"Edith's Crisis of Faith" is a two-part episode of the U.S.

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...

All in the Family ''All in the Family'' is an American television sitcom that aired on CBS for nine seasons, from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. Afterwards, it was continued with the spin-off series ''Archie Bunker's Place'', which picked up where ''All in ...

''. It aired as the 13th and 14th episodes of

season 8 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

, on December 18 and 25 in 1977.

Production

The episode includes the third and final appearance of Beverly LaSalle (played by

Lori Shannon Lori Shannon (May 18, 1938 – February 13, 1984), born Don Seymour McLean, was a gay Drag Queen, most widely known for his recurring role from 1975 to 1977 as Beverly LaSalle on the popular sitcom ''All in the Family.'' He was associated with the ...

), after "Archie the Hero" (in which

Archie Bunker Archie is a masculine given name, a diminutive of Archibald. It may refer to: People Given name or nickname * Archie Alexander (1888–1958), African-American mathematician, engineer and governor of the US Virgin Islands * Archie Blake (mathemati ...

saves her life) and “Beverly Rides Again” (in which she invites the Bunkers out to dinner).

Plot

Beverly LaSalle, a

transvestite Transvestism is the practice of dressing in a manner traditionally associated with the opposite sex. In some cultures, transvestism is practiced for religious, traditional, or ceremonial reasons. The term is considered outdated in Western ...

and friend of

Edith Bunker Edith Bunker is a fictional character on the 1970s sitcom ''All in the Family'' (and occasionally '' Archie Bunker's Place''), played by Jean Stapleton. She is the wife of Archie Bunker, mother of Gloria Stivic, mother-in-law of Michael "Meathe ...

, is attacked with Mike Stivic a few days before Christmas in an incident of

gay bashing Gay bashing is an attack, abuse, or assault committed against a person who is perceived by the aggressor to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT). It includes both violence against LGBT people and LGBT bullying. The term covers vio ...

. Mike survives the ordeal with only minor injuries, but Beverly is killed. Edith has a crisis of faith and begins to wonder how God would allow people to punish one of his children. She believes that all people are worthy of love and feels a sense of loss and sadness at the tragic event, and doesn't understand it.

Critical reception and analysis

''Pop Matters'' wrote that this episode highlighted the "social stigma against trans persons, an act of injustice emphasized by Edith's inability to understand humanity's rejection of people like her dear friend." ''NewNowNext'' said in 2016 that the storyline was groundbreaking for 1975 and even by then-current standards. ''The Queer Encyclopedia of Film and Television'' described the episode as "daring and disturbing". ''DVDTalk'' noted that while Edith says that while Beverly was killed because of "who she was", the episode is coy about specifying what that is. ''The Age of Netflix'' argued that by choosing to air both parts of the episode on Christmas night 1977, the episode " massively recalibrates the episode's affective stakes" by forcing viewers to associate the holiday with a time to "(mourn) queer loss".

References

1977 American television episodes All in the Family episodes American LGBT-related television episodes American Christmas television episodes Television episodes about murder {{US-comedy-tv-prog-stub