S13.E04: Episode 4

[chitowngirl]

PBS makes episodes available on Passport before they air on PBS. Discussion in this thread may contain plot information pertaining to the episode before it airs on PBS. Do not use spoiler tags.

The pupil midwives reach their third month of training. An anxious Trixie receives an urgent phone call that leads to dire consequences for her patient. Elsewhere, the Turner’s Apollo 11 moon landing party is in full swing at Nonnatus House. 

[Badger]

deleted scenes:

 

Spoiler

In the vaccination prep scene, at the end, a young Asian man asks Sr. Veronica if it will hurt.  She says about as much as a beesting and asks if he's ever had one. He says yes and she jabs him; he winces in pain.

After the scene at the Chdozie home, we switch to the Buckle home where Fred and Violet are having their tea. Fred looks askance and asks if it's chicken and marmalade. Violet says it is poulet a l'orange and that they need to widen their culinary palates since they don't know what they might be served at official dinners.  He says they're in Poplar, not Paris.  She then corrects him when he picks up a fish knive to cut his chicken with and tells him she doesn't want them to be caught out.  He asks if he can go to Nonnatus House tomorrow night to see the Apollo 11 launch.  She tells him he doesn't need to ask permission and that if he thinks she's keeping tabs on him, it's because she cares.  He then takes another bite of his chicken and says brightly that it isn't too bad  but that it would go better if it had chips.  Violet looks a bit exasperated.

We switch back to the Chdozie home after the scene of Nancy and Phyllis.  Dr. Turner is there and Ngozie asks why Felix can't stay in the hospital; Patrick tells her because he needs an isolation ward.  He says they are trying to find him a bed and also the children  Felix asks they take care of the children first.  Patrick says they are going to find beds for all of them.  Esther comes to Felix's bedside and Patrick offers her his stethoscope so she can hear her daddy's heartbeat.  Felix notices his feeling Esther's forehead and says he thinks she is a little feverish.  Patrick says they will make her better.

After the scene of Trixie and Joyce at Prue's home, we go to Nancy who is in her bedroom at Nonnatus House looking at a photo album.  Colette wakes up and joins her.  She asks what she is looking at, and Nancy says, a mystery.  Colette asks if it is her mum and Nancy says yes, and your grandma.  Colette asks if she misses her and Nancy says she did, that it was like an ache when she was in the orphanage.  Colette says she felt that way in the orphanage too, that it was like a toothache in her heart.  Nancy says and she didn't even know what she was aching for and that she doesn't know herself just now.
 

 

[txhorns79]

Matthew is a giant baby.  It gives you a good idea as to how little he must think of Trixie's job that he felt comfortable calling her in the middle of the delivery to whine about a screaming baby and having a headache.   

[marceline]

I don't even recognize this version of Matthew. He's never been this tone-deaf about Trixie's work. He was Nonnatus House's benefactor. Plus the way he was holding Jonty like he'd never touched the kid before. It was so weird.

I'm thinking about the track record for marriages on this show. Barbara died, Lucille left Cyril, I hope Chummy and Peter are still together.

[txhorns79]

2 hours ago, marceline said:

 

I'm thinking about the track record for marriages on this show. Barbara died, Lucille left Cyril, I hope Chummy and Peter are still together.

Dr. Turner and Shelagh are still going strong.  I think it's been 10 (?) seasons since they got married.  Violet and Fred are still plowing ahead as well. 

[marceline]

6 hours ago, txhorns79 said:

Dr. Turner and Shelagh are still going strong.  I think it's been 10 (?) seasons since they got married.  Violet and Fred are still plowing ahead as well. 

Excellent point. Both couples are doing quite well and we just saw how amazing Violet and Fred are.

Edited March 11 by marceline

[jah1986]

Such a strange episode, you could really feel the cut scenes. I don't know what is going on with Matthew, you know it's bad when you're hoping the headaches mean a brain tumor that will explain his sudden change in personality.

I was glad Trixie owned her mistake, although I would have liked to see her speak to Joyce herself.

So glad the mom didn't die, because the death of the father was sad enough. Such a dignified man brought low in a new country.

I don't know what it is, but I have still not warmed up to Nancy and don't care about her at all.

The moon landing storyline was good, but what was up with Teddy and the aliens ?😆

[Straycat80]

Wow, two episodes in row now that I teared  up and it was watching Sister MJ crying at the moon landing. 
Why are they making Matthew act like such a whiny baby all of a sudden? Are they going to write him off the show or something? I hope they don’t go the Cyril/Lucille route with him and Trixie. 

[howiveaddict]

All I could think of at the end is that poor baby doomed to breathe cigarette smoke and residue.  His mother surely reeked and also his blanket.  Hope he doesn't get asthma.  And Trixie mentioned the mother smoked 30 cigarettes a day!

[Doublemint]

I can see I'm in the minority here, but it's 1969.  Trixie has a job with long, odd hours.   She's not working 1 or 2 days a week.  She has a young baby and husband.  Apparently, he's under a lot stress.   She needs to spend more time at home.

 

[Notabug]

36 minutes ago, Doublemint said:

I can see I'm in the minority here, but it's 1969.  Trixie has a job with long, odd hours.   She's not working 1 or 2 days a week.  She has a young baby and husband.  Apparently, he's under a lot stress.   She needs to spend more time at home.

 

I don't really disagree.  Something's gotta give and Trixie spending 3 nights a week sleeping at Nonnatus is not going to help.  It would seem like she has more flexibility than her husband at this point, and scaling back a bit and going part time for a year or two until the baby is older is not that big a sacrifice.  It's wonderful that Trixie sees midwifery as her vocation, but she is now also a wife and mother and perhaps needs to adjust her life accordingly.

It does seem like Matthew has shared some of his financial/business concerns with her which I am glad to see.  However, considering he spent quite a while as a single parent, he ought to be better able to handle a crying baby.

Edited April 8 by Notabug

[Quilt Fairy]

1 hour ago, Doublemint said:

I can see I'm in the minority here, but it's 1969.  Trixie has a job with long, odd hours.   She's not working 1 or 2 days a week.  She has a young baby and husband.  Apparently, he's under a lot stress.   She needs to spend more time at home.

 

Don't they have a nanny?

[Jodithgrace]

I think that Matthew is under intense strain about financial matters that we are not privy to, as yet, and that’s why he’s being so needy. The clues are all there, but he isn’t sharing his problems with Trixie except in a very general way. He even changed the cause of his headache from tension to eye strain, dismissing his anxiety. I was afraid that Trixie was going to come home and find him unconscious on the floor. 
 

it’s funny..the babies on this show are usually so good, but the Chdozie baby was definitely a doll or some other inanimate prop. Half the time the actress looked like she forgot she was holding him. 
 

Poor Trixie, screwing up like that. She’s not perfect, but she is smart to stay at Nonnatus house the three days she’s on duty so that she isn’t torn between her job and home. Every nurse or doctor must feel that way at times, especially if they have children. Jonty does have a nanny, so they can manage, even if it’s not ideal. And at least she has a story line that doesn’t have her acting like a twit. 

[AZChristian]

2 hours ago, howiveaddict said:

All I could think of at the end is that poor baby doomed to breathe cigarette smoke and residue.  His mother surely reeked and also his blanket.  Hope he doesn't get asthma.  And Trixie mentioned the mother smoked 30 cigarettes a day!

I was born in the 40s, and left home in the 60s.  We had five smokers in our not-very-large rowhouse, and sometimes if you walked downstairs into the living room, the top half of the room was literally filled with cigarette smoke.  I wonder what my clothes must have smelled like.  I never smoked.

I'm now 77 and have asthma and other lung issues.  It's a terrible thing to do to a child who pays for it as an adult.

[zoey1996]

I never think about the cut scenes; I don't notice them until I read about them here. 

I was in a cynical stage of my life during the moon landing period. All I could think about was that we (the USA) had so many problems with the Viet Nam war, kids living in substandard situations, racial tensions, etc. I thought we should spend more money and attention on those and similar things, and less on going to the moon. I didn't watch the launch, the landing, or any of it.

[dancingdreamer]

1 hour ago, zoey1996 said:

I never think about the cut scenes; I don't notice them until I read about them here. 

I was in a cynical stage of my life during the moon landing period. All I could think about was that we (the USA) had so many problems with the Viet Nam war, kids living in substandard situations, racial tensions, etc. I thought we should spend more money and attention on those and similar things, and less on going to the moon. I didn't watch the launch, the landing, or any of it.

It's strange  you say this, because  even today, I think about  the money that is spent, while our homeless  live on the streets. I know people  that love everything  to do with space, while I think,  sort out our troubles here on earth first. Sorry to go off subject.

I also don't  notice cut scenes.

Matthew knew what Trixie's passion was, before he married her. He has a nanny, I suppose  he's  just really  stressed. 

[libgirl2]

4 hours ago, dancingdreamer said:

I also don't  notice cut scenes.

Matthew knew what Trixie's passion was, before he married her. He has a nanny, I suppose  he's  just really  stressed. 

This episode didn't seem choppy like the last one. 

You would think the two of them would have discussed this all before they married. 

[proserpina65]

Okay, Trixie's storyline is getting worse with every episode.  Matthew is now acting like an asshole when he never was before and she's being uncharacteristically careless at work.  Honestly, they really need to write them off this season.  It's not realistic that she'd still be there and it's not pleasant to watch.

I would've like to have seen more of Nancy's story this episode.  That was actually interesting.  I really felt for her when she found out that all her mother's family had succumbed to TB.

On 3/11/2024 at 9:49 AM, marceline said:

I don't even recognize this version of Matthew. He's never been this tone-deaf about Trixie's work. He was Nonnatus House's benefactor. Plus the way he was holding Jonty like he'd never touched the kid before. It was so weird.

If this were Grey's Anatomy, I'd say he had a brain tumor because his personality was sooooo different.

On 3/27/2024 at 10:14 PM, Straycat80 said:

Wow, two episodes in row now that I teared  up and it was watching Sister MJ crying at the moon landing. 

Yeah, that was the point at which I teared up.  Possibly because watching Neil Armstrong walk on the moon is the very first memory I have from childhood.  (Yes, I am old.  Now get off my lawn.)

13 hours ago, Doublemint said:

I can see I'm in the minority here, but it's 1969.  Trixie has a job with long, odd hours.   She's not working 1 or 2 days a week.  She has a young baby and husband.  Apparently, he's under a lot stress.   She needs to spend more time at home.

 

I'd say maybe she should step back a bit.  Not give up her job entirely, but possibly transition to a doctor's office or hospital where her hours might not be so long?  Idk, but choosing to stay 3 nights a week at Nonnatus House is not going to help the marriage, that's for sure.

[iMonrey]

14 hours ago, Doublemint said:

I can see I'm in the minority here, but it's 1969.  Trixie has a job with long, odd hours.   She's not working 1 or 2 days a week.  She has a young baby and husband.  Apparently, he's under a lot stress.   She needs to spend more time at home.

Surely they discussed whether Trixie would continue to work before they got married? It just seems so odd to me that she's working full time. I agree, that in 1969, Matthew would automatically expect Trixie to prioritize their home and child. Even with a nanny. 

I'm surprised more people weren't watching the launch. Everyone was gathered for the landing but only two people were watching the launch.

11 hours ago, zoey1996 said:

I never think about the cut scenes; I don't notice them until I read about them here. 

I felt like there had to be something missing with Fred and Violet when he was complaining to Sister Monica Joan. Also totally missed that Nancy was raised in an orphanage. Didn't remember any backstory for her at all.

So, Norelle and Joyce appear to be the only two regular pupil midwives. Because when they showed four of them at the beginning of the episode, the other two were different than the ones last week. Weird. Why not just have those two?

[anna0852]

Most of this episode was a hot mess, excluding the moon landing. The scene of the crowd outside the Nontatus House was just amazing. Not just Sister Monica Joan, but all of the other older actors as well like Fred and Violet. Because all of them were alive when it really happened. I can’t imagine what kind of memories must’ve been running through their heads as they tapped back into those emotions from 1969. 

[libgirl2]

21 minutes ago, anna0852 said:

Most of this episode was a hot mess, excluding the moon landing. The scene of the crowd outside the Nontatus House was just amazing. Not just Sister Monica Joan, but all of the other older actors as well like Fred and Violet. Because all of them were alive when it really happened. I can’t imagine what kind of memories must’ve been running through their heads as they tapped back into those emotions from 1969. 

I didn't consider that. Wow, especially Judy Parfitt. 

[zoey1996]

2 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

Yeah, that was the point at which I teared up.  Possibly because watching Neil Armstrong walk on the moon is the very first memory I have from childhood.  (Yes, I am old.  Now get off my lawn.)

You're not old! I was in college when it happened! I was in grade school when JFK was assassinated. I remember JFK getting elected. That's old!

[mmecorday]

Quote

I think that Matthew is under intense strain about financial matters that we are not privy to, as yet, and that’s why he’s being so needy. The clues are all there, but he isn’t sharing his problems with Trixie except in a very general way. He even changed the cause of his headache from tension to eye strain, dismissing his anxiety. I was afraid that Trixie was going to come home and find him unconscious on the floor. 

Yeah, I thought he might be having a brain aneurysm. When Trixie got home and he was asleep on the sofa and Trixie started kissing him, I was thinking to myself, "Is she kissing a corpse?" 

Mad props to the props department for putting together that awful looking afterbirth. 

[nx74defiant]

I feel like Trixi's storylines have run their course and it is time for her to go. It does feel like they are hinting that Matthew is headed for serious financial trouble,

[libgirl2]

6 minutes ago, nx74defiant said:

I feel like Trixi's storylines have run their course and it is time for her to go. It does feel like they are hinting that Matthew is headed for serious financial trouble,

This storyline has. I would like to have seen Trixie move into more of a mentoring role with the new nurses. 

[cinsays]

17 minutes ago, nx74defiant said:

I feel like Trixi's storylines have run their course and it is time for her to go. It does feel like they are hinting that Matthew is headed for serious financial trouble,

yeah, maybe so.  flesh out the new nurses' stories and let Trixie and Matthew's stories not what i want to see

and was that couch he was sleeping on the expensive one that trixie had ordered? 

 

[Haleth]

Yes!  Let Trixie and Matthew and their son ride off to a happy ending. It’s hard to watch her try to balance being a wife and mother and a midwife and not doing well with any role. I suppose the writers are showing us that this was the beginning of the conflict women felt about giving up a career they loved, rather than automatically embracing the role of wife/mother, but I don’t think anyone wants to see Trixie’s marriage fail. 

[TVFAN]

I agree that Matthew was completely out of line.  He should have waited until Trixie came home to discuss his concerns about her hours.  That having been said, when I have a migraine, which is what I think he had, I can be cranky and out of sorts myself, so I'll give him a pass.

I adore Trixie, but if I had a little one that age, I wouldn't go trotting off for three solid days a week, nanny or no nanny.  For all intents and purposes, she is his mommy--she's the only one he has ever known.   

I have always found it odd that they have not had Trixie consult Shelagh about how to do the family thing.  She's had to deal with infants to teens, and she seems to have worked out a part-time schedule that works.  Note that Shelagh left the delivery with a cheery, "see you and the baby tomorrow" when Trixie arrived.   She must have an arrangement that lets her do her beloved nurse-midwife work during the day and focus on her family at night.   Trixie is a great midwife, and I am sure they would be happy to work with her.

On a side note, all of the moon shot scenes brought back wonderful memories.  For those who were not around then, the world really was entranced by it.

[Orcinus orca]

On 3/27/2024 at 10:14 PM, Straycat80 said:

Why are they making Matthew act like such a whiny baby all of a sudden? Are they going to write him off the show or something? 

Spoiler

They are.  https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/call-the-midwife-matthew-olly-rix-leaving-newsupdate/

 

[JudyObscure]

Even if Matthew can handle Trixie being gone for three days and nights straight, I think that would be horribly hard for Jonty to get his little head around. 

Long long ago there was an episode where Trixie said she didn't plan to do such hard work for her entire life, but felt she was doing her duty now, but later hoped to live a life of comparative ease and luxury.

 I thought that was fair and honest of her.  She grew up very poor.

[Orcinus orca]

That poor, poor family - losing the dad, kids with TB.  It was heartbreaking and, while just a story, makes me sad to think what became of them.  The mom couldn't work, there were umpteen kids, and some with TB.  No way that turned out well.

[Shermie]

8 hours ago, iMonrey said:

So, Norelle and Joyce appear to be the only two regular pupil midwives. Because when they showed four of them at the beginning of the episode, the other two were different than the ones last week. Weird.

Really? I thought it was the same 4 that started at the beginning of the season.

As mentioned, I assume Trixie’s storyline is supposed to show the burgeoning conflict of working women, especially when they have small kids, and when their jobs aren’t regular hours. I wish they told it in a less clumsy way and with less character assassination.

[Daff]

On 3/11/2024 at 9:49 AM, marceline said:

I don't even recognize this version of Matthew. He's never been this tone-deaf about Trixie's work. He was Nonnatus House's benefactor. Plus the way he was holding Jonty like he'd never touched the kid before. It was so weird.

I'm thinking about the track record for marriages on this show. Barbara died, Lucille left Cyril, I hope Chummy and Peter are still together.

Honestly! And I really thought we were going to see Matthew in another scene having had a stroke! Maybe they just want us to hate the couple/family before they get rid of them.

[Haleth]

It’s funny, just a few days ago I was talking with someone about the prick test for TB in elementary school. We both remembered it but thought it was for polio. (The sugar cube was for polio, right?)

[Orcinus orca]

Just now, Haleth said:

. (The sugar cube was for polio, right?)

Yep.  But I am old enough to have needed a jab for the polio vaccine before they switched to sugar cubes.  My mom and one of the neighbors (both nurses) set up a neighborhood vaccination event in our basement under the guidance of the health department.  We all marched down the stairs, got the vaccine, and got a sucker.

[Notabug]

1 hour ago, Orcinus orca said:

Yep.  But I am old enough to have needed a jab for the polio vaccine before they switched to sugar cubes.  My mom and one of the neighbors (both nurses) set up a neighborhood vaccination event in our basement under the guidance of the health department.  We all marched down the stairs, got the vaccine, and got a sucker.

There were two early vaccines, the Salk and the Sabin.  Salk developed the first injectable, Sabin the oral med given on sugar cubes.  The injectable came first in the mid 1950's, but, due to the need for sterile needles and the time and equipment required for immunization, scientists kept working on  a cheaper easier way to immunize the masses.  Sabin developed the oral vaccine which came into wide use in the early 60's.

Those of us who were little kids probably can remember getting the sugar cube.  Local health departments offered it to little kids in various community spaces like churches and schools.  It required several doses.  I remember lining up with my sisters at a local church hall on 'Sugar Cube Sundays' to get vaccinated.

BTW, Jonas Salk refused to apply for a patent for the polio vaccine he helped develop, believing it was too important to humanity for one man to profit from it.  There are those who estimate that, had he owned the patent, it would've earned him and his descendants around $7 billion by now.  Some argued that the elements of the vaccine were not patentable, but, certainly, other vaccines have been patented.

As a result of this vaccine, polio has virtually been eradicted worldwide.  The only recent reported cases were in researchers working with the virus in the lab.  Bill and Melinda Gates' foundation supplied much of the funding to push for universal immunization in Africa and Asia.

Edited April 9 by Notabug

[Orcinus orca]

Yep, those of us around in the 50's were trailblazers!

[jschoolgirl]

On 4/8/2024 at 7:49 PM, JudyObscure said:

She grew up very poor

I thought she was lower-middle or working class. Didn’t her father work in a bank?

[JudyObscure]

10 hours ago, jschoolgirl said:

I thought she was lower-middle or working class. Didn’t her father work in a bank?

Well now I don't know anymore.  My memory is of an episode where the nuns were going to shave the heads of some children with lice and Trixie talked them out of it because she remembered the shame she had felt over  that situation. Maybe I read too much into that.

[AZChristian]

15 hours ago, jschoolgirl said:

I thought she was lower-middle or working class. Didn’t her father work in a bank?

Here's a "wiki" type of article that provides a lot of info about Trixie's childhood.

[JudyObscure]

5 hours ago, AZChristian said:

Here's a "wiki" type of article that provides a lot of info about Trixie's childhood.

That's a very interesting site!

  I'm still confused about Trixie though.  Yes, it does say her father was a bank manager and she has titled relatives. 

Then it says, during Season 4, Trixie "finds herself dealing with a case involving four children who live in appalling conditions whilst their mother is out trying to make a living as a prostitute. For Trixie, this proves to be a painful reminder of her own childhood."   

That must have been where I got the wrong idea.

[jschoolgirl]

She could still have gotten lice as a child.

[Blackie]

I watched this episode the evening of the total eclipse in my area. The moon landing was totally a bigger thing but similar vibe.

I can't believe Trixie would make a mistake like that no matter what.

.

[Daff]

On 4/9/2024 at 5:41 PM, Haleth said:

It’s funny, just a few days ago I was talking with someone about the prick test for TB in elementary school. We both remembered it but thought it was for polio. (The sugar cube was for polio, right?)

You probably remembered it that way because both were happening around the same time. The prick test produced quite a few false positives, though. Still, it was a good screening device. There never was a screening test for polio, but the vaccine was a godsend and put many parents’ fears to rest. I remember letting the sugar dissolve and when the public nurse discovered the little (bitter) capsule in my mouth, she pitched a fit. “You were supposed to chew it!”

[JudyObscure]

On 4/10/2024 at 8:17 PM, Blackie said:

I can't believe Trixie would make a mistake like that no matter what.

.

Part of it was that the patient smoked, so Trixie was quick to think any oddness in the  placenta was due to that.  It reminded me of the years when I smoked,40 cigarettes a day to that woman's 30, gasp! 

At first doctors didn't think smoking was any big deal.  When I was pregnant, my doctor told me to try to keep it down to no more than ten a day so I just didn't smoke at all because I wasn't really addicted yet. 

I did smoke while I breast fed, and it shocks me to think of it now, but we were told it wouldn't affect the milk at all and side stream smoke wasn't even an idea at the time.

Than all of a sudden everything changed and smoking became the root of all maladies.  My doctor teased me once by saying I had a lot of ear wax build-up and it was probably because I smoked.

The whole situation with the smoking woman was mishandled.  They could have at least told her why a small baby was a bad thing.