S04.E01: Episode 1

[txhorns79]

Baby Coral was adopted, and her three elder siblings were sent to Australia under the child migrant programme. They were promised a life of sunshine, blue skies, and endless opportunity. The truth was otherwise. And the only consolation is that hope made them happy for a while.

 

God that moment was bleak, particularly in a scene that seemed so cheery.  It was like she just told us that the ship sank on the way to Australia and they all drowned.  I mean, I get that the situation they went to was not a great one and I appreciate the show doesn't sugar coat, I just wish we had been left on a more positive note than "and their already bleak life was about to get much worse."   

[Trillian]

The mother said she worked for a licensed establishment, which could mean a number of different things.

Licensed establishment is Britspeak for a place licensed to sell alcohol.

[zoey1996]

I thought maybe that was what it was but I wasn't sure, so thanks.

[Portia]

You guys, I know it's irrational, but I get so angry whenever Sister Monica Joan steals other people's food! It's not cute or endearing to me at all. Especially Trixie's proposal meringue - I seriously almost wept when Sister MJ took that bite. Oh well, she was great with those poor kids, so there's that.

My husband doesn't get the charm of SMJ either, but he did laugh his butt off when she told the new girl (pardon me for mangling this quote) "There's no cake, if that's what you're after."

[SweePea59]

Baby Coral was adopted, and her three elder siblings were sent to Australia under the child migrant programme. They were promised a life of sunshine, blue skies, and endless opportunity. The truth was otherwise. And the only consolation is that hope made them happy for a while.

It seemed even meaner to give those children hope in the first place. That shot of those happy children going off to "otherwise" is still haunting me. I wish I hadn't seen it.

[Anothermi]

It seemed even meaner to give those children hope in the first place. That shot of those happy children going off to "otherwise" is still haunting me. I wish I hadn't seen it.

I think that the show was juggling the fact that we now know that the child migrant program was actually harmful to many of the kids, but that at the time there were probably lots of people who were part of setting it up and referring children to it who thought they were doing a good thing and giving children a better life. Good intentions don't always result in good outcomes. It's better to know about the problems than to blissfully go on repeating them. 

[Black Knight]

Yes, I respect the show sticking to reality. I know they've cheated in the past - Sharon Small's character in S2 died in the books, a reader posted in the old TWoP forum, rather than having the miraculous recovery and going off to live in a sunny field of flowers as the TV show had it.

 

But that line about the only consolation being that hope made them happy for a while is the most depressing thing I've heard said this year so far. It's such meager consolation that it actually ends up feeling like the reverse for me. I wish they'd just ended that part of the monologue with "The truth was otherwise."

[Kohola3]

It's such meager consolation that it actually ends up feeling like the reverse for me.

 

But while the implication was that the children ended up in dire circumstances, that may not have been true.  Surely not 100% of those kids were placed in horrible homes - there had to be some good people who truly wanted to adopt children and give them happy lives!

[GaT]

But while the implication was that the children ended up in dire circumstances, that may not have been true.  Surely not 100% of those kids were placed in horrible homes - there had to be some good people who truly wanted to adopt children and give them happy lives!

There's a good chance those 3 kids never even saw each other again once the ship docked. They would often permanently separate siblings right there on the docks. :-(

[mbutterfly]

I thought, when Trixie first opened the meringue that she didn't really like them -- a brief hesitation and then, "Do you want me to eat it now?" didn't seem like it  was a favorite. Of course, Trixie will go to her grave receiving meringues from her husband and pretending to love them, because she is the nicest person in the whole world.  I just love her!  The way she made the children feel like the cleansing room was a fancy salon and not a place of shame, was so Trixie.  I think she'll make a wonderful minister's wife.

The real-life Trixie did marry a pastor, right?

[Black Knight]

But while the implication was that the children ended up in dire circumstances, that may not have been true.  Surely not 100% of those kids were placed in horrible homes - there had to be some good people who truly wanted to adopt children and give them happy lives!

I'm sure not every single child in the program was put in a terrible home. But the closing monologue indicates clearly that these three kids are not among that number.

[jjj]

Finally saw this episode, and also went through the wringer on that departure scene with the children, and narration about them.  I knew nothing about the migrant children program in Australia, but learned enough reading this thread to cry some more. 

 

The other thing about that hovel that no one has mentioned -- when the police broke into it and walked through it, the main sound was the sound of flies buzzing, so that means the baby probably had maggots, and the reason for needing skin grafts. 

 

I'll have to find more to read about this episode.  Ultimately, it was very bleak. 

[Dilbert-Deaux]

I was going to start watching this season but almost the first thing that happens is an on screen enema.

 

That was it. I have very few rules but, I never break them. Enema in episode 1? Off my watchlist. That's rule #1.