Directed by Paris Barclay
Written by Veena Sud
Zeke Williams was a young black boy who was killed and dumped in a playground. People laid flowers there in his memory. This year, Jeffries finds no flowers. This motivates him to solve the case once and for all.
Tropes:
- Children Are Innocent: Played for tragedy. Nine-year-old Charlotte didn't fully understand the racism which permeated her town at the time. This led to her being tricked by some bullies into replacing Zeke's family's American flag at their house with a Confederate one, and later accidentally divulging his chess matches with her mother to her father and uncle, not recognizing the danger this put her friend in until it was too late.
- Cruel to Be Kind: Knowing her husband would be after Zeke for trying to report him, Judith pretended to turn her back on Zeke to get him to run away where Henry couldn’t get his hands on him.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Henry is on board with beating Zeke senseless for fooling around with his wife, but when his brother Billy gets the idea to lynch the boy, Henry is horrified at the thought of hanging someone, especially in front of his young daughter. By then, he cannot stop him, and can only hold his daughter down to stop her from watching the horror show.
- Forced to Watch: Billy tried to force his young niece Charlotte to watch him and his friends lynch her friend, a boy not much older than her. Her father was horrified and tried to hold her down to shield her.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: Billy forced his young niece to watch him and his cronies hang her friend Zeke. One guess whose testimony puts them away years later.
- Honor Before Reason: After being brutally beaten up by a group of white racists, who were walking away, Zeke chose to taunt them about telling their crimes to his father who is also their boss. This resulted in the group murdering Zeke to stop him from talking.
- "Mister Sandman" Sequence: Zeke talked about wanting to go to Washington DC to hear Martin Luther King Jr speak.
- My Greatest Failure: Judith was forced to confess where Zeke was going so Henry wouldn't kick her out and take Charlotte away from her. She has deeply regretted this ever since.
- Only Friend: Judith considered Zeke this since he actually cared about what she thought and saw her for who she really was, while nearly everyone else treated her "like a dumb Housewife".
- Police Are Useless: Due to racism, the police refused to charge Henry for raping his black maid Mathilde, and even took his side against her and Zeke.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Based on the lynching of Emmett Till
. - Smart People Play Chess: Zeke and Judith regularly play chess.
- That One Case: For Jeffries, who discovered Zeke's body as a youth.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Zeke met Charlotte, Judith and Mathilde because a bunch of racist children stole his family's American flag and replaced it with a Confederate flag.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Young Charlotte forgot that the chess games between Judith and Zeke were supposed to be secret and accidentally revealed it to her father, who assumed that they're cheating with each other.
