Deliver Us from Goodness
Valeria Cantrell (Kaiulani Lee) is an Alabama housewife who has a life that is everything she could ever want, including her mayoral candidate husband Julian (Steve Vinovich) and her motivated teenage daughter Charlotte (Jane Adams). While entertaining an important dinner guest, Valeria discovers that her incredibly generous, wholesome, and faithful nature has somehow led her to become a literal saint that can perform actual miracles. Her newfound sainthood soon is seen as unusual, frightening, and a burden to the family, so under advice from her mother Ruby (Mary Louise Wilson) and the local priest (Albert Macklin), she tries to fall from grace by breaking the Ten Commandments in numerical order.
Tropes:
- Be Careful What You Wish For: After putting on heavy eyeshadow to look pretty, Charlotte lies to her mother that she's trying to look like Cleopatra for a school contest. Valeria's divinity instantly puts Charlotte in a genuine Cleopatra costume, which makes her freak out.
- Breather Episode: The last episode was ominous and foreboding, so this goofy comedy piece serves as a breather for the viewers.
- Catchphrase: Valeria's local priest exclaims "Good Gudooshey!" throughout the episode, possibly as a means to not take the Lord's name in vain.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Valeria's mother Ruby, who calls her throughout the first act, is later called to the house by Valeria herself, where she helps her daughter to finally lose her divinity... and then get said divinity for no real reason.
- Denser and Wackier: Wholesome housewife Valeria is mysteriously given sainthood, seemingly for her attitude alone, and the miracles she conjures (such as a bucket of fried chicken randomly falling from the ceiling) are seen as unnerving, if not outright horrific. To this end, she tries breaking the Ten Commandments in order to fall from grace. The soundtrack gets in on it as well, with its mix of heavenly choirs and goofy musical cues.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Valeria loses her sainthood and is able to reunite with her relieved family, while her mother gets the sainthood she lost right after, so she can still make money by inviting people to kiss her.
- Freak Out: Charlotte is prone to losing her shit once her mother's saintly abilities and change in attitude manifest, such as when she's made to look like Cleopatra and her baton gets broken.
- A God Am I: Valeria and Ruby finally manage to get rid of the former's sainthood by declaring herself above all others for her position, engaging heavily in the sin of pride.
- God Is Inept: We don't know whether God Himself is involved with the plot, but something really wacky must be going on with Heaven if they can just randomly hand random people total sainthood.
- The Gods Must Be Lazy: Heaven seems to have become either incompetent or just plain lazy in this episode, as sainthood is apparently given through good deeds and blind faith alone, and it can be just as easily given to someone else when that saint falls from grace.
- Good Samaritan: Valeria is cheerful, generous, wholesome, kind, and unceasingly faithful, to the point where she is randomly made a literal saint. The plot of the episode comes about because she wants to get rid of her miraculous powers when they start frightening and restricting her family.
- Happily Married: Valeria is devoted to her husband Julian, and thus Commandment #6 (committing adultery) makes her extremely hesitant.
- Hollywood Tone-Deaf: The overly geeky Charlotte demonstrates this with her rendition of "America the Beautiful" during Mr. Tabbitt's visit.
- Here We Go Again!: Ruby is given Valeria's sainthood just as easily as her daughter did, right after she loses said sainthood, and she no doubt plans to show it off for her own financial gain.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Once her sainthood drives wedges between herself and her family, Valeria tries breaking every commandment so she can fall from grace, and eventually gets frustrated with how tedious and boring committing evil truly is.
- Instant Costume Change: Valeria's divinity allows her to change the attire of herself and those around her instantaneously, such as giving Charlotte a Cleopatra costume, clothing herself in a saint's robes, and turning the priest stark naked when she tries seducing him.
- It's All About Me: Ruby tells her daughter that she hasn't fallen from grace because she's been trying to sin for her family's sake instead of personal gain, so she finally helps Valeria lose her divinity by encouraging her to take pride in being a saint and advertising people to kiss her for money.
- Karma Houdini: Valeria's streak of immoral behavior goes unpunished, though it can be excused given that she doesn't want to be a saint if it means frightening her family.
- Oh, Crap!: Julian and Valeria share one when the latter reaches Commandment #6: "Thou shalt not commit adultery."
- Patron Saint: Valeria becomes one completely at random based on her faith and kindness alone, and the catch is that she doesn't want to be a saint when her miraculous new powers horrify her family.
- Precision F-Strike: Valeria exclaims "God dammit!" when her sainthood keeps getting under her and her family's skin, horrifying Julian and Charlotte.
- Pride: Ruby deems it as the worst sin of all, and under her suggestion, Valeria finally loses her sainthood after she flaunts it and invites people to kiss her for money.
- Riddle for the Ages: The exact criteria of how sainthood is given, as Valeria is seemingly given divine abilities just for her blind faith and kindly nature, and her mother is given it after she loses it by helping her lose it in the first place.
- Running Gag: Whenever Valeria quotes a Bible verse or does a good deed, she's bathed in ethereal light while a heavenly choir sings, often confusing people as to where it's coming from.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Mr. Tabbitt promptly bails when he sees Valeria glow like a Christmas tree and a bucket of fried chicken falls from the ceiling when she wishes he had some.
- Shout-Out: Bruce Springsteen gets a few mentions throughout the episode, as Charlotte is a big fan of his. As Valeria tries to break Commandment #1 (not worshiping any other gods), her daughter tells her that she prays to the Boss before bed every night, and places a framed photo of him on her altar to help her fall from grace. Valeria later wears an E Street Band t-shirt belonging to Charlotte as she works on losing her sainthood, and Ruby even points out the above-mentioned photo on her daughter's altar.
- Stereotypical Nerd: Charlotte fits a good amount of the criteria, with her thick glasses, twin pigtails, energetic baton twirling, and over-the-top voice.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Being given divine powers at complete random is not treated as wondrous, as it clearly unnerves everyone around Valeria and she wants to get rid of it so her family's life isn't ruined anymore.
- Tempting Fate: Before Valeria's heavenly powers are revealed, Mr. Tabbitt speaks about how "fine, upstanding, NORMAL families" are who people want to elect.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Valeria intentionally adopts a meaner and surlier attitude so she can lose her sainthood, swearing in front of her family and giving her ailing mother an earful for calling her all the time, followed by insulting Charlotte, wearing her favorite shirt, and breaking her treasured baton when she's called out. Despite the attitude, she's still hesitant about trying to cheat on her husband.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Mr. Tabbitt notes to Valeria that he enjoys fried chicken (one of the few things he's not allergic to) when he comes over for dinner, and he quickly exits when Valeria's wish for some to give him makes a bucket of the stuff literally drop from nowhere.
- World of Ham: Given the plot and the Southern setting, everyone is over the top here, especially Valeria's daughter Charlotte.
