S04.E07: Episode 7

[maraleia]

A water shortage means that the maternity home is busier than ever and two old schoolmates are reunited, but Marion shuns Shirley's attempts at renewing their friendship until they are brought together later in an unexpected way. Elsewhere, Barbara makes a revolutionary suggestion to help Sister Mary Cynthia treat the bedsores of her patient Tommy Mills, whose wife Gert may be more in need of care than he is. Fred thinks about taking the next step in his relationship with Violet.

[smrou]

That was a particularly tough episode for me for some reason. I think largely just because of the agonizing decisions that had to be made by Sister Evangelina and then the two sets of parents. And I'm sure every moment Sister Evangelina was crying I was as well. And then of course the Patsy/Delia relationship is tough because I want so much for them to be able to just be happy together and it's not nearly that easy. 

 

Thankfully there's the Fred/Violet storyline to bring a little cheer to everything. They're just super adorable. 

Edited March 2, 2015 by smrou

[dustylil]

It was good to see Pam Ferris exhibiting her considerable acting prowess in this episode. To say nothing of watching the other nuns  giving Sister Evangelina their love and support.

[Primetimer]

In the season's best episode yet, children and their mothers are separated, brought together, broken, mended, scarred for life, healed, missed, loved, lost. Just…call your mom.

Read the story

[stopeslite]

My god, that entire episode was brutal. Applause for them not going the route I thought they would - as soon as it turned out they knew each other, I thought that one of them would go kind of hysterical and claim that the babies were switched, then when the fire happened I was sure of it, then when the hospital thing happened, I was absolutely positive that it would be a King Solomon kind of thing where the blond woman swore up and down that hers was the healthy baby and she had to get to take it back. The way they did it instead? A-maz-ing.  I've always been quite fond of Pam Ferris in other roles and this one, and she killed it.

 

I really liked the bit with Timothy in the darkroom, too. I've been thinking he's just a little too perfect, too "going with the flow", so it was nice to acknowledge that he still misses his mom, and has his own troubles, but is able to be comforted by how much Shelagh loves him.

 

Took me a little bit to recognize Mrs. Hudson from Sherlock - I knew I knew her, but not from where. Sweetest story. And then with Fred and Vi? I was basically crying through this entire episode.

[Kohola3]

Arrrggghhhh!  Weather knocked PBS off the air at the 45 minute mark. I missed the end!  At least they are replaying it at midnight so I can tape it (yes, I still have a VCR...).

[LittleIggy]

I suspected there would be a baby mix-up as soon as I saw Sister E with one baby tucked under each arm. Then I knew it when one baby turned out to be very sick. I'm glad they didn't have one of that sweet old couple die. I would have lost it!

[Badger]

RIP David Ryall who played Mr. Mills.  He passed away last Christmas.  He played Old Bert in the BBC drama "The Village" which the actress who plays Violet, Fred's new girlfriend is also in.

[AZChristian]

I thought he looked familiar . . . looked him up on IMDB and realized he'd played Elphias Doge in the first Deathly Hallows movie.  What a sweet final role he played as Tommy Mills.  We were in tears.

[Brookside]

Arrrggghhhh!  Weather knocked PBS off the air at the 45 minute mark. I missed the end!  At least they are replaying it at midnight so I can tape it (yes, I still have a VCR...).

 

Have you tried watching via the PBS website?

 

My "like"  button rarely works, so I will just second everyone who cried through the whole episode - sad moments and happy moments.  My eyes are so swollen I can barely watch Mr. Selfridge!

[Beldasnoop]

Just a small warning about the PBS website--it has the edited version (editing to add that, happily, I was wrong this week and episode 7 is unedited on the website). I thought the editing had gotten better for episodes 4-6, but this one was really strange. It's like they put the episode in a blender. Several scenes were condensed quite a lot.  It's weird.

 

I find it strange that this week's commentary calls this the best episode yet of this season, but it's one of my least favorite ones. I liked the baby switching story only when it involved the regular characters, but the guest characters (especially Marion) got on my nerves. Tommy and Gert Mills had a good story, but it didn't move me as much as others have this season for some reason.  Fred and Violet are cute, but their relationship is moving too quickly. All Patsy and Delia seem to do is talk about their relationship, and the show hasn't told me enough about Delia for me to get really invested in that relationship. I really like Patsy's character and think she deserves a better romance story (not necessarily a different girlfriend, but more back story for Delia would be nice). 

 

Things I liked--the nuns (especially Sister Evangelina and the other nuns' and Shelagh's support of her), the Turner plot, and Barbara's and Sister MC's roles in the Mills plot.  This is one of the episodes where i think there were too many plots so not enough time to devote to them.

 

I won't comment on episode 8, but so far this season (up to episode 7) my favorite episodes are, hands down, episodes 5 and 6.  All of them have their merits, though, and this one did have some very good moments. I just don't think it's the best episode of the season. In fact, it's on the low end of the list for me.

Edited May 11, 2015 by Beldasnoop

[GaT]

Well, I'm glad Fred asked Violet to marry him because other than that, I was feeling pretty depressed. They didn't tell us definitively what happened with the 2 babies, are we supposed to assume that the blonde one kept the baby with the heart condition? What about her husband? I kind of feel like they left us hanging.

[stopeslite]

I got the feeling that they had decided to switch the babies back, but that they were going to resume their friendship. And that means a side effect is that they each get to continue to stay in the other baby's life in some capacity. I don't mean to sound heartless, but that was what, a week they were switched? Maybe two, max? I thought the amount of angst over it all seemed a little overblown. And I was a little surprised there was no yelling from one of the fathers at the mother "how could you not know it wasn't your baby?" but was glad it wasn't there.

I took the advice given an episode or so ago and emailed my pbs station to thank them profusely for showing the unedited version.

[SweePea59]

Just a small warning about the PBS website--it has the edited version. I thought the editing had gotten better for episodes 4-6, but this one was really strange. It's like they put the episode in a blender. Several scenes were condensed quite a lot.  It's weird.

Darnit. Can someone elaborate on the missing scenes?

[pasdetrois]

I struggled to remain interested in this episode. It's the soap opera factor. And some lousy acting. (See soap opera.)

[Kohola3]

Loved it when Sister Monica Joan was comforting Sister Evangelina.  And so Midwives to have her grab a cookie on the way out of the kitchen.

[sigmaforce86]

It was good to see Pam Ferris exhibiting her considerable acting prowess in this episode. To say nothing of watching the other nuns  giving Sister Evangelina their love and support.

 

Agree - Her character gets to be the strong, stubborn one so often she did such a good job of being vulnerable instead.  Expected her to be upset and take blame for the mix-up; did not expect her to go into the prayer room and break down as much as she did and Pam did such a great job in that scene and later in the kitchen.

 

It wasn't fully explained so this is sort of an assumption and take away from the various conversations (and sorry I can't remember names) - I think the angst for the mothers, especially the blonde one was she had become a little posh and snooty and her memory of the brunette mom is she was a little carefree and flighty.  The blonde didn't seem to be able to let go of that or acknowledge that people can change and mature.  I think between that and worrying about the baby as her own for a time she convinced herself that the brunette didn't deserve the sick baby back because she wasn't mature enough to take care of it.  The exchange at the end both proved that wasn't the case and that some of it was in the blonde's head because there was a part of her the envied how free the other girl was in their school days.

It actually reminded me a bit of Shirley Valentine - when Shirley meets blond, beautiful perfect Marjorie Majors who she thought would be something like a stewardess on Concord and she finds out Marjorie is a high priced hooker who always envied Shirley's carefree ways.

 

I enjoyed the sub-plot mostly because of the two wonderful actors who played Mr & Mrs Mills.  Cynthia seems to be much more confident since she became a nun.  Now they just need to do something with Trixie - AA existed in the 60's didn't it?  Although maybe alcholism in general wasn't as talked about or was something more secretive then it is today.  But also a lot of her drinking is alone now and she hasn't had another episode where she passed out and missed work; they may think she's not drinking at all or drinking under control and that was a one time lapse.  Maybe (totally unspoiled here, no idea what's coming) setting her up for a big fall later on?

Edited May 11, 2015 by sigmaforce86

[izabella]

Episodes this season have been so full of sad and grim. 

 

Who is doing that truckload of laundry now?  Is Nurse Crane offering that Nonnatus House do the laundry?

[AZChristian]

I got the feeling it was a government service, related to the health care for British citizens.

[Beldasnoop]

Darnit. Can someone elaborate on the missing scenes?

 

Actually, I guess I wrote too soon!  The PBS website has had the edited versions of every episode until this one, so I just assumed episode 7 online would be the edited version. Now, though, I've noticed that for some reason, they've put the unedited version of episode 7 on the site! That's great, because the edit was weird this week (I can't remember too many details but a lot of scenes were trimmed/condensed). 

 

I hope they put the unedited versions of all the episodes on the site now, and that they'll put the finale up unedited next week.

Edited May 11, 2015 by Beldasnoop

[anna0852]

I got the feeling that they had decided to switch the babies back, but that they were going to resume their friendship. And that means a side effect is that they each get to continue to stay in the other baby's life in some capacity. I don't mean to sound heartless, but that was what, a week they were switched? Maybe two, max? I thought the amount of angst over it all seemed a little overblown. And I was a little surprised there was no yelling from one of the fathers at the mother "how could you not know it wasn't your baby?" but was glad it wasn't there.

I took the advice given an episode or so ago and emailed my pbs station to thank them profusely for showing the unedited version.

I thought the same thing. We're not talking years here. I know it's a terrible mistake but it was caught so quickly. Is it really that angst-making?

[JudyObscure]

I don't know. I was very, very bonded to my baby by one or two weeks. I had already spent entire nights nursing and gazing at that little face while his big blue eyes looked back at me like I was the center of the universe. I would have definitely felt like that was my baby and none other would do. It would have been wrenching and somehow shaken my confidence as a mother, as though, I should have known that I left my "real," baby behind. Not logical, I know.

The whole idea, from the moment the two babies were carried out in a rush, had me almost too upset to watch.

[Kohola3]

If that scenario had happened these days, the lawsuits would have been a gazillion dollars for each set of parents.

 

I am unclear on the actual ending.  Did the girls switch back to their real babies?  I know they agreed to support each other but did I miss a final solution?  Of course, we never found out what happened to poor Vaughn last week, either.  I hate loose ends!

[Al Lowe]

I interpreted the ending as them switching the babies back. Marion picked up her biological daughter and apologized for the things she said and they did the callback to the friendship with the "I had my best friend" thing. So I THINK we were supposed to understand that things were put back in order and that they were even going to be friends again after this nightmare. It felt pretty clear to me, but now I may have to watch it again to make sure.

[stopeslite]

 

If that scenario had happened these days, the lawsuits would have been a gazillion dollars for each set of parents.

 

Maybe, but I think they would then really have to answer for the one baby suddenly growing a new birthmark and the other one suddenly disappearing without either mother noticing.

[barbedwire]

That was a good episode.   Sister Evangline being real and having to admit her mistake.  Then sister Monica Joan saying those comforting words to her in the kitchen - that was the best! 

 

That one chick made me so mad!  People change, especially after high school.  The way she treated her when she was reaching out for friendship.  She doesn't deserve friends.

[Driad]

Was the blonde mom of one mixed up baby the diabetic from last week? I expected her to have medical complications.

[Sammich63]

Was the blonde mom of one mixed up baby the diabetic from last week? I expected her to have medical complications.

No, not the same mom.

[Kohola3]

Didn't they do a therapeutic abortion on the diabetic mom?

[dustylil]

Yes, they did. At the hospital bedside the mother promised to get in touch with Vaughan after the procedure was done. She also tried to reassure Paulette  that with all the medical advances that were going on at the time, she might well be able to have a baby in a year or two. It was part of the bonding moment between the two women.

Edited May 13, 2015 by dustylil

[MaryHedwig]

Does anyone know anything about those extra nuns that sing with the midwife nuns?  Who feeds them?

Edited May 14, 2015 by MaryHedwig

[Beldasnoop]

There was a line in the 2013 Christmas special that referred to the extra nuns as "choir sisters", so I guess their main purpose is singing. As for where and when they eat, I have no clue. 

 

Maybe there's another dining room for the choir sisters, or they eat on a different schedule than the nuns who are midwives.  

 

It's a mystery! 

[attica]

I love it -- Nonnatus brings in backup singers!  Nonnettes, if you will.

Edited May 14, 2015 by attica

[SophiaD]

In contemplative orders, choir sisters' main purpose is prayer, which includes chanting and singing, and scholarship.  They might do other activities - art, handiwork, writing books, teaching, etc. - but they would be less likely to do something like nursing or midwifery, in which the patients' needs might come first.  Their "job," if you will, is to attend all prayer services.  I think Nonnatus House is Anglican, so that would be at least four or five times a day.  (Pre-Vatican II Roman Catholic Nuns prayed at least seven times per day. 

 

I think the Nonnettes is a more fun idea, though.  :)

[Kohola3]

Evangelina and the Nonnettes. Definitely the name of my next band....

[Driad]

 

Re Patsy and Delia: did all nursing jobs require living in a dormitory?  Maybe if they found other jobs they could get their own flat and have a "Boston marriage."

 

[satrunrose]

I wasn't hugely affected by the switched baby couples but Sister Envangelina and the Mills had me bawling for most of the second half.