S12.E04: Episode 4

[Badger]

In the books, they say no one ever knew quite what to do with her since it was hard to tell if her behavior was part of her illness or if she was just having a laugh. Apparently, in real life, she was kind of a nasty snobbish bitch and her special target was Sr. Evangelina.   She was extremely well-read and had a classical education which she had no problem showing off especially if she made a fool out of Sr. Evangelina who usually had no idea what was going on.  

I think her characterization now is that while she can no longer function as a nurse or midwife, she can still be helpful by doing simple tasks like providing comfort to scared patients or kind of babysitting the children in the clinic.  She's kind of a geriatric candystriper.  

I do think they have written in her physical limitations especially since she has an assistant listed in the credits. I'm thinking now that the plotline where she broke her leg was because she was having trouble walking and they needed to show why she needed a cane

I never saw this thing where one minute she's intellectually challenged and the next she is a genius.  I think it's more that sometimes she's spoiled and willful and the people around her kind of indulge her in that.  I think she uses that to get her own way.

 

 

[kwnyc]

7 hours ago, libgirl2 said:

Maybe they weren't even sure it would take off like it did and be on for so long? 

I'm pretty sure they didn't count on an actress in her 70s (then) AND the show sticking around this long! Judy Parfitt turns 87 this year...

[Badger]

2 hours ago, LtKelley said:

I agree with this - sometimes. Sometimes they have her being an utter snot bitch as she's trying to get her way and its very obvious and humorous that she's working the senile elder angle. But then there's the episodes where she's diverting phone messages or simply not relaying them and people come close to dying. Or the ones where she's wandering around Poplar at night in her nightgown. Or when she's stealing random shit from street vendors, or running off in the winter time to her childhood home.... I mean, I can go on but there's definitely been some storylines about Sr. Monica Joan not being mentally capable in a serious, dangerous, dementia way. 

Yeah, I think you have a good point there, but those storylines happened in the show's early seasons.  I think they've stopped doing that in the later seasons.

[J-Man]

On 4/10/2023 at 7:56 AM, iMonrey said:

"I hear no respect in your tone, only the adverse." LOL.

She said OBverse, not ADverse.

[kassa]

Until the hair loss, I was thinking Reggie was having cardiac issues. Some congenital heart defects caused by DS are addressed with surgeries at a young age now, but this wouldn't have been available or routinely offered to such patients back then, I assume.  I think there was often a fatalistic attitude in medicine towards people with developmental disabilities and they were routinely denied care that a typical patient would receive.  Even now I'm sure it's a struggle accessing all the care that would be offered to others.

I wonder also if the NHS doctors are used to seeing the very worst cases "flying in" from Nonnatus and not registering all the regular births that fly under their radar. It would create a perception that they were *always* having to come to their rescue and the pts would have been safer in hospital. 

My grandmother had her first two babies in hospital in the 1930s, then her third at home in the 40s. In those days they kept you in the hospital for 2 weeks, so the home birth essentially meant she was back on Mom/housewife duty right away. She refused to do that again, so she had her fourth in the hospital in the 50s.

[Orcinus orca]

6 minutes ago, kassa said:

I wonder also if the NHS doctors are used to seeing the very worst cases "flying in" from Nonnatus and not registering all the regular births that fly under their radar. It would create a perception that they were *always* having to come to their rescue and the pts would have been safer in hospital. 

Interesting thought!

[OtterMommy]

Just a reminder that if we are discussing a character in general (in other words, not just in terms of this episode), that discussion should go to the character thread.  So, discussions about Sister Monica Joan's dementia, unless it relates specifically to this episode, should go to this thread:

Thank you!

[Orcinus orca]

Where was Angela?  We saw Teddy and May a couple of times (being sick and in the pool) but no Angela.

[jah1986]

On 4/12/2023 at 9:19 PM, Orcinus orca said:

Where was Angela?  We saw Teddy and May a couple of times (being sick and in the pool) but no Angela.

Right at the beginning of showing how sick the whole household was, there was a brief shot of poor Angela hurling into a bucket.  But yes, after that, she disappeared.