two things not being able to reconcile with one another led to his abuse.Sadie: Sometimes, if you love someone... and you don't wanna love 'em, you get to hatin' 'em. Well, Houston loved Lilah so much... he wanted to marry her. But her bein' colored, of course, he couldn't.
- Maligned Mixed Marriage: This trope is cited as the reason Houston and Lilah never got married. The fact that such a union would have been illegal in Louisiana at the time was also a factor.
- Nice to the Waiter: In direct contrast to her husband and son, Sadie Cotter is portrayed as being endlessly kind to everyone around her, even those well below her on the social ladder including POCs in the racially segregated south.
- N-Word Privileges: Inverted. Almost everyone in the episode uses the word freely (given it's the Deep South in the 50s after all) except Sam, as he's the All-Loving Hero from a more progressive present. As such, he reacts in horror at the use of the word and aggressively admonishes anyone who uses it. Al also becomes incredibly uncomfortable when Sam even talks around the word, not even saying it outright, just implying its use.
- Offing the Offspring: It's eventually revealed that Sadie Cotter killed Houston to stop him from beating Lilah to death. The Captain and Lilah were both covering for her, and Sadie is unable to retain the knowledge of this fact.
- The Patriarch: Colbert "The Captain" Cotter is this to the entire town. It is unclear what his actual position is, but he clearly runs the town, is the richest man there, and employs almost everyone who lives there in one way or another. People treat him throughout the episode like he's royalty, which is one of the reasons Sam takes an immediate dislike to him.
- The Perry Mason Method: Variation and lampshaded: After Sam manages to browbeat the prosecutor and Sheriff into providing him with the information he needs for the case, he narrates to himself "Thank you, Perry Mason."
- Rage Breaking Point: Sam's attempt to get a copy of all the information available for the casenote runs into difficulty when "Sheriff Lobo" calls the prosecutor, Bo... and instead of actually bothering to get that information, the two of them just shoot the shit about their personal lives. As such, when the sheriff attempts to hang up:Sam: (rips the phone out of the Sheriff's hand; practically yells) Bo, I'm defending a woman accused of murder. Now, if you and Sheriff Lobo don't start cooperating with me, I'm gonna get a U.S. district judge to subpoena your files and charge you both with obstructing justice!
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Houston Cotter raped Lilah when she was just 14, given the society they live in this went unpunished and even worse being raped by him is usually referred to as one of Lilah's crimes, not Houston's.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Judge Haller is a good natured and very fair man and though clearly friendly with the upper crust in town, including Captain Cotter, he presides over the trial honorably and never once shows bias to the prosecution, or gives in to the general "witch hunt" mentality when it comes to Lilah.
- The Reveal: Throughout the episode, the one thing everyone can agree on, including Sam, is that Lilah killed Houston. Sam merely maintains she did so in self-defense, where the prosecution (and the town at large) insists she did it maliciously; even Lilah does nothing to dissuade people of the notion that she is the one who did it. In the end, Sam calls Sadie to the stand expecting her to corroborate his self-defense plea... but instead, she takes everyone (except Colbert Cotter and Lilah herself) off guard by admitting she was the one who pulled the trigger.
- Sanity Slippage: After having to shoot her own son to stop him from killing Lilah, Sadie Cotter has had a break from reality. She remembers the event as it happened but cannot retain the information that Houston is dead. And even when she gives her testimony in court, she is unable to realize she publicly admitted to killing her son. She just seems to believe he's "out hunting."Sadie: (cheerfully) So you see, Eugene, Lilah didn't steal the money... I gave it to her. And I'll see that Houston tells you the truth of that, soon as he comes home from huntin'...
- Shout-Out: Sam compares himself to Perry Mason and the corrupt sheriff to Sherrif Lobo.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Variation: On his way back to the courthouse, Sam admits in his narration that all he knows about being a lawyer comes from a show he watched when he was younger. Only he can't seem to recall the name...Al: (arrives) Well, if it isn't Perry Mason!
Sam: That's it!
Al: What's it?
Sam: Never mind, never mind. - Undying Loyalty: Sadie to Lilah, and Lilah to Sadie. Lilah credits Sadie Cotter with saving her life for hiring her and taking her out of poverty, homelessness and certain doom, and Sadie considers Lilah like a daughter to her, and even killed her own son to save Lilah when he seemed like he was intent on killing her. In return, Lilah was willing to rot in jail rather than admit Sadie's guilt.
- Wham Line: Faced with no other options, Sam resorts to having Sadie Cotter on the stand to explain what happened the night of Houston's deathnote . She then proceeds to recount how she tried to give Lilah money so she could get away and start a new life, only for Houston to come home and lose his shit upon discovering this. And then she recounts the murder itself.Sadie: (in a daze) Oh, Houston went wild. He hit her so hard, she fell into the chifforobe. I tried to stop him, but he pushed me away. Just kept hittin' her over and over. I begged for him to stop before he killed her, but he wouldn't. (pauses) ...that's when I picked up the shotgun...
