Cold Case (S05E09) (2004)

Available Summary:

In 1963, a teenage girl caused a stir by dressing and behaving like a boy. She was found dead and considered a suicide victim, but the team wonders if the girl was actually murdered.

-Prime Video.

Jack's Summary:

Take note of the wording in the episode's synopsis; it accurately reflects how Sam's identity is framed.

This episode is split into two parts; in the modern-day, police derisively and condescendingly discuss Sam's life and death, mocking his masculinity; in the past, scenes of Sam's life are shown, with his friends, teachers, and family treating his masculinity as a problem, and ignoring the abuse he experiences as a result.

It is unclear what Sam's identity is but I believe him to be a trans boy. He presented and passed a boy at school, and would have continued doing so if he hadn't been outed in an act of sexual assault. He feels that his masculine gender is innate, and insists that he is just trying to be himself. Though he is addressed with lesbophobic slurs, he is not attracted to girls at all. He is only ever shown being attracted to boys. His father refers to him as, "the son I never had".

Of course, he could be a transmasculine person of another description, or even a heterosexual tomboy. To me, this character reads like a trans guy. You are free to make up your own mind.

This is a pretty horrible episode. Sam's masculinity is largely treated as a joke, and Sam himself is a poor martyr whose sole purpose is to be victimised and overcome by tragedy. He starts the episode being groped in school, after which he is hauled into the principal's office and admonished for presenting masculinely.

"You will dress like a girl because you are a girl, Samantha," the principal says. "It's Sam," the teenager snaps immediately. "Sam is a boy's name. Let's get that straight," the principal responds, "You'll go by Samantha at this school."

After some more shaming and puritanical hand-wringing from the adults in the room, Sam demands to know, "Why can't I just be who I am?" The principal coldly asks, "And who, or what, exactly, is that?" Sam falls silent; he does not know. This is the 60s, and he does not have a label to explain what he feels. All he knows is that he is masculine, he did not choose to be, and presenting as a girl is uncomfortable.

In the future, Sam's father regretfully recalls, "I used to tell her it's a phase. When you're older, you will look back and laugh at yourself for acting this way. Guess I was wrong."

As the episode proceeds, Sam continues to be bullied by those around him and defends himself as much as possible, developing a friendship with a boy named Dom. The pair bond over cars, and Sam helps him win a drag race.

When Dom asks Sam why he doesn't act like a girl, Sam answers, "'Cause this is just the way I am. I don't know what that makes me. It just feels right... I'm not trying to be anybody else. Just me." Assuming that Sam is a lesbian, Dom asks whether he likes girls. Sam says no, he doesn't. He says that he likes Dom, and kisses him without consent. Dom, disgusted and clearly viewing Sam as something other than a girl, jumps away and yells, "I'm not some queer!" He threatens to bash Sam's head in, and then leaves.

The next time Sam attends school, he is attacked by a group of boys, who pin him down and try to smear lipstick on his face. Dom sits nearby, and does not intervene.

Sam is then institutionalised, strapped to a bed, screaming for his father to get him out. His resistance to "treatment" results in him being subjected to electric shock aversion therapy which leaves him with a brain injury.

Dom finds him in the institution, dressed in feminine clothing and barely able to speak. Sam manages to say, "Make me free," which is apparently all of the encouragement that Dom needs to smother him with a pillow, killing him.

How did Dom know that Sam was requesting to be killed, in this moment? Why didn't he carry Sam out of the hospital and at least try to get him medical care elsewhere, or take him to his father's home? Why not assume Sam was begging to be freed from the torturous hospital? Why assume his impacted speech and limited physical movements indicate a life unworthy of living, making death the only solution? Why assume he cannot live on as a disabled person, or possibly recover from the torture someday?

Well, the answer to all of those questions is simple...

Sam was brought into existence just to die. Specifically, to die in a traumatic, tragic way. He is a plot device, a source of mockery and disgust, with his gender condemning him to death. He never had a chance.

Dom, who has supposedly come to respect Sam's masculinity and indeed wants him to be free, gives him a totally respectful death by dumping his body in a lake... as though he is a piece of trash... still wearing the red dress he would never have willingly worn in real life. This definitely isn't Vámonos.