“Good Night, Dear Heart – November 9, 1957” is episode seventeen of season two of Quantum Leap.
Sam is being shown a locket by the chief of police; there’s German written on the back which he can read. Inside, there’s a photo of a family; the other, Lyle, says the little girl must be her. The dead girl behind Sam. Sam says she’s dead; Lyle says he should have been a detective, not a mortician.
The young woman, Hilla, was found dead; she seems to have drowned herself. A buzzer sounds and Lyle says that must be Greg. It is, as well as his father, Riger Truesdale, owner of the Truesdale lodge where Hilla worked. Greg seems rather upset over the death of an employee. Truesdale will pay for the funeral, as Hilla lost her family during the wat. Afterwards, Sam tells Lyle that Greg seemed a little too upset.
Sam is looking through Hilla’s things when another employee, Stephanie, arrives. Hilla was her friend. Stephanie thinks she should have stopped her and ends up fleeing.
Al appears. In a coffin, which freaks him. He explains that Sam – Melvin – is a mortician in Riven Rock, Massachusetts, and in small towns morticians also serve as the coroner. Ziggy doesn’t know why Sam is there. Sam says if it’s to help Hill, he’s too late. Then Sam discovers what looks like a bullet wound in Hilla’s head. Meaning she was murdered.
There’s no exit wound, so the bullet must still be inside. Sam checks that he is a doctor. He’s going to get the bullet. Al leaves him to it. When Al returns, Sam has no bullet; only shrapnel from the war. However, Hilla’s shoe looks as if someone dragged her to the dock. But where’s the gun? Or the bullet? Sam asks why he’s here, if not to solve a murder.
Sam, heads to the lodge and speaks to Greg. He wants a dress to bury Hilla in; Greg recommends one. Sam looks around Hilla’s room and reads her diary. Stephanie arrives and asks what he’s doing. Sam says he is the coroner. There’s a photo of Hilla, which Stephanie took. They were going to go to New York together; Hilla as a model and Stephanie to photograph her.
It’s clear that Greg was more invested in Hilla than his father, or anyone else, admits. And it seems that Hilla recently found someone new, breaking things off with her existing beau. Which is a motive for murder. Then another motive turns up. Sam is convinced Hilla was murdered, even though he lacks a weapon.