In a Classic I’ll Fly Away, Lilly Won’t Be Deprived Of Her Dream of Voting

Today, we look at a classic episode of I’ll Fly Away where Lilly refuses to be deprived of her dream of voting.

This is a delayed Year of Great TV Episodes, where every day from March 2nd on this year (plus January 1st-March 1st of 2024), we’ll take a look at great TV episodes. Note that I’m not talking about “Very Special Episodes” or episodes built around gimmicks, but just “normal” episodes of TV shows that are notable only because of how good they are.

All this month, I’ll be spotlighting great female-centric TV episodes.

As noted the last time I featured an I’ll Fly Away episode, the show was created by John Falsey and Joshua Brand a year after they created the critical hit, Northern Exposure (and years after the pair created another critical darling, St. Elsewhere), I’ll Fly Away debuted in 1991, and while critically acclaimed, didn’t get quite the same critical attention as those other two series, and it is relatively little-known today, despite being an outstanding television program filled with powerful writing and excellent acting performances.

The series was narrated by, and effectively told the story OF, Lilly Harper (Regina Taylor), who, in the late 1950s/early 1960s became the housekeeper/nanny for the family of Forrest Bedford (Sam Waterson), the District Attorney in a small Southern town (they never outright say it is Georgia, but it is obviously Georgia). Forrest’s wife is in a sanitarium, so he really needs the help. He has two sons, Nathan (Jeremy London), the eldest in the family, and the youngest, John Morgan (John Aaron Bennett), who Lilly essentially raises while Forrest is at work. Forrest also has a daughter, Francie (Ashlee Levitch), who is a smart, sensitive young woman who is really struggling with the lack of a maternal figure in her life.

In Season 1’s “On the Road,” Forrest is continuing his disastrous campaign for state attorney general. He had been recruited by a few rich and otherwise influential guys to run for the office as essentially a shoe-in, including his wife’s uncle, Judge Lane Stevens, who was the one who brought Forrest to the table. However, Forrest kept getting caught up in civil rights cases (totally be accident. It isn’t even clear if Forrest himself isn’t pretty racist. He was just a racist dude with a sense of honor and a respect for the law).

A Black man struck a White cop during a protest. The cop then recanted his testimony, claiming he had just been injured on a motorcycle accident. Forrest ordered the Black man released, but he wasn’t released until late that night, and then had a “car accident” on the way home. A witness came forward (an old Black man) who witnessed the murder of the released prisoner. Forrest shocked the community by arresting the man who murdered the released prisoner, who Forrest suspects to be a member of the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan member keeps making noise about how he wasn’t alone in his actions, that he has connected friends (and it is heavily implied that Judge Stevens is one of them). He is then murdered while being transported to the hospital with stomach pain. Forrest shocked the community AGAIN by helping to investigate, discover and arrest the man behind the assassination. The assassin was a popular former cop. So, basically, the whole White side of town hates Forrest right now.

So basically, his attorney general campaign is in bad shape, but he is still running on the same ticket as the popular governor, so he still has a CHANCE. He takes Francine on the road with him after she is suspended from school for smoking. She’s very cruel to him, and the worst part is that a lot of her jibes ring true to Forrest, like how she rips him for a photo op he does with a chain gang (to show he IS tough on crime, and also to show him with a group of Black prisoners, to show where he stands). She calls him a fascist, and even compares him to Hitler at one point.

However, at a community gathering, a man shouts at him for arresting the popular white cop, and another guy throws a rock at him. Forrest stands tall, and continues his speech, and stands by his actions. Francine later apologizes, and admits that she actually ADMIRES her dad a lot, but she’s just dealing with some weird emotions. She talks about puberty in a way that you don’t normally see on TV NOW let alone in 1992, discussing the weird feelings she has, alternating between depression and just almost being overwhelmed by life (but not in a bad way). Forrest assures her that everyone, even him, has gone through similar things at her age.

The main plot of the episode, though, is Lilly deciding she is going to register to vote. The episode opens with her playing poker with two of her maid friends. She then goes to register, and after getting the run around, their manager, a White woman named Mrs. Davis, comes in, and she tells Lilly she has to take a difficult test (after, of course, asking Lilly “Why do you want to vote?” in a way where she’s like, SERIOUSLY? YOU want to VOTE?). Lilly asks her that, if she passes, will that mean she can vote in the upcoming election (which is very soon, hence Forrest traveling to rally the voters). She is told yes.

Lilly comes back the next day, and overhears a Black biology professor fail the test, as it involves a number of legal terms. Not SUPER obscure stuff, but obscure enough if you don’t know legal terms. Like “What is a Writ of Mandamus?” Lilly goes home, but the next day at the Bedfords, she begins to read Forrest’s legal dictionaries. Forrest is surprised when Lilly tells him she plans on registering to vote, but he supports her.

She goes, and she passes the test, having prepared well. The woman issuing the exam is surprised, but then tells Lilly that she’ll get her registration in a couple of weeks. Lilly says that she was told that she would be able to vote in THIS election. But the woman tells her no. Lilly goes home, dejected.

Her young daughter, Adelaide, is playing that night, and can tell how out of it Lilly is, and she ultimately admits that, yes, she IS is sad. And it is okay for adults to get sad. When she asks WHY she is sad, Lilly explains that someone took something important from her. Her daughter asks, “Did you ask for it back?” Lilly realizes that she did NOT.

The next day, she goes with John Morgan after school, and quietly, but forcefully says that she wants her registration now. She is told she has to wait. She raises her voice a bit, saying, “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing to me here.” The worker plans on getting a security guard (cop?) to throw her out. The manager comes in, though, and Lilly reminds her of what she told her about being able to vote in this election, as that was the law. The woman says she told her no such thing. The security guard is there, and he is ready to throw Lilly out, but the manager tells him no, that Lilly is fine, she understands the situation, and will be leaving now.

Then, in an outstanding sequence, Lilly politely but firmly says, “I am a colored woman in a room filled with White people. I am not going to call you a liar, Mrs. Davis. But please, don’t you remember what you said to me, about how the law requires that I be able to vote?”

Davis can’t help it, she admits that Lilly is right, and she gives Lilly her registration right then and there.

In a nice twist, we see the next poker night, and Lilly tells the other maids that she registered to vote. And at first, they give her grief about it, saying that she is acting like she is better than them, putting on airs, for something that won’t matter. Lilly won’t put up with their shit, though, and calls them out on their behavior, and they admit that they actually are very proud of her. They toast her, and it is adorable.

Boy, this show was so fucking good.

Okay, if I’m going to have 294 more of these, I could use suggestions, so feel free to email me at brian@poprefs.com!